History Main / DifferentStatesOfAmerica

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'': The United States won the Vietnam War thanks to Dr. Manhattan, the 22nd amendment was repealed and Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term, electric cars and airships are commonplace, and non-government sanctioned vigilantism was outlawed in 1977.

* OppressiveStatesOfAmerica: The United States becomes a dictatorship.

* FantasyAmericana: The United States as a [[HistoricalFantasy magical]] [[UrbanFantasy setting]].

* FictionalProvence: America has states that don't exist in real life. Usually containing a setting's WhereTheHellIsSpringfield town.

** MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack: Mexico has regained (or never lost) control over the US state of Texas and over southwestern states.

* The United States has had many changes both with and even without adding superheroes to the mix:

* The United States in ''Literature/{{Worm}}'' has had many changes both with and even without adding superheroes to the mix:
** Ellisberg, NY was turned into the personal fiefdom of the supervillain Nilbog following his trigger event, with his creations attacking any and all outsiders.
** Madison, WI was one of the cities that was walled off and quarantined following a Simurgh attack in 2009.
** Dollar coins are used as the primary legal tender instead of dollar bills.
** 9/11 and the levee failures caused by Hurricane Katrina didn't happen because of Scion's influence.

** MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack: Mexico has regained (or never lost) control over the US state of Texas and the over southwestern states.

* MexicoCalledTheyWantTexasBack: Mexico has regained (or never lost) control over the US state of Texas.

[[caption-width-right:350:Sunshine Island sounds like a nice place to live.[[labelnote:*]]The mapmaker got at least one thing wrong: "Sunshine Island" was coined by a fan who thought it sounded good; the actual state is "Florida Island". Further, "Kansas" likely refers to Kansas ''City'', Missouri, which IRL was named just "Kansas" before the founding of the state, indicating that the state either doesn't exist or has a different name.[[/labelnote]]]]

* FantasyAmericana: The United States as a magical setting.

* The United States in ''Videogame/GrandTheftAuto'', while real world locations are often mentioned, only fictional locations are visited, and in many cases both the real location and its fictional counterpart are mentioned. It's implies there's still 50 states, despite the addition of fictional states such as Liberty State, Alderney, North Yankton, and San Andreas. Cities get the same treatment, with Liberty City, Alderney City, Vice City, and Los Santos featuring prominently in the series, among others.

* DividedStatesOfAmerica: The United States splits apart, often due to a second Civil War.

SpeculativeFiction trope wherein the United States of America is significantly different from real life. Perhaps it has broken up or expanded beyond its borders, is replaced by a completely different entity, or become a dictatorship. Whatever the case, [[Film/TheWizardOfOz we ain't in Kansas no more]]. Or at least, Kansas as we know it.

* US geography in ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' is slightly different than real life:
** Steven and company live in the state of Delmarva, which is a version of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delmarva_Peninsula Delmarva Peninsula]] that's a state instead of just a landform.
** Other alternate names include Keystone and West Keystone (Pennsylvania), Empire State (New York), and Jersey (New Jersey) all after [[IstanbulNotConstantinople real life nicknames for said places]].
** Jamie mentions the movie industry being focused in Kansas, and one of the show's staff specified he meant what we call Kansas ''City'', implying there is no state called "Kansas" ([[ShownTheirWork because the city came first and then appended "city" to its name after the state was formed]]). In an interview, the show's creator stated this was because [[WesternAnimation/NewmanLaughOGrams Walt Disney's first studio there]] was successful. Conversely, according to the show's podcast, California in this universe could be better described as [[FlyoverCountry "Califarmland"]].

[[caption-width-right:350:Sunshine Island sounds like a nice place to live.[[labelnote:*]]Also, the mapmaker got one thing wrong: "Kansas" is in fact Kansas ''City'', Missouri, which IRL was named just "Kansas" before the founding of the state, indicating that the state either doesn't exist or has a different name.[[/labelnote]]]]

** Other alternate names include Keystone (Pennsylvania), Empire State (New York), and Jersey (New Jersey) all after [[IstanbulNotConstantinople real life nicknames for said places]].

** Florida south of the Panhandle has partially geologically separated from North America and has become a small archipelago.

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', [[Recap/StevenUniverseS2E15KeystoneMotel "Keystone Motel"]]

** Jamie mentions the movie industry being focused in Kansas, and one of the show's staff specified he meant what we call Kansas ''City'', implying there is no state called "Kansas" ([[ShownTheirWork because the city came first and then appended "city" to its name after the state was formed]]). In an interview, the show's creator stated this was because [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh-O-Gram_Studio Walt Disney's first studio there]] was successful. Conversely, according to the show's podcast, California in this universe could be better described as [[FlyoverCountry "Califarmland"]].

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[[caption-width-right:350:Sunshine Island sounds like a nice place to live.]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* In the ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book ''Elfangor's Secret,'' Visser Four finds the Time Matrix and uses it to mess with history. The book actually opens in an alternate reality where the United States is some sort of empire waging wars in South America. [[TheLeader Jake]] is a narcissistic tyrant instead of a reluctant leader, [[TheHeart Cassie]]'s family owns disabled slaves, and [[BloodKnight Rachel]] is in a reeducation camp to "[[StayInTheKitchen learn her place]]." (And yeah, she's ''pissed'' once the group gets their RippleEffectProofMemory from [[RealityWarper the Drode]].)

* ''Literature/AnExaminationOfExtraUniversalSystemsOfGovernment'' has a couple of examples:
** The Republic of New Sparta is the result of the American Revolution being salvaged by the more militant southern colonies after the north was crushed by the British.
** The Kingdom of America is the result of the failures of the Constitutional Convention leading to UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington needing to seize total control with the Continental Congress, setting up a constitutional monarchy with himself as the founder of a new dynasty.
* In ''Literature/TheRuinsOfAnAmericanPartySystem'', Alaska is deemed too sparsely populated to become a state. Puerto Rico, on the other hand, ''does'' achieve statehood.

* In the AlternateUniverse of ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', the United States is quite a different place. A map is visible in Walternate's office at the Department of Defense that shows that Texas is divided into North and South Texas, the Dakotas and Carolinas have each been combined into one state, Oklahoma and Kansas are merged into a new state called Midland, Washington State is called Southern British Columbia, Michigan's upper peninsula is missing, Louisiana is a territory, Nevada is called Independent Nevada, and the two Virginias are still combined and are labeled the District of Virginia, suggesting it's not a state. The most puzzling change is that [[RegionalRedecoration California's coastline is several hundred miles inland and fractured-looking]], [[CaliforniaCollapse suggesting it might have suffered a fringe-induced seismic event that sent most of it into the ocean.]]

-->-- ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', "Keystone Motel"

** Jamie mentions the movie industry being focused in Kansas, and one of the show's staff specified he meant what we call Kansas ''City'', implying there is no state called "Kansas" ([[ShownTheirWork because the city came first and then appended "city" to its name after the state was formed]]). Conversely, according to the show's podcast, California in this universe could be better described as [[FlyoverCountry "Califarmland"]].

-->-''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', "Keystone Motel"

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[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

* The United States in ''Videogame/GrandTheftAuto'', while real world locations are often mentioned, only fictional locations are visited, and in many cases both the real location and its fictional counterpart are mentioned. It's implies there's still 50 states, despite the addition of fictional states such as Liberty State, Alderny, North Yankton, and San Andreas. Cities get the same treatment, with Liberty City, Alderny City, Vice City, and Los Santos featuring prominently in the series, among others.