Union and Liberty: An American TL
- Thread starter wilcoxchar
- Start date
Seems like the Republicans have seriously lost their hold on the map. Glad to here the People's/Progressive Party is making a steady rise.
Only one question on the map. Is El Paso in New Mexico or the Trans-Pecos. For some reason I thought New Mexico had a dip to include it at the end.
Anyway have fun in your vacations Wilcox!!
Only one question on the map. Is El Paso in New Mexico or the Trans-Pecos. For some reason I thought New Mexico had a dip to include it at the end.
Anyway have fun in your vacations Wilcox!!
Presumably it is in the Trans-Pecos. I hope that after the US annexes Rio Grande (if that will happen), El Paso grows together with Ciudad Juarez and becomes the state capital of Chihuahua, just like in DoD.
El Paso was included with New Mexico, if I recall correctly. I will try to find the post where wilcoxchar stated that.
EDIT: Found the post!
Looks good, thanks.Although I was thinking there should be a little notch in New Mexico so it still has El Paso. I don't think the New Mexico legislature would want to let El Paso go.
Yay, the place we're staying at in Ljubljana has internet.
To clear up the confusion about El Paso, I haven't quite decided yet. jycee is probably right that if El Paso goes to New Mexico, the rest of the Trans-Pecos will join Tejas soon after because there's no reason to keep a desolate region out of a state (would the recession be a reason? Not sure). If it does get El Paso, I could probably have it where neither party wants to make it a state because they don't want to give the other party more votes and aren't sure which way the Trans-Pecos will vote.
One alternative I was thinking about was having it be an Indian Territory for the plains indians in Dakhota. After they get more aggressive with Americans settling in the northern Plains, one of the administrations moves the Indians south to the Trans-Pecos. I'm just not sure if that is plausible given the treatment of Indians so far in the timeline.
And I guess it would be implausible to have it simply forgotten about by Congress for a while.
To clear up the confusion about El Paso, I haven't quite decided yet. jycee is probably right that if El Paso goes to New Mexico, the rest of the Trans-Pecos will join Tejas soon after because there's no reason to keep a desolate region out of a state (would the recession be a reason? Not sure). If it does get El Paso, I could probably have it where neither party wants to make it a state because they don't want to give the other party more votes and aren't sure which way the Trans-Pecos will vote.
One alternative I was thinking about was having it be an Indian Territory for the plains indians in Dakhota. After they get more aggressive with Americans settling in the northern Plains, one of the administrations moves the Indians south to the Trans-Pecos. I'm just not sure if that is plausible given the treatment of Indians so far in the timeline.
And I guess it would be implausible to have it simply forgotten about by Congress for a while.
Maybe the new administration installed after the 1888 election ran on a humanitarian platform? If that is the case, then fighting wars just to kill said Indians off would probably be seen as hypocritical by some. They might just offer them new lands in the Trans-Pecos instead.
Winston Smith
Banned
I've had an idea: instead of a Home Rule Crisis occurring in Ireland, have one occur in Australasia, with OTL Australia trying to gain Dominion status/eventually become a republic while 'Eastern Australasia', OTL New Zealand tries to maintain close ties to the UK.
El Paso was the state capital in 'DoD'? Interesting stuff. I'll have to skim the TL again just to see this for myself.
El Paso was the state capital in 'DoD'? Interesting stuff. I'll have to skim the TL again just to see this for myself.
At least on this map it is.
Part Eighty-One: Liquid Gold
Update time! This one's shorter than usual and only has one section because I couldn't really think of another topic to go with it.
Part Eighty-One: Liquid Gold
Liquid Gold:
The late 19th century saw the beginning of the use of hydrocarbons in fuel and lighting. The discovery of fields of oil and natural gas led to several booms in the United States. The first oil boom in the United States was in western Pennsylvania. After the discovery of oil in Titusville in the 1850s, people flocked to the region north of Pittsburgh. However, the Pennsylvania oil boom was only the first in United States history. In the 1890s as much of the country was slowly recovering from the Silver Depression, major energy booms struck two states and helped to spark their economies again.
The first boom began in eastern Indiana in 1889. The original discovery of natural gas in Indiana occurred in 1885 while mining for coal, but the significance was not discovered until four years later. The first drill in the Muncie Gas Field[1] was set up near Muncie, Indiana, and soon there were thousands of gas and oil wells set up across the eastern half of the state. The Indiana Gas Boom led to large economic growth in Indianapolis as well as northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio as the gas was shipped to the Great Lakes. Some of the gas extracted from the field was used for the lighting of cities in the Old Northwest, but this was soon surpassed by electric lighting. However, the natural gas continued to be used in electric power plants in the Old Northwest, and some cities such as Indianapolis and Muncie still have historic Gaslight Districts[2] to commemorate the boom.
The second great energy boom of the 1890s occurred in the state of Houston. There had been suspicions for a long time that there might be oil under southern and eastern Houston, but several attempts to drill in the region had run dry. The first oil find was in 1892 by a team headed by Pattillo Higgins, who founded the Beaumont Oil and Gas Company which later became part of the Gulf Oil Corporation. The extraction and refining industries exploded over the next decades as more discoveries were made in Houston and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast of the United States. The need to refine the extracted oil led to economic booms in coastal cities on the Gulf as well. The port city of Galveston surged to become the largest city in Houston by 1910 and a Texan industrial hub.
[1] In OTL the Trenton Gas Field.
[2] These Gaslight Districts retain their late 19th century architecture and are still lit by gas lighting.
Part Eighty-One: Liquid Gold
Liquid Gold:
The late 19th century saw the beginning of the use of hydrocarbons in fuel and lighting. The discovery of fields of oil and natural gas led to several booms in the United States. The first oil boom in the United States was in western Pennsylvania. After the discovery of oil in Titusville in the 1850s, people flocked to the region north of Pittsburgh. However, the Pennsylvania oil boom was only the first in United States history. In the 1890s as much of the country was slowly recovering from the Silver Depression, major energy booms struck two states and helped to spark their economies again.
The first boom began in eastern Indiana in 1889. The original discovery of natural gas in Indiana occurred in 1885 while mining for coal, but the significance was not discovered until four years later. The first drill in the Muncie Gas Field[1] was set up near Muncie, Indiana, and soon there were thousands of gas and oil wells set up across the eastern half of the state. The Indiana Gas Boom led to large economic growth in Indianapolis as well as northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio as the gas was shipped to the Great Lakes. Some of the gas extracted from the field was used for the lighting of cities in the Old Northwest, but this was soon surpassed by electric lighting. However, the natural gas continued to be used in electric power plants in the Old Northwest, and some cities such as Indianapolis and Muncie still have historic Gaslight Districts[2] to commemorate the boom.
The second great energy boom of the 1890s occurred in the state of Houston. There had been suspicions for a long time that there might be oil under southern and eastern Houston, but several attempts to drill in the region had run dry. The first oil find was in 1892 by a team headed by Pattillo Higgins, who founded the Beaumont Oil and Gas Company which later became part of the Gulf Oil Corporation. The extraction and refining industries exploded over the next decades as more discoveries were made in Houston and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast of the United States. The need to refine the extracted oil led to economic booms in coastal cities on the Gulf as well. The port city of Galveston surged to become the largest city in Houston by 1910 and a Texan industrial hub.
[1] In OTL the Trenton Gas Field.
[2] These Gaslight Districts retain their late 19th century architecture and are still lit by gas lighting.
And here's a map of the Gaslight District in Indianapolis, and my first attempt at an alternate city map.
You're back! Awesome!!
Love how the TL takes time to look at places like Indianapolis, that are otherwise pretty much ignored in every TL (even OTL). The map is cool, but I really know nothing of Indianapolis to know the difference from OTL.
Actually now that I looked at google maps, it seems most of the gas light district lays where Purdue University is in OTL (judging from where New York street crosses the river), I might be wrong though.
I do like the idea of gaslight districts. BTW
Love how the TL takes time to look at places like Indianapolis, that are otherwise pretty much ignored in every TL (even OTL). The map is cool, but I really know nothing of Indianapolis to know the difference from OTL.
Actually now that I looked at google maps, it seems most of the gas light district lays where Purdue University is in OTL (judging from where New York street crosses the river), I might be wrong though.
I do like the idea of gaslight districts. BTW
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Thanks jycee! The Purdue campus is actually a bit northwest of TTL's Gaslight District where White River State Park is on the map. I found a map of Indy from ~1900 that showed a canal running north of the bend in the White River, so I kept the canal. I also didn't realize where White River State Park was in OTL until I just looked at Google Maps again. I hadn't noticed I basically moved it across the river.
As a Hoosier, I thoroughly approve of the Indianapolis update!
One question about alt-Indy: will there still be a Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument downtown? Perhaps on an even grander scale thanks to the oil boom?
One question about alt-Indy: will there still be a Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument downtown? Perhaps on an even grander scale thanks to the oil boom?
My guess is that like many historical districts everywhere, it was larger at some point. But it is probably expensive to maintain as such and thus it grows smaller as time goes by. It is sad but it happens to most places of the kind.
But if well kept this would be a freaking cool place to hangout. It is all old architecture so I imagine its been mostly adapted to hold cafes, pubs, clubs, galleries. It would also be a bit of a tourist destination (for whomever ends up visiting Indianapolis). If Purdue University is still nearby then it would be even more so. If you add a Park/Museum row on the other side of the river then you have a pretty neat downtown. Muncie's Gaslight District is probably also very nice, but probably less lively.
There will probably be a monument there, although I'm not sure if it will be a Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Since there's already a National War Monument, it would seem somewhat redundant for now. Maybe after the Great War a war memorial will be built there.
On the size of the Gaslight District, I wasn't really sure if it was big enough, but I didn't want it to extend too far into the center of downtown Indy. I suppose it could extend to the right bank of the White River for a bit, to make the bridges gaslit and since I wasn't really sure what to do with that area.
EDIT: Also, I couldn't decide if anything should happen with the Ball brothers, which is why they weren't mentioned. As a Boulderite, I do have some connection with them since Ball Aerospace has their primary offices in Boulder (though I didn't realize the connection between Ball Aerospace and Ball State University until just now).
I was considering having George Alexander Ball be more successful in politics, possibly becoming Indiana governor.
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