Most likely additional territorial gains for the United States

CaliGuy

Banned
In our TL, the U.S. has acquired numerous territories throughout its history:

UnitedStatesExpansion.png


Basically, what I am curious is this--which additional territories could the United States have realistically gained throughout its history?

Also, bonus points if these additional territorial acquisitions don't prevent the U.S. from acquiring any of the territories which it acquired in our TL.
 
"Upper Canada", that is, Ontario south of 45N; apparently the British would have ceded the area in 1783.

Also, if the US gets Upper Canada, that could pre-empt Canadian expansion into the Prairies. "Canada" would consist of Quebec, the Maritimes, and Rupert's Land (around Hudson's Bay). The connection to the Prairies was and in many ways still is tenuous. (The area between Winnipeg and Lake Superior is all but uninhabited.) It would be even more tenuous ITTL, and the Prairies would be settled from the south, and Britain would have no claim on the Pacific Coast.

Northern Mexico, say everything north of 27N and all of Baja California (the "all-Mexico" fad was never more than a fad).

British Columbia; the thin local population might have shifted to US allegiance, and Britain didn't really care much.

If WW II went differently, such that the Axis gained control of the entire Old World... the US could absorb Canada and the Caribbean colonies of the fallen European countries (Britain, France, and the Netherlands); also Greenland and even Iceland.

I can think of other possible acquisitions, but none that are "realistic".
 
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Grimbald

Monthly Donor
Ontario peninsula by sending troops there in 1782.
Larger Oregon or all of it with cash payment to GB
Rupert's Land with cash payment to GB
Northern Mexico down to a straight line about the mouth of the Rio Grande by an act of will.
Cuba by an act of will
Dominican Republic by a vote in the Senate.
French Polynesia in exchange for WWI loans
French Caribbean in exchange for WWI loans
Western Samoa by demanding it after WWI.
Greenland for a larger cash offer or an offer that could not be refused
Newfoundland in 1946 for assumption of debt and a better offer than Canada's
 
Most likely?

Northern Mexico and Cuba. The US couldn't have gotten much more territory from Canada without going for broke and annexing the whole thing.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Canada and Cuba are the most obvious places.

Wasn't there a proposal for part of Turkey to be taken over as a League of Nations mandate by the U.S. after the First World War? That's be weird.
 
Liberia was already a quasi-protectorate IOTL, so slight divergences could cause its status as such to become official and permanent.
 
parts of Canada most likely southern Ontario and any thing west of Lake Superior. More of northern Mexico down to perhaps the tropic of cancer. Cuba. Anything in Central America. Dominican Republic Yucatan and I have read El Salvador all three asked to be annexed. North Borneo was all but American. Any island that was awarded to USA from Japan after world war II could have been kept
 
Aside from the obvious already mentioned, maybe they could be given the Congo? A different, more expansionist, POTUS around that time and a more obviously horrible version of Leopold might do it.

Outside of that, a ton of Pacific islands are up for grabs, as well as maybe Paupa New Guinea.
 
French Polynesia in exchange for WWI loans

Actually, the US had a foothold in eastern Polynesia during the early 1800s, when the USS Essex landed on Nuku Hiva in 1813 to make repairs and resupply. The crew of the Essex allied with one of the major tribes in their ongoing war, and emerged victorious. A small fort and naval base was established, but after the main body of Americans departed, relations with their allies soured, and issues with their prisoners and mutineers led the the fort being abandoned in short order. If things had gone a bit better, perhaps the US could have retained its presence on Nuka Hiva, declaring a protectorate over the local tribes, with American influence expanding westward across Polynesia by the 1840s.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
"Upper Canada", that is, Ontario south of 45N; apparently the British would have ceded the area in 1783.

Excellent! :)

Also, would such a move have affected future U.S. territorial acquisitions? For instance, would Britain have been willing to resist an aggressive U.S. war with Mexico in this TL considering that the U.S. was already more powerful than it was in our TL?

Also, if the US gets Upper Canada, that could pre-empt Canadian expansion into the Prairies. "Canada" would consist of Quebec, the Maritimes, and Rupert's Land (around Hudson's Bay). The connection to the Prairies was and in many ways still is tenuous. (The area between Winnipeg and Lake Superior is all but uninhabited.) It would be even more tenuous ITTL, and the Prairies would be settled from the south, and Britain would have no claim on the Pacific Coast.

Why would Britain have no claim to the Pacific Coast?

Also, though, Yes, this is also an excellent suggestion. :)

Northern Mexico, say everything north of 27N and all of Baja California (the "all-Mexico" fad was never more than a fad).

OK.

British Columbia; the thin local population might have shifted to US allegiance, and Britain didn't really care much.

Wasn't British Columbia important for Britain for access to the Pacific Ocean, though? Indeed, it looks like the Canadian equivalent of the Polish Corridor!

If WW II went differently, such that the Axis gained control of the entire Old World... the US could absorb Canada and the Caribbean colonies of the fallen European countries (Britain, France, and the Netherlands); also Greenland and even Iceland.

OK; however, that scenario is certainly too scary to contemplate!

I can think of other possible acquisitions, but none that are "realistic".

What about Newfoundland in the 1940s, though?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
Ontario peninsula by sending troops there in 1782.

Britain was willing to hand over this territory to the U.S., correct?

Larger Oregon or all of it with cash payment to GB

Would Britain have actually went for this, though?

Rupert's Land with cash payment to GB

Would either Britain or the U.S. Congress have realistically gone for this, though?

Northern Mexico down to a straight line about the mouth of the Rio Grande by an act of will.

OK.

Cuba by an act of will

When exactly are you thinking of here?

Dominican Republic by a vote in the Senate.

Was this ever actually realistic, though?

French Polynesia in exchange for WWI loans
French Caribbean in exchange for WWI loans
Western Samoa by demanding it after WWI.

Very interesting! Indeed, would the U.S. Congress have approved any of this?

Greenland for a larger cash offer or an offer that could not be refused

Was Denmark actually willing to sell Greenland, though?

Newfoundland in 1946 for assumption of debt and a better offer than Canada's

Very interesting! However, what exactly are you proposing the U.S. offer which would have made joining the U.S. more attractive to the people of Newfoundland?
 

Zachariah

Banned
One which never gets mentioned, even though it's extremely unpopulated compared to most alternatives and one of the closest on the map- what about The Bahamas? Say, if the Battle of Nassau had resulted in a more permanent occupation by the American Revolutionaries, rather than merely the fortnight-long occupation by the US Marines in 1776, with The Bahamas falling under the control of the United States of America from its very independence as one of the agreements of TTL's Treaty of Paris?
 

CaliGuy

Banned
One which never gets mentioned, even though it's extremely unpopulated compared to most alternatives and one of the closest on the map- what about The Bahamas? Say, if the Battle of Nassau had resulted in a more permanent occupation by the American Revolutionaries, rather than merely the fortnight-long occupation by the US Marines in 1776, with The Bahamas falling under the control of the United States of America from its very independence as one of the agreements of TTL's Treaty of Paris?
Ooh! Very interesting! :)

However, who had the larger Navy during this time--(France plus the U.S.) or Britain?
 
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