United States of America - An American Union?

I've heard What Ifs of the 13 states going their seperate ways after the Revolution, but what if the arrangement established during the American Revolution persisted? Each state would be an independent political entity with their own local military, but there would still be an overall Continental Army and a Continental Navy that would coordinate the military efforts of the 13 states.

The Continental Congress would be a permanent body of representatives from each state appointed by each of their governments and would have a head delegate or president.

How could this happen in the first place? How would western settlement proceed? And would the United States try to expand to include other American colonies and countries?
 
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I think that it could have worked if 1) the Articles of Confederation had been altered to give the central government at least a little more power, if not as much as the later Federal government had in OTL under the US Constitution, and 2) the states were able to resolve their remaining conflicting western land claims and more generally get used to working together and thinking of themselves as part of a larger unit at least for some purposes. IMHO, the first 20 or 30 years would have been the most dangerous period, when the states were most likely to want to go their separate ways when they could not agree. After that, you have a generation coming to power that is more used to thinking of the United States as a long-term union, and which are less likely to think of breaking away from it except under extreme circumstances.
 
How do you get the various independent states from competing for land to the west? How do you rebalance the ever growing Virginia/S. Carolin/Georgia/Pennsylvania with the size-constrained Marylands, Newyorks, etc.? What I mean is that the states with an open western border wouldn't split off new states but they would just keep stretching west (ending up with a banded N. America). They would therefore get larger, more populous and more powerful. The Eastern states that are hemmed in by the ocean and the other states on their western borders would get progressively weaker an weaker, relatively speaking. How do you rebalance the representation in the modified US govt, or their responsibilities to the Continental Army & Navy?

I would see it creating tensions that would tear the partnership apart fairly quickly.
 

Thande

Donor
It could happen - not sure how long it would hold together - but I suspect the New England colonies would club together as one state in order to make their voice heard when it came to land disputes with New York and Pennsylvania. Especially since that's where Federalist sentiment was strongest anyway.
 
That might work... amalgamations to make larger polities... Maybe New York & New Jersey. Maryland with Delaware. Would still require frequent 'constitutional crises' to rebalance the union every decade or so until the continent is settled.

And of course I meant North Carolina would stretch west, not South. Not sure where my mind was there for a moment. Unless they convince Georgia to give up a corridor in the north, a long thin arm of S.Carolina could then head west.
 
Lower Louisiana, Upper Louisiana, West Florida, East Florida and - should it happen - Upper Canada and Lower Canada could all be admitted as their own countries within the United States as well, so the original 13 would remain east of the Mississippi. In Europe, there were countries who had provinces not contiguous with their border, and the same could be true for the original 13 as well.

New Hampshire could have taken OTL's Vermont, Massachusetts could have kept Maine, Georgia takes northern Alabama and Mississippi (the southern portion possibly going to West Florida), North Carolina takes Tennessee, and Virginia takes Kentucky. The Ohio Valley can be divided up between New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Pennsylvania (the former three having had claims in that area. Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and South Carolina would be stuck in their original borders, but while the others will end up stronger they won't end up too much stronger as they would have if they stretched to the Pacific.
 
what happens west of Louisiana then? Does Texas still secede from Mexico? Would the Continental Army fight a War of Expansion? I'd think it would be more conservative and only fight defensively due to needing to reach a consensus amongst the states rather than responding to one legislature/president - think NATO and it's need to negotiate all activities before taking action.

What happens in Oregon? California?
 
what happens west of Louisiana then? Does Texas still secede from Mexico? Would the Continental Army fight a War of Expansion? I'd think it would be more conservative and only fight defensively due to needing to reach a consensus amongst the states rather than responding to one legislature/president - think NATO and it's need to negotiate all activities before taking action.

What happens in Oregon? California?
I'd think that if Texas still secedes from Mexico and the Continental Congress recognizes it as independent, then Texas could apply for membership to the USA. If Mexico were to declare war on Texas afterwards, the Continental Army and Navy would be obligated to assist Texas against them. Perhaps in the war that followed, California could declare its own independence as they did in OTL's Mexican War and apply to join the USA as well. The Oregon Country would probably become British by default in the short term.
 
Absolutely if Texas was admitted to the USA and then Mexico attacked they would fight. But would Mexico take that long to act? Probably not and so then does the ConArmy go to fight within Mexican territory to support the rebels? I'd think that a little risky and some states would object (especially in the N.E.) which might stall or stop the ConArmy from marching.
 
Absolutely if Texas was admitted to the USA and then Mexico attacked they would fight. But would Mexico take that long to act? Probably not and so then does the ConArmy go to fight within Mexican territory to support the rebels? I'd think that a little risky and some states would object (especially in the N.E.) which might stall or stop the ConArmy from marching.
If Texas has already applied and Mexico attacks in the mean time, there'll probably be politicians who will use it as a casus belli to expedite the process and go to Texas's aid. I'd think that anti-colonialism/anti-imperialism would have a faction within the ATL USA, and that would include the Mexican Empire as well as the Europeans.
 
I think your POD has to be the Articles never adopted, [Kind of hard but........]
The continitial Congress continues, acting like a kind of UN
The original Stqtes would be the security council.
 
The coastal states could not get an army big enough to fight across the mountains for a cheap enough price to make it worthwhile. The financial benefits of being able to sell land in Kentucky or Vermont wasn't worth it to Virginia and Massachusetts.
We get states starting up all over in the West.
 
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