How might (what is now) America look today, if it was still part of the U.K.?
 

Okay, I wanted to title this thread:
"How might (what is now) America look today, if it was still part of the British Commonwealth?" but I ran out of room.

I realize that this might sound like heresy to some of you proud Americans, but more this is an invitation to exercise our imaginations than to stir up trouble.

Basically, what if there had been no Declaration of Independence, no War of Independence?

What if America had decided to keep close to "Mommy"?
(i.e. England).
Canada never severed its ties with Mother England and it seems to be doing pretty well in the grand scheme of things. (Australia is another example)

So, what would America be like? Canada without the French language part? ;)

Discuss............

We'd all be driving on the wrong side of the road and eating cottage pie for supper. I love those guys who decided to write that Declaration... :D

French Fries would be chips
Soccer would be football
Football would be Rugby
Baseball would be cricket

Nationalized health care?

One can only hope.

Actually baseball and cricket are waaaay different.

I don't think that the terminology would have stayed the same though. I think American English would have still developed. Of course, maybe Americans would spell colour the correct way... :p ;)

I know both are different. But both are incredible boring to watch on the tube.

In Canada, we drive on the right hand side of the road...I think we're one of the few "British colonies" who do, actually.

The Queens palace would be moved to New York. Who would stay over there when you got this great new hang out?

We'd have a sub-par military like the rest of their colonies.

SO VERY TRUE.
Except I at least understand Baseball. I never was able to "figure out" cricket. We even spent time in gym class on it... no help.

Maybe a more fun congressional meeting during Ask the President Time.

Haha - Mr RedRose loves "Prime Minister's Questions"!

I'm a definite anglophile, so I'm all for a little British culture - bring on the tea time and clipped accents!

Of course, if we'd kept our ties to Mother Country, they'd no doubt look down on us as they do Ireland, Scotland, Australia, etc.. Instead, they just shake their heads in amused dismay whenever we do something silly...

Maybe I'd be better able to "appreciate" Rowan Atkinson??

It would have been a lot easier to get parts for my Austin Healeys, MG's and Triumphs when I was younger.

And we would have only ourselves to blame for expecting to find WMD's in Iraq and not finding them.

Chips would be crisps.
Running shoes would be trainers.
Sweaters would be jumpers.
"Making out" would be "snogging".
We'd "row", not "fight".

i wouldn't be able to have my pearl handled revolver
in the UK there is strict gun control

and the police would have night sticks instead of guns

no columbines
just debtors prison where all of the college students would be

There wouldn't be two different English-language versions of the Harry Potter books ;)

Actually - I think American English, with all its varying regional accents, might still have developed, but probably wouldn't have diverged quite so far from the Queen's English.

American baseball and football might still have been created, but I suspect there'd be a lot more emphasis on professional cricket, soccer, and rugby.

I'd like to think that little English pubs would be more prevalent, as opposed to sports bars.

I'd be driving an Aston Martin instead of a beat-up old Acura (a gal can dream, can't she? ;) )

And DeltAlum - right you are, about the WMDs :D

How about ...

no Louisiana purchase... (midwest and Northwest speaking French)
no Gasden purchase ... (I'd be living in Mexico!)
no Civil war (excuse me War between the States)
no Spanish-American war
no Mexican-American war (no Texas)
no Seward's folly (Alaska would still speak Russian)

Different words for "My Country Tis of Thee"

Long live our gracious Queen,
long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her vic-to-rious,
happy and glo-rious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the Queen!

:D

Speaking of alternate history...
 

... might I recommend reading some of the alternate history book series by Harry Turtledove?

http://www.sfsite.com/~silverag/turtledove.html

What if the South was armed with AK-47 rifles instead of single-shot rifles? The Guns of the South involves a pair of far-right-wing South African arms traders that travel back in time to 1862, where they offer to arm the Army of Northern Virginia wit weapons nearly 100 years ahead of their time. Needless to say, the Union gets the living sh*t kicked out of them with the South's new technological advancement.

Now for a continuing series, read both The Great War and American Empire series of books. Lots of good what-if possibilities.

You need to start off with the 'prequel' How Few Remain which documents a victorious South going for a second Civil War against the Union.

The Great War series details a radically different World War One and a third Civil War. The three books in the series:

American Front
Walk In Hell
Breakthroughs

You'll notice a curiously familiar character that will take center stage in the next series of books. Confederate artillery sergeant Jake Featherston is essentially a Hitler in another setting. This time, the South does lose the Great War, and begins to suffer the postwar economic and military punishment that Germany got in real life at the end of WWI.

The American Empire series deals with life in the USA and the CSA in the period after the war. We see the rise of Jake Featherstone and his Freedom Party (shades of the Nazis in real life) and the crippling devaluation of the CSA economic system due to punitive reparations by the victors. The three books (so far in this series:

Blood and Iron
The Center Cannot Hold
The Victorious Opposition - just published

Ordinarily, I'm not a big fan of science fiction, but I do enjoy reading about alternate history.

Re: Speaking of alternate history...
 

"We'd be staying at the NotaHilton!"

Seriously, if British dental care reflects what National Health Care provides, I could never get behind it.

As for the government, I honestly think that, by now, we would have teamed up with Canada and held a second War of Independence.

An interesting bit that I learned in college was that, in the Spanish-held New World, any colonists originally had to be of pure Spanish noble stock, Roman Catholic, and male. For the English-held New World, one originally had to be a religious dissident, a felon, an adventurer, or a debtor.

With that type of stock, we still would have broken away sooner or later, and still maintained the kinship-type ties that we currently have.

Aah, the Austin Powers stereotype. Ah well perhaps it's true. I want Alicia Silverstone's teeth. Actually, come to that I think I want Alicia Silverstone too.

Crunchie bars would be cheaper! :)

Crunchie bars are expensive? Don't like them myself personally. It's uh the honeycomb thing. But they cost the same as Mars and Snickers and whatever where I am anyway.

(edited for spelling/typo)

I live in a super-small town, and the only place to get them are British specialty shops that cater to the English wives of American GIs. There they are about 2.50 a piece. When I lived in Europe, they were 75 Euro cents (at that time, roughly 70 American cents).

$2.50? Ouch. I'd offer to ship some if you sent the bucks for them but it'd be pointless I mean not really worth it unless you wanted a whole box of them and you wouldn't want that many of them. At the current rate of exchange they'd be about 70 cents still.

Crunchies are also sold at Cost Plus imports...or at least the one near my house...the ones at the British Import shop are like 2 bucks...I mean they are good but 2 bucks a pop? YIKES..

If we were still a british colony we'd be having "tea" not "dinner or supper"(depending on where in the US you are).

Dessert would be called pudding and we'd be eating desserts called spotted dick...I dunno about this...sounds like VD to me.

Somehow, I think we'd still have Texas develop. It'd just have a different twang to it. Actually Texas would have probably been able to achieve it's goal of being a full fledged seperate country.

Yup. Those are the ones! Will probably change "Queen" to "King" within the next few years.

EastEnders would be on more than PBS, because we'd have BBC, and all those shows on TLC would not be, b/c the Brits invented all of them (Trading Spaces, What Not to Wear, etc.).

And we'd have all of those great brit words like "snog" to use...

I could find "Penguins" candy bars in the supermarket instead of having to go to the British specialty store or waiting for a relative to bring them back from the UK as souvenirs! :)

Mmmmm....Penguins. :)

don't forget that American Idol came from Pop Idol and Big Brother came from Europe also (I think Holland, not England, though).

It was England

Holland.
"The first Big Brother started in September in the Netherlands and ended on December 30, 1999."
http://cronus.spaceports.com/~bbus/b...d/holland.html

We would likely have the metric system, Afternoon tea (freshly made tea),driving on the other side with steering wheel on the right hand side. the Dysfunctional Royal Family, abundance of English gardens and Parliamentary government. I would say "bloody" whatever and people would know what I talking about (I was born and raised in the US, though)!

http://216.40.249.192/s/contrib/blac...milecrunch.gif