home.eznet.net/~dminor/Canals.html has a timeline for canals. It looks to me a lot like the British didn't start building canals on the St Lawrence until after the Americans started talking about building the Erie Canal and had already built a fair number of other canals.
So what if the American revolution didn't happen. Maybe they had gotten the Albany plan like they wanted by simply doing it during the French and Indian wars around 1760, when Britain was still fighting the French and couldn't afford to piss off the North Americans, too? Give North America it's own Parliament and what is Britain going to do about it at the time? Give them a year to field a navy and an army (which they in effect already had because they had been fighting the French, etc, and put plenty of privateers into the water)
When does the Dominion of North America build the St. Lawrence Canal System instead of the Erie Canal? 1770? 1780? 1790? Which canals get built first and second and third?
Welland canal around Niagara of course. Then the Ohio canal? The Champlain canal? The Soo?
So what if the American revolution didn't happen. Maybe they had gotten the Albany plan like they wanted by simply doing it during the French and Indian wars around 1760, when Britain was still fighting the French and couldn't afford to piss off the North Americans, too? Give North America it's own Parliament and what is Britain going to do about it at the time? Give them a year to field a navy and an army (which they in effect already had because they had been fighting the French, etc, and put plenty of privateers into the water)
When does the Dominion of North America build the St. Lawrence Canal System instead of the Erie Canal? 1770? 1780? 1790? Which canals get built first and second and third?
Welland canal around Niagara of course. Then the Ohio canal? The Champlain canal? The Soo?