I’ve been playing around with an alternate version of the United States where there was a much more enthusiastic expansionist phase in the nineteenth century and by the time we got over it in the 20th Century the United States has [approximately] 10 more states: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska, The Philippines ([perhaps] the states of ["Luzon-Mindoro, Visayas, Panay, Negros, Cebu, and Mindanao."] In the process a substantial portion of the Pacific becomes a de facto American lake.
I’ve called this the “My American Cousin-verse” because one of the ‘leverage points’ that occurred to me were the consequences of the conspiracy against Abraham Lincoln and James Seward fizzling out with nobody noticing the non-event. Lincoln and Seward implement their polices and do a much better reconstruction in the South (including thoroughly quashing and discrediting the Ku Klux Klan and many of its affiliates).
The earliest point of divergence that I have decided on, mostly as an affectation, is the State of Columbia. For this to happen after the Monticello Convention in November 25, [1852] it has to be that nobody in DC is concerned about any confusion between the new territory and the Nation’s capitol, thus letting the settlers keeps their suggested name.
One point of departure I am also considering it that some of the political wrangling that made the Mexican war such a mess is.... different (with the U.S. acquiring a bit more territory), perhaps so much that fourteen years later Virginia somehow has an excuse to stay out of things, making the American Civil War shorter and less” messy.
At the moment, beyond the sixty state things, my list of differences includes that there were never any Exclusion Acts. Immigration to the United States has always been open to any law-abiding healthy person. There were times when there were restrictions in the total number, and requirements that the immigrant have 'employment, a guarantor, or sufficient savings so as to not be indigent', but never a time when people from (there) could not immigrate.
On an international level I would like it if China was still officially an empire (a new Han Dynasty usurps the Qing?). In terms of international relations this would be not much different from OTL, just more “colorful”¦ I am thinking that a “cool-but-mutually-respectful relationship” between China and the United states has been going on since the eighties.
As far as the other butterfly flaps go, it would be interesting if the Ottoman Empire can manage to still be around.... but that would require the Sultanate to make many reforms well before World War I, and probably a variety of other changes too.
An Empire of Brazil would also be cool. Particularly if it was also the leading socialist nation or some other WTF characteristic.
Thoughts or suggestions for where I look for plausible-in-retrospect change that 'could have occurred'?
I’ve called this the “My American Cousin-verse” because one of the ‘leverage points’ that occurred to me were the consequences of the conspiracy against Abraham Lincoln and James Seward fizzling out with nobody noticing the non-event. Lincoln and Seward implement their polices and do a much better reconstruction in the South (including thoroughly quashing and discrediting the Ku Klux Klan and many of its affiliates).
The earliest point of divergence that I have decided on, mostly as an affectation, is the State of Columbia. For this to happen after the Monticello Convention in November 25, [1852] it has to be that nobody in DC is concerned about any confusion between the new territory and the Nation’s capitol, thus letting the settlers keeps their suggested name.
One point of departure I am also considering it that some of the political wrangling that made the Mexican war such a mess is.... different (with the U.S. acquiring a bit more territory), perhaps so much that fourteen years later Virginia somehow has an excuse to stay out of things, making the American Civil War shorter and less” messy.
At the moment, beyond the sixty state things, my list of differences includes that there were never any Exclusion Acts. Immigration to the United States has always been open to any law-abiding healthy person. There were times when there were restrictions in the total number, and requirements that the immigrant have 'employment, a guarantor, or sufficient savings so as to not be indigent', but never a time when people from (there) could not immigrate.
On an international level I would like it if China was still officially an empire (a new Han Dynasty usurps the Qing?). In terms of international relations this would be not much different from OTL, just more “colorful”¦ I am thinking that a “cool-but-mutually-respectful relationship” between China and the United states has been going on since the eighties.
As far as the other butterfly flaps go, it would be interesting if the Ottoman Empire can manage to still be around.... but that would require the Sultanate to make many reforms well before World War I, and probably a variety of other changes too.
An Empire of Brazil would also be cool. Particularly if it was also the leading socialist nation or some other WTF characteristic.
Thoughts or suggestions for where I look for plausible-in-retrospect change that 'could have occurred'?