Maps & Mapmakers of Alternate USA's

In OTL, between peacefully splitting Oregon with the British, Nicolas Trist's lack of interest in Baja California Territory in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Union winning the US Civil War, IMO, the US Map makers got things about as good as they could possibly be.

In OTL, a map of the United States (either Mercator or equal area) fits rather nicely into a rectangle and did so for more than a Century (1848 -> 1959). While parts of Canada and Mexico need to be shown, I don't believe in either case more than 1/4 of that country area needs to be shown. The US map also takes up more than 2/3 of the surface area of the map (oceans+shown Canada/Mexico being less than 1/3, I think)

In an ATL with a loss against the British in the 1840s, "Lost Oregon" would necessarily be on all maps, being farther south than the 49th parallel and east of the western point of California. OTOH, in a victorious war, a state of New Caledonia (can't call it British Columbia) (presuming to the 60th parallel would greatly increase the amount of Canada that would have to be shown. (everything except for the Unguava Peninsula and Eastern Maritimes). Alaska Statehood makes things even worse (do you use an inset for a connected area?)


In an ATL with a slightly greedier Trist, where the US also gets Baja California, the map doesn't expand south that much (Cabo San Lucas is only a degree or two south of Key West, but that makes it much more difficult to insert Alaska and Hawaii in the insets (put one or both in the Gulf of Mexico instead?)

And in a South wins the Civil War, barring an ASB loss of California, US Maps will have to include > 80% of the CSA.

(And the effects of Philippine States are even worse, would you put states with roughly 1/4 of the population in the inset?)

So, with a POD after 1803, are US Mapmakers living in the "Best of all Possible Worlds"?
 
I know this is not going to exactly answer your quest for a wierd USA fully. I am not going to give a timeline, but I will recommend book that I have just recently read.

The title is: Lost States True stories of Texlahoma, Transylvania, and other states that never made it.

It discusses such almost states as cuba, Yucutan, sonora, colorado (southern california), Lincon (a state that would have made the mid west more appropriate due to mounains), texlahoma (oklaholma panhandle + northern Texas), newfoundland, greenland, and iceland were all right after WW2 on america's target for statehood. There was a proposal for England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to become american states (proposed by richard russell.)

here's the link.http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_88?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=lost+states+true+stories+of+texlahoma.+transylvania.+and+other+states+that+never+made+it&sprefix=lost+states+true+stories+of+texlahoma.+transylvania.+and+other+states+that+never+made+it

I hope you enjoy it. Its a great book, mostly pictures. Would be great reference to use in an alternate america timeline.

Wishing you well, his majesty,
The Scandinavian Emperor
 
Here's a picture of the the cover with some of the proposed states

51wP8EHnpaL__SS400_.jpg

Hope you enjoy.

Wishing you well, his majesty,
The Scandinavian Emperor

51wP8EHnpaL__SS400_.jpg
 
Ha, this is an original thread. I think you're probably right, US mapmakers pretty much live in their ideal TL.

Also, I agree with the Emp, that book owns bones.
 
I love this thread.

Simply because it looks like we can turn this into a thread of well-made alternate USA maps.

I wish I knew how to mapmake... I'm good enough at designing plausible USAs, just not at mapping them beautifully.
 
Is this about the external borders or internal borders of states? i thought it was the former, but reading some of the comments, how about a few more states that could have river borders.

For isntance, in a world where salvery is banned from the Louisiana Purchase (considered OTL IIRC, possible I think if Adams is President when it happens, like my Jefferson in '96 idea), an exodus of slaveholders to Western Florida with Louisiana necesasrily being a bit larger to become a state - the eastern border would be the Louisiana all the way down, and the northern border as the Arkansas, with the western one being the same as OTL but with it going straight up to meet the Arkansas.

You could then have a state with the border going straight up fromt he previous, but with borders of the Missouri, Arkansas, and Mississippi Rivers.That might set the stage for even more more rivers and lakes to be used as borders as it's just custom by then. WIsconsin getting OTL's norther Michigan, for instance.
 
Thread about external borders....

While I appreciate the information about potential changes to the internal borders of the United States, the original posting was specifically about effects to mapmaking of differences of the USA's external borders...
 
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