US-UK relations WI

Julius Vogel

Julius Vogel

So, what do we think about whether or not it would be possible to develop a really close UK-US relationship during the late 19th century?

What kind of POD would we need? The Confederates inadvertently attacking British ships and then it spiralling into war on the side of the Unionists?

Now I know things were not too bad between the two, in terms of culture, trade, migration etc, but I'm thinking more along the lines of an Entente Cordiale style arrangement.
 

mrmandias

A common enemy. Maybe French Mexico holds out and receives significant French troops, and starts to discriminate in favor of French trade.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
I think you need the UK believing it need an ally and openly supporting the USA in the USA sphere of influence (western hemisphere). Given a generation of support for USA policies (30 years), we should be quite friendly. You might want to throw in some sales of Caribbean possession to USA.
 

Simreeve

There was an incident during the 1870s when the Spanish intercepted a ship that was running guns to Cuban rebels, and executed its crew... at least some of whom were Americans and Britons. This caused a diplomatic fuss, which was settled peacefully IOTL: Maybe in another TL the Spanish government overplayed its hand and triggered a war in which the British Empire and the USA allied against it?

(Cuba & Puerto Rico to USA, Spanish Guinea & Philippines & at least some of Micronesia to the Empire...)
 

ljofa

Could start with a different outcome from the Treaty of 1818 which led to the settlement of what was to become Oregon and British Columbia. Rather than a race to settle the territories, it becomes a model of Anglo-American co-operation. This leads to a better "normalising" of relations between the two, culminating in British mediation efforts between North and South thanks to Prince Albert's efforts (who doesn't catch a chill and die) averting conflict in 1861.
 

jahg84

Japan rises earlier, makes a play for lightly settled British Columbia and California. Japan having already acquired Alaska and Hawaii. Perhaps signifigant Japaneese immigration into California, Columbia providing justification for the war like Mexican-American war.
 

robcraufurd

As noted above, the common enemy is what really counts. I'm actually writing something on the softer side of alternative history at the minute, inspired by re-reading How Few Remain. Broadly, the Civil War ends in a mediated peace but Seward manages the Quebec conference so well that Britain ends up siding with the Union against France and the CSA on most of the points (for instance, backing the whole of West Virginia staying in the Union because they've proposed a compensated emancipation bill). There's a Confederate filibustering expedition against Cuba in 1865 which ends up with the Royal Navy handing over the ringleaders to the Spanish for execution.

During the 1870s, the anti-slavery movement continues to work on both sides of the Atlantic, When the Second Mexican War Gladstone passes orders in council allowing the Union to purchase ships and raise troops in Britain, narrowly surviving a vote of confidence in Parliament as a result. What I'm writing is the memoirs of one of the British Auxiliary Legion which fights in the war.
 

Dave Howery

it seems to me that this could have happened after the OR border was settled (peacefully)... the ARW is long over, the War of 1812 is a generation past, and there's really nothing much for the UK and USA to squabble about. Two problems need to be overcome... first, you need to get the UK interested in the idea; they are the great power in the world and don't really need a close relationship with the USA. Maybe someone farsighted will see them as a potentially huge trading partner after the Mexican War, and encourage it? Second, the Americans... when you read what people said back then, the Americans seem to have been rather blustery, arrogant, 'we don't need anyone!" How to overcome this... maybe a harder time of it in the Mexican War, where some of the stuffiness gets knocked out of them, and having a strong partner is seen as desirable? Or maybe some other foreign power(s) threatens the USA somehow, and the UK is a natural 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' kind of ally?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top