How would you wreck the USA?

A multipolar world arsing out of WW1 would limit US power, but I struggle to think of how the very isolated ConUS could get ravaged by war.
 

Animefan

Banned
The Tunguska asteroid changes its course and hits the USA in 1908.

The devastation and loss of life would be unprecedented. Due to this catastrophy the US does not enter WW1 thus not making the first step to a world power.
 

Laurentia

Banned
Combine a New Madrid earthquake, the Yellowstone Supervolcano going off, the 'Big One' finally hitting California, a couple of 200 mph hurricanes hitting the southern U.S coast and a terrorist nuke going off in NYC.....

Mike Garrity

Problem with that, is that this is the After 1900 forum.

The Tunguska asteroid changes its course and hits the USA in 1908.

The devastation and loss of life would be unprecedented. Due to this catastrophy the US does not enter WW1 thus not making the first step to a world power.

That would be physically impossible without going so far back as to alter the course of Human History.
 
Basically the only force capable of wrecking the USA is the USA itself. When the society fals appart fror some reason, the USA will desintegrate and fall into some small autonome erea´s of basically selfsustaining units, after some major disaster, like a worldscale natural disaster, or economical chaos.

To start with the later, the USA is a Federation of more or less independant states, only cooperating together on Federal issues, so a financial issue is not enough to lat all fall appart mosty likely. It has to be larger than that, something like a large scale depression, where the Federation cannot cope with the demands of the day anymore, due to shortages in financial issues and incompetence, or unwillingness of the memberstates to fill in the gaps. When the Federation cannot continue its Federal responsebilities, the Federation will desintegrate into more autonome, smaller units, starting with the states themseleves, but possibly falling appart further, as the states themselves wiol not be better of then the Federation itself.
 
Basically the only force capable of wrecking the USA is the USA itself. When the society fals appart fror some reason, the USA will desintegrate and fall into some small autonome erea´s of basically selfsustaining units, after some major disaster, like a worldscale natural disaster, or economical chaos.

To start with the later, the USA is a Federation of more or less independant states, only cooperating together on Federal issues, so a financial issue is not enough to lat all fall appart mosty likely. It has to be larger than that, something like a large scale depression, where the Federation cannot cope with the demands of the day anymore, due to shortages in financial issues and incompetence, or unwillingness of the memberstates to fill in the gaps. When the Federation cannot continue its Federal responsebilities, the Federation will desintegrate into more autonome, smaller units, starting with the states themseleves, but possibly falling appart further, as the states themselves wiol not be better of then the Federation itself.

Correct; we are our own worst enemy. No need for outside interference; we can commit suicide on our own very nicely, thank you.

In all seriousness, given the unbelievable financial mess we've created in this country, we're well on the way to economic collapse as it is. Your USA-screw is well under way OTL; no need for AH here. The debt load is staggering; the total of public and private debt in the USA is in excess of 50 trillion dollars, with debt service costs greater than 2 trillion dollars annually. That's more than half the federal budget, and that fraction increases every year.

At some point either the world community will stop buying US debt, or more likely will not be able to buy enough of it to keep us going. The US will then have to print money to make up the difference, leading to a Zimbabwe-style inflation and collapse. Or maybe they'll just default instead, which would speed up the above sequence of events considerably. And don't expect anyone to ride to our rescue; most of the rest of the world is no better off.

Enough gloom and doom. For a post 1900 POD, look no further than the Fallout series of videogames; they are based on the premise of a US-Chinese nuclear exchange in 2077 which devastates both countries. (Yes, I know that makes it future history, not post 1900. Still a good premise.)

One point, though; ever since the American Civil War the Federal government has been firmly in the driver's seat and is likely to remain so barring a nuclear attack on Washington DC or the like. Mere economic depression will not shake its grip, nor will the unwillingness of state governments to cooperate matter; Washington can and will use force, including military force should that be necessary. The US will hang together until a large majority of the country decides it is better off without the Federal government; a decidedly low probability event.
 
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