What if the American Revolution failed?

Kontiki · December 20, 2002, 22:28

I'm curious what people think would have been the end result if the British managed to quash the rebellion in the American colonies. Would the US still exist exactly as it does today, but with a slightly later start date following another revolution? Would the US look more like Canada in being a parliamentary democracy with a peaceful separation from Britain? Is there any likelihood that more than one country would have emerged out of the original colonies? Maybe Canada would look different, what with possible changes to British colonial boundaries. How about the prospect of other country's colonies (Spain, France) in North America? Any other ideas?

SlowwHand · December 20, 2002, 22:31

Done it again.

Sprayber · December 20, 2002, 22:37

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Done it again.

and again if necessary

monkspider · December 20, 2002, 22:45

We would all be living in a worker's paradise right now.

Heh, heh, merely joshing, just a bit of Commie humor for you all. If it failed eventually we would have been annexed by Canada.

Ned · December 20, 2002, 22:46

Quote:

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Done it again.

And this time taking Canada.

SlowwHand · December 20, 2002, 22:51

Annexed by Canada.

Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Nubclear · December 21, 2002, 01:02

Had France not decided to help the good ol' UA? The world would be a much better place today

jdd2007 · December 21, 2002, 01:12

im really tired of alternate history. what if? what if?

there are endless outcomes for any situation...

Edan · December 21, 2002, 01:14

I would restart Colonization and try again, mabe with a different mother country.

Ogie Oglethorpe · December 21, 2002, 01:16

Ahhh but there's always one constant. The anti-american trolls. Wouldn't be the same without 'em.

JCG · December 21, 2002, 01:27

It would have indeed happened later, but then hopefully the US wouldn't have become such an overly massive, isolated and powerful country so soon.

Who knows?

Zkribbler · December 21, 2002, 01:40

Quote:

Originally posted by jdd2007
there are endless outcomes for any situation...

Right.

A lot would depend upon what point the rebellion failed. What would have happened if the British had captured Sam Adams and John Hancock in 1775 at Concord? The chances would have then been much greater for resurrecting the rebellion than if Washington's army had been defeated in detail at New York. Still later, a British victory after the French had intervened would have doomed any future American rebellion. It was that intervention by the French that bankrupted their country and led directly to the French Revolution.

What if, after the rebellion failed, King George and Lord North had started recognizing the colonlists' Rights of Englishmen? Then, there would have been enough political tender to re-kindle a second rebellion.

jdd2007 · December 21, 2002, 02:10

they would have revolted again at a later time, during the napoleanic wars.

Inverse Icarus · December 21, 2002, 02:42

Yea. Napoleonic wars was the time to revolt for most of the Americas.

we wouldn't let those british bastards rule us forever.

Ramo · December 21, 2002, 03:47

The UK would eventually move its capitol to New York (or Philidelphia, etc.).

Dauphin · December 21, 2002, 06:23

If the American revolt failed, there may not have been Napoleonic wars.

Dauphin · December 21, 2002, 06:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Ramo
The UK would eventually move its capitol to New York (or Philidelphia, etc.).

I thought the centre of government was already moved to Pennsylvania Avenue.

Ned · December 21, 2002, 06:31

If there was no American Revolution, there may have been no large-scale immigration by the Irish, Italians or other Europeans, let alone the Chinese. Immigration may have been limited primarily to the English.

Az · December 21, 2002, 08:24

OMG, I am just playing a game of colonization, and guess what? I am not doing so good. Figures.

Bereta_Eder · December 21, 2002, 08:28

well it didnt so you can thank the french again

Az · December 21, 2002, 08:35

yes it did

and the french will join my side if I accumulate something like 5000 Liberty bells. This is ****ing impossible.

Kepler · December 21, 2002, 08:36

I think there's a good chance that if the Revolution didn't occur when it did the eventual countries that came to occupy North America would be very different.

Just think for example of what happens if the Brits make significant concessions to the colonists in '73 and '74. The generation of great American statesmen is thus coopted into the Brit camp (the colonial governors Jefferson and Hamilton eventually hang Adams for treason). A politically conservative America watches the French Revolution in horror and draws even closer to Britain.

Perhaps the you get a Civil War of the American South against the Northeast and Britain, and as the South is crushed the North imposes Reconstruction on the South as a condition for being readmitted to the Commonwealth -- something without which the South would merely become a vast, underdeveloped, rural wasteland.

Bereta_Eder · December 21, 2002, 09:08

Only have one port city. You will win every time

Defend it with everything you have and be focused on one port city. That way you won;t stretch your army AT ALL

Kontiki · December 21, 2002, 14:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Ned
If there was no American Revolution, there may have been no large-scale immigration by the Irish, Italians or other Europeans, let alone the Chinese. Immigration may have been limited primarily to the English.

I don't think that's necessarily true. Are you assuming that there would never be an independent country (or countries) from the British colonies? I mean, Canada gained its independence in 1867 and we've had waves of immigration nearly on par (on a per capita basis) as those of the US.

Kramerman · December 21, 2002, 14:54

Well, if a USA would have been formed eventually, either by later revolution or by peaceful seccession, it would be much, much different, most likely not a world power. America would probably resemble Canada very closely, in population and society, as, while under British control for an extended period, mass open-door imigration would not have happened. Depending on when the US finally comes into being, it would probably only stretch from the Atlantic to the Mississippi; the lousianna purchase not coming into its possession, nor the significant land gains made in the Mexican-American war.

History, no matter how the US turns out at a later date, would definately be much, much different. The effect the US has had on the world has been immense, and by changing America you are changing that effect.

Kman

JohnT · December 21, 2002, 17:26

I'm surprised that Stefu hasn't been here to recommend this book, which is a 1990-ish college history textbook set in a world in which the British won the Battle of Saratoga.

Rufus T. Firefly · December 22, 2002, 02:46

Can I play?

1. Slavery in North America would have been abolished earlier

2. Texas would be an independent nation

3. Without a US to sell it to, Napoleon would have kept Louisiana; without the financing that the Louisiana Purchase provided him, his warmongering in Europe would have been curtailed (but I'm not sure what that means; it's been years since I've known that history well)

4. In all likelihood, no on would ever have heard of Washington Irving, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Henry David Thoreau

BTW, thanks for the book rec JohnT; it looks interesting.

Gatekeeper · December 22, 2002, 02:49

If the American Revolution had failed, we'd all be speaking English right now, dammit!

Gatekeeper

TheBirdMan · December 22, 2002, 05:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
Can I play?

2. Texas would be an independent nation

And Mr. Bush president of Texas and not The US.

Stefu · December 22, 2002, 05:34

Quote:

I'm surprised that Stefu hasn't been here to recommend this book, which is a 1990-ish college history textbook set in a world in which the British won the Battle of Saratoga.

I meant to, but then I sort of forgot about it.