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From Absaroka to Yazoo: The 124 United States That Could've Been
Most
of my life, I've daydreamed about history -- not so much the incredible
depth of historical events that have already occurred, good thinking as
that might be. No, I've constantly fictionalized history by changing
the outcome of one event here and there and exploring the possibilities
of what would have come next. Sometimes I come up with some utterly
ridiculous progressions on these alternate timelines of whole new worlds
based on relatively minor changes.
Though I admit my imagination was far more active in my youth, I've had a
little help getting things going again... mainly, of all things,
Wikipedia. A treasure trove of information, the online encyclopedia
that anyone can edit has tons of information on historical minutiae that
can be used to pass idle time. One of my favorite things to read
about, oddly, is defunct sports leagues and teams. These always make me
think of the random "what if" questions: What if the USFL
hadn't failed in its anti-trust suit against the NFL? (It won, but was
only awarded $1.) What if, instead of Green Bay's Packers, that the Muncie Flyers had survived as a small-market team to the present? What if the Federal League, or World Hockey Association, or ABA
had made it? Sure, the world of sports is limited in application, but
think: if something so arbitrary can spark the imagination, what about
larger world events like World War II or the American Civil War? The
possibilities are seemingly endless.
I'm certainly not the only one who's done this. It seems like a good
third of all Star Trek episodes deal with timeline issues like this. In
fact, there's a whole genre of literature, called "alternate history," dedicated to exploring these very possibilities. Harry Turtledove
is probably the king of this genre in the US. Turtledove explored an
alternate reality in which the south won the American Civil War, all the
way through present day. Philip K. Dick's contribution (The Man in the High Castle),
a book in which he explores the opposite possible outcome of World War
II, is probably the most well known in the genre. Even Newt Gingrich as
gotten in on the action.
His book.... wasn't completely terrible, as much as it pains me to
admit it, though it's probably more the subject matter than the writing.
Recently, on Wikipedia, I discovered a list that really intrigued me like none other: the List of U.S. State Partition Proposals.
For a geographer/cartographer who's a U.S.-specialist and who's
interested in alternate history, this was Kryptonite for my
productivity. From this list, I stumbled onto listings for U.S. Territories that Failed to Become States and the listing for the hypothetical 51st State. I even came across a nice little book called Lost States, a humorous account from Michael Trinklein that briefly explores a number of random states that never quite happened.
After reading all of these things, and all of the linked pages connected
-- that's where Wikipedia really sucks you in -- I, of course, allowed
my own mind to wander and I came up with the beginnings of a historical
geography narrative for the United States of my own, drawing on each of
these sources. How could I spell this out? Well, I'm no novelist,
because I just really don't have the imagination or skills necessary to
put together a story in that format. However, I can make maps here and
there, and I firmly believe that maps can do a pretty good job telling a
story.
What did I end up with? My own alternate history U.S. map of 124 states (click on it for a bigger version):
The fact that we've kept the number of U.S. states relatively static is nothing short a miracle—there have been hundreds
of attempts at state secession over the years. But what if they had all
succeeded? This brilliant map depicts that alternative universe, where
the U.S. is broken up into 124 different states that stretch from
sea-to-shining-sea.
The map comes to us thanks to the work of a Mansfield University geography professor named
Andrew Shears, who describes the work as a piece of alternate history ("NOT a proposal"):
Most of my life, I've daydreamed about history — not so much the
incredible depth of historical events that have already occurred, good
thinking as that might be. No, I've constantly fictionalized history by
changing the outcome of one event here and there and exploring the
possibilities of what would have come next. Sometimes I come up with
some utterly ridiculous progressions on these alternate timelines of
whole new worlds based on relatively minor changes.
Shears'
map shows each and every attempt at secession along with the boundaries
these movements intended to set up, including Independent Long Island,
which would've severed it from New York, and South Florida, which
would've protected Miami from the rest of the state (smart move). Then
there are those that partially, or temporarily, saw success: Like the
State of Franklin, which existed for four and a half years before
collapsing and being re-admitted to North Carolina in 1789 after failing
to protect or support itself economically.
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