The impact if the US had no chance of reaching the pacific?

Without an ASB making the entire Rockies inaccessible and extending or being connected to Baja which is just as inaccessible there is no real POD which prevents the U.S. from claiming California and the west coast in the end. The geographic distances from the Old World powers in Europe make this practically guaranteed.

Couldn't the same have been said about Canada as a whole though? This sparsely spread nation populated with a similar stock that stretched right from the atlantic to pacific seemed ripe for the taking for the USA but the threat of conflict with Great Britain always held them back.

If Britain had really laid a claim to the pacific coast it would be a while I think before the US could challenge that.
 
The geographic distances from the Old World powers in Europe make this practically guaranteed.

You're forgetting that in 1830 the USA only had a population of 12 million which was pretty much nothing compared to its landmass. Spain in the same year also had a population of 12 million, and that was after they lost their colonies. With their colonies the Spanish had over 24 million in 1800, the British Empire in 1800 had more than 110 million people, etc.

The moral of the story is that there'd always be enough people in Canada/Mexico to delay the Americans while armies from Europe are sailing towards the Americas to reinforce them.
 
You're forgetting that in 1830 the USA only had a population of 12 million which was pretty much nothing compared to its landmass. Spain in the same year also had a population of 12 million, and that was a

Ummm, problem... SPAIN. not Mexico, which had a sizeable population and... there is no real practical way to make an independent Mexico with a 1800 or later POD with a large quality improvement int heir army. Maybe some, but not enough to for TTL 1830, 1840, or 1860 Mexico to stand to OTL 1830, 1840, or 1860 USA minus the recruits from the West (Ok, no west means the East and Mississippi develops differently... )
 
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