Lusitania
Donor
I not disagreeing with you but Napoleon was adamant in creating a settler colony out of it. Heck with his drive and push the French could of made something out of it. Plains for herding, plantations and farming all mixed in.Louisiana in the New Orleans area was developing into a slave labor driven plantation economy. The area is prone to the same type of illnesses they have in other semi tropical climates. Staple food production was low, food had to be imported. The area you want to settle for a White Settler, staple crop economy is up in Arkansas, and Missouri, and west from there. The area West of the Mississippi is drier then East of the River. Then you start entering the Great Plains, with the deep sod that needs deep plow farming to break the soil. This is very labor intensive.
It took generations to cultivate that hard land of harsh continental weather, with bitter cold, intense heat, tornados, hail, and wind storms that flatten crops for miles. Most of the land is dry, so you have to dig deep wells for water. This was the land of the Buffalo herds in their millions, and swarms of locusts. It also has roving bands of nomadic Indians, who will trade with trappers, and traders, but will kill settlers. There are good reasons the Americans settled the Pacific Coast first, and filled the middle of the country in later. Living in that wilderness was a hard life. Most people aged fast, died young, and broke. To this day there are reasons the Great Plains are a low population density area of the United States. The Coasts are richer, and more densely populated.
It's a hard life for Frenchmen used to their moderate climate, and rich soil. I'm painting a picture of a land that was very hard to settle, and cultivate. Not many people would be Eager to go live in a vast harsh wilderness.
would they have the strength and will to see it through and stop America westward movement? If he at helm he would expect it and push for it. What the next leaders may do with the area not sure.