This is an interesting concept since El Salvador once adopted the U.S dollar and that there were movements and proposals in the Central American nations for them to join the U.S. What if the U.S. Decided to act on these proposals?
This is an interesting concept since El Salvador once adopted the U.S dollar and that there were movements and proposals in the Central American nations for them to join the U.S. What if the U.S. Decided to act on these proposals?
This is an interesting concept since El Salvador once adopted the U.S dollar
What if the U.S. Decided to act on these proposals?
Ecuador uses it exclusively today.
I’d love it, but you’d need an early enough POD.
Assuming they are acquired before the civil war they would definitely be made slave states in an attempt to balance the senate.When are we talking here, in the 20th century, or 19th? In the 19th they'd be little more than colonies. Not something any of the Central American countries would want, and they'd fight against it. At best you might end up with a Puerto Rico-type situation in the end, where the territories aren't at all an integral part of the United States, but have autonomy and the economic situation is good enough to not push for independence. But I think it would more likely end up as a Philippines-type situation, especially if the territory was of any significant size.
Assuming they are acquired before the civil war they would definitely be made slave states in an attempt to balance the senate.
I don't think the United States would have had any ability to gain them prior to the Civil War, so that's out. And if they did, I strongly doubt they have been accepted anyway, due to pre-Civil War tensions and desire to maintain free-state-slave-state balance.
That's the point of annexing them. From 1846 to 1859 five free states joined the Union and not one slave state.
Good point. I can't really imagine these territories being admitted as full states though.
It really isnt the American mentalty at this time.
Somewhere like Texas worked because it had an enormous American settler community and was lightly-populated before the advent of American colonization. The Dominican Republic pretty much comprises a series of discriminated and disenfranchised groups in American society. Dominicans are black, Catholic, and don't speak English. Hstroically, Congress tended to oppose the incorporation of anywhere that was perceived as "alien".
More likely than not, a US-governed/influenced Dominican Republic would end up the same way as Cuba: racist American laws aimed at entrenching the distinction between black and white would be extended to the Dominican Republic (as they were in Cuba) and the area as a whole would be a playground for the Southern planters.
In the 19th they’d be little more than colonies.
Of course Hispanic politicians could advocate for their linguistic kind.
Of course Hispanic politicians could advocate for their linguistic kind.
Many Americans are still too racist to this day to even consider admitting Puerto Rico as a state. And this is 2014. It's hard to imagine that a majority of Americans in the 20th century would be willing to view Central Americans as equals without some kind of revolutionary change in race relations.