How Big Can America Get?

Philip

Donor
Check DoD. It pushes the limits of Uber-US and requires some rather unpleasant methods to achieve it.
 
We could have probably taken a lot more of Mexico in 1848 then we did. The north didn't have a lot of people and would have been an easy grab.
 
We could have probably taken a lot more of Mexico in 1848 then we did. The north didn't have a lot of people and would have been an easy grab.
Er, that's what we took. The entire Northern half. We pretty much stopped when all the good land was gone. That was the great American land grab.
 
Er, that's what we took. The entire Northern half. We pretty much stopped when all the good land was gone. That was the great American land grab.

I'm talking about the northern regions of present-day Mexico, not just California and the Four Corners.

One of the leaders of Mexico tried to sell the US Baja California in addition to the Gadsen (sp?) Purchase.
 
I'm talking about the northern regions of present-day Mexico, not just California and the Four Corners.

One of the leaders of Mexico tried to sell the US Baja California in addition to the Gadsen (sp?) Purchase.

Wiki says all the northern states of Mexico bordering America, though I coulda misread it.

Couldn't we have annexed Cuba directly somehow? And someone'll eventually claim in the thread we could have conquered British North America somehow, too...:p
 
Wiki says all the northern states of Mexico bordering America, though I coulda misread it.

Couldn't we have annexed Cuba directly somehow? And someone'll eventually claim in the thread we could have conquered British North America somehow, too...:p
I was thinking about that, but then realized there was probably some big reason why not...

What is it?
 

Philip

Donor
US took Puerto Rico instead during Spanish-American War. At the time, it was a better strategic position. Naval refueling, IIRC.
 
yes we could have taken cuba in fact I'm not entirely sure why we didn't claim cuba and in fact after ww2 we almost purchased sicily from italy:D:D
 
yes we could have taken cuba in fact I'm not entirely sure why we didn't claim cuba and in fact after ww2 we almost purchased sicily from italy:D:D

It wasn't a purchase, it was a movement to secede from Italy and be admitted into the Union. At its peak, the movement had around 40,000 supporters.
 
The United States, given a POD of 1770, could have ended up anything from a couple of Mid-Atlantic states that together make a country no larger than mainland Portugal or rule the entire world by 2008, depending on exactly how events unfold.

British North America becoming part of the US is plausible, but would require multiple points of divergence starting very early - a successful Quebec campaign during the Revolutionary War for starters (a POD that alone could only net the US Upper/Lower Canada and maybe Acadia, you'd have to somehow finagle a successful attack on Halifax to get more).

OTL the Dominican Republic tried to join the US in the 1860s but was denied.
 
British North America becoming part of the US is plausible, but would require multiple points of divergence starting very early - a successful Quebec campaign during the Revolutionary War for starters (a POD that alone could only net the US Upper/Lower Canada and maybe Acadia, you'd have to somehow finagle a successful attack on Halifax to get more).

A successful Quebec Campaign is one POD. Another is no Canadian Railroad. In the 1860s and 70s Calgary, Edmonton and other western Canadian cities were viewed to a certain extent as economic colonies of the United States. Given enough time and the lack of a railroad, which could be butterflied away by the Pacific Scandal, it would be possible for the United States to claim dominion over Western Canada. There is historical precedent for this too. Oregon was initially a British Dominion, but was ceded to the United States.
 
British North America becoming part of the US is plausible, but would require multiple points of divergence starting very early - a successful Quebec campaign during the Revolutionary War for starters (a POD that alone could only net the US Upper/Lower Canada and maybe Acadia, you'd have to somehow finagle a successful attack on Halifax to get more).

A successful Quebec Campaign is one POD. Another is no Canadian Railroad. In the 1860s and 70s Calgary, Edmonton and other western Canadian cities were viewed to a certain extent as economic colonies of the United States. Given enough time and the lack of a railroad, which could be butterflied away by the Pacific Scandal, it would be possible for the United States to claim dominion over Western Canada. There is historical precedent for this too. Oregon was initially a British Dominion, but was ceded to the United States.
 
Most of North America had the opportunity to be a part of the US at one time or another (not intentionally, I simply mean that it was possible for us to annex them) as a result of wars, interventions, et cetera.

The bigger question is what we could have taken beyond North America. Most of the Pacific could have been ours after we liberated Polynesia, Micronesia, and other island groups from the Japanese. As for Africa, Liberia is a good starting point.
 
A successful Quebec Campaign is one POD. Another is no Canadian Railroad. In the 1860s and 70s Calgary, Edmonton and other western Canadian cities were viewed to a certain extent as economic colonies of the United States. Given enough time and the lack of a railroad, which could be butterflied away by the Pacific Scandal, it would be possible for the United States to claim dominion over Western Canada. There is historical precedent for this too. Oregon was initially a British Dominion, but was ceded to the United States.

Erm... no, Oregon was a British territory held jointly with the US - not at all the same thing as a Dominion. I agree the CPR could be gotten rid of easily enough - keep the Liberals in, for instance - but that would just earn the US some of the Prairies at best. BC, and Manitoba and points east, are firmly British at this point.
 
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