tom said:Basically, it will boil down to who can recover first....
Who would that be?
Doctor What said:Ah--there's the rub--which country in the world will be in a better position to recover from massive crop failures and famine and the general chaos that results from this first? And what do you think their intentions will be once they realize that their allies and/or enemies aren't doing as well as them?
I'm a little fuzzy on who were the major powers/wannabe powers in 1815--anybody here know or have any ideas?
SurfNTurfStraha said:the brits would be too busy with famine so the weakened america would be able ot snap up canada,oregon,bermuda and their carribean lands, Spain would be "convinced" into giving up the texas area+Cuba to the USA. The USA would expand fast even though its a weaker nation than it was.
it would most likely be william walker style people who get the main USA government to come in. Such an event that davestates americacwill cause hell for the brits,spanish and indians..Doctor What said:Interesting but is this even plausible? The U.S. just lost 10% of their population, you've got Indians to the west, brits to the north, spanish to the south (not to mention that you've got a rather large population of black slaves looking around at the devastated white towns around them and going "Hmmmm..." )--all of whom will probably be having the same ideas as well.
Once one nation starts moving against their neighbours, everyone's going to go totally ape-shit--it will be a free for all....
SurfNTurfStraha said:it would most likely be william walker style people who get the main USA government to come in. Such an event that davestates americacwill cause hell for the brits,spanish and indians..
SurfNTurfStraha said:it would most likely be william walker style people who get the main USA government to come in. Such an event that davestates americacwill cause hell for the brits,spanish and indians..
carlton_bach said:I dunno. There was a good deal of rioting in Germany about the sale of grain abroad while the poor at home starved. Apparently, no matter how bad the situation, there is a market for grain (later in the century, both Ireland in the 1840s and Gujarat during the great famine of 1876 exported grain). Unless we posit a massive enterprise in rationing (highly unlikely, as there is simply no experience with organisation at that scale and a widespread belief in the free market), food is there for anyone with money to buy it, ships to carry it, warehouses to store it, and arms to defend it. Which would be Britain. I'm not saying it wouldn't be awful, but Britain stands a decent chance of coming out better than most other countries.
Other interesting aspect: if a massive famine in the early 19th century kills millions of people throughout the western world, what would that do to the emerging free markets ideology? In the face of such obvious failure, could Capitalism retain itas 'winner' image? Would voters not demand a welfare infrastructure on the ground to prevent such horrors in the future, and hang the cost? That might certainly bugger up the 'century of Liberalism' to follow.
SurfNTurfStraha said:thats nice and all but i want you to post more of your saner gentler 20th century TL description