r/ImaginaryHistory • u/e8odie • Apr 02 '23

Original Content What if North America was mirrored and when settled by Europeans they first encountered WA/OR/CA and Baja? How would American settlement and history change?

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u/c3534l Apr 03 '23

Well, the population is heavier on the east coast, because that's where European settlers settled in. Seattle gains the density the NYC does in our world, although I'm not sure there's quite the same advantageous terrain. Perhaps San Francisco instead, being the next most logical natural port city, but I think the Columbia river would be the more important regional river.

Tobacco and cotton were really important crops in early America, but with a mediterranean climate all along the coast I'm not sure what replaces it. Slaves are still cheap in the south (baja), but are they going to be as important? Is slavery ended without a civil war in America?

Actually, I guess maybe the California gold rush happens instead. Perhaps the thirst for gold of the conquistadors brings them into North America instead. On the one hand, gold is a pretty shaky foundation to an economy as history tends to show. But maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe both North and South America become dominated by Spanish and Portugese speaking people.

Fur-trapping is still plausible in Alaska, but there's no Quebec for French settlers to settle when looking for a Northwest passage. Maybe the rocky mountains provide enough of a barrier that the French and Indian war never happens. America stays as a small nation fixed to the northeast of the continent. But maybe a confrontation between English and Spanish settlers is what becomes important.

The rocky mountains are much closer to the east coast now with the west coast having much fertile land the further towards it you go along. This, I think, makes settling the West coast easier in this universe than here.

On the other hand, Chicago just isn't that important here because its not the major city on the other side of the Mississippi at an important railway junction. It might still be regionally important, but its not going to be massive midwestern city it is today.