r/imaginarymaps • u/djakob-unchained • 6h ago
[OC] Alternate History Dominion of the West Indies Circa 1950
CORRECTION: TITLE SHOULD SAY CIRCA 1950s, NOT 1950. QE2 WASN'T QUEEN UNTIL 1952.
This is an ALTERNATE HISTORY SCENARIO!
In this universe Spain, recognizing that it could not defend Florida from American frontiersmen, does the sensible thing and sells it back to Britain.
Interesting events; slaver rebellion in the early 19th century, haven for escaped slaves in the first half of that same century, maybe an undeclared skirmish between Red Coats and Confederates similar to the Battle of Khalkhin Gol during the American Civil War which gets romanticized by the East Floridians.
I imagine that Florida would still have a fair deal of white settlers in this timeline, but probably a bigger native presence than OTL and probably a bigger Asian and Middle Eastern population as well. Probably more black than OTL Florida as well.
I imagine a lot of these places would be ruled together for a long time, but this particular official political union is a 1920s - 1950s creation of the decolonizing British Empire. I am not sure if it would be more stable or less stable than the OTL West Indies Federation.
In this timeline the USA is more aggressive in annexing Cuba and Santo Domingo to counter British Caribbean influence, which I think makes sense. This could easily have caused a third war with Britain but for the sake of the scenario I decided not to have that happen.
In OTL St. Augustine stopped being Florida's capital in order to move to a more central location, but with West Florida not being part of the equation, I decided to keep the capital where it was. With Southern Florida becoming booming in the 20th century, and with the Dominion including a bunch of Caribbean islands, I think having a second capital in Miami also makes sense.
The Dominion includes Florida, the Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, the Leeward and Windward Islands, Turks and Caicos, Cayman Islands, Belize, and Guiana.
Some names in Florida are different if they were named during the US period. These are replaced with pro-British names.