State of Cozumel and Canarreos

Cozumel is an island just off the eastern Yucatan Coast that is 250 sq miles (647 sq km) and has a population of 100,000 (more or less). Abraham Lincoln wanted to purchase it as a destination for Freed Slaves. Now it's a big tourism and vacation destination (cruises and whatnot).

The Canarreos Archipelago is a Cuban island Chain just south of the Cuban Mainland. In total it is 940 sq miles (about 2438 sq km) and has 100,000 people. The biggest island, Isla de la Juventad (previously Isle of Pines) has 87,000 people on it and is 934 sq miles (2,419 sq km). It was a somewhat open question as to whether legal references to the Island of Cuba in the US Platt Amendment and in treaties between Spain and the US referred to all of the colony of Cuba or just the island of Cuba itself. The US didn't accept the island as being Cuban until 1925. At that time, 95% of the land on the island belonged to American individuals and companies. Before the handoff there was something of an American housing boom, with many Americans building homes and moving there in a similar way to how that was happening and would continue to occur in Florida.

The distance between Isla de Juventad and Cozumel is about 500 kilometers, or 310 miles.

So here's a thought: What about a state of Cozumel and Canarreos? They aren't too far from one another (the Hawaiian Archipelago is about 300 miles long) and both would likely be Spanish-speaking areas that fill up with American snowbirds and transplants and rich Latin Americans (like Miami/South Florida OTL). The US could opt to just keep the Canarreos from Cuba (maybe paying a pretty penny?) and for Cozumel I could see three possibilities: 1) Lincoln succeeds in getting it, 2) The US under Johnson or Grant tries to get the island like how the Grant sought to use DR as a place to settle Freedmen (likely inspired by the history of the Samana Americans), or 3) Woodrow Wilson decides to seize Cozumel as payment/payback for either the Battle of Carrizal or Tampico Affair. Of the three, I'm inclined towards whichever produces the fewest butterflies.

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If the US keeps Cozumel and Canarreos owned by private companies I could see a millionaire/billionaire buy them in the 1950s and either make a state of them or just keep it as privately owned land. The only family I know which has that amount of money around is the Kennedy family but I am sure there are others. That would be awesome to make a state and design it. Imagine all the things you could do, I always wanted to design my own city/harbour.
 
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