EC/FC Parts 16-20

 Part 16: The New Nation​

So, the Commonwealth of America was now a semi-independent nation, using the Plan of Union as the basis. The American Parliament, based out of Albany, New York, had a President-General that was appointed and supported by the Crown. The Parliament was comprised of Delegates appointed by the Assemblies of each of the Thirteen Colonies (that number was soon to expand), roughly proportional to the Colony’s population, although with a cap to make sure that things didn’t get out of hand. The American Parliament would have a veto on taxation and tariffs passed in the British Parliament, and would have to approve of any taxation or tariffs on America. At the time of the Commonwealth’s autonomy, Albany was a town of about 4,500 people (larger than IOTL) and had been a center of colonial politics for some time by 1776, and the Albanians (not to be confused with the country in Southeastern Europe) were thrilled to become the new Capital. Initially, the Parliament met in a smaller structure, with plans for both an expansive Parliament Building and a luxurious Château for the President-General in the books.

Speaking of the President-General, the first P.G. was none other than Benjamin Franklin, who had spend much of his time in London, and was one of the most accomplished men of his time, while notable Delegates included Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts and Robert Anderson of Laurentia (an fictional figure from this TL that I will do a post on). Early issues in the country included the balance of power between the National Parliament and Local Assemblies, Taxes/Tariffs and, of course, Slavery (slavery will be abolished earlier ITTL unless the British conquer the Mississippi River Valley from the French).

An issue that wasn’t controversial, though, was expansion. Pretty much everyone in the American Parliament was for expansion westward into unsettled territories, with Virginians and Pennsylvanians wanting to expand into the Ohio River Valley, while New Englanders and Laurentians wanting to expand into the Great Lakes region. However, the crown demanded that land deals be made with the Natives before settlers arrive, with deals being made with tribes around the Great Lakes. Soon, Anglo-American settlers were crossing the Appalachians and moving down the Saint Lawrence and Odawa Rivers by the tens of thousands, establishing towns such as Belleville, Ochaway, Portage and Erie. The numbers of Anglos moving westward were supplemented by immigrants from Europe, whom at this point were primarily British, but were also joined by some Germans and Irishmen. The new Commonwealth also worked on infrastructure, building the Hudson Road from Mount Royal to New York City, passing through Albany, as well as planning a new Canal from Lake Erie to the Hudson River. The population of British America by 1800 had reached over 3 Million, and was growing rapidly with a high birth rate and increasing immigration from the Old World, and it this point it seems as though the potential of the American Commonwealth is boundless...

Part 17: Sunshine State and Golden State​

During the difficult times of the 1770s and 1780s in France, migration to La Floride surged, with the largest amount arriving in the Late 1780s. While a large amount went to the Atlantic Colonies, expansion in peripheral territories like the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi were encouraged, with French reach in those areas expanding after the seven years war. Expansion to the Baie de Tampa was finally undertaken, with the colony of Havre D’Esprit being founded in the 1770s. The Gulf Coast itself already had a decent amount of French settlement, but further inland, with the exception of some forts, it was still more Indigenous.

French settlement along in La Louisiane was mainly centered along the Lower Mississippi River (mainly for plantations), Riviѐre Rouge (more small-scale farms) and the Coastal Plain, with major centers of settlement being Post du Rapides, Opelousas, Petit Manchac and Calcasieu, with civilian settlement going as far as Rondinville and Pinѐde. Other areas saw settlement as well, such as the region between Saint-Esprit (the Fort part of the name had been dropped by then) and Fort Toulouse, with the towns of Dubreil and Bienville being the main two settlements between the two aforementioned locales. Expansion east of the mountains occured as well, but I’ll get to that in another post.

Of course, French military installations and trading posts either existed or were set up far beyond there, with outposts existing far up the Acansa and Pekitanoui Rivers, as well as other rivers west of the Mississippi Basin. This was useful both to trade with and evangelize to the Natives, solidify French influence against the Spanish and British, and for exploring the North American continent. Notable examples of this was Saint-Louis, located at the confluence of the Pekitanoui and Mississippi rivers and Fort Padoucas at the confluence of the Caquinampo and Ohio rivers. Once again, this is something for another post, as I’ve got other things to get to now…

On the other side of North America lies the mysterious land of California. While California had been known of since the Mid 16th Century, it remained untouched by European powers up until the Mid-Late 18th Century, when the Spanish began to found Missions in California. Starting with the Mission San Diego de Alcalá, the Spaniards established missions along the California coast as far north as San Francisco de Asis, totaling 18 Missions in California by the close of the 18th Century. The primary motivations of the Missions were to convert the Natives to Christianity and to integrate them into Spanish culture. The missions had… mixed results. On the one hand, the Missions provided education and health services to the natives, but on the other hand, often used cruel treatment and coerced labor. Regardless of what one thinks of the Spanish Missions in California, this was the beginning of the settlement of California, as over time more settlers, whether they be Peninsulares, Criollos or Mestizos would move to California, and over time the area would become more Hispanicized. California was not the only region of New Spain that would see increased settlement, though, as Hispanic settlers established more missions and settlements in New Mexico and across the Rio Bravo, the mission of San Antonio de Valero being an example. While Europeans, whether they be Spanish, French or British continued to expand across North America, new lands Down Under were coming onto their radar...

Part 18: Land Down Under​

From ancient times, there had been a speculation that there was a Terra Australis, a great Land Down Under. These legends took off again once the Age of Exploration began, and numerous countries got involved in searching for this fabled land over the centuries. The first Europeans confirmed to discover Australia was the Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon in 1606, quickly followed by Spaniard Luis Vaez de Torres, although they didn’t know about each other’s expeditions. Numerous Dutch trading vessels washed up on the (rather useless) West Coast of Terra Australis over the years, using a route following the trade winds of the Roaring 40s, mapping the western half of the mysterious continent, as well as an island discovered by Abel Tasman.

It was in the Mid-Late 18th Century that exploration of Terra Australis really began to take off, with the British and French competing over the exploration of this land. Of particular note was British Admiral James Cook’s 1770 exploration of the Eastern Coast of Terra Australis, being the first European to explore this part of the continent. His second exploration a few years later confirmed that there was no land further south of Terra Australis, at least land of any use. With the Commonwealth of America being unwilling to take in British convicts, the Brits figured that Terra Australis would be a good place to send some undesirables…

On the Thirteenth of May, 1787, 11 Ships carrying over 1,000 people departed from the English town of Portsmouth for a land where women glow and men plunder. After over eight months at sea, the British convict fleet finally arrived in the land where beer does flow and men chunder. While their original landing sight of Botany Bay had gotten good reviews from James Cook, it turned out to not be quite so swell, so the colony relocated soon thereafter relocated a few miles up the coast to Port Jackson. However, even with the relocation to a better location, the colony still struggled, and almost starved on more than one occasion. However, even in this alien land, the colony got off the ground, and only five years after the first convicts arrived, the first free settlers arrived in New South Wales.

The British would be alone in colonizing Terra Australis for several decades, expanding along the Southeastern Coast of the Continent. However, by the 1820s, other European Nations would begin to take interest in colonizing this mysterious land on the other side of the world.

Part 19: Vive La Révolution ou Vive Le Roi?​

France in the Late 18th Century was… a mess. The ftax structure exempted the Nobility and Clergy (although the Clergy exemption mainly benefitted those at the top of the Church hierarchy, who often times also happened to be Nobles), thus putting the tax burden on the peasants and growing urban middle class. The government had racked up a lot of debt from the Seven Years War that hadn’t been paid off yet, and the government was unable to raise taxes to reduce the debt. While France was already in need of reform, the calls became increasingly visible as Enlightenment views became more widespread among the upper class (contrary to popular misconception, Louis XVI was not opposed to Enlightenment reforms, he just wasn’t able or competent enough to push them through). However, the biggest cause of instability in France during the 1770s and 80s were the food shortages that struck on multiple occasions during these two decades, due to both natural causes (such as a volcanic eruption in 1783 causing a strong El Nino, and thus failed harvests in 1788 and 1789) and a botched attempt at deregulation of the grain market, leading to the Flour War of 1775.

Just a quick note, due to the American Revolution being butterflied and France having a profitable cash crop colony in La Floride, the French economy is not as bad ITTL as it was IOTL.

At the very end of the 1780s, the Estates General convened. Now, I don’t know the specifics of how this’d be done, but let’s say some reforms are made to stabilize the economy and make the social classes as equal as you could reasonably achieve in 1790s France. The conditions in France steadily improve throughout the last decade of the 18th Century, or at least until Europe’s next major war breaks out at the turn of the Century, but more on that in another update.

Anyway, let’s get to France’s colonies overseas. Inspired by the Spanish mission system, France established their own missions across the colonies to tribes that hadn’t been converted. Some notable examples of French missions included Saint-Denis de Chisafocque, Mission Saint-Dominique and Saint-Thérѐse de Quainco, among others established throughout French-claimed territory. Meanwhile, as mentioned in a previous post, the 1770s and 80s were a time of massive emigration from France to La Floride, with almost 10,000 emigrating in the 1770s and almost 25,000 in the 1780s, with 11,000 arriving in 1789 alone. About 2/3rds of these emigres settled in the old colonies along the Atlantic, while 1/3rd ventured further and settled either on the Gulf Coast or in Louisiana. The white population had grown to 305,000 by 1780 and 435,000 by 1790, a massive increase over the course of just two decade, with a black population of 260,000, most of whom were enslaved. The black population varied significantly between different parts of the colony, with the Haut-Pays being over 80% white, while the Coastal Lowlands of Armandie and the Mississippi River Delta being majority black. Keep in mind that this is quite oversimplified, as under the general umbrella of “black” were included the Gens de Couleur, of mixed African and European descent, and who formed a middle caste between full-blooded blacks and full-blooded whites, while the “white” category included many with either distant African ancestry or more recent Indigenous ancestry (Métis).

Back to Europe now. Even without a French Revolution, Europe was still due for another war, which would break out around the turn of the century, so I’ll get to that in a future post.

Part 20: 1800​

Here we are, the Year of Our Lord 1800. To begin, I’ll go over the situation in the Commonwealth of America. The Commonwealth of America has a total population of 5,575,000, with the most populous province being Laurentia at 960,000 and the most populous city is New York at 60,000, with Kirkeston in second place at 52,000. In addition, areas west of the Appalachians and along Lake Ontario were being settled rapidly, as good land in the older colonies was running out. The most prominent settlements developed around existing British forts and trading posts that I’ve already mentioned in this TL, and with deals being struck with the natives, settlers poured into the new territories, with land agents advertising large plots of fertile land. The leader of the American Parliament was now John Adams, while other prominent politicians in the Commonwealth included Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

Now, let’s go south of the Roanoke River to La Floride. By 1800, the population of La Floride had grown to around 915,000, of which around 300,000 were enslaved Africans. Of the 585,000 Floridians of primarily European origin (many had significant Indigenous ancestry, sometimes up to ¼), about 40% of them lived in the Region of Neusequia, which had a ¾ White population. This area had developed largely around small-scale farming and the lumber industry, not the plantation cash-crop agriculture that dominated areas further south. Speaking of those areas further south, the Region of Armandia, which was majority African. The swamps and marshlands were the perfect location for massive rice and indigo plantations, worked by many African slaves (no need into getting how shitty the conditions were, we all know already that it’d suck), with a White overclass on top. There was a significant community of Multiracials, who numbered at least 20,000 and formed a middle caste between the Black slaves and White slave owners. The other major slave colony was the Mississippi River Delta, which had effectively replaced Martinique and Guadeloupe as a sugar growing area (although still paling in comparison to the money bucket that was Saint-Domingue, aka hell on earth for the 90% of the population that was enslaved there). The Haut-Pays were beginning to be settled by pioneers looking for land, and thus were majority European.

Anyway, let’s go across the pond to Europe, and see how things are shaping up over there…

In Europe, a new major war had broken out. Tensions between Prussia and Austria over control of the region of Silesia had been building for years, and in 1796, the Austro-Prussian War broke out. The Ottoman Empire allied itself with Prussia, while Russia allied itself with Austria, and soon Europe had a new Continent-wide conflict on its hands. Now, I’ll post a Strawpoll that will let you vote on who wins the war, which is something I’ll do with a lot of wars FTR, and my next update will be on this war.

ECFC Parts 11-15

 Part 11: Early 18th Century​

With the War of Spanish Succession over, we now resume peacetime in the Early 18th Century. By the war’s end in 1715, the population of the Colony of Canada had grown to 81,550 with settlement dipping slightly due to the war, but the birth rate remaining high as ever. Settlers continued to spread out around the Saint Lawrence River Valley, migrating up the Williams River towards Lake Pibago, founding the town of Falton at a set of rapids along the river. Falton grew quickly, due to it’s strategic location at the furthest navigable location upstream along the Williams River, while also being near Mount Royal. Other towns founded during the Early 18th century included Rockford, Arabasca, Shecootimee and Moose Point. The fur trade on the frontier was the main source of wealth for the Canada colony, with fur traders, mainly of Gaelic origin, exploring as far as the confluence of the Red and Asiniboyan rivers. The other prevalent economic sectors of Colonial Canada were agriculture (wheat, barley, corn etc.), forestry and shipbuilding, with the shipyards of Kirkeston being among the largest in the British Empire.

Meanwhile, in La Floride, the French population grew to just under 38,000 by the end of Queen Anne’s War, with a major colonial push occuring after the war. Between 1715 and 1730, over 5,000 Frenchmen settled in La Floride, the largest amount settling to farm on the frontier, as well as the largest settlement push in the history of the colony up to that point, as the colonial authorities began to encourage more immigration after Queen Anne’s War. This was in part to increase defenses against the English and lessen the population disparity, but a more cynical motivation: to keep the slave population a minority. Nonetheless, after the main settlement boom, immigration still remained in the hundreds per year. Settlers came from not just French-speaking regions, but also from French-controlled Alsace and the French Basque Country. With this increase in settlement, the White population of La Floride increased to 85,000 by 1740.

Part 12: Man, I Really Suck At Coming Up With Titles​

By the Year of Our Lord 1740, it has been a quarter century since the end of Queen Anne’s War, and tensions between the British and the French in North America are building up again. The British continue to gain influence throughout the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley, while the French expand along the Gulf Coast and the Lower Mississippi Basin. Settlers continue to pour down the Saint Lawrence and Kichisipi Rivers, including a significant amount of German and Scottish settlers, with towns such as Pine Falls and Petawawa being established by. Speaking of Scotland, the colony of Nova Scotia has spread far enough to come into contact with the New England colony to the South, with the border being set along the Penobscot River. The Scots expanded onto the nearby island of Epegwed, with the two main settlements on the island being St. Andrews and Annestown. There were also settlements along the Saint John’s River such as Welamuco and along the coast such as Machias and Conasamuc.

The Scots also expanded along the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to New Inverness and Nipisigy. By 1740, the Nova Scotian population had expanded to just under 130,000, with the largest city being Saint John at 6,700 inhabitants. Canada’s population in 1740 was just above 170,000, with Kirkeston being the largest city in North America with 12,500 residents.

Part 12.5: La Louisiane​

Now, to La Floride. As mentioned in the previous update, France continued to expand its influence and reach along the Gulf of Mexico and Lower Mississippi valley, establishing the colonies of Zarazote, Fort Crevecoeur, Fort Saint-Pierre, Fort Sabine, Port Saint-Hyacinthe and Port Des Bras. While there’d been a brief attempt to settle the Lower Mississippi between La Nouvelle-Orléans and Bâton Rouge in the Late 1710s, the company that had organized the colonization went broke in 1721, and The Mississippi was put on the backburner. In the 1740s and 50s, though, the Mississippi was back in the spotlight, as between 1740 and 1755, thousands of settlers went La Louisiane (as well as several thousand African slaves... what you thought I was just gonna gloss over the dark side of history). While the plantation economy of Louisiane paled in comparison to the French money bucket of Saint-Domingue, many still got rich off of plantations in the Mississippi valley (and many, many more unfortunate souls were enslaved doing so). Despite that, most settlers in La Louisiane were simple farmers growing crops for their family (and many died of disease early on, as with colonists in La Floride a century prior).

Speaking of La Floride, there was a military conflict between the British and French from 1744-48, with the results being inconclusive. Nearly a thousand Floridians died in the war, mainly in the border regions near British Virginia, while immigration during the war slowed down significantly. After the war was over, immigration to the New World resumed, with the White population of the French North American colonies growing to slightly under 134,000 by 1755. By 1755, however, a new conflict was brewing between the Great Powers of Europe, and this conflict was sure to erupt in North America as well...

Part 13: Seven Years War​

Note: This post on this alternate Seven Years War will focus mainly on North America, as butterflies have not hit Europe to a significant enough extent to change the war over there. Anyway, here’s to the update.

After the War of Austrian Succession in Europe, European politics and diplomacy underwent a huge reversal. France and Austria, traditionally rivals, entered an alliance, while Britain and Prussia did the same. However, this TL is not primarily European-focused, and the war’s result in Europe was quite similar to OTL, so let’s get back to North America.

Both the British and the French had their own advantages in the North American theater of the war. On the one hand, the Brits had a vast, vast population advantage of 10:1, but the French on the other hand had more native allies and had held off the British in other colonial conflicts.

There were two main fronts in the North American Theater of the Seven Years War: The Coastal and Frontier Theaters. The Coastal Theatre was fought East of the Appalachians, while the Frontier theatre was fought west of the mountains.

In the coastal theatre, the British militias had a numerical advantage, and the British Royal Navy was superior to the French Navy, so the British made advances on the coastal plains, both with victories on the land as well as the Royal Navy bombarding coastal settlements into surrender, culminating with the capture of the capital of La Floride, Ville-Marie in 1758.

On the frontier, though, it was a more even fight. Here, the British did not have the vast numerical advantage that they did in settled areas, and the French had more native allies, notably the Salaguis and Mascoquis. The British militia made an offensive down through the Great Valley/Grande Vallée, capturing the French trading post of Mûreposte along the way, towards the French fort and outpost of Rocheville. However, the militia was held back by a combined force of Frenchmen and Natives. An attempted British invasion of the Mouth of the Mississippi also failed, so the scores were rather close to even in this game of war.

During the peace negotiations, the British offered to let the French keep the Atlantic coast, while giving the Brits the Mississippi Valley (even though the British seized the Atlantic Coast, while they failed to take the Mississippi Valley during the war). However, the French for some reason decided to cede the incredibly profitable Caribbean Sugar Islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique to the British, who had taken it during the war, in exchange for keeping both the Atlantic Coast and Mississippi Valley (yes, this wouldn’t have happened in reality, but it’s my TL and I want a large French North America ITTL), while also keeping the even more profitable sugar colony of Saint-Domingue. 

Part 14: The Flames of Rebellion​

It’s now the end of the Seven Years War, and discontent was brewing in the British American colonies. The American colonies up to this point had been mainly autonomous, so the Crown introducing taxes on the colonists (even if it was to pay back debts from the Seven Years War) was quite upsetting. In order to maintain good relations with the natives, the British Government put restrictions on settlement west of the Appalachians (or west of the headwaters of the St. Lawrence at Lake Ontario in the case of Canada), which also stirred up discontent among the American colonists. With the population of British America soaring from 325,000 in 1700 to 1.29 Million in 1750, and continuing to soar due to a high birth rate and large waves of immigration, land east of the Appalachians and along the St. Lawrence was filling up fast, and with the Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley beckoning, it was only inevitable that Anglo-Americans would spread across the mountains, whether the Crown approved of it or not.


Meanwhile, south of the Roanoke/Roanoque River, the non-Indigenous population of French Florida was about 230,000, of which around 40% were Afro-Floridians. Despite my mentioning of frontier settlements, most of the non-Indigenous population lived in the coastal lowlands. Most of the 133,000 Europeans in La Floride or Louisiana as of 1750 had origins in Northern and Western France, with smaller amounts having Other French, Basque, German, Irish or Indigenous ancestry. At the end of the Seven Years War in 1763, the European population of La Floride et La Louisiane had grown to just more than 160,000, 1/9th that of the English colonies to the North. After the war, King Louis XV, with his foreign minister Étienne François, duc de Choiseul recruited tens of thousands of new settlers to La Floride, with promises of land and a new start (IOTL the settlers were sent to Guiana, where most of them starved or caught malaria, and while disease is present in the South, it is nowhere near what it is in the Amazon Jungle). It worked, as between 1764 and 1770, around 20,000 settlers arrived in La Floride, barely offset by a minor disease outbreak. Most of the new arrivals became farmers, while others went into forestry, craftsmanship, construction or fishing. New settlers established towns and villages, as well as contributing to the growth of existing inland towns like Saint-Denis, Boischeville and Hocquart. Thousands of settlers also went to La Louisiane, further solidifying French control of the Mouth of the Mississippi.

Anyway, back to British America. By 1760, Kirkeston had grown to 17,500 inhabitants, the third most populous in North America, after Philadelphia and New York. Kirkeston was a thriving port city, exporting grain, furs, fish and timber. Most important to the city was it’s shipbuilding industry, as the docks of Kirkeston had become the Royal Navy’s unofficial shipbuilding base. Further up the Saint Lawrence, Mount Royal had also grown to population of 7,150, making it one of the ten largest cities in the British American colonies. Mount Royal was the base of the Great Lakes fur trade, and thus furs were the mainstay of Mount Royal’s economy in the Mid 18th Century. Otherwise, Canada was mainly a colony of small scale yeoman farmers inhabiting either homesteads or small villages surrounded by trees of green and fields of gold.

As for Nova Scotia, Saint John was the largest city in the colony in 1760, with a population of 6,300, with the port town of Halifax (same city as OTL) the second largest at 3,500. Along the coast were scattered numerous small fishing villages, many of them inhabited only seasonally, and many were venturing further inland to find land. Contrary to one of my earlier posts ITTL, the land in Nova Scotia was/is heavily forested, and thus not good for raising sheep or cattle, but limited ranching did take place in less forested areas. Wheat was the main crop grown by farmers in Nova Scotia, and as implied by the text above, forestry and fishing were the other main economic sectors.

Anyway, I have a poll between a Successful American Revolution and Greater Autonomy Within The British Empire, so go and vote on that if you haven’t already (poll closing within a few days of this post), and have a good day.

Part 15: The Deal​

As mentioned in the last update, there was increasing discontent with the status quo in the Thirteen British American colonies. The imposition of taxes on the Colonies without any representation in Parliament did not make the Colonists happy to say the least, nor did the restrictions on settlement west of the Appalachians.

However, most American Colonists still viewed themselves as loyal subjects of the Crown, and with the French to the south, they still wanted to be under British protection. A plan had already been drafted a decade earlier detailing a separate American government that still had influence from the Crown. A delegation from the American Colonies, lead by one Benjamin Franklin was sent to the crown, making the case for America autonomy. One of the points made was that the Colonial population was growing at a much faster rate than in the Motherland, and that American separation from the British Isles was inevitable, so why not make it peaceful and keep American ties to the Crown intact?

The King somewhat reluctantly approved, and the American Commonwealth Act was approved, ratified on July 4th, 1776 (yes, that was absolutely intentional), giving the Americans their own parliament based out of Albany (which would act in tandem with the British Parliament based in London), with a President-General appointed by the Crown and the delegates to be appointed by colonial legislatures. This would give the colonies more control over their issues, notably taxation. The Colonies would still cooperate with the Homeland militarily and economically, notably against the French if need be.

As for the settlement restrictions, those were for the most part lifted, but immunity from settlement was given to tribes like the Five Nations in parts of Upper New York and tribes could request land to be off limits to settlers.

Thus, the Commonwealth of America was formed, a collection of 13 British Colonies, from Virginia in the South to Newfoundland in the North.

ECFC Parts 6-10

Part 6: I can’t come up with a good title​

While the French colonies in the Southeast were getting off the ground, the English and Scottish colonies were flourishing in the Northeast. As the stream of settlers continued into Nova Scotia, the Scottish settlers founded new towns like Saint John, New Falkirk, Pesacid, Riversbend and Naymche. By 1700 the population of Nova Scotia had grown to nearly 40,000 people, fueled by large emigration during the troubled times of the 1690s. Canada was also surging in population, growing from 25,000 in 1675 to 52,000 in 1700. With cold winters and abundant pastures, Nova Scotia and Canada were perfect for sheep farming, and soon wool was the primary export from those two colonies. The cold also killed any disease that would limit population growth, so fertility rates were sky-high and mortality rates were lower than back in Europe. Scottish colonists were spreading around the Bay of Fundy and south shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while English colonists were flooding the St. Lawrence river valley, with new settlements such as Williamstown, Chauenigan, Cheltenham and Riverbend. I can’t come up with anything to write next, so I’ll just stop it right here.

Part 7: Missions​

After losing their colony in Canada, France now had a colony up and running along the Florida Coast. By 1670, the colony had grown to over 11,000 French settlers (and presumably thousands of African slaves). They’d seized San Agustin from the Spanish and were founding new settlements like Marennes (named for a town in Saintonge, where many of the settlers came from), Baie-des-Crevettes (named for the abundant shrimp in the bay), Île-Saint-Simon (which secured the coast between Nouvelle-Charlesfort and Saint-Augustin), Fort Caroline (which had been a French Huguenot colony in the 1560’s, but was destroyed by the Spanish) and Port Saint-Lucie (the furthest south the French would settle for quite a while). French settlers lived off of growing tobacco (using African slaves, of course ‍) and growing Corn for food, although as previously malaria and yellow fever were constant challenges, as well as English and Spanish piracy.

In the meantime, the King gave another order: convert the natives. Ville-Marie had been founded as a religious mission, and many of the natives had been converted in the area, but make disciples of all nations, right? Thus, missionaries went off into the interior to make disciples of the natives, but also exploring as a side effect. The first mission of Saint-Denis was founded in 1662, being the first major inland settlement in La Floride. Aside from missionaries, a small garrison was brought there for defense, as well as farmers to grow wheat and grapes for the communion. A second mission, Saint-Pierre-des-Chutes was founded to the north near the unofficial border with the English colonies, which made the English just slightly uncomfortable. Priest Jacques Marquette explored further inland up the Rivière Saint-Jean, eventually reaching a large mountain range and making contacts with a tribe called the Salaguis.

In the meantime, the French had heard of a great river leading to the Gulf of Mexico, so what else to do but search for the mouth of the river? The French did reach a great river leading to the Gulf, founding an outpost called Fort Saint-Esprit at the mouth, which was the first French colony on the Gulf of Mexico. However, after further exploration it was determined that the Rivière Saint-Esprit musn’t be the great river, and more expeditions were sent out in the following years.

Part 8: 1700​

Alas, a new century had dawned upon the world. It was now the 18th century, and both the English, Scottish and French had been in North America for almost a hundred years. The English were thriving in Virginia, New England and Canada, the Scottish had their colony of Nova Scotia, while the French were growing wealthy off of the cash crops of La Floride. The French level of colonization dropped off after 1675, but a ship or two of colonists arrived each year (except for a few years of the 1690’s when France was struck by famine). Meanwhile, the English colonization continued at a steady clip, with the largest amount heading to Virginia, but the fastest population growth occurred in New England and Canada due to the lower mortality rates. The English were expanding down to Lake Pibago, with Fort Ticonderoga being a supply center between the Hudson River and St. Lawrence River.

Fur trappers continued to explore the Great Lakes, hearing from the natives about a quick passage from Lake Michigan to the Great River from a place called Chicago. British traders explored OTL’s Midwest, founding forts and trading posts along the way, while the French expanded more along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, establishing settlements such as Fort Bilocci, Baye Sainte-Rose and Saint-Germain. The French discovered the mouth of the great river, which they found was called the Mississippi, and they founded the fort of La Balize at the mouth. Despite repeated hurricanes, the fort was needed to control the mouth of what was discovered to be the longest river in North America. Anyway, border disputes between France and England continued, and each side attempted to secure alliances and partnerships with the natives and build forts and trading posts across the center of this vast continent.

Part 9: Exploration of the Interior​
In the 18th century, both the British and the French were exploring the interior of North America. The British influence over the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley was being secured, as the British established forts such as Fort Michilimackinac, Fort Bawitigong, Fort Lakesend, Fort Sandusty and Fort Gaminstigwea in the Great Lakes, and Fort Cumberland and Fort Kensington on the Ohio River. Explorer John Lawson played a big role in mapping the Ohio River valley, as well as finding passes across the Appalachians. Meanwhile, France continued to explore the southern part of North America, founding forts across the hinterland like Fort Jolliet, Fort Frontenac, Fort Ocmulqui, Fort Palluau and Fort Toulouse. Meanwhile, with the mouth of the Mississippi being under French control, they could explore up the river for places to settle. Further up the river along a large coastal lake, the French found a perfect place to found a trade center, and thus La Nouvelle-Orléans was founded. A series of outposts were constructed upstream along the Mississippi and rivers feeding into it, such as Baton Rouge, Natchitoches, Fort Rosalie and Fort De L’Assomption. The French forts generally had a small garrison (a few dozen men), a few priests and missionaries, and merchants to trade with the natives. In general, the British had more influence north of the 36th parallel, while the French had more influence south.

Part 10: This TL Is Back​

Ignore the two month hiatus, I will be occasionally doing updates to this TL. Anyway, allons-y!

Anyway, we’re back in the Early 18th century, and in the colonial era of North America. The population of French Florida is about 50,000, although 35% were African slaves, while the population of English Canada is 52,340 and the population of Nova Scotia is 40,000. It just so happened that as soon as the new century started, a new war had broken out. You see, in 1701, the Spanish King Charles “I’m really, really inbred” the 2nd died, likely due to complications from the aforementioned inbreeding, and the French king’s grandson Philipp was the heir to the throne. However, disputes over the Spanish and French crowns emerged, and the Habsburgs weren’t so ready to give up the Spanish throne, and thus the War of Spanish Succession had begun…

The war, while mainly fought in Europe, also saw fighting in North America, as the English sided with Austria against France. The war in North America took the form of Queen Anne’s War, a conflict over the control of the North American continent between the English on one side and the French and Spaniards on the other. Militias from Virginia fought French soldiers stationed in La Floride, and battles took place on the high seas.

In the end, not a whole lot happened, and the preexisting borders were largely maintained. In total, about 300 French colonists died during the war, as most of the deaths were either of soldiers or of allied native tribes. About 1,250 British colonists died, including 150 Canadians and 125 Nova Scotians. In the end, the North American Theatre of the War of Spanish Succession was basically a draw, with neither side coming out on top. Back in Europe, the result was a bit… complicated. Phillip kept his status as King of Spain, but in return had to revoke his claim to the French crown. Spain ceded its territory in the Low Countries and Italy to Austria.

EC/FC Parts 1-5

Part 1: The Fall of Québec​

The year is 1628, and England and France are at war. This wasn't a rare occurrence, as England and France had been enemies for centuries by this point, and this rivalry had manifested in the New World. England has established colonies around the Chesapeake Bay and along Cape Cod, while the French were further north along the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. In this particular year, English privateer David Kirke captured the city (this is the POD, as IOTL Kirke captured it a year later after the war had ended), with the French settlers being repatriated to France. After the war ended, England acquired the French colonies of Canada and Acadia. What was the French colony of Québec was renamed to Kirkestown after the man who conquered it, with that name later evolving into Kirkeston. The new English colony of Canada was granted the St. Lawrence River valley as far west as the place the French had called Montréal. What was French Acadia was now the Scottish colony of Nova Scotia, and Scottish settlers began to arrive in the region. Settlers from the British Isles began to move into what had been French Canada, with settlements being established along the St. Lawrence River, such as Three Rivers and Mount Royal. The early settlers in Canada came primarily from England, while in Nova Scotia is was primarily Scottish settlers (duh, Nova Scotia = New Scotland). During the English Civil War of the 1640s and 1650s thousands of settlers from the British Isles fled to North America, with many coming to Canada and Nova Scotia. The population of Canada in 1650 was 7,250 while the population of Nova Scotia was 3,500 (all population are approximations), with a massive natural growth rate (7-9 children on average, with 4-5 surviving to adulthood) and small but steady immigration. No French presence was left in Canada due to the aforementioned repatriation, but the French would not be gone from the colonial game for long...

Part 2: French Colony​

After losing the small colonies in the north to the English, the French looked to the coastline between English Virginia and Spanish Florida to colonize. In 1631, King Louis XIII authorized a new colonial expedition to colonize this land that had previously been attempted for colonization by the French on two separate occasions. The first one was Charlesfort in 1562, which had been organized by Huguenot admiral Gaspard de Coligny and founded by Jean Ribault, but the colony was a disaster and the colonists sailed back to Europe after only a year. The second attempt was made a few years later in 1564 by Huguenot explorer René Goulaine de Laudonnière as a safe haven for French Huguenots, but he forgot not to found his colony of Fort Caroline near the Spanish, and said Spanish destroyed the colony and slaughtered the colonists. Seventy years later, and the French were looking at this area for a new colony once again, and so on the 14th of July of the year of our lord 1632, 240 Frenchmen set sail from the port of La Rochelle for the new world. After two and a half months on the high seas, they found a great spot for a new colony, with a sheltered peninsula surrounded by barrier islands and two river mouths on either side, with abundant wood and good soils, calling their new colony Rochelle after the place they had departed from months prior, and thus on October 2nd, 1632, the colony of French Florida (Florida is used for the entire Southeastern U.S. of OTL, not just the OTL State of Florida). A simple fortification was built from the local pine trees, as well as basic housing, storage, fishing boats and a small chapel. The overall terrain of the area had a resemblance to the Landes region south of Bordeaux, a mix of pine woodlands and marshes. Initally, the colonists survived off of fishing in the sheltered waters around them, plus trading with the natives (whom they had decent relations with during this time period), with experimentation of different crops in the cleared fields around them.
The summer came, and it was a HOT one. Summers in the colony of Rochelle were about 15 degrees Fahrenheit/7 degrees Celsius hotter than in La Rochelle back home, and many Frenchmen were not comfortable in such sultry conditions. Despite that, a second settler party of 180 settlers, some of whom were repatriated from Canada during the war was sent out for Floride, landing at the meeting of two rivers along the coast, adopting the native name of Chatoca for their new settlement in 1633. Farms were laid out along the river that the natives called the Neuse, and deals were made with the Tuscarora natives. Still, the biggest challenge for the French colonists weren't the natives, but the intense heat and increasingly diseases such as yellow fever that would strike and kill large numbers of settlers. A "solution" was found, but I'll get to that at a later date (hint: it's not a good thing). In the meantime, French Nobleman Jérôme le Royer de la Dauversière founded a religious mission of Ville-Marie to the southwest of the two colonies in order to proselytize to the natives of the region. The settlers were getting used to their new home, and starting to build a successful settlement in the region they called Neusequia (French: La Neusequie), a name adapted from the natives (basically the eastern part of OTL North Carolina).

Part 3: Compagnie de la Floride​

With the new French colony established on the Florida Coast, the crown gave control of the region to the newly chartered Compagnie de la Floride, or Company of Florida in English in 1635. The crown had several requirements for the company, such as making the colony profitable and recruiting 5000 settlers over the next 25 years to come to La Floride, or 200 per year, of which 1/3rd have to be women. During the first trades with the natives, the natives gave the captain of the settler party a plant and told him to smoke it. When he took a puff, a funny, yet good feeling, and thus Florida's tobacco industry was born. Wealthy French merchants and seigneurs bought land in and around the Neusequia colony, but eventually looked elsewhere. South of the existing colonies, new settlements such as Port Saint-Michel, Port Armand and Nouvelle-Charlesfort were established (although Nouvelle-Charlesfort is "New" because it was established on the site of the aforementioned Charlesfort). Initially, indentured servants and convicts were brought in to work the plantations, but the subtropical climate and diseases would take a toll quickly on them, with half dying within two years, not to mention that tobacco is very labor intensive. So, a replacement was found...

Ugh, you knew it was coming

In 1641, the first shipment of 50 African slaves was made to the port of Rochelle, marking the first appearance of the peculiar institution in La Floride, but it would be entrenched from there on out. Very early on, it was noticed that Africans were less affected by diseases such as Malaria and Yellow Fever than Europeans or Amerindians, and thus were less prone to die of said diseases. While Neusequia imported some slaves but mainly remained a white farming colony, the new southern colony of Armandia (French: L'Armandie) became heavily dependent on African slaves, especially in the coastal lowlands, and soon got an African majority population. The main crops grown on the plantations were tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo and sugarcane, all of which were labor intensive crops, while white farmers grew mainly wheat and corn as well as raising animals like cattle and sheep. The border with English Virginia was drawn along the Roanoke River, with the border west of there being unclear and vague.

Part 4: Colony of Canada​

The English and Scottish colonies of Canada and Nova Scotia were thriving by the 1650’s, with thousands of settlers living there and due to unrest back home (cough cough Cromwell) thousands more were arriving. The shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence was rapidly being settled with new settlements like Brellington, Wolf River, Mactan and Gaspay, settled by everyone from Anglicans to Puritans to Scotsmen to Germans. Canada’s population by 1675 had grown to 25,000, while Nova Scotia had grown to 11,500. Meanwhile, the British went out building forts around the Great Lakes region, including Fort Catarockway, Fort Odawa, Fort Toronto, Fort Niagara and Fort Stuart in order to solidify British control and make bases for the thriving fur trade. Speaking of the fur trade, most fur traders were of Scottish or Irish origin and would take canoe trips up into the Great Lakes, going as far as Lake’s End (which would evolve to Lakesend over time) to trade furs, before returning to one of the forts or the burgeoning settlement of Mount Royal. They would often marry or otherwise… umm… engage in relations with native women, forming a new racial group of mixed white-native people known as the Measca (coming from the Gaelic word for Mixed, as previously mentioned most fur traders were Irish or Scottish). Back in the settled region, the climate of Canada and Nova Scotia was ideal for growing wheat and barley, and the St. Lawrence valley quickly became one of the breadbaskets of the English Colonies (along with the Middle Colonies). On the Middle Colonies, the English still took New Amsterdam from the Dutch and still named it New York, so not much changes there. By 1675, Kirkeston had grown to 2,500 residents, being the largest city in the former French territories. 

Part 5: Emerging Classes​

Despite being a young and lightly settled colony, French Floride was already showing divisions within its society developing, namely between the rich landlords and the yeoman farmers.
The rich landowners were often of noble or aristocratic background and had lots of money upon arrival. Purchasing land along rivers on the coastal plain, they build lavish plantation houses, usually inspired by Roman Villas and various Châteaux across France, fueled by massive amounts of money from growing ca$h crops like Tobacco, Cotton, Indigo, Rice and Sugarcane. Of course with ca$h crops come slavery, and boy were the rich plantation owners into that. Early on it was figured that Africans were immune to tropical diseases like malaria and yellow fever, while Europeans and Amerindians would die (the cause was unknown at the time, but the result was clear, as 1/4th of the colony died of yellow fever in 1638). We all know how awful the conditions and treatment of slaves were, so let’s skip that and get to the yeoman farmers.
Most of the (white) settlers in La Floride weren’t aristocrats or nobles, but normal farmers, craftsmen, artisans and the like. In the 1660's, hundreds of unmarried women were sent over to be wives to the male settlers, who were overrepresented in the Floridien population up to that point. French farmers often preferred to settle further inland in the Piedmont where diseases weren’t as much of a problem. With the Indigenous populations being decimated by diseases, much open and fertile land was available, and with less disease in the interior and an extremely high birth rate (7-9 children per woman), the white population of La Floride began to soar, growing from 3,629 in 1650 to 11,159 in 1670. These class divides, as well as the slavery issue would become very important in the future, but I am tired and not in a mood to talk about it now.