Challenge: Anglican North America; Secular England.

I would like to create a scenario wherby the religious and political roles of North America and England are reversed. I would like the POD to be between 1620 and 1660. There is no United States, North America is ruled by a King, and is mostly a secular state that is nominally Anglican. England has no monarchy, has a constitution almost identical to the US, and has no state church. In England, the numbers of Methodists, Baptists, and Catholics have exploded due to the free marketplace of ideas.

My idea: POD 1620: the pilgrims never land at Plymouth. As a result, the whole puritan exodus from England is halted, and there are more puritans to back Cromwell's revolution. The monarchy is never restored, and eventually "We the People" becomes England's. Royalists are basically considered witches, and are expelled to North America. New London is established where Halifax or Boston is in the OTL, and the monarchy is continued there. George Whitfield and the Wesleys never bother coming to North America, and the Great Awakenings are more of a factor in England.

Questions: does the British constitution arise out of Cromwell's revolution, or is a second revolution neccesary? What happens to slavery in North America? What happens to the French? The Spanish? The native Americans?
 
Nitpick: The UK has a constitution, it's just not in one document labelled "The Constitution"

That aside this premise seems a bit ASB. If there was a Royal Govt in exile they'll eventually be let/forced back in.

However, please expand your idea a tad :)
 
The result of a more successful Puritan revolution is to make England more tolerant of other denominations? Seems a little...counter-intuitive.

My instinct is that the natives get a better deal out of this, but that's just instinct. As for the French and Spanish, that could go any which way - if the English Republic is an aggressive player in Europe, the French might side with Royalist America as a useful rallying point for dissent. On the other hand, Louis might try to snaffle the colonies cut off from support from home.

However, please expand your idea a tad :)

Agreed.

Also, welcome to Alternatehistory.com.
 

Skokie

Banned
A more successful Puritan revolution that over time transmogrifies into secularism and Unitarianism (à la OTL New England) is doable.

New England then becomes a refuge for royalists. However, I don't see the monarch residing there for at least 200 years. Not when you have all those pleasant European countries nearby filled with their cousins, and certainly not when you have a powerful Puritan Parliament controlling the colonies' affairs.
 
A more successful Puritan revolution that over time transmogrifies into secularism and Unitarianism (à la OTL New England) is doable.

Oh, doable certainly. Given enough time one can reshape any ideology beyond recognition.

New England then becomes a refuge for royalists. However, I don't see the monarch residing there for at least 200 years. Not when you have all those pleasant European countries nearby filled with their cousins.

Indeed. That is perhaps the primary difficulty with colonial exile scenarios - European neighbours are closer to the action, provide a standard of living more in keeping with what they're used to, and provide more options for political intrigues directed against the interlopers.

Certainly not when you have a powerful Puritan Parliament controlling the colonies' affairs.

My assumption was that in the scenario a Royalist colony would be established in opposition to the Republic and conduct its own affairs - in effect, the ECW is continued on the wider map.
 
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