Any chance that a French king becomes Columbus' patron and we get French conquistadores instead of Spanish ones?
Any chance that a French king becomes Columbus' patron and we get French conquistadores instead of Spanish ones?
What if France were able to attain a boundary at the Rhine far earlier in its history giving it "natural defenses" and such? I'd imagine this would require a far different division of Charlemagne's Empire though...
A pre-"Colombian" PoD in which France is no longer Mediterranean country? This would focus them strongly on the Atlantic affairs?
A pre-"Colombian" PoD in which France is no longer Mediterranean country? This would focus them strongly on the Atlantic affairs?
In fact, it would be the contrary : it would make France even less encline to consider seafare as worthy. Don't forget the Mediterranea was more or less the practice terrain of european fleet (that and North Sea).
A better POD would have a more earlier Mediterranean France that happens to hold large portions of Spain (Aragon for seafare earns bonus points).
The perenial problem of France from the age of discoveries all the way to the present day is that France has got her arse between two chairs as we would say in French. One chair is a continental strategy and the other one is a maritime strategy.
Let's not even talk about the fact that French maritime power is divided between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean as well for geographic reasons.
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how long time france needed to control its mediterranean shore? wasnt marseille for long time not part of france?
I think a good POD would be before the war againts the Franco-Dutch. At that time the economy was rather good, Colbert was in charge and start some projects to increase the economy with mercantilism, the development of factories, enlarge the fleet and so on, the borders were pretty safe with Vauban doing his job of fortification, the Edicts of Nantes not revoked yet, so the Huguenots were still in France...
So what if instead of attacking the Dutch, Louis XIV decided to expand his territories in the Americas ?
France is still awkwardly positioned relative to the Baltic, which makes building up the navy more problematic than for England or the Netherlands (and making comparisons to Spain isn't solving the problem, I'm talking what inconvenienced France OTL).
Also, why would Louis prefer American colonies? What do they promise?
Spain has taken all the nice fat parts of the Americas, which leaves dreary development of settler colonies. Or war with Spain.
For the Baltic, there's nothing France can really do. And for the Americas, it was more an exemple, I could have said India (the French started to settle there in 1673). And Spain isn't really threatening since the thirty years war.
My point is France is in a relative good shape if she wanted to expend her colonies or create new ones.
Yes they were still a large and immensely powerful force, but compare them to Britain and her empire and they seem like an embarrassment.
France is still awkwardly positioned relative to the Baltic, which makes building up the navy more problematic than for England or the Netherlands (and making comparisons to Spain isn't solving the problem, I'm talking what inconvenienced France OTL).
Have France conquer England, and then the rest of Britain gets fractured into Wales and Scotland. There is no British rivalry to deal with anymore and so France is free to take the nicer colonies.