US response to British request to join the union after WW2

Saphroneth

Banned
You are right. I read that as immediately after WW2... Sorry.
You're probably correct about what the person meant, of course, but the idea of the entirety of US politics becoming "who gets the Indian electoral votes" was too amusing.
Might result in POTUS Ghandi. :eek:
 
It'd be more likely for the US to ask to rejoin the empire...

No it isn't. While Britain deciding to join the United States is ASB, at best, at the very least one could argue there would actually be advantages in Britain doing so. In particular access to federal funds from the richest and most powerful country in the world. Does that outweigh the downsides of giving up their sovereignty and submitting to the United States government? Of course not, and it would never happen, but there actually is some positive to be had. Again though, not enough to outweigh the negatives.

The United States joining the British Empire has all the downsides of the other way around, but NO benefits. The US is richer and more powerful than the ENTIRE British Empire COMBINED by several margins. So not only would there be a surrender of sovereignty, but they would actually be doing so to the WEAKER power.

And if it requires a virtual change of the brain of an individual to enable them to get to the decision, which otherwise would never have occured to him? Or overwhelming a widely shared popular sentiment on something just like that?

Well, truly massive quantities of alcohol could also be involved...

;)
 
And if it requires a virtual change of the brain of an individual to enable them to get to the decision, which otherwise would never have occured to him? Or overwhelming a widely shared popular sentiment on something just like that?

While those events do not require outright magic, they cannot of itself constitute PoD, because they require a PoD other than the flip of a coin decision.

I.e. a timeline that starts with "On June 21st, Hitler decides not to invade USSR." is ASB. Or similar things. You'd need a PoD before the decision to make it plausible, otherwise it sounds like Hitler woke up and decided not to do Barbarossa.

Yes that can be considered ASB as well, if it is not humanly possible for someone of a certain mindset to make such a choice then that falls under my defination.
 
You're probably correct about what the person meant, of course, but the idea of the entirety of US politics becoming "who gets the Indian electoral votes" was too amusing.
Might result in POTUS Ghandi. :eek:

"Only God Knows how a humble lawyer wearing a loincloth become the most powerful man in human history" :D
 
Without getting into the ASBness of this. I think that the U.S. would go to extreme measures to prop up the UK if there was even the vaguest chance that request would be made.

Something along the lines of 'What do we need to do so that you DON'T make the request?'

For example what would happen to Britian's seat on the UN Security Council? Having a second relatively reliable vote there could be very valuable so keeping the UK independent has more value to the U.S.
 
For example what would happen to Britian's seat on the UN Security Council? Having a second relatively reliable vote there could be very valuable so keeping the UK independent has more value to the U.S.

I would suggest giving it to Either Canada, Australia or India. My personal perference is the latter. Speaking of which I would think that if this did happen then the Americans could form a close relationship with an independent and united India.
 
A Franco-British union was proposed by the British government in June 1940, during the closing days of the fall of France. While wildly, wildly implausible, an American-Anglo union at some point isn't completely unfeasible.

If you have no Pearl Harbor and a later American entry into the war, I could see a UK so pounded by bombing that it might look to this. In our timeline, you had rationing lasting into around 1950. More strikes, more desperation and there might appear to be a genuine threat of revolution unless the two economies are joined.
 
If you have no Pearl Harbor and a later American entry into the war, I could see a UK so pounded by bombing that it might look to this. In our timeline, you had rationing lasting into around 1950. More strikes, more desperation and there might appear to be a genuine threat of revolution unless the two economies are joined.

I would say that the UK being in a even worse state Post-War than in OTL would be enough to cause at least serious discussions about Union...
 
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