Challange: Amish Mexico

According to this book i got here, Russian Mennonites moved to Manitoba in the 1870s. The most conservative Mennonites in Manitoba and Saskatchewan moved to Mexico in the 1920s. In the 1960s, the most conservative Mennonites in Mexico moved to Belize. The largest group of Mennonites in Mexico is in Chihuahua.

I hope that gives someone some ideas.
 
An earlier POD could have the governor of Pennsylvania replaced by a reactionary during the French and Indian Wars, who decides to expel the Amish and seize their lands. They them migrate to Texas, followed by a population boom.
 
IIRC the Amish in Mexico were allowed to be exempt from military service. When this exemption expired in the 1960s, the Amish left.
 
I doubt this is realistic but, Maximillian makes some sort of trade with Russia whereby they get control of Mexico. They encourage immigration so all the Russian Amish(or was that Mennonites? little difference nowadays) go to Mexico instead. Preferential treatment of the new immigrants leads to most of the already-existing small farmers to move to the cities. These dispossessed farmers form a new working class, many of whom join the army to escape. Flourishing Amish communities lead to some immigration from America. So now you need some industry to keep the new working class busy.

I doubt that Amish would actually rule a country. I don't think they even vote. I see no reason why they couldn't form the agricultural backbone of a nation or contribute greatly to taxes.
 
I doubt this is realistic but, Maximillian makes some sort of trade with Russia whereby they get control of Mexico. They encourage immigration so all the Russian Amish(or was that Mennonites? little difference nowadays) go to Mexico instead. Preferential treatment of the new immigrants leads to most of the already-existing small farmers to move to the cities. These dispossessed farmers form a new working class, many of whom join the army to escape. Flourishing Amish communities lead to some immigration from America. So now you need some industry to keep the new working class busy.

I doubt that Amish would actually rule a country. I don't think they even vote. I see no reason why they couldn't form the agricultural backbone of a nation or contribute greatly to taxes.

Given they follow the general Anabaptist/Mennonite idea of total searation from 'the world'- i.e. the world system, I doubt they'd want to get involved in what seems like worldly politics. They'd most likely be following 1 Corinthians 5:12:

"For what have I to do to judge them also that are without [the church]? do not ye judge them that are within?" (KJV, part in square brackets mine)
 
They encourage immigration so all the Russian Amish(or was that Mennonites? little difference nowadays)
Wrong--- big difference.
The Amish are the ones that ride around in horse drawn buggies, and farm Wagons. and still use kerosene laterns for lighting.
Mennonites drive old black cars, wear old fashioned black suits and dress, But they have electric Lights, radios and television sets in their homes.

The Amish in the US are rapidly giving up and moving to Costa Rico.
The Mennonites are buying cheap mountian land in the Appilachians and Rockies and moving away from the Urban Conflagiations.
 
Wrong--- big difference.
The Amish are the ones that ride around in horse drawn buggies, and farm Wagons. and still use kerosene laterns for lighting.
Mennonites drive old black cars, wear old fashioned black suits and dress, But they have electric Lights, radios and television sets in their homes.


This is true. The Amish, especially the Old Order Amish tend to keep much more to themselves and to be seperated from the mainstream of American society than the Mennonites. The Mennonite farmers use modern farm machinery (tractors, harvestors, etc) and modern farming methods. The Amish use horse drawn equipment and live much as they have for the past 200 years. The Amish live much more the idea of "Be in the world but not of it."

Also the Amish speak 3 languages. They call non-Amish people "English" and with us they speak English. With each other they speak German, and for their Church services they use what they call "High German" which I think is like an older more classical form of German.
 
Wrong--- big difference.
The Amish are the ones that ride around in horse drawn buggies, and farm Wagons. and still use kerosene laterns for lighting.
Mennonites drive old black cars, wear old fashioned black suits and dress, But they have electric Lights, radios and television sets in their homes.
This is true. The Amish, especially the Old Order Amish tend to keep much more to themselves and to be seperated from the mainstream of American society than the Mennonites. The Mennonite farmers use modern farm machinery (tractors, harvestors, etc) and modern farming methods. The Amish use horse drawn equipment and live much as they have for the past 200 years. The Amish live much more the idea of "Be in the world but not of it."
Actually, you're both wrong on this. Though not totally. There is a wide spectrum of ideologies relating to technology use within the Amish and Mennonite communities. There are better than a dozen large divisions within the Mennonite/Amish denomination, each with different rules which vary within both regional and local groups. Both include an Old Order. There are groups that are more conservative than Old Order. The Amish are themselves a splinter group from the Mennonites.

To abstract, rules for cars vary from buggies and wagons only to can ride in cars, can own black cars, or can own any cars. Those that allow cars tend to prefer pickup trucks. Rules for farm equipment vary from horses only to gas engines for stationary equipment, gas engines to power field equipment(though still horse-drawn), steel-wheeled tractors, or rubber tired tractors.

As for black clothes, groups that require that also allow somber shades of green and purple.

Speaking of the groups that i know best, the Mennonites near Harrisonburg, VA ride in horse and buggy. The Amish near Dover, DE ride in buggies, use horse-driven machinery in the fields, and don't allow electricity. They do use steel-wheeled tractors to power stationary equipment. Neither allow their members to drive cars, but do allow them to ride in cars. The only visible difference between the two is the style of their buggies and their church buildings (these Mennonites have large, though simple, churches, but i've never seen an Amish church, and i've driven around Dover a lot). However, the Mennonite churches near Greenwood, DE have no technological separation.
 
Wrong--- big difference.
The Amish are the ones that ride around in horse drawn buggies, and farm Wagons. and still use kerosene laterns for lighting.
Mennonites drive old black cars, wear old fashioned black suits and dress, But they have electric Lights, radios and television sets in their homes.

Ummm.... In Saskatchewan, where I grew up, the only visible difference between the Mennonites and the rest of us was in their surnames. Dick and Epp and Toews and Froesen and... Admittedly, that was in Saskatoon, not in the Mennonite belt north of town, but there really were very few 'Old Order' types in Saskatchewan.

There were (some) more conservative types in the Niagara Peninsula where I lived as an single adult, but most were hard to tell from oh, say Dutch Reformed. (I.e. more socially conservative, but not distinguishable by dress, for instance.)
 
The only visible difference between the two is the style of their buggies and their church buildings (these Mennonites have large, though simple, churches, but i've never seen an Amish church, and i've driven around Dover a lot). However, the Mennonite churches near Greenwood, DE have no technological separation.


Most of The Amish sects or communities don't have a specific building they use as a Church. They hold their religious services in their private homes. The community meets this week in one member's home the next week in another member's home and so on until they have used each member's home. Sometimes they might use the empty hay mow of a mamber's barn.

In some communities therefore, they claim their homes and barns as Churches and in a number of communities they have gotten exemptions from paying real estate taxes on the part of their farms where the farmhouse and barn is.
 
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