Robert Sobel.
For Want of a Nail: if Burgoyne had won at Saratoga.
Greenhill. 1973
In reality, the British general John Burgoyne, heavily outnumbered by American troops, surrendered his army to General Horatio Gates at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, a major turning-point of the Revolution. Robert Sobel takes a sideways look and presents the alternate version: reinforcements arrive at Saratoga, Gates’ men flee, and Burgoyne is victorious. Rather than openly allying itself with the American rebels, France withdraws its support, as does Spain, and the colonies surrender.
Those former rebels who refuse to live in the Confederation of North America established by the British, leave their homes and settle in what becomes the United States of Mexico. From then on the two continental nations find themselves constant rivals, locked in military, political and economic conflict.