WI: The United States adopted the "Siberian Fort" strategy of westward expansion?

Deleted member 97083

What if the United States' Manifest Destiny was a little bit more "Russian", and analogous to the Russian eastward expansion?

In this scenario:
  • Expansion is done by building fortresses along major points, without significant settlement until much later, akin to the Russian Ostrogs in remote areas.
  • It's a lot harder to convince settlers to move west, so the expansion would be done by a smaller amount of people. The "Original Northwest" would be settled somewhat later than OTL, but would then become America's "Novosibirsk" on the borderlands of Anglo and native territory.
  • When individual Native American tribes are defeated by the US army and cavalry, instead of being relocated or forced to migrate for the most part, they are simply vassalized, retaining much of their territory but becoming an autonomous territory within the Union.
  • Penal colonies are set up in North Dakota as an analogue to the Siberian prisons of the Russian Empire.
The Thirteen Colonies were not as populated as Russian Empire, so it is feasible that they could have a similarly sparse attempt at colonization with a certain POD. Perhaps the Loyalists remain in the US, creating a larger aristocracy; and after a very damaging Shay's Rebellion, which is ultimately defeated, the state governments become much more powerful and effectively tie most citizens to the land by preventing them from moving west unless they have paid all debts. Or perhaps in the War of 1812, the British do create a Shawnee protectorate from Tecumseh's confederacy, which slows the western settlement until the East Coast is fully urbanized. With urbanized populations being much less likely to migrate to the rural countryside, this could certainly delay western expansion.

There's no specific POD for this scenario, but those are two that I think might work, even if somewhat implausible. The focus is not on the POD, but on the ramifications of a slower somewhat different "Manifest Destiny".
 
Trans-Pacific trade for the US would be less prominent. Canada, Mexico, and South America will take much of the trade that the US has OTL due to proper ports. Civil War will be far different if not butterflied at all, and the discovery of many of the minerals of the west might have to wait several decades more than OTL.

TBH this situation will not last. Siberia is a forsaken wasteland in large part. The US is full of rich minerals, great landscapes, and fertile plains, not to mention warm-water ports...
Manifest Destiny would be slowed down, and more political power would stay in the East for sure.
 
Isn't the river network in Siberia better than the river network in the American West? Both in navigability and otherwise. And after you leave the Mississippi-Missouri basin, you have to cross a major mountain range. The portages are much longer I believe in the American West.

Trans-Pacific trade for the US would be less prominent. Canada, Mexico, and South America will take much of the trade that the US has OTL due to proper ports. Civil War will be far different if not butterflied at all, and the discovery of many of the minerals of the west might have to wait several decades more than OTL.

TBH this situation will not last. Siberia is a forsaken wasteland in large part. The US is full of rich minerals, great landscapes, and fertile plains, not to mention warm-water ports...
Manifest Destiny would be slowed down, and more political power would stay in the East for sure.

A lot of the gold rushes tended to be discovered by mountain men, who would certainly still exist TTL. And those fertile plains weren't so fertile until better agricultural equipment existed to plow them up (hence the name "Great American Desert"). Prior to that, the only good settlement was around rivers. Not much better than Siberia, which has plenty of fertile areas, including a nice band leading to the Pacific. Siberia is likewise full of rich minerals.
 
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