Post by eurofed on Mar 15, 2017 0:03:25 GMT
Let's assume ITTL the USA got substantially larger, fulfilling most or all of its Manifest Destiny ambitions, and it never established any legal limits to immigration. At the very least (minimum option), it came to own all of its OTL territory plus Ontario, western Canada, northern Mexico (everything up to the Tropic of Cancer), Cuba, eastern Hispaniola, southern Central America (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama), and pretty much all the Pacific islands. Quite possibly (maximum option), it got of all that plus Québec and the Maritimes, the rest of Mexico and Central America, western Hispaniola and the lesser Antilles, Colombia and Venezuela, Australia and New Zealand, the Philippines, and Kolyma and Kamchatka. The PoD is set during the American Revolutionary War, and most acquisitions are assumed to occur during the 18th and 19th centuries, with a few reasonable exceptions. ITTL the USA build both the Nicaragua Canal and the Panama Canal. By the 21st century, all the parts of US territory with sufficient population to qualify as a US state got statehood.
Event sequence may of course vary, but probably it went something like this: the British antagonized the Canadian colonists into joining the American Revolution, or at the very least the Patriots were able to win Upper Canada at the peace table. Britain ceded Rupert's Land and the Pacific Northwest to the USA since they lacked easy access to the region, fur trade was declining, and the area was getting flooded with American settlers; the Americans claimed a bigger slice of Mexico after the Mexican-American War, according to their original intentions (the OTL border occurred because of a rogue diplomat that granted Mexico a milder peace than President Polk meant), or even annexed all of it, since the Southern states got persuaded that local creole elites would keep the Amerindian lower classes properly subdued. The annexation of the Dominican Republic got ratified, and the USA annexed Cuba after the Spanish-American War. The Americans decide annexation was the proper course to ensure control of the areas where the inter-oceanic canals would get built, and to settle the Banana Wars. They never promised independence to the Philippines, instead the Commonwealth of the Philippines associated-state settlement got entrenched as an acceptable compromise for a while, later it eventually progressed to statehood. The USA fought the British Empire and its allies during the World Wars, and annexed Australasia as their main prize. When the Alaska Purchase occurred, Kolyma and Kamchatka got included in the deal.
Moreover, because of a different course of events during the ARW, ACW, and Reconstruction, American society developed a more tolerant attitude towards race issues, fairly similar to the one of Latin America. Broadly speaking, plenty of socio-economic inequality, individual prejudice, and implicit racism did exist, but legal segregation or barriers to immigration were never established after slavery was abolished. Culturally-assimilated and affluent Amerindians, Hispanics, and Asians got accepted as equals, and perception of race was flexible. It got defined by a mix of factors including prevalent physical appearance, known ancestry, social status, education, wealth, and self-identification. Blacks still suffered the greatest discrimination because of the baggage of slavery, but if you didn't look quite African and/or you were middle class, then you were White. As a consequence, scientific racism never got much mainstream support and the USA never implemented any legal barrier to immigration, allowing free access to Southern Europeans, Eastern Europeans, Latin Americans, East Asians, and South Asians throughout its history.
Last but not least, America never fought any major war against Germany, Italy, or Japan, so the German-American, Italian-American, and Japanese-American communities never experienced any special trouble. If you wish a reference for these powers, assume ITTL unification of Germany and Italy and modernization of Japan (including its conquest of Korea) went more or less the same way but America, Germany, Italy, and Japan stayed neutral in or won the World Wars, and A-H eventually collapsed with its neighbors picking the pieces. Therefore by the 21st century Germany owns its 1914 territory plus Austria and Bohemia-Moravia, Italy has its 1938 borders (quite possibly the French irredenta as well), and the Japanese Empire owns Korea and Taiwan (quite possibly Manchuria, Hainan, and Outer Manchuria as well).
How big would you expect TTL US population to be, and how different from OTL in ethnic and religious terms ?
Event sequence may of course vary, but probably it went something like this: the British antagonized the Canadian colonists into joining the American Revolution, or at the very least the Patriots were able to win Upper Canada at the peace table. Britain ceded Rupert's Land and the Pacific Northwest to the USA since they lacked easy access to the region, fur trade was declining, and the area was getting flooded with American settlers; the Americans claimed a bigger slice of Mexico after the Mexican-American War, according to their original intentions (the OTL border occurred because of a rogue diplomat that granted Mexico a milder peace than President Polk meant), or even annexed all of it, since the Southern states got persuaded that local creole elites would keep the Amerindian lower classes properly subdued. The annexation of the Dominican Republic got ratified, and the USA annexed Cuba after the Spanish-American War. The Americans decide annexation was the proper course to ensure control of the areas where the inter-oceanic canals would get built, and to settle the Banana Wars. They never promised independence to the Philippines, instead the Commonwealth of the Philippines associated-state settlement got entrenched as an acceptable compromise for a while, later it eventually progressed to statehood. The USA fought the British Empire and its allies during the World Wars, and annexed Australasia as their main prize. When the Alaska Purchase occurred, Kolyma and Kamchatka got included in the deal.
Moreover, because of a different course of events during the ARW, ACW, and Reconstruction, American society developed a more tolerant attitude towards race issues, fairly similar to the one of Latin America. Broadly speaking, plenty of socio-economic inequality, individual prejudice, and implicit racism did exist, but legal segregation or barriers to immigration were never established after slavery was abolished. Culturally-assimilated and affluent Amerindians, Hispanics, and Asians got accepted as equals, and perception of race was flexible. It got defined by a mix of factors including prevalent physical appearance, known ancestry, social status, education, wealth, and self-identification. Blacks still suffered the greatest discrimination because of the baggage of slavery, but if you didn't look quite African and/or you were middle class, then you were White. As a consequence, scientific racism never got much mainstream support and the USA never implemented any legal barrier to immigration, allowing free access to Southern Europeans, Eastern Europeans, Latin Americans, East Asians, and South Asians throughout its history.
Last but not least, America never fought any major war against Germany, Italy, or Japan, so the German-American, Italian-American, and Japanese-American communities never experienced any special trouble. If you wish a reference for these powers, assume ITTL unification of Germany and Italy and modernization of Japan (including its conquest of Korea) went more or less the same way but America, Germany, Italy, and Japan stayed neutral in or won the World Wars, and A-H eventually collapsed with its neighbors picking the pieces. Therefore by the 21st century Germany owns its 1914 territory plus Austria and Bohemia-Moravia, Italy has its 1938 borders (quite possibly the French irredenta as well), and the Japanese Empire owns Korea and Taiwan (quite possibly Manchuria, Hainan, and Outer Manchuria as well).
How big would you expect TTL US population to be, and how different from OTL in ethnic and religious terms ?
