My own US TL Planning Thread

[Duke Andrew of Dank]

Simply put, I have been pondering several ideas for a USA TL timeline of my own.

So far, I intend to include:

- Racial Integration happening in the 1800s.
- The British Empire evolving in to the Commonwealth sooner than OTL.
- An alternate World War 1 with the US entering sooner.
- A possible alternate WW2 with the US and UK still allied.

 

[Lalli]

I doubt that racial integrating in 19th century is possible. But you can make earlier civil right act and lesser racially divided USA but even then not possible make that happening in 19th century. I would suggest that Lincoln not be assassinated and avoid Woodrow Wilson's and some other extremely racist presidencies so you can keep Blacks on service.

 

[Lusitania]

I doubt that racial integrating in 19th century is possible. But you can make earlier civil right act and lesser racially divided USA but even then not possible make that happening in 19th century. I would suggest that Lincoln not be assassinated and avoid Woodrow Wilson's and some other extremely racist presidencies so you can keep Blacks on service.

I agree, you have to understand the mindset and thinking of that time. There was great racial discrimination between different classes with the US and between different racial groups never mind the white/African issues. Religion differences and prejudices were very real. Look at the attacks by Americans against the civilized tribes of the south, the norths more open attitude towards the Africans can also be attributed to very small African Americans living in the north but even then they could never be promoted to work over whites. Even military did not allow Black soldiers. So be very careful, if you can find voices of reason and tolerance who slowly and I mean slowly change people attitudes within 2 generations you have succeeded.

 

[Rattigan]

I have thought a lot about the possibility of a less racist USA for my own TL and, for what it's worth, I came to the following conclusions:

1. The good guys have to 'win' Reconstruction; and
2. The constitution has to be replaced.

Obviously, just saying that is not terribly helpful by itself. I've only touched upon the US in the background of my TL but these are the general outlines:

• The Civil War drags on which (combined with an even more polarised antebellum period) leads to Northern opinion being more radicalised.
• The war doesn't finish until 1869, by which point Confederate resistance is basically just brutal guerrilla fighting combined with Sherman going full-Sherman on the whole South.
• Lincoln isn't assassinated and wins a third term in 1868 before declining to seek a fourth one.
• Following his resignation, Lincoln then pulls a full De Gaulle and returns to the Senate in 1878, promulgating a new constitution in 1880 and serving two more terms as president after that.
• The new constitution allows for a much more centralised, directorial American state which can impose multi-racial rule in the South, among a whole bunch of other things. I guess by this point the world's your oyster as regards changes.

Anyway, those steps are just how i did it. And I did it in a very general way. So, obviously, feel free to tell me I'm full of shit.

FWIW I don't think it's true that it was inevitable that Reconstruction could fail, I just think you have to try and construct a slightly different model of nationhood. Obviously that's not a simple thing to do (hence Lincoln returning and the new constitution) but I think it's at least theoretically doable. As I said, I've left the details a bit vague because I'm not sure what they'd have to have been but if you're aiming for something like this in your TL I'd absolutely fascinated to see the results.

As for the Empire evolving into the Commonwealth, I think the easiest way of doing this would be to have Joseph Chamberlain leading the Liberal party and not defecting to the Tories. The obvious POD in this context would be finding a way for him to support Irish Home Rule in the 1880s, perhaps leading to a federal UK and progressing on to a federal Empire over the following 50 years or so...

Britain not intervening in WWI is fairly easy to do, I think. There are lots of plausible TLs on this site which have managed it. For my money, I think having Haldane as Foreign Secretary from 1905 might by the simplest way to do the trick.

I also don't think that keeping the US and the UK friendly in this TL should be much of a problem. If nothing else, if you're going to have the Empire evolving into a federation, by the 1930s Canada should be influential enough that its leaders will absolutely stop any policy that looks like leading to a militarisation of the border. From there onwards, I think you're looking at Germany or France as the enemy in Europe (depending on the end to your WWI) and China or Japan being the enemy in the Pacific.

Anyway, I'm rambling on. Let me know how this goes because I think you might be on to something really interesting. There are way too many CSA-wins TLs on this forum and not enough civil-rights-wins.