Topic of Discussion – Colonial Immigration

Discussion 4-4 US History ~ Chapter 4 Topic Discussions E Lundberg Topic of Discussion – Colonial Immigration

Related Topics Chapter Information ~ Ch 4; 4 sections; 26 pages Immigration from the various European Countries The English Establish 13 Colonies (1585-1732) The Impact of Regionalism Section 1 ~ New England: Commerce and Religion Pages 94-101 New England Puritanism Section 2 ~ Southern Colonies: Plantations and Slavery Pages 102-109 Section 3 ~ The Middle Colonies: Farms and Cities Pages 110-115 William Penn and the Quakers Section 4 ~ The Backcountry Pages 116-120

Key Ideas Key Connections - 10 Major (Common) Themes People who immigrated from Europe established 1. How cultures change through the blending of different ethnic groups. 2. Taking the land. communities and stayed in one particular area. 3. The individual versus the state. 4. The quest for equity - slavery and it’s end, women’s suffrage etc. 5. Sectionalism. Ethnic backgrounds continues to play an important 6. Immigration and Americanization. part in current day regionalism. 7. The change in social class. 8. Technology developments and the environment. 9. Relations with other nations. Ethnic regionalism does influence political votes. 10. Historiography, how we know things.

Talking Points I Introduction

The history of immigration to the United States is a continuing story of peoples from more populated continents,

particularly Europe and also Africa and Asia, crossing oceans to the new land. Starting around 1600 British and

other Europeans settled primarily on the east coast. Later Africans were brought as slaves. During the nation's his-

tory, the growing country experienced successive waves of immigration which rose and fell over time, particularly

from Europe, with the cost of transoceanic transportation sometimes paid by travelers becoming indentured serv-

ants after their arrival in the New World. At other times, immigration rules became more restrictive.

A. In Colin Woodard's American Nations, the author steps back from our day-to-day politics and using the tools

not only of political science but of sociology, anthropology, and psychology to put the depths of the issues facing

us as a country examines how we have emerged as not one people, but groups of separate people with different

world views and solutions for the problems confronting us. By focusing on larger movements of peoples rather

than the words and deeds of individuals, Woodard allows a portrait of national identities within America to

Questions to Think About Supporting Materials Does Woodard’s arguments still hold up? What other factor’s influenced the cultural clusters that American Nations by Colin Woodard exist? Do people living within these 11 nations agree with Woodard’s assertions? Discussion 4-4 US History ~ Chapter 4 Topic Discussions E Lundberg Topic of Discussion – Colonial Immigration

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emerge. The various peoples who arrived in this hemisphere from Columbus' voyages at the end of the fifteenth

century to the various immigration waves since, with particular reference to those before about 1750, populated

different parts of the country, including more than what most of us often consider the source of our country, the

eastern seaboard. Included are the descendants of the Spanish conquistadors who extended their empire into what

Woodard calls el norte (now including much of the Southwest) and New France, mostly what is now parts of east-

ern Canada and southern Louisiana. where their varying cultures took hold and still dominate. Other American

nations include Yankeedom (New England and parts of New York), New Netherlands (originally New York and the

Hudson Valley), The Midlands, Appalachia, The Deep South, and so-on.

B. These groups sank deep roots of tradition and behavior, which spread westward like the country only to encounter

dissimilar values and cultures which still dominate the varying regions. For instance, the Puritans settled in New

England with a vision of building their “shining city on the hill,” as a beacon for God's promise to mankind. Rather

than seek religious freedom and tolerance for all, they struggled to establish their own kind of theocracy. As time

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passed, according to Woodard, the Puritan church lost its dominance, becoming Congregationalist, as immigrant

groups entered the region. Nevertheless, the qualities and values they represented remained as they moved west

across New York and into the upper Midwest. Qualities of frugality, moderation, simplicity, and a rather rigid mor-

al code predominated in the regions they moved to. Voting patterns in the present time still reflect the values and

structures (town meetings, universal suffrage, religious conviction, etc.) they established and are reflected in the

voting patterns of these regions.

C. Similarly, Woodard's region called the Deep South and composed mostly of the sates which sought to form the

Confederacy was dominated by a class of aristocrats who based their governing theory on the the hierarchies repre-

sented by Greece and Rome. They were large landowners whose fortunes were built on a labor base of African

slaves and poor white laboring people. They stood at the top of a human pyramid designed to serve their needs for

comfort and riches. This pattern persists today in the regions they inhabit, and is characterized by efforts to keep

the underclass subservient, voting restricted, and education ineffective. The two regions have been locked in a life

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or death struggle since before the Constitution was written. Woodard says, “The goal of the Deep Southern oligar-

chy has been consistent for over four ventures: to control and maintain a one-party state with a colonial style econ-

omy based on large scale agriculture and the extraction of primary resources by a compliant, poorly educated, low-

wage work force with as few workplace safety, health care, and environmental regulations as possible.” (302) Gar-

ish displays of wealth and position are part of the cultural DNA of this nation.

D. Meanwhile, the balance of power has often been maintained by the cultural regions Woodard has called The Mid-

lands, Greater Appalachia, and the Far West. Each region, representing differing cultural values and social norms

has chosen between the two dominant governing strategies based on its needs at a given time in history. Greater

Appalachia, populated largely by Scots-Irish immigrants escaping centuries of oppression by British aristocracy

has chosen a restless motion towards the west along with a stubborn and often violent expression of its independ-

ence. Often sunk in dire poverty, the descendants of the early Appalachian peoples resisted slavery while simulta-

neously opposing the moralistic hectoring of Yankee puritanism, thus fracturing in E. Tennessee, Kentucky, west-

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ern North Carolina, and West Virginia parts of what was trumpeted as the united confederacy, with families joining

either north or south based on individual needs. The development of the Far West has been structured by its geog-

raphy, geology, and cultural mix to have a highly independent streak while still being uncomfortably dependent

upon federal dollars and thus control.

E. That the US is neither united nor is a collection of states the central discussion of Woodard’s provocative thesis. In

“American Nations,” he persuasively reshapes our understanding of how the American political entity came to be.

F. First, Woodard says that we must distinguish between a state and a nation. The former, he explains, is a political

entity, what we generally think of as a country: Kenya, Panama, or New Zealand. A nation is a cultural entity, a

group of people who are connected by “ethnic origin, language, historical experience, artifacts and symbols.” Amer-

icans may have a national government – we may be a state in the eyes of the world – but up close we are a collec-

tion of rival cultural nations including First Nation, Yankeedom, New Netherland, the Midlands, Tidewater, Great-

er Appalachia, the Deep South, El Norte, the Far West, New France, and the Left Coast.

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G. Second, he argues that national unity is a fiction. When you break the country down culturally, it becomes clear

that American history is largely a story of regional self-interest. He writes, “Our true Founders didn’t have an

‘original intent’ we can refer back to in challenging times; they had original intents.” In fact, from the country’s first

settlements in the 1600s straight through post-Civil War Reconstruction, regions formed alliances based not on

firmly held ideologies (pro-slavery or anti-slavery is an obvious example) but based on their own long-term self-

preservation. In this sense, no current politician can claim to represent the “real” America, because there isn’t one.

There never was.

H. As Woodard sees it, the continent has long been divided into 11 rival regional “nations” determined by centuries-

old settlement patterns. Yankeedom stretches from the Puritans’ New England to the land settled by their descend-

ants in Upstate New York and the upper Midwest. New Netherland is Greater New York City, more interested in

making money than in Yankee moralizing.

I. The Midlands stretch from once-Quaker Philadelphia across the heart of the Midwest — German-dominated, open-

Talking Points minded and less inclined toward activist government than Yankeedom. Cavalier-founded Tidewater once ruled

supreme but was hemmed in and saw its clout fade.

J. The Deep South stretches to East Texas, long in tension but less so now with the Borderlanders, the feisty, individ-

ualistic Scots-Irish who scorned both the community-minded Yankees and the aristocrats of the Tidewater and the

Deep South. The Borderlanders’ domain spans Appalachia, the southern Midwest and the upland South — the

McCain stronghold described above.

K. Predating all these are First Nation, Canada’s indigenous north; New France, based in what is now Quebec, whose

liberalism traces to the first fur traders; and El Norte, the territory straddling the Mexican border that was once a

region unto itself (of colonial Mexico). Settled last were the interior Far West and the Left Coast, the latter a mix of

the idealism of the Yankees who tried to settle it and the individualism of gold-seeking Borderlanders.

L. These nations looked different from the start: Where Yankeedom had countless towns, Tidewater had barely any —

planters simply delivered supplies to their estates up the Chesapeake’s tributaries. The nations mistrusted each

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other deeply. And they often resorted to arms — the book reminds us of long-forgotten conflicts such as the Paxton

Boys’ Borderlander assault on Midlander Philadelphia in 1764 and the Yankee-Pennamite wars in northern Penn-

sylvania in the late 18th century.

M. In Woodard’s retelling, the country was unified in spite of itself. The Revolutionary War was a true insurgency only

in Yankeedom; meanwhile, New Netherland became a Loyalist refuge, the pacifist-minded Midlanders lay low, the

Deep Southern planters calculated how best to preserve (and expand) their slave economy, the Tidewater split into

two camps, and the Borderlanders wrestled over whom they hated more — the British or the coastal elites oppress-

ing them.

N. The new Constitution hardly sealed things tight. The Borderlanders waged the Whiskey Rebellion and made an

aborted attempt to create their own state of Franklin, while Yankeedom grew so alarmed over the shift in power to

the Tidewater that it nearly demanded a renegotiation of the Constitution in 1814.

Talking Points II Cultural Clusters

A. The settlers of each of the original colonial clusters came from various regions of the British islands, or from

France, the Netherlands or Spain, and had distinct religious, political and ethnographic characteristics. These cul-

tures developed in remarkable isolation from one another, cultivating distinct and often contradictory values, prac-

tices, dialects and ideals. Some championed individualism, others utopian reform. Some were guided by divine

purpose, others by conscience and inquiry. Some embraced an Anglo-Saxon Protestant identity, others ethnic and

religious pluralism. Some valued equality and democratic participation, others deferred to aristocratic order. All

continue to champion some version of their original ideals in the present day, frustrating attempts to build a na-

tional consensus.

B. Forget the state boundaries. Arbitrarily chosen, they often slash through cohesive cultures, creating massive cultur-

al fissures in states like Maryland, Oregon and New York. Equally burdensome are the regional designations with

which we try to analyze national politics -- the Northeast, West, Midwest and South. They’re illusions masking the

real forces driving the affairs of our sprawling continent: the 11 regional cultures of North America.

Talking Points III Yankeedom

A. Yankeedom was founded on Massachusetts Bay by radical Calvinists as a religious utopia in the New England wil-

derness. From the outset, there was emphasis on education, local political control and the pursuit of the greater

good, even if it required individual self-denial. Yankees have the greatest faith in government’s ability to improve

lives. For more than four centuries, Yankees have sought to build a more perfect society here on earth through so-

cial engineering, extensive citizen involvement in the political process and the aggressive assimilation of foreigners.

B. Settled by stable, educated families, Yankeedom has always had a middle-class ethos and considerable respect for

intellectual achievement. Its religious zeal has waned over time, but not it’s underlying “secular Puritanism” or

drive to improve the world.

C. From its New England core, Yankee culture spread with its settlers across upper New York state, the northern

strips of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Iowa; parts of the eastern Dakotas; and on up to Michigan, Wis-

consin, Minnesota and the Canadian Maritimes. It has been locked in perpetual combat with the Deep South for

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control of the federal government since the moment such a thing existed.

IV New Netherland

A. The 17th-century Dutch colony of New Netherland had a lasting impact by laying down the cultural DNA for New

Amsterdam (now Greater New York City) that was, from the start, a global commercial trading society. Multieth-

nic, multi religious, speculative, materialistic, mercantile and free-trading, the future metropolis was a raucous, not

entirely democratic city- state where no one ethnic or religious group has ever been truly in charge. It nurtured two

innovations considered subversive: a profound tolerance of diversity and an unflinching commitment to freedom.

Forced upon other nations at the Constitutional Convention, these ideals have been passed on to us as the Bill of

Rights.

B. New Netherland has retained its fundamental values and societal model, having long reigned as the leading world

center of Western commerce, finance and publishing. But its territory has shrunk over the centuries. Today, the

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five boroughs of New York City, the lower Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, western Long Island and south-

western Connecticut comprise New Netherland. The most densely inhabited part of North America, its population -

- 19 million at this writing -- is greater than that of many European nations, and its influence over this continent’s

media, publishing, fashion, intellectual and economic life is hard to overstate.

V The Midlands

A. Arguably the most “American” of the nations, the Midlands was founded by English Quakers on the shores of Dela-

ware Bay. Pluralistic and organized around the middle class, the Midlands spawned the culture of Middle America

and the Heartland, where ethnic and ideological purity have never been a priority, government has been seen as an

unwelcome intrusion, and political opinion has been moderate, even apathetic. Long an ethnic mosaic, with people

of German descent -- not Anglo-Saxons -- making up the largest group since the 1600s, the Midlands includes

those who, like Yankees, believe society should be organized to benefit ordinary people, but they are skeptical of

top-down government intervention, as many of their ancestors fled from European tyrannies. The Midlands is

Talking Points home to a dialect long considered “standard American,” a bellwether for national political attitudes and the key

swing vote in every national debate from the abolition of slavery to the 2008 presidential contest.

B. From its cultural hearth in southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and northern Delaware and Mary-

land, Midland culture spread through much of the heartland: central Ohio, Indiana and Illinois; northern Missouri;

most of Iowa; and the less-arid eastern halves of South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. It shares the key border cit-

ies of Chicago (with Yankeedom) and St. Louis (with Greater Appalachia, a nation to be discussed in a later install-

ment). It also has an important extension in southern Ontario, where many Midlanders emigrated after the Ameri-

can Revolution, forming the central core of English- speaking Canada. Although less concerned with its national

identity, the Midlands is, nonetheless, an enormously influential moderating force in continental politics, as it

agrees with only part of its neighbors’ strident agendas.

VI Tidewater

A. Tidewater was the most powerful nation during the colonial period and the Early Republic. It has always been a

Talking Points fundamentally conservative region where a high value is placed on respect for authority and tradition and very lit-

tle on equality or public participation in politics.

B. Such attitudes aren’t surprising, given that it was founded by the younger sons of southern English gentry, who

aimed to reproduce the semi-feudal, manorial society of the English countryside, where economic, political and

social affairs were run by and for landed aristocrats. These self-identified “Cavaliers” largely succeeded in their

aims, turning the lowlands of Virginia, Maryland, southern Delaware and northeastern North Carolina into a coun-

try gentleman’s paradise with indentured servants and, later, slaves taking the part of the peasants.

C. Tidewater elites played a central role in the foundation of the U.S. and are responsible for many of the aristocratic

inflections of the Constitution, including the Electoral College and Senate, whose members were to be appointed by

legislators, not chosen by the electorate.

D. But the region’s power waned in the 1830s and 1840s, its elite generally following the lead of the planters of the

ascendant Deep South in matters of national political importance. Today, it is a nation in decline, rapidly losing its

Talking Points influence, cultural cohesion and territory to its Midland neighbors. Its undoing was a matter of geography: It was

blocked by rivals from expanding over the Appalachian Mountains.

VII Greater Appalachia

A. Greater Appalachia was founded in the early 18th century by wave upon wave of rough, bellicose settlers from the

war-ravaged borderlands of northern Ireland, northern England and the Scottish lowlands. Lampooned in popular

culture as “rednecks,” “hillbillies,” “crackers” and “white trash,” these clannish Scots-Irish, Scots and northern

English frontiersmen spread across the highland South and on into the southern tiers of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois;

the Arkansas and Missouri Ozarks; the eastern two-thirds of Oklahoma; and the Hill Country of Texas, clashing

with Indians, Mexicans and Yankees as they migrated.

B. In the British , this culture had formed in a state of near-constant war, fostering a warrior ethic and a deep commit-

ment to individual liberty and personal sovereignty. Intensely suspicious of aristocrats and social reformers alike,

these American borderlanders despised Yankee teachers, Tidewater lords and Deep Southern aristocrats.

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C. In the Civil War, much of the region fought for the Union, with secessionist movements in western Virginia

(creating West Virginia), eastern Tennessee and northern Alabama. During Reconstruction, the region resisted the

Yankee effort to liberate African slaves, driving it into a lasting alliance with its former enemies: the overlords of

the Tidewater and Deep Southern lowlands of Dixie.

D. The borderlanders’ combative culture has provided a large proportion of the nation’s military, from officers such as

Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett and Douglas MacArthur to the enlisted men fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. They

also gave the continent bluegrass and country music, stock-car racing and evangelical fundamentalism.

VIII The Deep South

A. The Deep South, by contrast, was founded by Barbados slave lords as a West Indies-style slave society, a system so

despotic and cruel that it shocked even 17th-century English observers. For most of American history, the region

has been a bastion of white supremacy and aristocratic privilege, while enslavement has been the natural lot of

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many. It remains the least democratic of the regions, a one-party entity where race remains the primary determi-

nant of one’s political affiliations.

B. Beginning from its Charleston beachhead, the Deep South spread apartheid and authoritarianism across the South-

ern lowlands, eventually encompassing most of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Louisi-

ana; western Tennessee; and the southeastern parts of North Carolina, Arkansas and Texas. With its territorial

ambitions in Latin America frustrated, it dragged the U.S. into a horrific war in the 1860s in order to form its own

nation state, backed by reluctant allies in Tidewater and some corners of Appalachia.

C. After successfully resisting a Yankee-led occupation, it became the center of the states-rights movement and racial

segregation, as well as labor and environmental deregulation. It is also the wellspring of African-American culture

in America and, 40 years after it was forced to allow blacks to vote, it remains politically polarized on racial

grounds.

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IX El Norte

A. Thanks to the influence of the great 19th century Yankee historians, we traditionally think of U.S. history as Euro-

pean settlement of the continent, progressing from the beachheads of Massachusetts and Virginia to the shores of

the Pacific. But the story of the Euro-American nations truly began way before the Pilgrims, when European coloni-

al forces arrived in our hemisphere in the late 15th century, borne by Spain’s soldiers and missionaries.

B. Because it was then the world’s superpower, Spain had a head start on its 16th-century rivals, and in 1493 was

granted ownership of almost the entire Western Hemisphere (16 million square miles) by Pope Alexander VI. By

the time the first Englishmen stepped off the boat at Jamestown, Spanish explorers had trekked through what

would be Kansas, beheld the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina, and surveyed the Grand

Canyon. They had established colonies on the shores of what are now Georgia and Virginia and, in Florida, founded

the city of St. Augustine.

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C. Indeed, the oldest European subculture in the U.S. is in the arid hills of northern New Mexico and Southern Colo-

rado -- a region, El Norte, where people of Spanish heritage have been living since 1595. They remain fiercely pro-

tective of their Spanish heritage, taking umbrage at being lumped in with Mexican-Americans who appeared in the

region only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Their leaders’ passion for genealogy rivals that of Mayflower descend-

ants. Subsequently, the Spanish Empire set up additional colonial settlements across its northern frontier from

south Texas to the central California coast.

D. Today, this rapidly growing nation spreads from the U.S.- Mexico border for a hundred miles or more in both di-

rections, encompassing south and west Texas, southern California and the Imperial Valley, southern Arizona, most

of New Mexico and parts of Colorado, as well as the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Chihua-

hua, Sonora and Baja California. Overwhelmingly Hispanic, it has long been a hybrid of Anglo and Spanish Ameri-

ca, with an economy oriented toward the U.S.

Talking Points E. The people of Mexico’s northern border states are seen, by other Mexicans, as overly Americanized. Nortenos

(northerners) have a well-earned reputation for being more independent, self- sufficient and adaptable than Mexi-

cans from the hierarchical society of Mexico’s more densely populated core. Long a hotbed of Democratic reform

and revolutionary sentiment, the northern Mexican states have more in common with the Hispanic borderlands of

the southwestern U.S. -- historically, culturally, economically and gastronomically -- than with the rest of Mexico.

F. Split by an increasingly militarized border, El Norte, in some ways, resembles Germany during the Cold War: Two

populations with a common culture are separated by a large wall. Despite the wishes of their political leaders in

Washington and Mexico City, many residents of El Norte would prefer to form a third national state of their own.

Charles Truxillo, a professor of Chicano studies at the University of New Mexico, has predicted that such a sover-

eign state, a “La Republica del Norte,” will be a reality by the end of the 21st century.

G. Whether or not this comes to pass, El Norte will be an increasingly influential force within the U.S. The Pew Re-

search Center predicts that, by 2050, 29 percent of the U.S. population will self-identify as Hispanic -- more than

double the 2005 figure. And much of that growth will take place in El Norte.

Talking Points H. The Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes has predicted that, so long as tolerance prevails, the borderlands will become

an amalgamated, interdependent culture rather soon. “I have always said it is a scar, not a border,” he has said.

“But we don’t want the scar to bleed again. We want the scar to heal.”

X New France

A. Another independence-inclined nation is New France, which can trace its origins to the fall of 1604 -- 16 years be-

fore the Mayflower’s voyage. Today, New France is the most overtly nationalistic of the 11 nations, and already has

a nation-state- in-waiting: the province of Quebec.

B. New French culture blends the folkways of ancient regime northern French peasantry with the traditions and val-

ues of the aboriginal people whom the French explorers and colonists encountered in northeastern North America.

Down-to-earth, egalitarian and consensus-driven, the New French are far and away the most liberal people on the

continent, recent polls have shown. Long oppressed by their British overlords, the New French have, since the mid-

20th century, imparted many of their attitudes on the Canadian federation.

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C. Today, New France includes the lower third of Quebec, northern and northeastern New Brunswick and the Acadian

(or “Cajun”) enclaves of southern Louisiana. (New Orleans is a border city, mixing New French and Deep Southern

elements.) Securing an independent state will require, first, negotiating a partition of Quebec with the inhabitants

of First Nation.

XI The Left Coast

A. A Chile-shaped nation pinned between the Pacific Ocean and the Cascade and Coast mountain ranges, the Left

Coast extends north from Monterey, California, to Juneau, Alaska, and includes four decidedly progressive metrop-

olises: San Francisco, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver. A wet region of staggering natural beauty, this region was

colonized by two groups: New England merchants, missionaries and woodsmen arrived by sea and gained control

of the coastal towns, and farmers, prospectors and fur traders from Greater Appalachia arrived by wagon and dom-

inated the countryside.

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B. Originally slated to become a “New England on the Pacific” -- and the target of a dedicated Yankee missionary ef-

fort -- the Left Coast retained a strong strain of New England intellectualism and idealism even as it embraced a

culture of individual fulfillment.

C. Today, it combines Yankee faith in good government and social reform with a commitment to individual self-

exploration and discovery, a fecund combination. The Left Coast has been the birthplace of the modern environ-

mental movement and the global information revolution. It is home to Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Apple, Twitter

and Silicon Valley. And it has been a co-founder (along with New Netherland) of the gay rights movement, the

peace movement and the 1960s cultural revolution.

D. Ernest Callenbach’s 1975 sci-fi novel, “Ecotopia,” imagined the U.S. portion of the region as having broken off into

a separate, environmentally stable nation at odds with the rest of the continent. A modern secessionist movement

seeks to create the sovereign state of Cascadia by adding in British Columbia and southern Alaska as well, forming

Talking Points a “bioregional cooperative commonwealth.” Yankeedom’s closest ally, the Left Coast battles constantly against the

libertarian-corporate agenda of its neighbor, the Far West.

XII The Far West

A. Climate and geography have shaped all the 11 nations to some extent, but the Far West is the only one where envi-

ronmental factors have truly trumped ethnic ones. High, dry and remote, the interior West presented conditions so

severe that they effectively destroyed would-be settlers who tried to apply the farming and lifestyle techniques they

had used in Greater Appalachia, the Midlands and other nations. With minor exceptions, this vast region couldn’t

be effectively colonized without the deployment of vast industrial resources: railroads, heavy mining equipment,

ore smelters, dams and irrigation systems.

B. As a result, the colonization of much of the region was facilitated and directed by large corporations based in dis-

tant New York, Boston, Chicago or San Francisco, or by the federal government itself, which controlled much of the

land.

Talking Points C. Even if they didn’t work for one of the colonizing companies, settlers were dependent on the railroads for transpor-

tation to and from far-off markets and manufacturing centers. Seaboard nations treated the region as an internal

colony, exploiting it for their benefit. And the region remains in a state of semi-dependency, despite significant

industrialization during the World War II and the Cold War.

D. Its political class tends to revile the government for interfering in its affairs -- a stance that often aligns it with the

Deep South -- while demanding that it continue to receive federal largesse. Yet the Far West rarely challenges its

corporate masters, who retain near-Gilded Age levels of influence over the region.

E. Today, this nation encompasses all of the interior U.S. west of the 100th meridian, from the northern boundary of

El Norte up to the southern frontier of First Nation. It includes northern Arizona; the interiors of California, Wash-

ington and Oregon; much of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alaska; portions of the Yukon

and the Northwest Territories; the arid western halves of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas; and all or nearly all of

Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah and Nevada.

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XIII First Nation

A. Like the Far West, First Nation encompasses a vast area with a hostile climate: the boreal forests, tundra and glaci-

ers of the far north. The difference, however, is that the indigenous inhabitants are still in the area -- most of them

having never given up their land by treaty -- and still retain cultural practices and knowledge that allow them to

survive in the region.

B. American Indians have recently begun reclaiming their sovereignty. In Alaska and Nunavut, they have won consid-

erable autonomy. And in Greenland, the indigenous people now have a self-governing nation-state, which stands

on the threshold of full independence from Denmark. First Nation’s people now have a chance to put native North

America back on the map culturally, politically and environmentally.

C. First Nation is rapidly taking control of large portions of what once were the northern fringes of the Far West, in-

cluding much of Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Labrador; the entirety of Nunavut and Greenland; the

Talking Points northern tier of Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta; much of northwestern British Columbia; and the

northern two-thirds of Quebec

XIV Summary of American Nations

A. In “American Nations,” I’ve sought to show how our Balkanized past has informed our divided present, in the

hopes of fostering a better understanding of the American identity and predicament. But inevitably people ask

what this means for the future.

B. The short answer is, of course, that nobody knows. But given the challenges facing the U.S., Mexico and, to a lesser

extent, Canada, it seems unwise to simply assume that North America’s political boundaries will remain as they are

today.

C. The U.S. is wracked by internal discord between two blocs formed by seven of its 11 regional nations -- the con-

servative bloc that includes the Deep South, Tidewater and much of greater Appalachia, pitted against the more

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liberal alliance of Yankeedom, New Netherland, the Midlands and the Left Coast. Increasingly, through American

history, the conflict between these two blocs has been driving the nation apart.

D. The country has been exhibiting the classic symptoms of an empire in decline. Kevin Phillips -- the political strate-

gist who, back in 1969, used regional ethnography to accurately predict the ensuing 40 years of American political

development - - has pointed out parallels with late imperial Holland and Britain. Like its superpower predecessors,

the U.S. has built up a staggering trade deficit and sovereign debt while overreaching militarily. As financial ser-

vices have come to account for a larger and larger share of national output, religious extremists have come to play a

bigger and bigger role in political life.

XV Indebted and Divided

A. Once a great exporter of innovations, products and financial capital, the U.S. is now deeply indebted to China, on

which America relies for much of what it consumes and, increasingly, for the scientists and engineers who are

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needed by research and development firms and institutions. The U.S. citizenry is divided along regional lines. The

country’s military has been mired in expensive and frustrating counterinsurgency wars in Mesopotamia and Cen-

tral Asia, while barbarians have stormed the gates of Washington and Wall Street, killing thousands in the surprise

attacks of September 2001.

B. Add in the damage to public confidence in the electoral system caused by the 2000 election, the near-total melt-

down of the financial sector in 2008, and extreme political dysfunction in the capital, and it’s clear the U.S. hasn’t

started the 21st century auspiciously.

C. To the south, the Mexican federation is in even worse shape. For years, leading foreign-policy experts have been

describing it as a failed state. It’s not hard to imagine Mexico shattering in a time of crisis -- a climate-change-

related disaster, a global financial collapse, a major act of terrorism -- freeing the Mexican half of El Norte to look

northward.

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D. In Canada, national fractures have been obvious for some time, with New France pushing for outright independ-

ence through 1995. In that year, 60 percent of Quebec’s Francophones voted in support of independence. The

measure was narrowly defeated (because English-speakers, immigrants and the First Nation section of Quebec

rejected it). The lower house of the federal parliament recognizes Quebec as a “distinct society,” and New France-

style multiculturalism has become the civic religion of Canadians everywhere.

E. Today, Canada is perhaps the most stable of the three North American federations. Unlike the U.S., it has, in effect,

rejected any illusion of having a single dominant culture, and adjusted accordingly. Whether that will be enough to

preserve the federation in the long term remains to be seen.

XVI Unlikely Compromise

A. In the U.S., one approach to maintaining the status quo might be for its 11 nations to follow Canada’s example and

compromise their respective cultural agendas for the sake of unity. Unfortunately, neither the Dixie bloc nor the

Talking Points Northern alliance is likely to make major concessions. Most Yankees, New Netherlanders and Left Coasters simply

won’t accept an evangelical Christian theocracy with weak or nonexistent social, labor or environmental protec-

tions, public school systems, and checks on corporate power in politics.

B. For their part, most Deep Southerners will resist paying higher taxes to underwrite a public health-insurance sys-

tem; a universal network of generously funded, unionized and avowedly secular public schools; tuition-free public

universities; government-subsidized transportation, high-speed rail and renewable energy projects; or strict regu-

lations on financial services, food safety, environmental pollution and campaign finance.

C. Instead, the “red” and “blue” nations will continue to wrestle with one another for control over federal policy, each

doing what it can to woo “purple” nations to their cause, just as they have since they gathered at the First Continen-

tal Congress.

D. Another outside possibility is that, faced with a major crisis, the federation’s leaders will betray their oath to uphold

the U.S. Constitution, the primary adhesive holding the Union together. In the midst of, say, a deadly pandemic or

Talking Points the simultaneous destruction of several cities by terrorists, a fearful public might condone the suspension of civil

rights, or the dissolution of Congress. Some regional nations would be happy with the new order and others, deeply

opposed. With the Constitution abandoned, the federation could well disintegrate, forming one or more confedera-

tions of like-minded regions.

E. Chances are, any such new sovereign entities would be based on state boundaries, because, in such a scenario, gov-

ernors and legislators would be the most politically legitimate actors. New York, New Jersey and states in New

England, the Great Lakes region and the Pacific Northwest might form one or more confederations. States con-

trolled by the Deep South -- South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana -- might form another.

The mountain and plains states of the Far West would constitute an obvious third.

XVII Cross-Border Coalitions

A. The situation might be more complicated within the often- divided Greater Appalachia or the nationally mixed

states of Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Arizona. It isn’t impossible to imagine some of the resulting

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coalitions extending into Canada or, in the case of El Norte, into Mexico.

B. Or perhaps the federation would simply reach accommodation over time as its component nations came to realize

that the only issue on which they could find common ground was the need to free themselves from one another’s

veto power. Perhaps they’d join together enough to pass laws and constitutional amendments granting more pow-

ers to the states and liquidating many of the functions of the central government. The U.S. might continue to exist,

but its powers would be limited to national defense, foreign policy and the negotiation of interstate trade agree-

ments. It would, in other words, resemble the European Union or the original confederation of 1781.

C. If that were to happen, the states could be counted on to behave in accordance with their respective national herit-

ages. The 11-nation format would be useful as a predictor of behavior. Yankee New Englanders might cooperate

closely with one another, much as the Scandinavian countries do within Europe. Texans might finally assert their

constitutional right (under the terms of their annexation to the U.S.) to split into as many as five individual states.

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Illinoisans might agree to divide downstate from Chicagoland. California might split into southern, northern and

interior states.

D. The external borders of this retooled U.S. might remain in place, or perhaps some Canadian or Mexican provinces

might apply for membership in the looser federation. Far stranger things have happened in history.

XVIII Preserving the U.S.

A. One thing is certain: If Americans want the U.S. to continue to exist in something like its current form, they will

need to respect the fundamental tenets of our unlikely union. It can’t survive if we end the separation of church and

state or ban the expression (or criticism) of offensive ideas. We won’t hold together if presidents appoint political

ideologues to the Supreme Court, or if party loyalists try to win elections by trying to stop people from voting. The

union can’t function if national coalitions continue to use House and Senate rules to prevent decision-making on

important issues.

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B. Other sovereign democratic states have central governments more dysfunctional than our own, but most can fall

back on unifying elements we lack: common ethnicity, a shared religion or near-universal consensus on many fun-

damental political issues. Our constitutional order -- an arrangement negotiated among the regional cultures --

assumes and requires compromise in order to function at all.

C. And the U.S. needs its central government to function cleanly, openly and efficiently because it’s one of the few

important things that bind us together.

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