| February 15 |  |
Editor says, what if the Northeast Boundary Dispute led to War? muses Andrew Beane. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the June 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1839, in a sharp escalation of the Northeast Boundary Dispute with the Canadian Province of New Brunswick, the Maine Legislature authorized Major General Isaac Hodsdon to lead one thousand additional militiamen to augment the forces deployed on the upper Aroostook River,a pocket of territorial ambiguity that the governments of England and America both claiming it as its own (by the end of the Revolutionary War, most of the area was yet unmapped and unexplored).
Aroostook War
by Ed & Andrew BeaneAs a consequence of the closing of the Second Bank of the United States, the State had created a special census to identify eligible recipients for a refund. But when the New Brunswick colonial-provincial authorities discovered that an official from Maine (Penobscot County Census Representative Greeley) was offering money to settlers in the upper Aroostook River territory, they issued a warranty for his arrest. In response Governor Robert Dunlap of Maine issued a general order announcing that a foreign power had invaded Maine.
This regional friction might have been dissolved through local mediation but American public opinion had been enraged by the Caroline Incident that strained relations between the United States and Britain. Nevertheless, President Martin Van Buren sent Brigadier General Winfield Scott to work out a compromise. But by the time that he arrived in the northeast, British redcoats had massacred the militia and both countries stood on the brink of war.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Aroostook War, Northeast Boundary Dispute, New Brunswick, Maine, Britain. Editor says, in authoring this post we have repurposed content from Wikipedia which concludes ~ High tensions and heated rhetoric in Maine and New Brunswick led both sides to raise troops, arm them, and march them to the disputed border. President Martin Van Buren sent Brigadier General Winfield Scott to work out a compromise. The compromise created a neutral area, and the excitement faded away as the diplomats took over. We have also explored ideas from Alternate History and The Movable Beast.
~ Ouch....
~ It's the War of 1812 all over again,,, bloody Redcoats!
~ Seeing that the Brits were dealing with the First Anglo-Afghan War, the First Opium War, and the Uruguayan Civil War already in 1839, methinks they wouldn't have had enough military manpower available to seriously challenge New England, let alone the entire American Republic. A serious American war effort may have forcibly entered Canada into the Union.
~ Or, an Anglo-American conflict might have tempted other powers to start meddling in North America (orelsewhere).
~ Canada and the Northern United States combined into one country might have been strong enough to abolish slavery without the Civil War. Remember, fleeing slaves usually fled to Canada...which they called "shaking the lion's paw," so obviously Canada was very anti-slavery. The American-Canadian union might even have been strong enough to deter the Germans from fighting the British Empire in two world wars. What's more, we would now have national health care, too. Sounds like a plan.
~ Would the rickety American military at the time be up to much, though?
~ I doubt you could have gotten the rest of the states, Dixie especially, to finance such a war. There would be a surge of nationalist impulse but wiser heads [people with money] would oppose a war which would lead to the RN destroying US [especially Dixie] commerce. My guess is London pays compensation for the dead and you get a boundary commission. As neither nation had any real emotional attachment in some half-settled woods I'm reasonably certain a commission of European neutrals [Swiss, Dutch, Belgians, swedes, whatever] could have found a split the difference. The prevailing politics of the US in this period left New England fairly isolated. People were likely to remember New England treachery in the war of 1812 as well.
~ Would like to see the extension of this TL.
~ A conquest of Canada would've been a mess politically with so many Free states attempting to join. We could've even seen Dixie try to secede earlier.
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