MAPS!!

Though the idea of the United States breaking-up might seem absurd today, we should remember that during our history there have been many movements towards regionalism (most obviously the Civil War), and that North America was far from unified, nor were the current boundaries of the states and countries pre-ordained.
Here are a couple maps that demonstrate this phenomenon. Eventually I use will these to create a more detailed map of future North America, after the collapse of the US and before the rise of the Bolivarian Empire.

First a blank map.

Starting east and moving west: Quebec has long desired separation from the tyrannical Anglophones.

New England has a long history of secessionist sentiments. During the War of 1812 Massachusetts considered a separate peace with England. And a convention met at Hartford to discusses constitutional amendments and the possibility of secession.


New York City and Upstate New York have had a fractious relationship and many people, notably Norman Mailer (who ran for mayor on this platform) have espoused establishing New York City and the surrounding suburbs as a new state. During the civil war the idea of an independent city state the Free City of Tri-Insula was floated.


The most obvious incident of separatism is of course the Civil War.

And of course, we all know that these states comprise the Republican/Conservative stronghold today, and have been ever since Nixon flipped these states with the implicitly racist and confederate rhetoric of states rights.


Texas was a break away Mexican state before being admitted to the US. And was not unique, at the time the Mexican states of Coahuila, Sinaloa and Yucatan also seceded from Santa Anna’s government. The original proposal for the State of Texas was much larger than today’s, but really only the eastern portion of the state was solidly Texan.

The south of the state, along the Rio Grande river valley remains to this day extremely Hispanic.


When the Mormons reached Utah their original plan for a Mormon theocratic state of Deseret was massive:

Though the government in Washington did not approve this plan, we can see that Mormons still hold tremendous sway in that area.


In the same area the Navajo Nation is larger that many eastern states, and has a semi-autonomous government. The Navajo are not the only Indian tribe with large reservations in that area. The Pima, Apache, Hopi and other have sizable nations of their own.


Spain then Mexico once controlled all of California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. Although they had nominal control of these places, areas of Mexican settlement were largely restricted to the Rio Grande River Valley and the California coast.



And of course, there is the fabled Republic of Pacifica. This would be a confederation of California separatists and partisans of the state of Cascadia. There are varying definitions of this land, some would exclude southern California, some would only include the states of Washington and Oregon, and the province of British Columbia. Many point out that to be sustainable the country would have to extend to the entire watershed of the Columbia river, bringing it well into Mormon territory, and as far east as Montana.


One of the most interesting proposals for dividing up the states was put forth by John Wesley Powell, who suggested that the states should be based on watersheds. Being that control of rivers and water is among the most important issue in the West this would not have been unwise. Any future division of the country would have to take into account the disputed control of the Colorado River and the Rio Grande.

There is also this interesting map I found. It proposes to show areas of allegiance by region/city and is based on people voluntarily stating their zone of influence at the website http://www.commoncensus.org/.

Finally, we can’t forget the good old Red Blue divide, and how connected it is to the original North South Divide.