What If The Americas Were Decolonised?

Rishi

Banned
I admit that I have no idea how the Americas could be decolonised, but if this actually happened, what would the Americas be like today? I think that the borders of sovereign states in the Americas would be drawn along ethnolinguistic lines and there might be many more countries in the Americas today. Furthermore, as a part of the effort to remove certain colonial influences, the name 'America' would no longer be officially used. However, European languages would still be considered official languages (alongside indigenous American languages, obviously) because so many indigenous Americans would be used to speaking European languages due to European colonialism. Eventually, the different American countries would voluntarily combine with each other to form a multinational organisation similar to the European Union. Greenland and the Caribbean islands would be neutral observer states of this multinational organisation. This multinational organisation would wield enormous clout on the international stage due to its abundance of natural resources.
 
This multinational organisation would wield enormous clout on the international stage due to its abundance of natural resources.

Just like Africa?

Edit; the problem I see with this is that the native populations of the Americas were largely decimated and outnumbered by the colonists. You'd need to prevent their susceptibility to European diseases (and weapons). Also as my first answer suggests, natural resources do not equate to international clout. Look at Britain as an example.
 
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I admit that I have no idea how the Americas could be decolonised, but if this actually happened, what would the Americas be like today? I think that the borders of sovereign states in the Americas would be drawn along ethnolinguistic lines and there might be many more countries in the Americas today. Furthermore, as a part of the effort to remove certain colonial influences, the name 'America' would no longer be officially used. However, European languages would still be considered official languages (alongside indigenous American languages, obviously) because so many indigenous Americans would be used to speaking European languages due to European colonialism. Eventually, the different American countries would voluntarily combine with each other to form a multinational organisation similar to the European Union. Greenland and the Caribbean islands would be neutral observer states of this multinational organisation. This multinational organisation would wield enormous clout on the international stage due to its abundance of natural resources.

Really interesting. The name America is not a colonial name. In fact, It was spread out by German emigrants.. Spanish, French, Dutch and British preferred the name "West Indies"....How would the map of America ... I think It is very difficut to imagine.
 
Just like Africa?

Edit; the problem I see with this is that the native populations of the Americas were largely decimated and outnumbered by the colonists. You'd need to prevent their susceptibility to European diseases (and weapons). Also as my first answer suggests, natural resources do not equate to international clout. Look at Britain as an example.

You'd also have to decide who is part of a "native population", since the overwhelming majority of most "native" people in the largest American countries have significant mixed European and/ or African heritage. If you defined "native" in a restrictive manner, I would argue that Mexico would become the regional powerhouse...a large percentage of the Mexican population is Mestizo or Indio. On the other end of the spectrum, the United States, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil would become severely underpopulated, since the majority of people in these countries are not of indigenous extraction. The economy and pre-decolonial civil and military structures could not be maintained without the participation of non-indigenous people. The whole idea is crazy.
 
The way I'm thinking of it, some reasons this didn't happen are:

- Smallpox wiped out such large portions of the native population so that, at least north of Mexico, people of native descent are a minority among minorities, outnumbered by those of European, African, and Asian descent. Basically, North America at least was colonized in an entirely different way than Africa - the colonizers didn't form an upper crust; they were the entire society. If they leave, the cities are empty.

- The Americas were colonized much earlier than Africa. The American colonial period was already over long before post-WWII decolonization, and even before the Scramble for Africa in the late 19th Century. There were still some holdings by European powers, but most countries had already violently seized independence. Not counting a few islands, Canada was the only country that hadn't (their independence was gradual and peaceful). To get a decolonization effort working, it would either have to be pre-Bolívar or you'd have to somehow maintain European dominance over the Americas for longer than OTL.

- It would be difficult to draw borders along ethnolinguistic lines, as you say, because native American peoples were mostly not European-style nation states with defined borders, and because of the depopulation I mentioned above.

This said, I think it's possible for this to somehow become the policy of the Spanish Empire circa 1800. Maybe. If they have a good reason, and I can't think of one. And even then, perhaps some other European powers would seize it all.
 
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