All valid points. Historically the British fumbled along in their evolution of political arrangements, and I still tend to think that the moment is not ripe in the 1860's you have painted to see any dramatic move to more formal structures of imperial federation. But it's also true that the psychological bonds and shared identity of British Canadians and British Britons are stronger than they were in OTL; and I think there's a little more space now for some gradual steps toward....a little more substantive joint security arrangements, as occasions arise. I think the real openness has to come at this point from elites in the mother country, and that will depend more than anything else on just how things develop in Europe over the next few decades.
The really interesting question to me is how the residue of this war will shape the debate between free trade and imperial preference in the final years of Victoria's reign!
There was a lot of fumbling by the British OTL to try and create Dominion's along the Canadian line across the white colonies in the latter half of the 19th century, and historically it failed pretty badly for a while. The attempts in Australia ran against regional and class politics, New Zealand was chugging along, and South Africa was just a mess of Boers and British settlers that they had a damned hard time making it work. So the 1860s, even here, definitely isn't ripe for a kind of Imperial Federation.
Stronger bonds between Canada and Britain in this period though do present some interesting opportunities. The Canadians have yet to fully settle the prairies (so timber and a smaller proportion of grains is our biggest export) but when they do, suddenly that's a wealth of harvests and mineral opportunities, which Britain might seek to lock up in her sphere of interest rather then see them exported to an American market. The war will certainly shake up some opinions on free trade in Britain!
A good number of ATL have the British becoming more involved (as this one) leading to a tighter and more militant Canada. Is there any way to take this in the other direction? Prince Albert lives and someone else dies?
Hypothetically if Palmerston died instead, one of the most hawkish and anti-American men in the UK becomes indisposed at the right moment and more circumspect men like Gladstone have a little more power. That said, it would mean that you'd have to have way less cassus belli than I set up in WiF to make that work! Even a more peaceable British government would be gunning for war at the Trent affair because it hit the British in their most sensitive spot, their belief in their right to effectively police the high seas.
I know the UK wouldn't supply troops, but could relations with BNA remain so warm that there is to rush to Canadian Unity?
Hm, how do you mean here?
Last edited: