OOC: the POD is that Harrison picked James Barbour as his vice presidential candidate instead of Tyler—I’ll let you guys decide how this made history different
There were rumblings at the time that the Whigs were going to nominate John Tyler for VP, but 2 days before the convention William Harrison broke precedent and declared his support for one of the chairs of the convention, a man named James Barbour. After Harrison’s untimely death, Barbour became President. How would history have been different if Tyler had been picked?
Well, the Civil War might not have broken out quite so early, for one-many of the Southrons were *
furious* at Henry Clay for siding with the Free Soilers over the Missouri Crisis(though the major fighting didn't begin in earnest until the inauguration of John C. Fremont to the Presidency in March 1853).
Texas would have probably been annexed a lot more peacefully in the 1840s. Instead we had to go in and occupy them in the immediate aftermath of the Texan War. Mexico/American border would stop at the Rio Grande, and not near Galveston. Still, at least we got most of the West and Panhandle.
IC: The "Pearce Panhandle", you mean? Most of that eventually went to New Mexico IOTL.....
OOC: I hate to seem contrarian, but in this scenario, I honestly can't help but doubt Texas would have had a Panhandle in this scenario, with the Mexican border moved as far north as it had. (the "Pearce Panhandle", btw, was a reference to the OTL Pearce Plan, which gave our Texas it's iconic shape.)
Puerto Galvez, Rio Grande, you mean? Villa Galvez is the name of the historic mansion, last I checked.....
OOC: Puerto Galvez seems a lot more plausible than
Villa Galvez for the name of this city if it stayed Mexican TBH, at least if you ask me. Or Ciudad Galvez. Your call, of course, but I figured this would be helpful for believability's sake.
There’s no way America could’ve done better than it did.
I honestly wouldn't go that far, TBH. Mexico wasn't in good shape in the 1840s. Hell, even in the 1870s, they were kinda lucky to keep San Diego after the California War as it was.....and that was only a decade and a half after the Civil War. We might not have been able to get ahold of the former Alta Calif. until 1869, true, but it
could have happened earlier under the right circumstances. (BTW, let's not forget that Reconstruction was still going on when Mexico first tried to invade California in December 1870-Georgia wasn't re-admitted until July 2, 1876, two years
after the California War ended!)