It's totally okay for me, I suck at maps too.
It's perfectly fine
Antarctic France Timeline: a French Southern Cone in America.
- Thread starter JosephWorld
- Start date
JosephWorld
Banned
Part X: Butterfly moment, relations with foreign colonial powers.
A colonisation race between the colonial powers had started in the 1630s in the Caribbean, in order to gain control of incredibly juicy islands. These tropical islands were used as open-air prisons where thousands of slaves worked on sugar cane plantations. Sugar had become "white gold", flooding European markets and making the New World planters extremely rich.
France also wanted a piece of the pie, but unlike in the Southern Cone where it had become master, French colonisation in the Caribbean was thwarted by the Spanish Armada. Spain hated France because France had eaten up large parts of its colonial empire, and there was no way for them that France could colonise any territory outside the Southern Cone. Spanish sailors were therefore ordered to sink any French ship that tried to make an incursion into the Caribbean and France never succeeded in establishing permanent colonies there.
But France's containment in the Southern Cone had astonishing consequences in its relations with the mortal enemy, England. It was clear that France would become a South American power while England would become a North American power. In 1664, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed: it divided the American continent into two spheres of influence, a French sphere south of the equator and an English sphere north of the equator. This treaty was nicknamed "the second Treaty of Tordesillas" and led to a considerable improvement in relations between France and England, after centuries of being enemies.
A colonisation race between the colonial powers had started in the 1630s in the Caribbean, in order to gain control of incredibly juicy islands. These tropical islands were used as open-air prisons where thousands of slaves worked on sugar cane plantations. Sugar had become "white gold", flooding European markets and making the New World planters extremely rich.
France also wanted a piece of the pie, but unlike in the Southern Cone where it had become master, French colonisation in the Caribbean was thwarted by the Spanish Armada. Spain hated France because France had eaten up large parts of its colonial empire, and there was no way for them that France could colonise any territory outside the Southern Cone. Spanish sailors were therefore ordered to sink any French ship that tried to make an incursion into the Caribbean and France never succeeded in establishing permanent colonies there.
But France's containment in the Southern Cone had astonishing consequences in its relations with the mortal enemy, England. It was clear that France would become a South American power while England would become a North American power. In 1664, the Treaty of Portsmouth was signed: it divided the American continent into two spheres of influence, a French sphere south of the equator and an English sphere north of the equator. This treaty was nicknamed "the second Treaty of Tordesillas" and led to a considerable improvement in relations between France and England, after centuries of being enemies.
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I assume New France is mostly butterflied away in this case?
And I assume since the area is not well-suited to plantation economy, slavery in Antarctic France would be limited to the tobacco plantations in the North?
And I assume since the area is not well-suited to plantation economy, slavery in Antarctic France would be limited to the tobacco plantations in the North?
JosephWorld
Banned
Part XI: Colonisation in the second half of the 17th century.
As the years went by, Antarctic France became more and more populous, while metropolitan France faced many famines, such as the one in 1652 which made a huge number of victims in the Paris Basin and in central and north-eastern France. Between the 1630s and the 1650s, nearly 20,000 French people arrived in Antarctic France, most of whom wanted to live in a world where the climate made the land extremely fertile, so that they would never again go hungry...
By the 1665 census, there were nearly 100,000 French settlers throughout Antarctic France. Added to this, 40,000 Hispanics and mestizos who stayed, and nearly 3,000 slaves who worked mainly on the plantations of the colony of Sainte-Catherine and in the rice fields of the Duck Lagoon. This gave a total of nearly 140,000 inhabitants in the French territories of the Southern Cone, not counting the tens of thousands of Amerindians who also lived in the region...
The plantations in the French Antarctic were becoming more and more profitable and the St Catherine colony was booming economically. Many black slaves were brought from Africa and sent to the tobacco plantations, but due to the close proximity of large Guarani settlement areas, French planters regularly raided the hinterland to enslave Amerindians. So almost a third of the slaves in Antarctic France in the second half of the 17th century were Amerindians. The abuses committed against the Amerindians by the French colonists also considerably reduced their demography: a century after being struck by the scourge of diseases brought by the Europeans, they were threatened with extinction...
In the 1660s, the French planters, who could not benefit from the economic opportunities in the Caribbean, decided to move north from the colony of St Catherine towards the tropics. The French encroachment on the Portuguese colonial domain increased the rivalry between the French and the Portuguese. Numerous skirmishes broke out between French colonists, Portuguese explorers (looking for gold in the region) and Portuguese troops of the colony of Rio de Janeiro. These skirmishes degenerated into a new colonial conflict in 1688 after Portugal joined the coalition camp against Louis XIV in the Nine Years' War. Antarctic France quickly gained the upper hand and the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked in 1692 by French colonial troops. At the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Portugal was forced to definitively recognise French sovereignty over the territories south of the Tropic of Capricorn (the border between the colony of Rio de Janeiro and Antarctic France was now at the level of the mouth of the Tiete River : the small poor village of Saint-Paul, on the weastern bank of the river, was thus annexed to Antarctic France). As a result, the French colony of Parana was created and quickly became a prosperous colony due to its much more tropical climate than in the rest of Antarctic France, which allowed planters to dot the colony's hinterland (behind the coastal mountains of Sea's Ridge) with sugarcane plantations, and due to its large pine resources which allowed the exploitation of the wood.
As the years went by, Antarctic France became more and more populous, while metropolitan France faced many famines, such as the one in 1652 which made a huge number of victims in the Paris Basin and in central and north-eastern France. Between the 1630s and the 1650s, nearly 20,000 French people arrived in Antarctic France, most of whom wanted to live in a world where the climate made the land extremely fertile, so that they would never again go hungry...
By the 1665 census, there were nearly 100,000 French settlers throughout Antarctic France. Added to this, 40,000 Hispanics and mestizos who stayed, and nearly 3,000 slaves who worked mainly on the plantations of the colony of Sainte-Catherine and in the rice fields of the Duck Lagoon. This gave a total of nearly 140,000 inhabitants in the French territories of the Southern Cone, not counting the tens of thousands of Amerindians who also lived in the region...
The plantations in the French Antarctic were becoming more and more profitable and the St Catherine colony was booming economically. Many black slaves were brought from Africa and sent to the tobacco plantations, but due to the close proximity of large Guarani settlement areas, French planters regularly raided the hinterland to enslave Amerindians. So almost a third of the slaves in Antarctic France in the second half of the 17th century were Amerindians. The abuses committed against the Amerindians by the French colonists also considerably reduced their demography: a century after being struck by the scourge of diseases brought by the Europeans, they were threatened with extinction...
In the 1660s, the French planters, who could not benefit from the economic opportunities in the Caribbean, decided to move north from the colony of St Catherine towards the tropics. The French encroachment on the Portuguese colonial domain increased the rivalry between the French and the Portuguese. Numerous skirmishes broke out between French colonists, Portuguese explorers (looking for gold in the region) and Portuguese troops of the colony of Rio de Janeiro. These skirmishes degenerated into a new colonial conflict in 1688 after Portugal joined the coalition camp against Louis XIV in the Nine Years' War. Antarctic France quickly gained the upper hand and the city of Rio de Janeiro was sacked in 1692 by French colonial troops. At the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, Portugal was forced to definitively recognise French sovereignty over the territories south of the Tropic of Capricorn (the border between the colony of Rio de Janeiro and Antarctic France was now at the level of the mouth of the Tiete River : the small poor village of Saint-Paul, on the weastern bank of the river, was thus annexed to Antarctic France). As a result, the French colony of Parana was created and quickly became a prosperous colony due to its much more tropical climate than in the rest of Antarctic France, which allowed planters to dot the colony's hinterland (behind the coastal mountains of Sea's Ridge) with sugarcane plantations, and due to its large pine resources which allowed the exploitation of the wood.
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So probably they will, in due course, take over the rest of Argentina, except of the north?
JosephWorld
Banned
Part XII: The reign of Louis XIV.
By the mid-1680s, there were nearly 240,000 settlers living in the Southern Cone. The number of slaves in Antarctic France had also boomed in nearly two decades, rising from a few thousand in the early 1660s to nearly 15,000, they were mostly imported from the Gulf of Guinea which directly faced the Atlantic coast of South America.
Louis XIV was one of the greatest kings in French history. He waged imperialist wars against most of Europe for half a century, wich always resulted in stunning victories, and managed to push France's northern and eastern frontier deep into the decaying Habsburg Empire. To carry out his wars, Louis XIV could count on the English withdrawal from continental European affairs (he had succeeded in securing English neutrality in 1664 with the Treaty of Portsmouth, as this treaty had extinguished the last rivalries with England and instituted a cordial agreement between the two countries), as well as on the profitability of Antarctic France (which made it possible to replenish the state coffers that were too often empty).
In 1713, following the War of the Spanish Succession, two years before the death of the Sun King, the Treaty of Utrecht had made France the leading European power: Louis XIV's grandson, Philip V, had been installed on the Spanish throne. France had even been able to annex the whole of the Catholic Netherlands and thus extend its northern border to the border with the United Provinces. But 1713 is not the most important date in the reign of Louis XIV, it's undoubtedly 1685, because it changed the face of Antarctic France and the face of the whole world forever...
By the mid-1680s, there were nearly 240,000 settlers living in the Southern Cone. The number of slaves in Antarctic France had also boomed in nearly two decades, rising from a few thousand in the early 1660s to nearly 15,000, they were mostly imported from the Gulf of Guinea which directly faced the Atlantic coast of South America.
Louis XIV was one of the greatest kings in French history. He waged imperialist wars against most of Europe for half a century, wich always resulted in stunning victories, and managed to push France's northern and eastern frontier deep into the decaying Habsburg Empire. To carry out his wars, Louis XIV could count on the English withdrawal from continental European affairs (he had succeeded in securing English neutrality in 1664 with the Treaty of Portsmouth, as this treaty had extinguished the last rivalries with England and instituted a cordial agreement between the two countries), as well as on the profitability of Antarctic France (which made it possible to replenish the state coffers that were too often empty).
In 1713, following the War of the Spanish Succession, two years before the death of the Sun King, the Treaty of Utrecht had made France the leading European power: Louis XIV's grandson, Philip V, had been installed on the Spanish throne. France had even been able to annex the whole of the Catholic Netherlands and thus extend its northern border to the border with the United Provinces. But 1713 is not the most important date in the reign of Louis XIV, it's undoubtedly 1685, because it changed the face of Antarctic France and the face of the whole world forever...
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JosephWorld
Banned
Part XIII: The population explosion, years 1680-1710.
Louis XIV was a very Catholic king who never missed a single Sunday mass in his life, and he hated Protestant heresy. In 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes by signing the Edict of Fontainebleau, thus ending religious tolerance towards the Huguenots. But the Huguenot settlers had a clear numerical majority in the French colonies of the Southern Cone, without them Antarctic France could not exist and France could not benefit from a prosperous economy thanks to colonisation... Louis XIV was therefore forced to apply his policy of repression against the Protestants only in metropolitan France and to continue the policy of tolerance in the New World. He then offered Protestants three choices: conversion to Catholicism, the torture until the heresy is absolved, or exile to Antarctic France.
Nearly 400,000 Huguenots reconverted to Catholicism and 200,000 chose the path of exile. Antarctic France was far too remote for an exile, so most of the 200,000 exiles decided to stay in Europe and go (clandestinely) to neighbouring Protestant countries such as England or Switzerland. But almost a third of the exiles still decided to go to Antarctic France...
In a few months, 70,000 Huguenots arrived in Antarctic France and the population grew from 240,000 to 310,000! During the year 1686, ships poured hundreds of Huguenot refugees into the ports of Antarctic France every day. Most of these refugees were starving and penniless, which greatly destabilised the social order and caused an outbreak of crime...
But many Huguenot businessmen and skilled craftsmen also arrived in Antarctic France to relocate their business, which was going to greatly vitalise the economy of Antarctic France and be a drain on metropolitan France... A Huguenot merchant aristocracy was thus beginning to emerge in Antarctic France, essentially composed of Protestant families from the high bourgeoisie who had taken refuge in Antarctic France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and of a few very wealthy Protestant landowning families who had arrived in the early days of colonisation and who held a monopoly on the plantations of the Southern Cone.
From the 1660s to the 1680s, the former Spanish territories annexed by Antarctic France under the Treaty of the Pyrenees were largely marginalised. The territories were neglected by French settlers and remained populated by overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking populations. Nevertheless, things changed after 1685: many Huguenot refugees feared that the policy of persecution in metropolitan France would extend to Henriville and the main colonies of Antarctic France, so they decided to flee to the outlying territories of Antarctic France. Within a few years, thousands of Huguenot settlers flocked to the Bonaire region to live in autarkic communities in the middle of the great fertile plain of the Southern Cone. In the 1690s, many Huguenot winegrowers also arrived in the Andean regions, such as in the vicinity of Saint-Jacques-du-Nouveau-Monde, and Antarctic France began to produce alcohol in a significant way.
The famines of 1693-1694 and 1709 are among the greatest tragedies in French history, decimating almost 2 million French people (10% of the population of France at the time). They were caused by the Little Ice Age in Europe which had started at the end of the Middle Ages (the peak of the cold was reached in the 17th and 18th centuries). So, in addition to the 70,000 Huguenot refugees, 30,000 peasants fled the famine to Antarctic France. And at the 1714 census, Antarctic France was populated by 560,000 French colonists and 35,000 slaves, the demography had more than doubled in the space of thirty years!
Demographic distribution in the 1714 census:
Colony of Parana: 19,000 settlers, 8,000 slaves
St. Catherine's colony: 57,000 settlers, 24,000 slaves
King Henry's colony: 202,000 settlers, 3,000 slaves
Colony of Transargentine: 108,000 settlers
Colony of Bonaire: 121,000 settlers
Central Territories (capital : Assomption): 24,000 settlers
Andean Territories: 29,000 settlers
Jesuit reductions: 132,000 Amerindians
Louis XIV was a very Catholic king who never missed a single Sunday mass in his life, and he hated Protestant heresy. In 1685, he revoked the Edict of Nantes by signing the Edict of Fontainebleau, thus ending religious tolerance towards the Huguenots. But the Huguenot settlers had a clear numerical majority in the French colonies of the Southern Cone, without them Antarctic France could not exist and France could not benefit from a prosperous economy thanks to colonisation... Louis XIV was therefore forced to apply his policy of repression against the Protestants only in metropolitan France and to continue the policy of tolerance in the New World. He then offered Protestants three choices: conversion to Catholicism, the torture until the heresy is absolved, or exile to Antarctic France.
Nearly 400,000 Huguenots reconverted to Catholicism and 200,000 chose the path of exile. Antarctic France was far too remote for an exile, so most of the 200,000 exiles decided to stay in Europe and go (clandestinely) to neighbouring Protestant countries such as England or Switzerland. But almost a third of the exiles still decided to go to Antarctic France...
In a few months, 70,000 Huguenots arrived in Antarctic France and the population grew from 240,000 to 310,000! During the year 1686, ships poured hundreds of Huguenot refugees into the ports of Antarctic France every day. Most of these refugees were starving and penniless, which greatly destabilised the social order and caused an outbreak of crime...
But many Huguenot businessmen and skilled craftsmen also arrived in Antarctic France to relocate their business, which was going to greatly vitalise the economy of Antarctic France and be a drain on metropolitan France... A Huguenot merchant aristocracy was thus beginning to emerge in Antarctic France, essentially composed of Protestant families from the high bourgeoisie who had taken refuge in Antarctic France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and of a few very wealthy Protestant landowning families who had arrived in the early days of colonisation and who held a monopoly on the plantations of the Southern Cone.
From the 1660s to the 1680s, the former Spanish territories annexed by Antarctic France under the Treaty of the Pyrenees were largely marginalised. The territories were neglected by French settlers and remained populated by overwhelmingly Spanish-speaking populations. Nevertheless, things changed after 1685: many Huguenot refugees feared that the policy of persecution in metropolitan France would extend to Henriville and the main colonies of Antarctic France, so they decided to flee to the outlying territories of Antarctic France. Within a few years, thousands of Huguenot settlers flocked to the Bonaire region to live in autarkic communities in the middle of the great fertile plain of the Southern Cone. In the 1690s, many Huguenot winegrowers also arrived in the Andean regions, such as in the vicinity of Saint-Jacques-du-Nouveau-Monde, and Antarctic France began to produce alcohol in a significant way.
The famines of 1693-1694 and 1709 are among the greatest tragedies in French history, decimating almost 2 million French people (10% of the population of France at the time). They were caused by the Little Ice Age in Europe which had started at the end of the Middle Ages (the peak of the cold was reached in the 17th and 18th centuries). So, in addition to the 70,000 Huguenot refugees, 30,000 peasants fled the famine to Antarctic France. And at the 1714 census, Antarctic France was populated by 560,000 French colonists and 35,000 slaves, the demography had more than doubled in the space of thirty years!
Demographic distribution in the 1714 census:
Colony of Parana: 19,000 settlers, 8,000 slaves
St. Catherine's colony: 57,000 settlers, 24,000 slaves
King Henry's colony: 202,000 settlers, 3,000 slaves
Colony of Transargentine: 108,000 settlers
Colony of Bonaire: 121,000 settlers
Central Territories (capital : Assomption): 24,000 settlers
Andean Territories: 29,000 settlers
Jesuit reductions: 132,000 Amerindians
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JosephWorld
Banned
I am now going to make a table to show the demography of the different colonies of Antarctic France in the first half of the 18th century.
They will take everything! Even the Chaco region (which will be colonised in the 19th century).
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JosephWorld
Banned
Yes, I'm going to do a fun part where the French manage to rally the Mapuche and conquer Chile. I promise, this will be the last territory that France will conquer...
Will Antarctic France take the Parana river and the Rio La Plata river? Otl no one controls the basin in its entirety, If the Huguenots control the entire basin it would be the Hegemon of South America, but I think it won’t fight with the US much because of the distances involved. Will we see a South American Front in ittl WWI?
Hey now the Rhine border is like one more tiny step…
Neat idea, quite intrigued to see where it goes
Neat idea, quite intrigued to see where it goes
WW1 is over 300 years away from the POD, I doubt anything like OTL's WW1 would still happen in any recognizable form with such a long divergence.
I’m really curious what a South American Métis culture is like with the French. I guess French Guiana would be the closest analogue.
No, that’s why its more of an analogue. I think its very possible that something similar to WWI would occur though. How that would happen would be very different. At this point different countries may have different destinies.
What happens to Poland Lithuania ittl?. Maybe the ittl deluge is less brutal to the Polish? Other European powers that become powerful would be very interesting ittl. Things going differently in Germany, Scandinavia (united Scandinavia?), Spain, and Italy would be interesting.
JosephWorld
Banned
To be honest, I have no idea what will happen to all those European countries you mentioned. The problem with alternative history is that the butterflies end up being absolutely unpredictable and make the world unrecognisable. So in the rest of this Timeline, I think I'm going to focus on the American continent in a very fictional way, and leave the rest of the world out of it a bit (with a Europe that is not radically different from OTL).
JosephWorld
Banned
I don't think that Antarctic France will be similar to French Guiana. French Guiana is Afro-Caribbean in culture as there has always been an overwhelming majority of black people living in the region. Whereas in Antarctic France, as in the United States, black people will not represent more than 15% of the population.
So I guess we still get Russia and Germany in the 20th century? Then we should see a very interesting WWI since the circumstances are similar enough. What other divergences will we see in America? Like, who colonises Cascadia/California ittl? And what are the dynamics of ittl US of A? Like with basically Canada (from what I'm assuming) being part of the US (since Quebec isn't going to exist considering the alternative is much better) Britain should lose control of all of North America at once, which should be bad for their pride. That would affect how people go to different colonies in the British Empire. Would a bunch of loyalists go to South Africa? Or would they go to Australia/New Zealand? What happens to both countries?
PS: Sarawak wank is always fun.