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.
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