A world where each American state is a free country in the 1930's.

I'm curious about what such a world would be like. How would the various states react? What kind of governments would arise? Which states would come out on top?

Many of the larger states would be formidable powers (but Alaska might be too far north), and they have a high potential of splitting up into separate "countries" due to practicality. For example, it would be tough governing California without a private jet to shuttle you between North and South California, plus the mostly-friendly rivalry between SF and LA might eventually blow up into Cultural Posturing.

The East Coast states would probably do the opposite and mesh together into bigger "countries" for protection, or at least form really strong alliances (New York is really influential, but it's about a third of California's size and incredibly crowded).

Meanwhile a lot of the landlocked Western states sent big enough to sustain an industrialized economy, so they may have essentially 3rd world status.

There'd probably be a crapton of state-merging in the interior states, similar to the merging of the tiny East Coast states. Plus every state with an agricultural focus would be HUGE on food/resource trading to ship out to other states in exchange for protection and manufactured goods.

The interstate highway system would never be developed, not without an over-arching federal government to do it. And with customs checkpoints (and import tariffs) at every state line, there wouldn't be as much travel or transport of goods.

What about money? Does every state use their own unique currency, or is the dollar freely spendable everywhere?

I see a whole slew of reasons why this simply wouldn't be feasible. America is not like Europe.

Mister, i think they would have their own currency.

Funnily enough I once watched a comedy film about it.

I cant imagine California, Texas or New York allowing their food supply to depend on the whims of some backcountry banana republic. I foresee some wars of conquest. North America would be Europe, and a replay of the continental wars seems in order.

To be fair, those "banana republic" got most of their government affected in RL by USA backed power, so of course they feel a bit... peculiar on USA as a whole. Fractured USA means that those countries, for good or ill, develops differently without USA interferences. Or maybe other things, like Santa Ana actually manages to annex Southern territory.

...This getting too complicated for me

The collapse of several states is a given. However, the question is, which states would thrive?

The big coastal ones, I think. Illinios is an interesting case. It's access to the sea goes through several other states and Canada. It might play a role similar to Russia.

While of course it'd be possible depending on how you play it, I find it unlikely that each state would form it's own nation. It'd be more likely that new nations would form made up of adjacent states. There's a convention every year, or every couple of years, of people advocating for just such a thing (some of the proposed countries are Cascadia, which would be Washington, Oregon, Idaho, etc, and I think another is Appalachia). Texas could be it's own country, natch. Alaska wasn't a state then, but there's no reason to think it couldn't be it's own country (it'd have a pretty small population, not that that's really a hindrance). Landlocked states would of course be at a disadvantage, and would likely have to have treaties with coastal states to get access to ports and whatnot.

Logistically, the largest states would need at least a LITTLE bit of help to feed all their people. Texas and Cali are big on agriculture, sure, but I'm just laughing at the idea of people clearing out the Pacific Northwestern Rainforest because 1) that's what the West Coast is known for, and 2) sustainable forestry, film shoots, and national parks are a lot better for long-term trade than just clearing it all out for farmland. The last time people tried to devote too much land to farming, The Dust Bowl happened and that included Texas.

My medieval knowledge is surprisingly useful for this thread. :P

edited 31st Aug '16 2:44:22 PM by Sharysa

Alaska would try to survive on its own, but eventually the financial problems of that decade would force it to cave in and have one side join Russia and another side join Canada.

I don't think anyone would voluntarily joint the Soviet Union in the 30's. Communism maybe, but the Soviet Union, no. Canada'd be a much better prospect.

Remember that it had been less than a mere seventy years since Alaska left the Soviet Union. Now imagine that this country of Alaska might have some particularly communist citizens on the western side and some Canada-influenced folk on the east side (thanks to geographical location).

But when it left Russia, Russia wasn't a communist nation. Now, it might be interesting to see White Russians using Alaska as a refuge...

Actually, Alaska might have to be rethought. It was purchased from Russia by the US, so it's status might be hazy depending on how the "each state it's own nation" thing came about. Given that it's pretty sparsely settled, I can't see how it's population could realistically expect to hold on to all of the territory that comprises the state. If Russia decided to move in and take the whole shebang, without the US or Canada or some great power to help 'em out, the Alaskans would be toast.

edited 2nd Sep '16 4:30:49 PM by Robbery

About fifty years before the Soviet Communist Party is soon enough. The groundwork was already being laid by that point anyway.

Karl Marx published his first volume of Das Kapital, in which he outlined what became modern communism, in 1867, which was the same year that the US bought Alaska from Russia. This is not to say that revolutionaries and reformers didn't exist before that (they did, of course), only that they weren't yet communists and that it's unlikely there'd be a strong communist base in Alaska in sympathy with eventual Russian communists when it became part of the US in the same year that the principles of communism were laid down.

Still, this all really depends on when the US broke apart into separate nation states. Is the break-up supposed to happen in response to the Depression, or did it happen at some earlier time?

Or did they never form one nation in the first place?

It happened in response to the Depression.

California would be dealing with a wave of immigration from the Dust Bowl states. Considering the Oakies were looked down upon even when they were from the same country, I can see a rise of California nativism against illegal Oklahoma immigrants.

Without the federal government keeping it in check, there might also be a resurrected Confederacy in the South. Whether or not Texas joins would be an important factor, because if it did then it would undoubtedly dominate the Confederacy in ways it never could have backed in the 1800's. Any black person who can would probably bail ASAP, so expect to see more migration to the North or West Coast.

I don't think Hawaii could survive on its own, so expect annexation from California, the UK, or Japan in the near future.

I think Hawaii would gleefully take the chance to tell (white) America to fuck themselves and get off their islands after all the colonization they went through. They wouldn't have to be ANNEXED by a larger country—they'd just focus on sea-trade in exchange for whatever they need (and giving people access to Pearl Harbor). Hell, Polynesians are kind of FAMOUS for being excellent on the sea.

I think a lot of people are making too big of an issue on "larger countries = automatically better." Lots of land definitely helps, but so does location and purpose. Hawaii is almost exactly in the middle of the Japan/California sea route. Without them, we'd have to cross the entire Pacific just to trade with Asia.

edited 7th Sep '16 12:23:59 PM by Sharysa

I think Hawaii is in a far better position than, say, North Dakota.

Plus, remember that Hawaii used to be its own country BEFORE the US barged in.

Wasn't it part of the British Empire for a while?