Broken Eagle Timeline

Hello everyone! First post, so I thought I'd jump right in!

I'm starting a new novel, and I'd like some input on the timeline it is based on. Basically the first three big differences from our time line are as follows: the United States Constitution is not ratified to replace the Articles of Confederation after no compromise can be reached. Thus the AoC is left in place, and the nation limps along for barely a decade until it devolves into individual states quibbling over Western land cessions. Second, the Louisiana Purchase never leaves the grasp of France, who avoids the Yellow Fever epidemic that helped the Haitians during the uprising. Third, during the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon has a bout of realism and accepts the Frankfurt Peace Proposal. This leaves an enlarged France that includes Belgium, Savoy and the western bank of the Rhine.

The main focus of my story is the Union of Columbia, which consists of Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, modern Kentucky, the Northwest territories minus the bit that would be in modern Minnesota, the far west of the Ohio Valley and the "Thumb" of Michigan (Saginaw River down to Detroit). These last two bits would have been taken in a previous war a few decades earlier than the story starts, the Ohio Valley going to Pennsylvania and the Thumb going to Canada. Columbia is in a state of flux by the turn of the century. New immigrants from the petty German and Italian states, a united but poor Scandinavia and Ireland take the journey to most of the disparate American states. Other nations here in play would be New York (may or may not include Vermont, includes northern New Jersey [Pennsylvania gets the other half]), a New England Confederation, North Carolina that stretches to the Mississippi, South Carolina, and the Kingdom of Georgia which is Georgia plus modern Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Between Louisiana and British Canada is a broad Native American nation made up of displaced Plains tribes and later those ethnically cleansed from the East.

A few points I'm trying to hammer out are where technology would be here - some things would be farther along than others, of course. Maybe penicillin is dispersed a few decades earlier than OTL, as it maybe could have been even in our timeline. Maybe aviation lags. Not sure about automation and combustion engines, or electricity, but perhaps without the joint effort of the Erie Canal rail systems are greatly developed in the rest of the the Great Lakes region. Another aspect is race relations. Georgia, North and South Carolina quickly fall under British influence (however long the latter two stay there is up in the air), so slavery may be forced out earlier. All depends on when the cotton gin is developed, but it's conceivable race relations in this Columbia could be thirty or forty years ahead where they were IOTL?

I'm posting this so people can maybe examine my ideas here to give advice on what should and could happen. The broader world will be hinted at in the story if not the central focus; I'd just like to have a fuller picture.
 
Why exactly do you think the natives are going to be able to stop American settlers?
Why do you think Austria, Prussia and Britain are going to be okay with this disgusting rhine border?
 
Why exactly do you think the natives are going to be able to stop American settlers?
Why do you think Austria, Prussia and Britain are going to be okay with this disgusting rhine border?

They aren't going to be able to east of the Mississippi - west of it however, they'll have the backing of the British and French. There probably won't be settlers going across anyway as immigration and population levels won't be what they are IOTL. *Wisconsin won't be fully settled until the 1840s for example. Still it'll be a crowded part of the continent.

Mostly they will be seen as a counterweight to Russia, although Britain sweats at Belgium being absorbed. I haven't fully decided what is more realistic for Germany, possibly multiple Reichs in the form of Prussia, Bavaria/South German Federation and Austria. Rebel German movements in France would certainly be sparked too.
 
They aren't going to be able to east of the Mississippi - west of it however, they'll have the backing of the British and French. There probably won't be settlers going across anyway as immigration and population levels won't be what they are IOTL. *Wisconsin won't be fully settled until the 1840s for example. Still it'll be a crowded part of the continent.

Mostly they will be seen as a counterweight to Russia, although Britain sweats at Belgium being absorbed. I haven't fully decided what is more realistic for Germany, possibly multiple Reichs in the form of Prussia, Bavaria/South German Federation and Austria. Rebel German movements in France would certainly be sparked too.
I don't buy it, the American's are going to move west even if it is at a slower rate.
Why on earth do you think Britain is going to be more worried about Russia than it will be of uber France?
 
Even if some do, there is no united pull from a common country. You'd get Columbians, North Carolinians and Georgians, not Americans. No certainty they could filibuster.

Keep in mind that this was a peace treaty offered to France from the Allies in OTL - the tide was turning, Napoleon was coming off his greatest defeat. No gaurentee it will stay this way but by this time the Fifth Coalition was looking for a tidy way out.
 
Yeah, the peace offer was OTL; Metternich was just as afraid of Russia as France. However, I doubt that peace would last; how long can Napoleon seriously settle down and not get ambitious? Plus, the growing German nationalists are bound to grow angry at a French presence in the Rhineland; it might accelerate the growth of that movement. Ironically, this also has an umportant repercussion in Italy; Italian nationalists are going to be ressentful of both France and Austria, meaning the geopolitical situation is much different than OTL.

What about British North America and Mexico? They gain the most from a disunited USA with a weaker push for the West. It'll help them strengthen their hold of Oregon and California respectively by giving then more time.
 
BNA is in a much better position, with more of a population base and more land. All of the PNW plus a more southern border with the Native State, Louisiana and Mexico, plus Detroit. Mexico is a strong federal state able to stand up to most European influence - though not on great relations with Louisiana. California has had a huge population boom with its own nationalist movement.
 
Sorry for the late bump - been working away at this story, trying to put together what the governments of the various North American states would look like. Specifically Columbia - they have the most remaining Founding Fathers, such as Jefferson and Maddison.
 
Top