AHC: Dutch United States

With POD at whenever, make a United States that was a) historically Dutch colony b) separated peacefully from the Netherlands c) big as OTL US.
Extra points if Dutch Royal family escapes to the US during the Napoleonic Wars.
EDIT: not the royal family. the hereditary president.
 
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that last request needs a big pod :)

pre-napoleontic area the United Provinces were a republic, and the stadtholder was effectively a hereditary president.


so somewhere they have to become a kingdom.
 
that last request needs a big pod :)

pre-napoleontic area the United Provinces were a republic, and the stadtholder was effectively a hereditary president.


so somewhere they have to become a kingdom.
my mistake. the hereditary president then.
the post will be edited.
 
doesn't really matter, stadtholder or king, the effect in the end is pretty much the same.

would be fun though if the result would be that around otl napoleon wars the dutch us would still be part of the us, and then some discussion erupts about the form of government. Historically there was always arguing between pro-orangist faction ( who would love for the UP to become a kingdom)and the anti-orangist faction who prefer to get rid of them and start yet another stadtholderless era.
So the UP/netherlands proper is anti-orangist and the Amerika colony is pro-orangist. the house of orange-nassau flees to the Amerika colony and the colonies go their own separate ways as the UP and as an american kingdom under the house of orange. ( bit like what happened with Portugal & Brazil)
 
Any PoD that makes the Dutch settlers more powerful than the English would begin, at minimum, 200 years before Napoleon. So I'm guessing you just mean "any later European continental war"?

To achieve this challenge, you have to keep the English/British settlers away from America. Once the waves of settlers started coming, the British colonies' path toward continental domination was just about inevitable, because of demographics alone. The Dutch (and French) went to the colonies in numbers that were tiny compared with the English. There were major population dynamics in England at the time that led such huge numbers to emigrate.

Is there any way that most of these English could instead settle in Ireland? Maybe some plague in the late 16th century that severely depopulates the island. The Irish Plantations then get a much larger, more stable population of English colonists. Many of the early English colonial leaders then occupy themselves in Ireland rather than America. In this scenario, Virginia might still host some English outposts that are seen mainly as pirate bases for raiding Spanish shipping.

Then, the Dutch found New Netherland and claim much of the eastern seaboard. They welcome many English Puritans, who settle in the colony under the Dutch flag. They, together with the Germans, Huguenots, and Scandinavians who moved to New Netherland in OTL, could give the colony a better demographic base.

Some kind of Anglo-Dutch Wars are probably still going to happen, but just have a few key battles tip away from the English, and have the Dutch surrender possessions other than New Netherland.
 
that last request needs a big pod :)

pre-napoleontic area the United Provinces were a republic, and the stadtholder was effectively a hereditary president.

so somewhere they have to become a kingdom.

Head of State that is lifelong and passed down by blood = monarchy. Doubly so with modern dictators. Didn't the old time definition of republic vary a little from its modern counterpart. I've heard it said that in the old Italian republics, which were sometimes controlled by families like the Medici, that the citizenry were loyal to the city and not its head. Now that sort of definition would work, and now I'm drifting off topic.
 
Maybe the Jamestown colony fails, as it came so very close to doing, and New Amsterdam becomes the major immigration center. To me, best case scenario would be Dutch/Puritan New England, English Virginia and Carolinas
 
Since the Dutch have a 'special liking' for us Germans, will Germantown become Moffendorp in this scenario? :D
 
Since the Dutch have a 'special liking' for us Germans, will Germantown become Moffendorp in this scenario? :D

:D Actually, you cannot get a larger New Netherlands woithout significant German settlement. The United provonces alone have not bearly enough people to send overseas.

One possibility: The Catholic and Lutheran princes of the HRE find common ground in crushing the upstart Calvinists in Hesse, Nassau, the Palatinate, Ansbach-Nuremberg and along the Nether Rhine. The purple areas in the map below.
Second possibility: After an early Habsburg victory in the 30YW, not only Calvinists, but also German Lutherans are forced to emigrate in larger numbers, form the pink areas in the map below.

In this case New Netherlands might fare better and encompass OTL NY, NJ, DE, Pa and perhaps even OH.

religion1618.gif


1890-germans.jpg
 
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