In 1869, President Baez of the Dominican Republic pretty much got dwon on his knees and begged the US to annex his extremely poor nation. It failed in Senate by only one vote, even with the support of Presiident Grant. What if it had succeeded? Would their have been more of an incentive to annex Cuba after the Spanish-American War along with Puerto Rico, and Haiti instead of just occupying it. What would the state have been called? Would the US have become more imperialistic?
State of the Dominican Republic?
- Thread starter vultan
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It probably wouldn't become a state until much later. The US didn't allow Hawaii to become a state (with a non-white majority) until the late 1950s. Likely, Dominica would remain a territory for a long time, while the standard of living rises and it become more assimilated (or not) into American culture.
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)I think you'll see gradual assimilation through settlement/commercial enterprises, not to mention possible settlement by freed slaves and their offspring...kind of a place to go where they feel accepted, perhaps? Just a shot in the dark there. Definitely statehood if the standard of living rises along with a stable and healthy population.
Maybe higer tensions with the Spanish, leading to an earlies Spanish-American War. The other difference I see(but you'd have to ignore the butterfly effect) is the Cuban revolution in 1959, and the subsequent Soviet aid, due to the increase American presnence in the Caribbean. I don't know the history of the Dominican Republic or Haiti. I would what Haiti would ahve thought of the situation?
Go ahead.
I tried doing a Greater Haiti a couple years ago, but this has better potential. Wish I had known about this situation before.
Some Freedmen and ex-slaves move to Dominica, but most state in the continental territory. Those who did move to the island came mostly from southern states. The Dominicans never catagorised themselves as black, but used many different terms, since they were already a mix of different races. While the white population of the US may call them black, or worse, the inhabitants themselves do not.
While not going to be great, the standard of living does improve for general inhabitants of the island. Sugarcane and coffee are the biggest crops early on. Cocoa and Bananas are the next two. (Hawaii is not as important in TTL for the growing of sugarcane, but the US government would still want HAwaii for a naval base.)
What I could see happening is that eventually the US government would move into Haiti from the Dominican Territory. Haiti is just too unstable most of the time for Dominica to be safe. Haiti is annexed to the territory for security reasons.
Sometime in the early 1900s a referendum to change the territory's name passes. The territory is now known as Duarte.
The Civil Rights Movement starts earlier 1949 (1955OTL) which does the same as it did for OTL, only a bit earlier. In 1959 Hawaii and Duarte are admitted as the 49th and 50th states. Alaska will be admitted in 1960.
I think that Haiti is a good name. Dominica seems too catholic.
About imperialism, yeah, a future state like Dominica or Haiti would lead a greater interest in converting Cuba and Puerto Rico in part of the USA and even some parts of Central America like Panama or even Greenland like one thread recently proposed.
About the timeline, go ahead, the POD it´s quite good and interesting
About imperialism, yeah, a future state like Dominica or Haiti would lead a greater interest in converting Cuba and Puerto Rico in part of the USA and even some parts of Central America like Panama or even Greenland like one thread recently proposed.
About the timeline, go ahead, the POD it´s quite good and interesting
Umm, I don't think so - at this point, the Dominican Republic is independent, so I think that Spain doesn't care what happens to it.
Hispaniola would also work, as if you have two "states" named Haiti/Ayiti, there is going to be some confusion.
An earlier Spanish-American war is risky, through, since it would end up much better for Spain -even with a victory. Spain had been getting weaker every year, and the US stronger, but even then the actual war depended much on early luck than broke the SPanish resolution.
Spain had a truly awful 19th century, and retreated into itself on the hope than it would avoid the European wars and (hopefully) recover its strenght. It was a stupid policy, of course, since the first time it met a neighbour than wanted something Spain owned (this being the US and Cuba/Philipines), Spain lost everything.
But by 1898 Spain had been incredibly weakened by years of the Cuban revolution and political instability at the capital, while the US had recovered form the damage of the civil war. Get back even ten years (and the POD is 19) and Spain is stronger, while the US is weaker, and the american victory is no longer certain.
Note than this my be good for both Spain and the US on the long view. Spain wins the war, or loses the war, but it WILL be a very close match (no territories exchanges, merely monetary compensations), so it gets a great scare and start to take a more serious approach about its possesions -if Hispaniola turns into a state, Cuba and Puerto Rico may do the same for Spain, as a solution for the cuban revolution, and the same for the eteranlly fractious iberian provinces. In the early 20th century Spain could be a recovering nation, instead of the collapsing one than ended on the Spanish Civil War.
And the US has always been very forgiving to former enemies, and a increasingly democratic, and rich, Spanish Cuba, would be an important trade partner on the future, like Canada. Spain is triing to avoid european disasters, so a transatlantic (and trnascaribean) alliance may seem a good idea.
I agree with you mostly, but I think the US would be somewhat stronger in this TL. They would need a few more ships to protect Dominica and there would be a naval port. Troops on the island, just as they did in the territories on the mainland, to protect their interest. Especially since there are sugarcane plantations on the island already, and the industry would have interests in keeping the land protected.
So, a war with Spain may mean some concessions to the US.
Vultan, I don't think you understand what I mean. I mean that it will never become a state and instead will become a territory like Puerto Rico, why would the US want to make it a state?
It's not so much why the U.S. would want to make it a state but rather what excuses it can come up with to avoid giving statehood. If this worked, it would be like Texas, a sovereign state seeking annexation with the obvious aim of statehood. PR, on the other hand, was territory acquired by war, who never sought joining the U.S. until much later.