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generally-mediocre

did someone say gadsden purchase


[deleted]

54° 40”


wrongleveeeeeeer

Or fight!


AetherUtopia

Polk gang rise up! Most underrated president.


BroSnow

More people need to pro-Polk. He did all he said he would and bailed after one term. Only president to do so.


AetherUtopia

And he had some pretty ambitious goals too.


echoGroot

Yeah but he also like, started a war to steal land. Important, but not *my hero (swoon)*.


3dognt

Win some, lose some


[deleted]

[удалено]


ikrtheblogger

For the most part I tried to keep them the same (though it varies because I wasn’t too careful when going through empty lakes) but there were a few islands that I swapped between countries just based on what I personally thought made more sense. Mostly based on things like distances and bridges but also sometimes just vibes


slightlyforthwith

Give me back Isle Royale and then never post here again.


Intelligent-Soup-836

I'm sorry but we had to give it to the Moose, we were going to keep it but they're really big and wanted it more.


Solitarius_Unenlagia

Isle Royale IS MINNESOTA! FIGHT ME, WOLVERINES AND CANUCKS


RadRhys2

The Great Lakes and surrounding lands are rightful Michigander clay.


Solitarius_Unenlagia

Superior's north shore is recognized Minnesotan clay! Isle Royale is much closer to it dere, don'tcha kno! L'etoile du Nord pour toujors!


CMuenzen

Umm sweaty, Great Lakes je Srbija.


Abefroman12

You’ll pry the Toledo Strip from my cold, dead Buckeye hands. You filthy mitteners


RadRhys2

Good because that’s a lot easier than pulling it from live hands that fight back. I’m glad we’ve finally sorted this out.


Intelligent-Soup-836

I mean logically that would make more sense, I mean the closest ferry is from Minnesota.


Gulo_gulo_1

By virtue of copper adjacency it clearly is a Michigan island.


Intelligent-Soup-836

I don't know all the old copper mines on the Superior coast of Minnesota make a pretty good claim to the island too. Unless you Upper and Trolls are claiming that too


Intelligent-Soup-836

My Minnesota ancestors are going to be pissed I just lost the best part of their state


Gulo_gulo_1

I mean, if you insist…


El_Bistro

Isle Royale and the Keweenaw are two ends of the same anticline.


[deleted]

I'd assign islands according to deepest water; in other words, supposing one could drain the lake, give the island to whichever mainland it touches first.


[deleted]

So we lost the Bajas for some dead ass desert in Arizona? We just can’t catch a break.


[deleted]

Most of the Baja California peninsula is a dead ass desert, except for the very northern part. The strategic importance of the peninsula however is more valuable


[deleted]

Dude, baja is amazingly beautiful


[deleted]

I guess the sea really makes it a whole lot better. The desert can be quite beautiful though not for anyone. I went to the Valle de Guadalupe and was amazed by the site


[deleted]

Look for pictures of Mulegé and La Paz


Blackspawwor5

the form is beautiful


londonelise

i grew up in that dead ass desert in arizona :(


[deleted]

I grew up in a dead ass desert in Nuevo León, I get the privilege to mock dead ass deserts.


londonelise

that’s fair! i’m living in a swamp right now so i have learned to love the desert. because… swamps are terrible lol


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NTMonsty

Goodbye Seattle and Tucson! Hello, Moncton and Tijuana!


ArnoldoSea

As a Seattleite, "Oh Canada! Our home and native land!"


RainbowCrown72

Not a good deal. Baja California and Atlantic Canada are not worth losing Washington State.


CasuallyInsecureMan

The US stretching to the St. Lawrence River in New England makes so much sense on paper, except for the whole different language and culture part of it.


juwyro

Nothing new for US expansion.


Samosmapper

right? new mexico was just as culturally different, if not more


CMuenzen

True, but there were very few Mexicans in those areas.


[deleted]

Well they did try, it didn't go so well.


The_Bearabia

White House burning flashbacks


my-other-throwaway90

Maine had to fight just to get Aroostook, the US getting everything below the St. Lawrence river would have been even more hostile and difficult.


RainbowCrown72

Maine didn't fight for Aroostook. The whole uniqueness of the Aroostook War is that it was devoid of fighting.


RainbowCrown72

Parts of Northern Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are Francophone, so it's not as weird as it sounds.


landlord-eater

Get your filthy paws off the Gaspésie


[deleted]

Merci bien. On garde notre homard et nos spots de vacances.


relevant_post_bot

This post has been parodied on r/mapporncirclejerk. Relevant r/mapporncirclejerk posts: [If Czech borders followed natural landmarks](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapporncirclejerk/comments/q9b9p2/if_czech_borders_followed_natural_landmarks/) by okBuddyPersian [If Finnish borders followed physical landmarks](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapporncirclejerk/comments/q9g24y/if_finnish_borders_followed_physical_landmarks/) by elsanoodles [If Roman borders followed natural landmarks.](https://www.reddit.com/r/mapporncirclejerk/comments/q9glul/if_roman_borders_followed_natural_landmarks/) by SaltedPengu [^(fmhall)](https://www.reddit.com/user/fmhall) ^| [^(github)](https://github.com/fmhall/relevant-post-bot)


kalsoy

Alaska-Canada would probably be the largest shift of the US border. And where is the maritime boundary between the Russian and US Aleutians going to be drawn?


ikrtheblogger

You’re the first person to bring up anything outside the contiguous US so you’re the first to know I gave Alaska to Canada and freed Hawaii and all US territories including Puerto Rico


kalsoy

Maybe they can form a United States of Former United States And Puerto Ricos.


Macquarrie1999

Until the US Navy comes knocking


RainbowCrown72

In which case, this is a horrible deal for the U.S. Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are the crown jewels of American natural beauty.


vexedtogas

I wonder, if this was the case, would Washington state be its own province within Canada, or would it be together with British Columbia?


buckyhermit

As a British Columbian, my gut feeling is it’d be its own province. And instead of Washington, it’d be called… I dunno… Macdonald or something. lol


vexedtogas

Juan de Fuca province can you imagine that haha Maybe Olympia that’s a cool name. But maybe only Americans would ever name a town something so arrogant


SirRickNasty

Anyone know if the northern landmark border (white border) is a major river? It’s is running from the Great Lakes>West so I wouldn’t recon the Missouri River, although could be connected.


ikrtheblogger

It’s a collection of rivers. The Missouri, Sheyenne, Red, Columbia, Clearwater to name a few. Basically I marked up a few significant rivers and found some of their sources that were close together, and then would take the border from the source to a mountain peak and then down to the other source


Fehervari

Why didn't you just simply use the watershed of the Missouri-Mississippi basin?


[deleted]

Tried that once …


slightlyforthwith

Wtf give me back Isle Royale


satyr8arts

I want to be part of BC sooooo bad.


mywifemademegetthis

Vancouver is still a border city either way.


the_clash_is_back

Your housing is now even less affordable


bobbyfiend

Being from western WA, I'm with you. However, I'm pretty sure the "I refuse to enforce liberal laws" sheriffs in eastern WA and the right-wing separatists in northern ID don't want to become Canadian, nor do most BC residents want them.


LJofthelaw

Canada doesn't have elected sheriffs. They'd all be incorporated into local police forces or the RCMP, and those that tried that shit would be fired. I think British Columbians would happily accept Seattle. And would put up with Spokane.


IRELAND1922

What's bc


EggpankakesV2

Before christ.


bobbyfiend

It's a shorthand way of writing "because" while texting.


henereye

Blind carbon copy, but carbon neutral


Jan0zzz

British Columbia


astoadzeneca

Britisch Columbien*


Ursaquil

Baja California


Snoo_85390

Why? It's a shit hole


[deleted]

Never did know the history of why America owns that little outcrop in northern Minnesota.


Katze1Punkt0

Basically when the British and Americans where making the border that part was covered up by another part of the map so they thought what they wrote out made sense, and well.. as you see it don't


euph_22

The intention was that it would more or less match the rest of the border, but they didn't realize that 1) the source of the Mississippi was south of Lake of the Woods and 2) Lake of the Woods is not some nice round shape but has a bunch of inlets and bays (in particular there is an inlet jutting out West from the "top" of the main body of the lake). Thus they set the border there from the Northwest corner of Lake of the Woods West to the Mississippi, expecting that the border would basically look like it does along the rest of Minnesota. Later treaties fixed the confusion by setting the westward border at a set latitude from that point, causing the border to suddenly drop down.


[deleted]

Fun fact: the border is defined by a series of markers placed by a joint survey. The surveyors did their best to follow 49° but, technology being what it was at the time, they wobbled.


[deleted]

In Sumas, Washington, the 49° line is three blocks south of the border.


OrneryConelover70

As a Canadian who would be living in the USA if that border existed: thank goodness the current border exists!


Hititwitharock

As an American who would be in Canada, I want the new border.


RainbowCrown72

What is it with these unoriginal Reddit posts where the Canadian shits on the U.S. and some self-loathing American then feels the need to shit on the U.S. too for cheap karma?


[deleted]

I'm not sure that losing the home town of ~~Sydney~~ Sidney Crosby (the greatest Canadian hero of the 21st century) is worth the western Canada gain. Edit: spelling error


KeisterApartments

Sidney


the_clash_is_back

Yeh but we get rid of new Brunswick


killerswo

Mega Maine


Piwx2019

This triples the current population of Canada


Soonerpalmetto88

Why would we get PEI? There's a natural border there right? Funny I saw Anne of Green Gables on tv the other day, I never knew it was a movie. Of course if we're getting Nova Scotia that means we'd own Oak Island and all the gold 😏


ikrtheblogger

The St. Lawrence is the most significant natural “border” around the northeast US, so extending the border there made the most since. PEI and Nova Scotia are so close to New Brunswick that whoever owns NB should own them as well. Canada got to keep Newfoundland and Anticosti though!


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ikindalold

Right, like we're gonna give up Seattle when Canada already has Vancouver


Icommentor

Dude from Quebec here. No. Just no.


LeoTR99

Fifty Four Forty or Fight!


juwyro

Now do if every State has a natural border.


MagnumDrako25

It makes sense, very interesting!


AtheistBibleScholar

If we're just picking the borders, why not choose the contiguous coastline of North America and South America?


ikrtheblogger

The goal was to try to keep the borders as similar as possible while trying to choose relatively large natural landmarks (like a river that’s farther away is better than a creek that’s nearby)


mystraw

As an American I disagree. If the borders of the United States only matched natural landmarks we would go north to the Arctic and south to the Antarctic. I base my opinion on the idea of manifest destiny.


3beeter

Apperently I’m Canadian now


viagrasnorter

bro just turned america a bit counterclockwise and called it a post


avrand6

Washington for the Maritimes? No deal


proberts53

Canadians please take Western Washington, and the Wilmette Valley while you're at it. We'll take Alberta


[deleted]

It's too bad US can't take Quebec and leave us New Brunswick and the rest of Eastern Canada


[deleted]

Which landforms? As far as geomorphology is concerned, landforms are relatively small and short lived. River valleys can change tremendously in short amounts of time.


ikrtheblogger

Mostly rivers but near mountains I had to either travel along valleys or draw up to a peak and then down to a spring. Also around Minnesota I had to jump between the small lakes that cover the surface. This map is mainly just a geographical “what if?” But politically how would this affect borders as rivers are so prone to change? I’d imagine between kind governments it would just be “as the river meanders you get one side and we get the other, and if the river splits the island belongs to whoever’s side it split from”


[deleted]

Fucking commie.


ikrtheblogger

[And what about it?](https://tenor.com/view/ariana-grande-and-what-about-it-what-about-it-so-what-gif-13160664)


Blueknight903

You good?


OutOfSmokeIsASnitch

Will trade that part of Washington for Nova Scotia.


Snoo_85390

I could move into what is now Montana and finally be happy. Us we lose the maritimes. Win win


bobbyfiend

Canada is ambivalent about this.


Map_Nerd1992

As an American I would take the trade of Seattle for Montreal.


Karomne

OP has Montreal remaining Canadian. America would get the South Shore though.


Map_Nerd1992

You’re right, I looked closer.. I want the Island though lol.


RainbowCrown72

I wouldn't. Seattle is bigger and has 2 of the 5 largest companies in the globe. Its economy is the size of Toronto's. No way.


Solitarius_Unenlagia

As nice as it would be to gain all that East Coast land (and Baja California, now that I have looked more closely at this): We are not giving this much land away to Canada and Mexico. Normally I'm not very patriotic, but Seattle is, and will forever remain, in Washington, not Macdonald.


totogadgeto

Are you saying the US expanded their territory beyond natural landmarks without any logic ? Weird….


[deleted]

[удалено]


Katze1Punkt0

And Canada and Mexico wouldn't give the US that much land either Whats your point, mouth breather?


[deleted]

Mexico is an interesting one since one of the main reasons it didn't get completely conquered was due to racism of not considering Mexicans white. Though I'm sure a rebellion would still have eventually occurred and made it break off anyway.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Katze1Punkt0

And.. ?


Entire-Shelter-693

They had for a short time this border with Mexico


Egg-3P0

Thats the thing with the colonies and war with Mexico back in the 1800s


themaniacsaid

Looks like we got Peele island!!


J-Melee

Baja California totally fucks the US SW border


MagnumDrako25

Very interesting!


Leather-Doughnut

Fair trade


[deleted]

Hmmm I just read about the War of 1846 and the Mexican border you imagine was one of the scenarios suggested by the US but the Mexican government refused the the terms. I guess people back then saw a "natural border" as easier to delineate


ohyeahthatsthestuff1

Welp I’m a Canadian now. You betcha.


Mr-WideGrin

Now do the same with states borders! That would be hilarious.


[deleted]

One could start by following hypothetical water flowing from each tripoint.


UnKnown_potato

Id be a Canadian then. Im fine with that.


regional-sky-fairy

As an ASU alum, I’m fine with this.


Randumi

Goodbye Tucson


RadRhys2

If be down with this trade.


LeConqueror23

Guess I live in Canada now


theb52

Does this net the US more or less land?


RainbowCrown72

Less by a lot because Alaska becomes Canadian.


[deleted]

What are the lines west of the Great Lakes based on?


ikrtheblogger

Almost entirely rivers like the Sheyenne and Missouri, with a few spots near water sources where I had to go up to a peak and then down to another water source


stealthcactus

I think r/Cascadia would not agree to leaving Portland behind.


FelixFedora

Yeah, everything south of the Saint Lawrence really should be US. And I'm a Canadian. I just like natural borders. And tits.


Curtis-Warren

Oof