Wasn't there a guy named William Walker in the 1850's who went to Nicaragua and took over the nation and tried to annex it into the Union? What if by some odd reason, that actually worked and Nicaragua becomes the gateway to the Central America?
Central America As U.S. States
- Thread starter TickTock The Witch's Dead
- Start date
Well what he did got the wrath of Central America. He didn't threaten other Central American nations. But the fact he encouraged American influence brought the attention of the region.
Redhand
Banned
He didn't try to annex it to the union, he wanted to run it as his own personal fiefdom. He actually lasted in power for a few years and fought a civil war before being killed. But he never had the US in mind trying to take it over.
The annexation bill actually passed the US House of Representatives, but the Senate didn't consider it. Yucatan was in the middle of a war against the Maya and the US Senate didn't want a second front in the Mexican War.
Tallest Skil
Banned
1. There’s no guarantee of that.
2. Their statehood is not repulsive to anyone.
What on Earth are you babbling about? Are you claiming the US left would rather the country balkanize? Perhaps the ludicrously far left, but no one who wants to stay in power would desire that.
Except there were more cosignatories on the Puerto Rico statehood referendum than on 98% of all other bills in US history.
They’re going to become a state whether you like it or not, because they want to be.
Your spot-on about the issue of Hispanic senators in the 19th century. Their influence would likely be about as short-lived as that of black senators in the Reconstruction period. This is the 19th century and the era of widespread racial discrimination at every level of US society (both North and South), never underestimate the ability and desire of politicians of this era to bend and change the system to accommodate that mindset.
I dunno about Puerto Rico though. The main opposition to Puerto Rican statehood seems to be based on either linguistic or political grounds. But particularly for political reasons given that Puerto Rico's solidly Democratic electoral history would put two more Electoral votes firmly in the Democratic camp, which isn't even getting into the fact that it now has an automatically-guaranteed two senators and an undetermined amount of Representatives. That's really not an insignificant gain for the Democrats, considering how few legislative elections are actually competitive in any given election cycle. Needless to say, the GOP has every reason to oppose it.
Linguistic issues, IMHO, are more a symbolic thing. Most Puerto Ricans would be either secondary or primary English-speakers within a generation or two if statehood happened, but ifs and whens are not easy to sell to Congress.
The problem with William Walker's that bigeted American conquistadors are generally not the type of people cut out for actually running a country. In the unlikely event that William Walker successfully filibustered somewhere in Central America or the Caribbean is that even if he wins this ill-gotten gain, he'll have to fight for it afterward against a very angry population with no reason to support him and with him not even having knowledge of the local languages, let alone a serious grasp of the dynamics of the region.
For a lot of countries in Central America that pretty much got de-facto independence from Spain without having to fight the same kind of long, protracted wars of separation like Mexico or Bolivia, fighting against William Walker was pretty much the closest thing to an actual war of independence that a lot of Central American countries had, so it's pretty unlikely that he'll be regarded all that well.
Puerto Rico statehood might well be contentious if it came to a vote in Congress, but keep in mind that the reason it hasn't been taken up by Congress is that the idea is still extremely controversial within Puerto Rico itself. Until statehood has clear majority support there - as in, 60-70% - it's unlikely to be granted statehood. At the moment statehood is still something supported by only about half the Puerto Rican public.
Yeah, that's why theirs a movement for another referendum because the 2012 one was really too ambiguous to give a clear idea as to whether or not Puerto Ricans support statehood. Still, if one goes by the assumption that current results are valid, over 60% of the Puerto Rican electorate does want statehood and would presumably turn out to show support for it again.
Always thought Quebec somehow being in the US would have forced an earlier debate on Catholics in the US, and having minority majority states in the US. Plus I imagine they would support the annexation of non english speaking Catholics.
So to expand south, the US might need to expand north first.
So to expand south, the US might need to expand north first.