UPDATE 4/20:As has been noted by many, the WSJ blew it on their map and made Michigan's Upper Peninsula part of the Canada... The map has been corrected... sort of. Now they have misdrawn the proposed State of Superior, to leave out Northern Wisconsin.
Among the stories told - the proposed State of Navajo:
While the intent was to give the people of the Navajo Nation greater representation, one of the biggest drawbacks would be the elimination of the Four Corners!
Some folks have different ideas on how to divide the Minnesota Territory:
Wiser heads prevailed. (What a barren wasteland West Dakota might have been...)
When rivers change their course, it sometimes takes decades for nations to sort out their borders, creating opportunity:
These stories and maps and more can be found in Lost States. I would love to scan and post more of these maps, but I'm sure Mr. Trinklein and his publisher would object... fortunately, they have started a new Lost States Blog to promote the book, reproducing more of the maps.
Unhappy people around the world and in the United States just can't stop talking about secession. As long as they keep providing interesting maps and illustrations, I'll keep covering them here.
Two from last month:
What would California look like broken in three? Or a Republic of New England? With the federal government reaching for ever more power, redrawing the map is enticing, says Paul Starobin.
In the American end times, our government will take one of two forms. One possibility is that federalism will give way to an all-powerful central government... The other option is decentralization—in the absence of a unifying national interest, the United States of America will fragment and be supplanted by regional governance.
The Map Scroll has posted a speculative map from Coming Anarchy(which appears to be down at the moment...). What if all the separatist movements of Europe were to succeed?:
With the continued integration of the European Union this map becomes less far fetched. If individual European states continue to cede power to EU, will it matter if Scotland, or the Basques or Flanders has its own local government?
This got me thinking about all of the other Secessionist Movements currently going on in this country. During the 2008 Presidential Election, there was some hubub surrounding Todd Palin (husband of the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, Sarah Palin) and whether or not he was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. Citizens of several other states still claim the right to revert to independent status. Vermont and California like to remind everyone that they were an independent republic before they became states, and Hawaii was an independent kingdom before annexation.
What if all these secessionist movements actually succeeded? What might a map of the United States look like?
Southern Neo-Confederates dream that the South Shall Rise Again! But, the New Black Panther Party envisions a Republic of New Afrika in the southeastern "black belt".
Chicano Nationalists have proposed the creation of Aztlán as a homeland for Aztecan people, perhaps in combination with states of northern Mexico.
A movement within the Lakota Sioux tribe is calling for a reassertion of sovereignty over thousands of square miles in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. The Republic of Lakotah would be completely surrounded by the remaining United States.
The Republic of Cascadia is the dream of a group of environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest. This new nation would include Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Northern California, British Columbia and the Alaskan panhandle. Proponents of this movement hope to counter what they see as "improper stewardship" of the land. Would this lead to an underground Lumberjack Liberation Front?
The narrow strip of what will be left of the "United States" would run from New Jersey to San Francisco.
All of these secessionist appear undeterred by the bloodshed and heartache the last time states tried go it alone.
If these secessionist dreams come true, perhaps no one will be more pleased than Professor Igor Panarin, who has made a career in Russia predicting the disunion of the United States.
More silly speculation about Texas... On Monday, I posted maps speculating on Texas Secession. One of the common myths about Texas history is that the terms under which the Republic of Texas joined the United States was that they had the right to secede... well their defeat in the Civil War actually settled that... but one of the terms that WAS agreed to at the time was that Texas has the right to subdivide into (up to) five states!
The end result of this exercise is that Republicans could net as many as six more seats in the Senate, and Democrats two. What are they waiting for?
Of course, it would never happen. Texans are too attached to their state's shape to ever consider such an astute political maneuver. There is an entire industry built upon selling kitschy souvenirs in the shape of Texas. It is not to be messed with.
Last week, during all the hoopla surrounding Tax Day and Tea Parties, Rick Perry, Governor of Texas, suggested that Texas just might have to secede if they are not happy about taxes.
Picking up on that note, FiveThirtyEight.com has created a little map to illustrate this possibility, and suggest that only Republicans would be sorry to see them go...
In fact, it would seem that Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has already jumped the gun on that notion. The Huffington Post noticed that the State Department had listed Texas as a foreign country. After it came to their attention, the error was corrected, but not before HP got a screen capture of the list.
This is of course not the first time that an independent Texas has been mentioned here at Cartophilia. (See Roswell, Texas.)
On a related note, the bloboganda blog, tries to explain the name dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, by describing a scenario wherein a portion of Mexico declares independence and calls itself "The Republic of Texas". Would Americans stand for that?
Of course the solution to that scenario could simply be resolved. The United States could sell the State of Texas to the Republic of Texas, and pay off some of the National Debt...
Last week I wrote about How the States Got Their Shapes. It turns out that the fifty states we know and love were not the only states that we might have seen... Over the course of our history, many other states have been proposed, only to be shot down or ignored.
Michael Trinklein has written a book about these failed attempts: Lost States: Real Quests for American Statehood. Heavily illustrated, this book tells the tale of would be state-builders and forgotten corners of geography, with wit and humor. Some of these attempts were very serious, some no more than pranks. Here are two examples:
The colonists who followed Daniel Boone through the Cumberland Gap in the 1770s called their coloney "Transylvania" (wich means "through the woods" and has nothing to do with vampires). After the start of the Revolutionary War, representatives went to the Continental Congress seeking recognition, but Virginia, who claimed most of that land, would hear nothing of it. Later, the area was rearranged into Kentucky and Tennessee.
Many new states have been proposed by carving up or rearranging already existing states. Often because residents of a region feel neglected by the rest of the state government. Folks in norther California often feel ignored and underappreciated by the rest of the state. The same goes for southern Oregon. In 1941 a new state, Jefferson (to keep Washington company?), was proposed. A cabal attempted to declare independence on December 4... but were overshadowed by the events of December 7.
Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, has been selected by Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain, to be his running mate. This would normally call for a post about Alaska postcards, however I've already been there, done that:
Since she is relatively unknown to most Americans (and the media), pundits have been scrambling to find out more about her. One of the most surprising bits of dirt, as reported by ABC News, is that in her early political career she was a member of the Alaskan Independence Party. I was not even aware that there was a secessionist movement in Alaska.
The AIP is generally considered a "fringe party" (by the mainstream media). Their platform includes:
A belief that "the vote for statehood was invalid because the people were not presented with the range of options available to them" and that "the federal government has since breached the contract for statehood on numerous occasions in over a dozen serious and substantial instances."
A belief that there should be a vote on Alaskan secession.
Remaining "steadfastly opposed to environmental regulations and actively promotes the private ownership and widespread development of Alaskan land."
The Party's website includes this cartoon map illustrating they way they feel; the United States is gobbling up Alaska against its will...
UPDATE 9/3: It now appears the the AIP was blowing smoke when they claimed Sarah Palin was a member of their party, although they still claim she did attend their convention, and her husband, Todd Palin, was a member until 2002. FWIW, I don't care one way or the other. I'm just surprised to even learn the party exists. I've heard of other secession movements, and might even approve of some, but this one was new to me.
Five flags have flown over Florida: Spain, Great Britain, United States, Confederate States, and the the Republic of Florida (briefly independent after secession).
UPDATE 4/20:As has been noted by many, the WSJ blew it on their map and made Michigan's Upper Peninsula part of the Canada... The map has been corrected... sort of. Now they have misdrawn the proposed State of Superior, to leave out Northern Wisconsin.
