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Editor says, what if a Union takeover of Canada had occurred at the time of Confederation? muses Ed and Stan Brin. 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 May 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1867, on this day the Confederation of Canada started the inevitable countdown to the final Union invasion north across the 41st parallel.
A variant ending to "Railroaded into the Union: Part #1"
Railroaded into the Union #2Perhaps the only way that the outcome to the Charlottetown Conference could have been designed to be more offensive would have be to have postponed the decision by three days for co-timing with Independence Day.
Nevertheless the response was radical. Perhaps most significantly in the long-term was the decision taken in Washington to scrap plans for an inter-colony railroad which would improve trade, military movement, and transportation in general. Because despite the objections of the newly incorporated West Coast state (formerly known as the Colony of British Columbia), it was strongly argued by integrationalists that it was more cost effective to use barges to trans-ship up the Red River. In reality, the future-proofed "up-down" decision (instead of a "left-right") transport solution was driven by the pressing need to vertically integrate the hub of the two nations across the Prairies. On these terms, it was an unqualified success, particularly for the development of Winnipeg; instead of being the meeting point between East and West Canada, "the Peg" actually became the Heart of the Continent that its planners had originally dreamt of.
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Politicians Source: Wikipedia Labels: Canada, United States, Alaska, Railroad, Union. Editor says, in authoring this article we explore an idea originally proposed by Stan Brin.
~ Could we have a few more details on the POD? :D
~ Now, all we need is Mexico, and our conquest is complete...
~ I did honors at university in US-British relations during that period. Americans felt badly abused by extremely nasty and violent neighbors to the north who went out of their way to aid the Confederacy. Nobody wanted Mexico. Mexicans were furriners.
~ The answer is simple, it would mean war with the British Empire,
This had long been planned, in London that is, and the 124,000 troops would have alraedy been sent to Halifax.
Palmerston has died, but his disciples will now be rubbing their hands that they will getthe Forward foreign policy he was always denied.
Oh one other thing, they will swiftly start intriguing with former CSA supporters.
~ A US-British Empire war at that time would have been seriously bad news for everybody involved. The British could probably not land troops in North America if Canada had been taken, but US shipping would be swept from the seas. At the same time, the US, or North America, had at least the potential to be autarkic, so blockades wouldn't matter a great deal, and with the US ironclad fleet in existence, attacking US ports would be a very dangerous proposition. And the French and Russians would be delighted to fish in those troubled waters, too.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
