Western Confederation

The Western Confederation was a nation in North America, which existed from July 1, 1867 to November 6, 1902. As a result of a referendum, the Western Confederation left the British Commonwealth and became the Western Republic.

Colonization
During the hatred of France and Great Britain during the 1700s, the British Empire decides to set up a colony in Western North America, which was called the "British West" (even though they were not on the Pacific Northwest, but they made plans to do so.) It is estimated that the earliest British settlers in the West set up a colony in around 1755. Due to the West having about 1/14th of the size of the current Western Republic, they expand west, north, and southwest. While the colonization process was in place, Britain thought that if they expanded into Spain, they could get a hold of the Strait of California, so Britain declared war on Spain. While the war raged on, settlers in the British West claimed more land for the country. Due to this, by the end of the war claimed almost all (except present-day Sonora) of the British wanted lands in store for the West.

Semi-independence from Great Britain
In the late 1860s, Great Britain decided to grant the West a piece of independence due to the large size of the colony and the diverse set of people in the West themselves. The capital of this new Western Confederation would be Victoria. Citizens of the West were satisfied with this, but that changed in the late 1880s when they demanded a official exit from British rule, so in the 1890s, they set up a referendum to see if the citizens of the Western Confederation wanted total independence. They ended up voting "yes", with 62% in favour of becoming a republic and in November of 1902, they declared official independence from the United Kingdom and founded the Western Republic.

The capital of the Western Republic would be changed to Calgary rather than Victoria because Calgary was considered a more central location, as it was on the mainland, and could easily be accessed by Canada and the United States through trade. Victoria became the capital of British Columbia, replacing New Westminster's status as capital.

Provinces
The Western Confederation consisted of twelve provinces through its duration.