What would the United States be like if we hadn't declared our independence from the British empire?

[SamIam96]

[Syntosi]

Unironically? Probably more wealthy and powerful. Probably most Americans would balk at the fact that their success is not really down to them being exceptional or their country being special but rather that USA is in a geographically important location with all the space and resources it could ever desire.

USAs biggest drawback compared to a USA that was still part of the British Empire is that our current version only really took off around WW1 and especially after WW2. Being still part of the Empire means that could have happened much earlier as well as given USA in the British Empire more access to the rest of the world.

An earlier start to industrialization and explosive growth means a world of difference. Overall its not a big surprise though. Bigger is almost always better when it comes to nations.

[goaded]

Slavery would have been stopped earlier; slave owners would have been compensated for giving up their slaves, so either the southern states would have accepted the new situation or rebelled against both the northern states and the British Empire near its peak.

[OlderAndWiser]

If we had not declared our independence, the UK would have become subservient to the US, or our independence would have eventually been established.

[NaultD]

More like Canada, or more likely Canada, more like the United States. With the metric system, the United States did order a very expensive set of scientific equipment to use the metric system, but it was lost at sea.

With the United States never gaining independence, why would Canada be separate? That same metric ship never arrived. Eventually, it will become a British Commonwealth independent country with potentially Canada already integrated into the original colony of the potential United States.

Australia never really invested because all the prisoners are going to the great white north for prison labor for lumber.

Or more fun to think about Australia could be be super posh and overwhelmingly grand and expensive called new london. new capital of the British where sydney is now. When the war is a little to close to home.

[RebelinSteel]

Like Canada, Australia New Zealand

The Dominion Act would have covered it

British North America Act 1867

[SamIam96]

But, how would the country be different?

[RebelinSteel]

@Syntosi covers a lot of it, industrialisation would have come far sooner. I would hazard a guess that thing like slavery would have just stopped.
I firmly believe that Mexico would not be a separate country, nor Panama, or most of South America. The ‘Empire’ would have invaded with support from the Royal Navy.
The First World War would have likely not occurred.
After that it’s spotting what social dynamics there would be,
Civil wars would be an issue as hard to say how everything would hang together.
Dominions were brought in because it was far too expensive to run an empire.
It is impossible to say, there are loads of possibilities.

[Anonymous]

I think the United States would just have declared it's independence at a later date. America didn't want to be it's own country. Most Americans were proud subjects of the British Crown. Britain looked down on everyone outside of England. It was being overtaxed the caused us to break free. But since Britain was never going to treat Americans with equal respect the break was inevitable.

[DarkLegacy]

If the they and the British Empire were one big country then the world would be a better place. We would be able to keep all our enemies in line.

[jahaims]

It would be many different countries

[OfDeath]

There isn’t really a way to know.