AH Challenge: German Colonial League

I have recently been bouncing an idea around of a German Trading League that manages to establish colonies in the Americas. So I decided to avoid the primary pitfall and distance the challenge from the Hansa. Your challenge is to create this German Colonial Trading League, either from the Hansa or completely from scratch, acting on behalf of either a single German state or several who are pooling their resources. It must also be successful, managing to maintain its colonies in the America's and further afield. Think of it being like the British East India Company in the Americas, speaking German.

Where the colonies are and which German minors participating in the League is flexible. The only limitations are that the PoD is not allowed to be earlier that 1200 AD and no later than 1600 AD and that this League is not allowed to be tied to the HRE. So these colonies and the League do not owe loyalty to the Emperor.

What can you come up with?
 
Is no one interested :(? I thought this would have earned at least a few comments. Very well, in that case I will start off with an idea I had recently. Note, I know the year each event is set isn’t specified, that is because this whole thing is very rough, so bear with me.

During the Second Crusade, Egypt falls to the Crusaders and becomes a Crusader Kingdom. With access to the Red Sea and the rich trade of India and China the Italian merchant states begin accumulating a huge amount of wealth. This serves to infuriate the northern German Free Cities, who have little access to the Outremer and the rich trade. As a result, the lords of northern Germany begin pondering the possibilities of a direct route to China, thus bypassing the Italian dominated Eastern Mediterranean. A miscalculation of the circumference of the Earth leads them to believe that they could indeed finance an expedition to China and, with any luck, monopolising the route.

An expedition sets sail from Bristol, only to land in OTL Newfoundland. After realising that this was not China, but a new land with resources that could be exploited, the expeditionary team return to the newly rebuilt Lubeck to bring news of their discovery. Soon more expeditions are sent to explore, reaching into the OTL St Lawrence and as far south as the Caribbean. Several small settlements are set up by merchants along the coast of America (Not changing the name for ease of understanding) to better exploit the economic potential of the land, shipping the goods they gather off to European markets. These settlements are mostly independent from any power, acting unofficially as a separate entity from their investors in Germany.

Some settlements died out, thanks to competition and other European powers gaining their own interests in the region. Many of their outposts in OTL Virginia, Dixie and the Caribbean were lost to stronger empires. However, several outposts remained in the north, around the Mouth of the St Lawrence and Quebec. They grew into large cities, becoming too difficult to take over with force and instead became places of commerce for the other European powers. Although their monopoly of New World trade was long gone, they remained on the continent, being able to survive by playing each of the other powers against each other.

Plausible, or ASB? What do you think?
 
Top