AHC: French Algeria, a century early

That's possible but probably would have less of an impact as the British might get it after the 7 years war. Also, precisely that, France didn't have that much resource to attack a fiefdom of one of the leading European players of the time.
 
The problem with the French colonialization project was that they were too much of the top dog on the continent -that was where they were dominant and that was where the game was at. There was very little reason for them to think of expansion outside of Europe beyond trade posts. Britain was different because they were not a major player on the continent, and tended not to field large conventional armies for conquest or counter-conquest on the European mainland. Instead they focused on trade and empire building abroad to support their island home.

In order to get a serious colonization/empirialism project going, you need to remove the emphasis on the playing field that was Central Europe at the time.

Either make all of Germany plus northern Italy so poor that France doesn't bother trying to dominate them, or remove France's status as major agricultural/population centre, thus taking away their status as Europe's top military powerhouse. Either one is going to be difficult without a PoD that butterflies away what it means to be European in the first place.
 
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