"Balkanizing" North America

One thinking to explain "faster" expansion into the west is the lack of OTL's Proclamation of 1763, when the British Government wouldn't allow their settlers to cross the Appalachian Mountains into the Ohio River Valley.

That would definitely lead to earlier expansion, but there're still limits on how many people are available or able to move into these new territories, combined with limits on how many Europeans will be able to move in before the local Native Americans start pushing back.

My hunch was based around the assumption that eventually the expansion would use up the people supply and slow back down to OTL levels. Plus, a less organized expansion would not as easily be able to keep pushing the Native Americans west, and the struggle to take those lands would be larger.

I was thinking that river trade along the Ohio and Mississippi would drive early settlement, at least to what i've posted so far. Maybe what I've got planned (but haven't posted yet) goes too far to fast in settling the west.

Certainly, I could see the population focusing on the big river valleys, but your major war (in OTL Missouri) is taking place far from those areas.
 
That would definitely lead to earlier expansion, but there're still limits on how many people are available or able to move into these new territories, combined with limits on how many Europeans will be able to move in before the local Native Americans start pushing back.

My hunch was based around the assumption that eventually the expansion would use up the people supply and slow back down to OTL levels. Plus, a less organized expansion would not as easily be able to keep pushing the Native Americans west, and the struggle to take those lands would be larger.

Okay I can see that. I'll probably need to go back and rethink my later maps. Possibly have some native state in the Northern midwest, separating "Georgia" (Missouri) from the Rockies....I'm thinking that a gold rush would lead to some sort of, initially chaotic, state forming there.

Certainly, I could see the population focusing on the big river valleys, but your major war (in OTL Missouri) is taking place far from those areas.
To be fair, that war is along the Mississippi River, Florida, and around the St. Lawrence River.
 
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To be fair, that war is along the Mississippi River, Florida, and around the St. Lawrence River.

I stand corrected in re-looking at the maps. My eyes keep on telling me it's a Mercator projection, but it isn't...and North America starts getting really difficult to read, since I'm expecting the curves to go different directions then they should.
 
I stand corrected in re-looking at the maps. My eyes keep on telling me it's a Mercator projection, but it isn't...and North America starts getting really difficult to read, since I'm expecting the curves to go different directions then they should.

So in that case, would you say the War of 1813 is plausible as I have it?

On review I do think that I need to rework how things work out later, in the 1830s onwards. Any ideas/suggestions?
 
got any ideas?

Well, thinking out loud, here's some speculation:

Those western colonies (specifically Georgia, New Denmark, and Western BNA, but also to some extent the western parts of the other East Coast-based colonies) are probably more centered on specific cities than actually being spread out over all of that territory. The territories are just land claims.

In Western Canada, and I suspect possibly New Denmark (unless they're trying to grow Sugar Cane or something there), European population centers are actually merely just trading posts, with employees of the trading companies maybe doing some subsistence agriculture on the side. Many of these employees are Native Americans, very similar to the fur trading companies of OTL.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see a Hudson's Bay Company or Northwest Company claiming all of Rupert's Land, and possibly a parallel British (or Dutch?) company claiming the Upper Mississippi/Missouri watersheds.

The 'Native American' protectorates in Canada look a lot like Reservations, and there is probably some hint of that in British policies. There are probably British settlers who would like to see all of the Native Americans moved into these protectorates and out of their back yards. There are probably also some Native Americans who resent that the protectorates don't include their actual homelands and would like to see some autonomy where they are as well.

In Georgia, western UAN, Virginia, etc. you have larger settlements along the rivers, and you have settlers farming the land more extensively there. However, outside of those settlement areas, the Native Americans are still very much in charge. In fact, there is almost a perpetual war with Native Americans and the colonists, as treaties and land claims are handled even more poorly than in OTL.

If the war of 1812 does actually occur as you say, much of that war out west may actually be more of a proxy war, fought by Native Americans supported by Britain and Denmark, against colonists in Georgia. And, because of this, when the Georgians win, they are going to hit back hard against those nations who now find themselves in their 'territory'.

That reaction may actually cause a domino effect, leading to Native American rebellions throughout all of the lands west of the Appalachians. It may also lead to at least a few Native American Confederacies which decide to take advantage of the disunity among the Europeans to make their own territories. You may find Nations in Western Canada petitioning the British Government for the same status as the Metis and the Seminole.
 
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That all more or less sounds good, and I don't think the maps I made over the weekend are too off from that. I'll go ahead and post them, and we can critique.

Btw, they run up to 1895, but everything outside of NA hasn't been messed with. I need to go back and essentially fill those in, but not sure of all the developments there.

1835
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Further Georgian expansion into the west, up into the Rockies. Also, statehood for the Georgian state of Mississippi (OTL Iowa). British West Canadians are also pushing further west, and the Russians are pushing farther south.

1845
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Mexico has broken away from Spain (bright green). Georgia, Russia, and Britain all met to discuss formal boarders out west. Statehood fro the Georgian state of Kanzas.

1855
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California has broken away from Mexico. British West Canada and Russian Alaska have agreed on boundaries for the far northern part of the continent. Statehood for the Georgian state of North Kanzas.

1865
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Cash strapped California sells land to New Denmark (added to Danish New Spain), and sells Oregonia to Georgia. Statehood for the Georgian state of Montana.

1875
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Statehood for the Georgian states of Colorado and Oregonia. The Republic of Georgia has reorganized into the Georgian Union. Danish New Spain, with a large population of hispanics, breaks free from the Danes, and declares the Republic of New Spain. The Dominions of Danish Louisiana and New Denmark are created.

1885
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Louisiana breaks free from France in revolt. the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Seminole nations drop their loyalty to France.

1895
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The Dominions of Canada and West Canada are established.

So I know some of this is too much of a stretch...especially the early statehood dates for some of the Georgian territories.

I'm open for any and all critiques/suggestions on this.
 
hate to bump twice but.....

Any comments on these later maps at all? Like I said, I realize they may have gone too fast in western settlement, but I'm not sure how fast, and what would be more realistic.
 
I know it's not the input you're looking for, but, perhaps it is time to go back to the beginning and write a more detailed TL. You've got an outline for an interesting story here, now put some meat on it.
 
So, if I were to do a TL for this, what would be the best way to approach it? My usual "from ALT newspaper clippings" wouldn't really work for this time period. Perhaps from the journals of people living in the colonies? Then could later progress to other forms of print?

Or should I just do a "date: event" type format?
 
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