In this world, England was never unified, and was and is primary divided between the Kingdoms of Wessex in the south and Northumbria in the north who both managed to swallow their regional neighbors but never each other. Wessex and Northumbria both established North American colonies, naturally right next to each other, so the rivalry between Wessex colonized Nova Londinium and the Northumbria colonized New Yorkshire mirrors the division of England itself.
New Yorkshire, which in a deliberate coincidence is the exact same area as OTL New York State, is ruled from the colossal metropolis of New York City. Within and outside of The City, the details are unrecognizable from our New York State - for example there are no Dutch derived names anywhere, and of course The City is the actual capital - but the core trend of the rest of the nation acting as The City's backyard remains.
Nova Londinium is ruled from Downing, in the same place as OTL Boston, which doesn't have nearly the same power as NYC allowing smaller cities like Bachester and Haven Rock to become notable within the country. Also deliberately similar in area to OTL New England, minus Housaton and a slice of ![Maine].
The two nations have fought several wars with each other, such as the Green Mountain War in which Nova Londinium support a rebellion that led to their conquest of ![Vermont]. The most recent war (the last, as we all hope) was a New Yorkshire victory. New Guernsey, which was on Nova Londinium's side, has avoided losing territory, but in exchange has become political and militarily neutralized and is nowadays economically dependent on their former enemies. The Republic of Housaton was created, out of the territory disputed in the war - New Yorkshire didn't do enough to actually annex it, but has successfully prevented Nova Londinium from taking it back.
New Guernsey was an effort to create a "pan-English" state in the Atlantines, named after the island that agreed to shelter the Utopian founder and his merry band from Wessex authorities. The project was a total failure, not because nobody settled there, but because the colony attracted so many Welsh, Cornish, Breton, Scottish, and Irish settlers that they became the dominant group of the colony and the English settlers preferred one of the two main colonies. Today it is a "pan-Northwest European" state, although tensions exist involving the current wave of Irish economic migrants.
Housaton is only now discovering their own national identity and culture beyond simply being a small buffer state. A fairly elitist place.
To the south of New Yorkshire (and west of New Guernsey) is the powerhouse of North Atlantis, the Dutch speaking Atlantine Federation of Republics. One of the few things British North Atantines can agree on besides the roundness of Earth and the hotness of the Sun is that the AFR are arrogant and overbearing as they always threaten to sail "peacekeeping" ships northwards whenever the two main powers so much as enter a shouting match. Seen as well meaning by most, in the end.
