Deleted member 67076
With a POD of whenever you want, have French become a major language (at least 10% of the Population speaking it) within the United States. No, Canada cannot be annexed. Nor Haiti.
With a POD of whenever you want, have French become a major language (at least 10% of the Population speaking it) within the United States. No, Canada cannot be annexed. Nor Haiti.
If there are more people in the Louisiana territory, maybe that could give you 10% of the population at the time. They will pretty quickly get assimilated and will probably stop speaking french.
With Richelieu allowing protestants to settle in North America there would have been a massive population, with the added benefit of a highly skilled workforce with a lot of money not going to other countries like the Netherland, Germany and the UK (or you know, time adequate equivalents).
By doing that you strengthen French positions in NA and weaken other countries.
Also, I always read when the US voted on which language to adopt, French lost to English by only one vote. Maybe that's something to dig?
There are plenty of possible sources for a higher French-speaking population, including the Acadians, Huguenot immigrants, Quebecois immigrants in New England, Metis, Missouri French, and possibly French royalist immigration after the French Revolution (see the French Azilum scheme). The problem is that these groups have little in common with one another and will likely remain divided upon political, religious, racial, cultural, and class lines no matter how much you boost their populations.
The Missouri French are the most intriguing link, however, being right in the middle of everything. What if the Missouri French intermarried with the Native Americans and escaped slaves to create something of a Metis population in the Midwest? Something along the lines of the tri-racial isolates of OTL but bigger, less isolated, and French-speaking. The Metis in Canada absorbed plenty of Scotch-Irish pioneers so maybe this population could as well, and the Huguenots with them. A culture that constantly grows due to its racial openness but isn't absorbed into the larger society due to the racist attitudes of the majority. There are plenty of cases of this happening in American history, from the Louisiania Creoles, the Jersey Dutch, the Seminoles, and the various English-speaking tri-racial isolates such as the Melungeons, Red Bones, Black Feet, Brass Ankles, and Carmel Indians.
Rharris, I don't think reversing Spain/France is plausible
France had no reason at the time to launch itself in such a grand enterprise as our economy wasn't reliant on spice trade (at least not importation from afar). France is a fertile land at the crossroad of Europe, much easier to cultivate your land than to seek something else, we only came way later in the race. Then again, I can be wrong and please correct me if I am
The big divergence can be the 7 years war, when we lost Quebec (and India...). Keep Dupleix in place in India, French India stays a much stronger force. 7 years war, as we don't lose India, or at least since it resists much strongly, the British cannot force France to cede its colonies.