War with Canada!

Donovan

beer, I want beer
Two hundred years ago. Technically not for a couple days yet, but this is the Bicentennial of the war of 1812, a war that's more or less forgotten by both England and the USA and Canada but which played a pretty frigging huge role in how our North American Continent was shaped ever after. Had the British/Canadian side won:

there would be a giant "indian state" surrounding the great lakes and acting as a buffer between the two countries. Border crossings would likely be much more strained.

Western expansion would have been severely hampered by the Canadian and indian presence in the upper midwest. Future key cities of Detroit, Chicago, etc might not even exist today.

The entire indian wars of the 1870's to 1890's would have a different feel with a sovereign indian state located squarely in the middle of USA controlling lake travel.

Likewise the civil war might have gone quite differently if the union had to divide its forces against both the southern army and the northern threat.

New Orleans would be Canadian property, and likely large chunks of the Mississippi valley as well had the British achieved victory at the battle of New Orleans.

Sports figures and celebrity singers would not have to butcher that last high note on the national anthem if the battle at Baltimore had gone differently. No surviving fort McHenry=no poem for Francis Scott Key to write and publish.
 

jack

The Legendary Troll Kingdom
I see great minds think alike :bigass:
 

Donovan

beer, I want beer
Started it here but realized everyone who'd care is basically gone.
 

Eggs Mayonnaise

All In With The Nuts
I almost want to say it sounds like a preferable situation to what we became, since NY and New England would probably have ended up much like they are now.

But who knows.

We wouldn't be a superpower and Europe would. The Great Depression may not have happened, hence dictators like Hitler wouldn't have had that window to climb in through. My computer might not be as fast as it is now, and HDTV might still be in the planning process, but we as a civilization might not have cared as much about progress for progress' sake.

But I imagine the Christians might be even more powerful and ingrained in world power than they already are, so there's a negative. On the flip side, we might have already gone through a Holy War or two with Islam by now, and we might have even emerged the "victor".

But who knows.
 
Top