WI: No Dominion of New England

[GameBawesome]

The Dominion of New England was an attempt by King Jame II in an attempt to centralize the New England and Mid-Atlantic colonies into one administrivia union. It was highly unpopular with the colonies, especially when Governor Edmund Andros came into power and tried to change some legal and structural changes in the union. However, the Dominion came to an end when cities began to revolt against Andros, and when James II was overthrown in the Glorious Revolution.

One notable effect of the Dominion was in its aftermath, when previously Puritan Colonies such as New Haven and Plymouth didn't have charters beforehand, and were merged with other colonies such as Massachusetts.

What if this attempt at centralization of the English colonies never happened? What if there was no Dominion of New England.

 

[ghappy1000]

Butterflying of the merger of ex-Puritan colonies into the rest of British America.

 

[Umbric Man]

One notable effect of the Dominion was in its aftermath, when previously Puritan Colonies such as New Haven and Plymouth didn't have charters beforehand, and were merged with other colonies such as Massachusetts.

I forget the exact details for New Haven (save it was pretty radical and, erm, puritan and thus becoming dysfunctional), but Plymouth was even offered the chance to get a royal charter but they considered their extant but quite shaky legal basis as good enough in fear of potentialrestrictions on self-governance... of course, I mentioned shaky for a reason, the King simply shrugged and merged the colony into Massachusetts anyways, helped by the fact that MA was far more populated and dynamic than Plymouth was at the time.

If New Haven and Plymouth basically played ball with the royal government, they could, even would, have likely remained separate colonies and get full-fledged legal charters like Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island did in the aftermath.