AHC/WI: French settle eastern seabord of North America, English settle Canada and Louisiana

How can we reverse the historical patterns of settlement in North America, so that the French settle in OTL's Thirteen Colonies and the English/British settle in OTL's Quebec and Louisiana? And how would this affect the history of the region?
 
Oh yeah, didn't notice that... Still, not quite the same though; I was thinking of the French colonising the whole of OTL's Thirteen Colonies, and the English getting Quebec and Louisiana without any French settlements there first.

I’d say have the original Fort Caroline settlement by French Protestants be a little further north near Chesapeake Bay or the Delaware River rather than in Florida. It’s a nice central location to start french colonization of the eastern seaboard
 
Well if this new French America attracts the same number of French colonists that our Louisiana and Quebec did then it seems very likely it's slowly encroached by English settlers until it's eventually subsumed or conquered. To keep the east coast the French are going to need a lot more settlement.
 
Well if this new French America attracts the same number of French colonists that our Louisiana and Quebec did then it seems very likely it's slowly encroached by English settlers until it's eventually subsumed or conquered. To keep the east coast the French are going to need a lot more settlement.

That’s why Fort Caroline succeeding outside Florida would be good because Protestants seeking refuge
 
Well if this new French America attracts the same number of French colonists that our Louisiana and Quebec did then it seems very likely it's slowly encroached by English settlers until it's eventually subsumed or conquered. To keep the east coast the French are going to need a lot more settlement.

Extra settlers would certainly help, though it shouldn't be impossible: Bourbon France was one of the most populous countries in Europe, so the manpower's there, and as I recall the country was quite overpopulated by the 18th century (this overpopulation, or more precisely a resultant food shortage, ended up being a major factor in the French Revolution). IOTL the French government was quite worried about splitting up the country's manpower and so didn't do much to encourage settlement in the colonies, but it doesn't seem to implausible that Louis XIV or XV would realise the country is getting too many people to feed and decide to offload some of the surplus population onto the Americas.
 
Well if this new French America attracts the same number of French colonists that our Louisiana and Quebec did then it seems very likely it's slowly encroached by English settlers until it's eventually subsumed or conquered. To keep the east coast the French are going to need a lot more settlement.

There will probably be fewer English settlers though. Canada is not a place to get rich and its climate is a shock.

Apparently of the 15 000 colonists that were sent to Canada under French rule, 10 000 returned to France. On the east coast perhaps more stay.
 
Any colonial power that owns the Chesapeake Bay is in a excellent position to own the East Coast. The French do not have to be the first to colonize the region, just the first to be successful. Early English colonies like Jamestown could fail and cause the English to abandon the region. Once they realize that that was a mistake, it will be too late. Area is already French.

You would also want to alter the French Wars of Religion to create a larger French population that is also suffers from religious persecution. This would create a population of French emigrants who would go to settler colonies. As in OTL, religious freedom is one of the best reasons for to get people to emigrate, along with profit.

And how would this affect the history of the region?
You are altering an entire region. There would be so many changes it would be hard to list them all. All sorts of things will have different names. I think that overall the treatment of the natives would be even worse than in OTL since the French have no reason to play nice here. They would be much more conquest oriented than in OTL. And the English settlers will be acting like OTL... so overall the natives have no friends here, except maybe if the Dutch keep New Amsterdam as a buffer region between the English and the French, but there is a good chance that will be annexed by one of the two like in OTL.

One thing though, if there are major religious differences between the French Colonies and France proper, say the former is mostly Protestant and the latter Catholic like in OTL, there could be major tensions. I think we might see a the French Colonies declaring independence from France sooner than the English Colonies did in OTL and they would receive a lot of international support as a way to weaken France. Though this is just a projection of what may happen.
 
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I find it likely that the English colony would be less populated than the Thirteen Colonies of OTL. Regions such as OTL New Orleans and Quebec City would probably have population levels akin to those of the Thirteen Colonies, however, the interior and northernmost parts of this English colonial empire will remain sparsely populated for centuries.

I have to say that the idea of the British and French both having populated colonies in North America has very interesting potential. Imagine two independent and powerful nations with a violent history that goes back centuries that are known for constant clashes not unlike the North American front of the Seven Years War.
 
I have to say that the idea of the British and French both having populated colonies in North America has very interesting potential. Imagine two independent and powerful nations with a violent history that goes back centuries that are known for constant clashes not unlike the North American front of the Seven Years War.

Yes, that does sound interesting, and I wonder what the effects would be. Quite possibly any independence movements would be delayed well past their OTL date, since each state would want the support of the rest of the empire in dealing with their enemies; it might also make Anglo-French relations worse in the 19th century, as there are now many more potential flash-points which could lead to conflict. Though if something like OTL's French Revolution happens, it would be interesting to see how French North America reacts -- if they decide not to go along with the revolution they'd be too big and far away for the new regime to subjugate, so perhaps we'd see the Bourbons fleeing across the Atlantic and establishing a sort of Kingdom of France in exile. (And maybe later during the 19th century, the Bourbons could flee there in 1830 or 1848, and FNA could end up becoming independent by default. Which would be interesting for the country's self-image, as presumably they'd see themselves as the rightful continuators of France, rather than a new nation like OTL's United States.)
 
(And maybe later during the 19th century, the Bourbons could flee there in 1830 or 1848, and FNA could end up becoming independent by default. Which would be interesting for the country's self-image, as presumably they'd see themselves as the rightful continuators of France, rather than a new nation like OTL's United States.)
Kind of like Taiwan and PRC, except much more balanced numerically and geopolitically?
 
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