Is there a realistic way for a European country to become the 51st state of the USA?

baltur2

During the late 20th and early 21st centuries various European countries have been nicknamed "The 51st State" due to their very Pro-American views and their eagerness to embrace American Culture. Examples could be Albania, Kosovo, and to a lesser extent, Poland.

I remember reading that there was actually a popular movement in early 90s Albania where many people signed a petition to have the USA accept them as the 51st state, justifying it by saying that Hawaii is also geographically far from the US mainland, yet the USA accepted them as a state.
 

Historian299

Banned
A even worst WW2 that has nukes and chemical weapons dropped on Britain.

This is followed by the entire continent (and North Africa/Middle East) being occupied by the Soviets
 

RamscoopRaider

Donor
Probably Greenland and Iceland in a US-Nazi Cold War type situation, a prolonged occupation where the US keeps a large number of troops on the islands relative to the population, in OTL I believe the adult male population was outnumbered by US servicemenbers. If you also have the POD involve wrecking North Atlantic Fish stocks from overfishing, then it's easy to have an economic case for doing so when said Cold War ends, with local economies being too dependent on US bases assuming tourism doesn't really happen due to said Cold War and needing US aid somehow to stay afloat once the bases start closing. The only issue is small population size, but Greenland and Iceland are ~70% of Wyoming, if you could add the Faroe Islands to this mess it's up to ~80% of Wyoming, which is probably close enough to go in
 

Blue cat

baltur2 said:
During the late 20th and early 21st centuries various European countries have been nicknamed "The 51st State" due to their very Pro-American views and their eagerness to embrace American Culture. Examples could be Albania, Kosovo, and to a lesser extent, Poland.

I remember reading that there was actually a popular movement in early 90s Albania where many people signed a petition to have the USA accept them as the 51st state, justifying it by saying that Hawaii is also geographically far from the US mainland, yet the USA accepted them as a state.
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I suppose a European nation could agree to sell a portion of its territory to the U.S. ? Eventually that area might become a U.S. State ?

I'll stop now :)
 
NHBL

NHBL

A long time ago, I wrote a mini timeline (which I seem to have lost) where the marines never left Tripoli. The European powers wanted the USA to stay there as one of the wars between European powers and the Ottomans was ongoing. I do not recall many of the details, but Tripoli and vicinity became a territory. It stayed with the Union in the Civil War, and a major center of intrigue in the first major European war of the 20th century.
Great Britain's doctrine of "continuous voyage" that it used to stop shipments of war materials couldn't really be implemented against the USA shipping war materials from one state to another--even Britain wouldn't be THAT crazy. From neutral Italy, war material could be sent to either Austria-Hungary or France--and the Italian navy escorted Italian merchant ships bringing cargo to Italy.

(I did include the butterfly effect, but an American Civil War is almost inevitable, and until 1945, there's ALWAYS another major European war...)

I'm sure that I would laugh at it now as ridiculously implausible...
 

BlueTrousers

Patrick1978 said:
Greenland is North American. Furthermore half of Iceland, including Reykjavik, is situated on the North American tectonic plate.
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Going by that argument, the Soviet Union had nuclear weapons stationed on the North American continent. There's more to life than plate tectonics. ;)
 

Lalli

Hardly any chances after 1900. Before 1900 might be possible purchase Iceland but I doubt that even that would be easy to make state due its low population. And purchasing of Iceland see,s being pointless anyway. There is not anything important and it has not strategic value. Furthermore population would be against that.

And I can't see any chances USA taking Iceland with Axis victory/Anglo/American - German Cold War. Icelanders never would accept that and USA didn't want the island anyway.
 
NHBL

NHBL

Well, if an orbital habitat/lunar colony/Mars colony, or beyond gets enough of a population, statehood becomes a possibility.
In the Traveler 2300 game, one planet had become the 51st state. Not Europe, but definitely the most remote state...

(Perhaps not--if the facility is in a relatively low orbit, it could, at times, be closer to Washington, DC than Hawaii--or even closer than New Hampshire...)
 

PorkNuggets

Lalli said:
purchasing of Iceland seems being pointless anyway. There is not anything important and it has not strategic value.
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Iceland's rich aluminum deposits and strategic control of the North Atlantic are going to be pretty darn important in any scenario involving an extended Cold War.
 

GorillaTheater

PorkNuggets said:
Iceland's rich aluminum deposits and strategic control of the North Atlantic are going to be pretty darn important in any scenario involving an extended Cold War.
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Location, yes, but Iceland doesn't have any aluminum resources (i.e., bauxite). They import alumina and bauxite and refine it at a profit because of the low cost of power there.
 

Colonel Zoidberg

NHBL said:
Well, if an orbital habitat/lunar colony/Mars colony, or beyond gets enough of a population, statehood becomes a possibility.
In the Traveler 2300 game, one planet had become the 51st state. Not Europe, but definitely the most remote state...

(Perhaps not--if the facility is in a relatively low orbit, it could, at times, be closer to Washington, DC than Hawaii--or even closer than New Hampshire...)
Click to expand...

Maybe Europa becomes the 51st State. Europans, Europeans...what’s the difference? A bunch of aquatic squid-like...umm, squid against a bunch of polyglot...umm, not-squid.
 

Darzin

Banned
If Hawaii could somewhere in Europe definitely could. Maybe instead of the Maine blowing up in Havana it blows up in the Danish West Indies and America seizes Iceland? The US buting Malta or Cyprus could work. Orm an American explorer claims Svalbard or America annex's it? It did have an American presence in the early 1900s.
 

Lalli

Darzin said:
If Hawaii could somewhere in Europe definitely could. Maybe instead of the Maine blowing up in Havana it blows up in the Danish West Indies and America seizes Iceland? The US buting Malta or Cyprus could work. Orm an American explorer claims Svalbard or America annex's it? It did have an American presence in the early 1900s.
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I can't there being Danish-American War. If Americans want Daniesh West Indies they just can purchase that.

Malta or Cyprus seems bit unlikely at least after 1900.

Svalbard's population is not anywhere near of minimum what is required for statehood.
 
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