Manefest Destiny? (Sort of)

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'?
 
Doing that requires America not to be a racist and hypocritical nation.

The Philippines is full of Catholic mongrel brown people, enough of them that investing more fully in them expands the non-white minority to an unacceptable extent in their eyes.

And the Reconstruction's aims were never to enfranchise the blacks so much as to make the South a loyal region.
 
Doing that requires America not to be a racist and hypocritical nation.
Indeed. Now rather than using this as a canned statement to shoot the whole thing down, do you have any thoughts on what it would take to snap us out of it? Some of the more idyllic items on my wish list, aside, I'm not looking for any kumbaya moments. I've heard several historians claim that it took the holocaust to get the civil rights movement really started because it showed how evil REAL bigotry was. Based on that was there anything in the 1800s that could shove that hideous mirror in our faces? A massacre getting better press coverage perhaps?

The Philippines is full of Catholic mongrel brown people, enough of them that investing more fully in them expands the non-white minority to an unacceptable extent in their eyes.
Money talks and it's a strategic location. These were nasty people with their boots down on prime real estate, the native population be damned... (a recurring theme in American history) but assimilation happens during occupation... and besides... with changes going as far back as 1852 who said "they" were even in a position to do anything about it?

And the Reconstruction's aims were never to enfranchise the blacks so much as to make the South a loyal region.
??? So what? Intent and results are two different things. Apart from what I said about the Ku Klux Klan I didn't say anything about enfranchisement, taking out the Klan just means dealing with a terrorist resistance. All I'm saying about Reconstruction is that despite Johnson's incompetence it actually went relatively well for the first four years or so. Imagine what people like Lincoln and Seward could do, especially when Congress was actually on their side.
 
Doing that requires America not to be a racist and hypocritical nation.
The Philippines is full of Catholic mongrel brown people, enough of them that investing more fully in them expands the non-white minority to an unacceptable extent in their eyes.
And the Reconstruction's aims were never to enfranchise the blacks so much as to make the South a loyal region.

Not necessarily. What it does require is that various powerful people, and ultimately a plurality of voters, perceive it to be in their interest that the Philippines become US states.

Additionally, Reconstruction very specifically included Blacks being able to vote and own land as part of its goals. It was the resistance of _some_ Southerners (a large percentage, but not all) and the corruption (in several meanings) of some of the Federal Government (including Congress) that allowed a 'backing away' from that goal. Coming down hard on the violence by intransigent Southerners and enforcing the law would have made a significant difference. Particularly if, in order to justify efforts in the South, laws on equality were at least nominally enforced nationwide.

Various powerful folks are not going to just acquiesce to the changes that a serious effort at equality would produce, they will find ways to turn the situation to their own advantage. An elite (which is actually a variety of elites involved in various cooperative and competitive efforts with each other) that has found ways to benefit from racial equality becoming more of an economic and political reality might see several ways to benefit from the newly-acquired territory of the United States becoming states....
 
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