User:InMooseWeTrust/Reading Lists/North America

North America

Countries

 * United States
 * Canada
 * Mexico
 * Greenland
 * Bermuda

Far North

 * Greenland
 * Nunavut
 * Northwest Territories
 * Yukon
 * Alaska

Cascadia
This whole region encompasses (by various definitions) the Pacific Northwest.
 * Lewis and Clark Expedition - Basically, Napoleon was an idiot so he sold a bunch of land to President Thomas Jefferson for essentially nothing, in which was called the Louisiana Purchase. The French were such hot shots that wanted to control the whole world, right? Well, they already lost all of Canada to the British Empire, especially Quebec and Acadia. So as a result of Napoleon's stupidity, President Jefferson, who was a self-proclaimed antimilitarist who took down the First National Bank and the standing army, sent two peaceful explorers to see what new land Napoleon was stupid enough to give up. Sure enough, discovering the Pacific coast led to a sequence of events that led to, in another 140 (give or take) years, the United States becoming the only empire ever to completely control military and trade in over 90% of the globe. How is that possible? Well, think about the economic power in Eruope, and the equal power in East Asia. Which country trades the most with both sides, and can do so from the shortest distance between the two? And what country also has the population to support an extremely large economy that dwarfs the rest of the globe? Enough said.
 * Sacagawea - For whatever reason, this woman was nice enough to accompany Lewis and Clark on their journey. Who knows? Maybe in one of her past incarnations she was a European explorer. But still, she did a very stupid thing by helping them. Pocahontas did the same thing, and that led to her premature death and the colonists completely taking over her tribe within a generation. Obviously, the same thing happened here.
 * Republic of Cascadia- But see, imperialism wasn't Jefferson's intended goal. He wanted a separate country forming in the region. Of course, that never happened thanks to the British and American imperialists who would come to dominate a few decades later. What about Mexico? Well, that's a different story.


 * Jefferson - Proposed state. I say let them have it. There's not much there anyway. Actually, there's some stuff worth mining, but so what?
 * Oregon - Beautiful landscape along the Pacific coast.
 * Portland - Basically, just a really nice city to be in.
 * Oregon Trail - Remember me saying that this new land would get colonized? Well, people came in droves from the east. The xenophobic colonists who claim to be the "Original Americans" (*cough*cough*) moved further west to find new jobs, because all of their old factory jobs were taken by the pesky immigrants (damn Irish, Italians, and Germans...). So they moved further along, died in the Siberian-level winters in the midwest, and eventually arrived in Oregon. On the way there, they drove the Native Americans and the American bison to near extinction. Have you ever seen the movie Dances with Wolves? That should give you some idea.
 * Johnny Appleseed - But hey, it wasn't all that bad. I mean, you got this guy.
 * Paul Bunyan - Oh, and him too.
 * Washington - Early explorers wanted to name this place Columbia, after you-know-who. I mean, it's the least they could do after not naming the new world after the guy who discovered it! But they didn't. Why? Because the nation's capital is officially named "Washington, District of Columbia." So of course they name the state Washington, which is a name used much more frequently. That makes perfect sense!
 * Idaho - Both sides look like a face. They point west because Idaho sucks and there's absolutely nothing special about it (except some potato farms...). You should go west and skip this place.
 * Boise - I put it in here in case you want to read this.
 * Western Montana
 * British Columbia
 * Southeast Alaska


 * Yellowstone National Park