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Description
Another less plausible one, inspired by America's interest in Japan and Korea prior to the American Civil War.

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The election of 1860 ended with a Democratic victory under Stephen A. Douglas, just reward for his ability to bring the Democratic Party from the brink of division. As president, he would have to deal with a country that is ready to tear itself apart between North and South, but through compromise and luck, the Union held together. Slavery was allowed in the New Mexico territory, but no further, which placated pro-slavery factions enough to make secession an unwelcome proposition.

In an attempt to redirect the United States' energies outward, Douglas and his successors dedicated themselves to the expansion of the United States beyond the continent. America competed with the European powers in the colonization of the Far East. After American efforts to take a chunk of the East Indies were rebuffed, the Americans focused their efforts on Japan and Korea, hoping to use them as supply stations for a trans-pacific journey. Traditional elements in both countries attempted to resist colonization, but those few attempts to resist the Americans violently were met with violence in turn. By 1900, both Japan and Korea were reduced to US territories.

The next century would be defined by the rivalry between Britain and the United States. The British were concerned about the expansion of their former colony, and conflict between American-supported Venezuela and the British set the two nations on a path to rivalry. The collapse of the Spanish Empire in Cuba and the Philippines saw the Americans take the former, and the British take the latter. Colluding with the other European powers, the British locked the Americans out of Africa. In return, the Americans supported the Indian Revolution in the 1940s, which ended with the British being forced to let go of their crown jewel and the Americans gaining a new Asian ally.

In the meanwhile, Europe split itself into two rival blocs, in response to the rise of the German Confederation. War was narrowly averted in 1912, and the European alliance system remains shaky, and a few crises relating to the devolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1930s also caused fear of the new USGA's violent dissolution. America and Britain have kept out of European power politics, neither interested in fighting a European war. The invention of nuclear weapons have further delayed war, forcing the rivalry between the Entente and the Triple Alliance, and the British and the Americans, into proxy wars over the collapsing colonial empires.

Description
Another less plausible one, inspired by America's interest in Japan and Korea prior to the American Civil War.

---

The election of 1860 ended with a Democratic victory under Stephen A. Douglas, just reward for his ability to bring the Democratic Party from the brink of division. As president, he would have to deal with a country that is ready to tear itself apart between North and South, but through compromise and luck, the Union held together. Slavery was allowed in the New Mexico territory, but no further, which placated pro-slavery factions enough to make secession an unwelcome proposition.

In an attempt to redirect the United States' energies outward, Douglas and his successors dedicated themselves to the expansion of the United States beyond the continent. America competed with the European powers in the colonization of the Far East. After American efforts to take a chunk of the East Indies were rebuffed, the Americans focused their efforts on Japan and Korea, hoping to use them as supply stations for a trans-pacific journey. Traditional elements in both countries attempted to resist colonization, but those few attempts to resist the Americans violently were met with violence in turn. By 1900, both Japan and Korea were reduced to US territories.

The next century would be defined by the rivalry between Britain and the United States. The British were concerned about the expansion of their former colony, and conflict between American-supported Venezuela and the British set the two nations on a path to rivalry. The collapse of the Spanish Empire in Cuba and the Philippines saw the Americans take the former, and the British take the latter. Colluding with the other European powers, the British locked the Americans out of Africa. In return, the Americans supported the Indian Revolution in the 1940s, which ended with the British being forced to let go of their crown jewel and the Americans gaining a new Asian ally.

In the meanwhile, Europe split itself into two rival blocs, in response to the rise of the German Confederation. War was narrowly averted in 1912, and the European alliance system remains shaky, and a few crises relating to the devolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 1930s also caused fear of the new USGA's violent dissolution. America and Britain have kept out of European power politics, neither interested in fighting a European war. The invention of nuclear weapons have further delayed war, forcing the rivalry between the Entente and the Triple Alliance, and the British and the Americans, into proxy wars over the collapsing colonial empires.