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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".
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