AH Challenge: British Western Dominion

[Aussey]

AH Challenge: Create this liberal-British realm state in the West Coast, PoD must be after 1600.

-Aussey
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Official Name: Commonwealth of English Sonora/Comúnabundancia de Sonora Inglés
Flag:

Capital: Santa Monica
Largest city: San Diego
Official language(s): English and Spanish
Government: Const. monarch
Monarch: HM Queen Sophia II of Sonora
Governor-General: HIE The Rt. Hon. Faisal Milligan-Hassan (UEL-LUI)
Chancellor: The Rt. Hon. Claudia Lopez (UC)
Map:

Independence:
From the Empire of Britannia July 27, 1931
Maidstone Summit: November 3, 1884
Sonora Act: May 19, 1984
Currency: Imperial Pound Sterling (£)
Coat-of-Arms:

Sonora, officially the Commonwealth of Sonora (Spanish:Comúnabundancia de Sonora Inglés), is a country in North America. Neighbouring countries include California to the north, the United Provinces to the east, and Nuevespana to the south. The Pacific Ocean is it's western border.

After sporadic settlements by Spanish explorers from the east and by West European settlers starting in the eighteenth century, the western coast of the nation was taken by the British in the eighteenth century, and officially settled as a Catholic colony going by the names of Lower California, the British West, and Southern Sierra before becoming an official Crown Colony on 27 May 1832. As the population grew and new areas were explored, other settlements, governed by the British in Santa Monica, were successively established over the course of the nineteenth century.

On November 3, 1884, the various parishes organized into three regions, uniting, and the Dominion of Lower California was formed. In 1890, the name dominion reverted to "English Sonora." By 1950, there were the current five regions. Since union, Sonora has maintained a stable liberal democratic political system and remains a home-nation of the British Empire Abroad. The capital city is Santa Monica, although the current population of around 20.5 million is concentrated mainly in the large coastal cities of San Diego, Los Angeles, San Marcos, Santa Monica, and San Carlos.

 

[Alcuin]

Sonora

guess your point of Departure needs to be around 1750. First Portugal, then France and then Spain turned on the Jesuits (who founded Los Angeles). In OTL, the Society of Jesus was saved from extinction by Frederick the Great of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia. It's ironic that neither was a Catholic.

Suppose the protector of the Jesuits had not been Frederick but King George of England?

In 1758 there was an attempt on the life of Joseph I of Portugal. The Marquis of Pombal was able to use this attempt to move against his rivals, the Tavora family, accusing them of conspiring with the Jesuits and the British. He also used this opportunity to order the Guarani tribes in Paraguay moved from their ancestral homes. When they revolted, he used that as yet another stick with which to beat the Jesuits.

In OTL, Pombal was able to persuade the Spanish to expel the Jesuits from Spanish America in 1767. Pope Clement XIII spent most of his reign trying to save the Jesuits...

In this other timeline, Clement, realising the growing power of Jansenism in France was affecting the whole of the Catholic world, turned to Britain.

As luck would have it, Britain had heard wind of an unholy alliance between France and Sweden to invade England and to place Charles Eduard Stewart on the throne (in OTL the French attempted to form such an alliance but the Swedes rejected it... in this timeline, that doesn't change but the British are worried that it is a possibility).

Pitt took Clement's suggestion as an opportunity to end the Jacobite threat forever by encouraging a Catholic Settlement in the Jesuit held area of California near the border with Russian America (not formally a part of Spanish America). Britain agreed to invest Sonora as a British colony to be run on democratic lines with the Roman Catholic Church, rather than the Cof E being the established Church.

The British were able to persuade many Irish and Scottish Catholics to join the venture. This was helped no doubt, by the (true) rumour being spread that "Bonnie Prince Charlie" had converted to Protestantism (it was true in our timeline as well and was a major factor in the ending of support for the Stewart Dynasty in Britain and France).

How's that?