More California Secession/Division talk

Over at GeoCurrent Events, Martin W. Lewis has posted an update on the latest schemes to solve California's problems with long division:

The New State of Coastal California?



Related posts on Cartophilia:

Lost States

Disunited States of America

Just Can't Stop Talkin' `Bout Secesh!

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.

"Divided We Stand", by Paul Starobin, Wall Street Journal.

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.

"Who's most likely to secede?" by Josh Levin, Slate.

#470

Europe 2020

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?

Previously:
Another Europe
Disunited States of America

#435

Long Island the 51st State?

More on secession:

Last week, The Daily Show reported on yet another secession movement in the United States: Long Island.



Secession is a big word for these intelligent revolutionaries.

More here, here and here.

Disunited States of America

We just can't stop talking about Texas Secession. [Secession, previously on Cartophilia.]

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?



I created this map based on the Wikipedia list of active autonomist and secessionist movements in the United States. (Click on map for larger view.)

• 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".
• Marxist-Leninists in Minnesota have proposed a North Star Republic, made up of Minnnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Who gets the Mackinaw Bridge?
• 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.

Also, previously in Cartophilia:

• The Dominion of West Florida
• Lost States

Texas Divided

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!

FiveThirtyEight speculates on how Texas might be divided, and the subsequent impact on the division of power between Red and Blue:



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.

Texas Secession?

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...

UPDATE 4/21: Black Maps: For the love of God, let Texas have her way!

UPDATE 4/23: The Electoral Map on Texas Secession: would scenarios be like North Korea or Slovakia?

Alaskan Independence?

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.

Florida in the News Again

Florida in the news tonight. Can you tell I'm a politics wonk?

In honor of the Florida Primary, I present some Florida map postcards from my collection:





Florida:

• The home of the Hanging Chad.
  
• The most phalic state of the union.
  
• Five flags have flown over Florida: Spain, Great Britain, United States, Confederate States, and the the Republic of Florida (briefly independent after secession).
  
• Home of Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.
  
• Home of Walt Disney World.
  
• Home of the 2008 2007 BCS Champions.

For cartographic analysis of the Florida Primary: check out The Electoral Map: pre-primary analysis and post-primary results analysis.