America - Albion's Orphan - A history of the conquest of Britain - 1760

[unprincipled peter]

The Spanish merchantile system was often derided as primitive by the French, British and Dutch in the past as very little beyond precious metal extraction had been removed from the vast Spanish holdings over the past century. Indeed, in the 1740's, Great Britain did more trade by bulk with Barbados, a tiny island only developed a few decades prior, than Spain did with their entire Empire.

isn't the sugar plantation system just another type of extraction, mostly benefiting a few barons and the mother country?

Not sure Barbados is a good model to hold up. You mention Spain recognizing the need for diversification. There is none on Barbados. That sugar beetle you unleashed on the caribbean will put an end to Barbados as a valuable island and having Spain being thankful it didn't put much effort into developing a sugar industry. If the beetle doesn't make it to South America, there'll be a resurgence of the sugar industry in Brazil, now held by Spain.

 

[ShortsBelfast]

Good points though I would think that Americans would think as themselves as "PURE" British, more morally superior to those in Britain whom accepted an oligarchy in Parliament and then French domination under their puppet king.

From a legal standpoint, King William is the rightful heir to both Britain and America but the Americans cast him out just like Britain had the House of Stuart a century earlier, thus "preserving English democracy".

There would be a parallel here in the Byzantine Empire (and even Ottoman Empire) where Anatolian Greeks and Thracian Slavs fervently insisted that they were in fact Romans and even the Turkish Sultan included Caesar of Rome among his titles.

 

[Wolfman217]

Good points though I would think that Americans would think as themselves as "PURE" British, more morally superior to those in Britain whom accepted an oligarchy in Parliament and then French domination under their puppet king.

From a legal standpoint, King William is the rightful heir to both Britain and America but the Americans cast him out just like Britain had the House of Stuart a century earlier, thus "preserving English democracy".

Exactly, they'd consider themselves 'PURE' British, not bending to the French yoke, so it seems odd they're purposely dropping the name. 'Pure' British? Perhaps so British they're of Britannia forever so they're....Britannian

William was, until he was put in place by the French, seeing as how French essentially destroyed the Kingdom of Great Britain by splitting it up into it's constituent parts, William, by agreeing to it, essentially revoked his claim to the Kingdom of Great Britain.

You can't be the heir of something you've agreed doesn't exist anymore.

The Kingdom of Great Britain is de facto non-existent thanks to the French - William has agreed that's the case so he has no claim to it, where as Henry and the British-in-America haven't/shouldn't and so retain a claim to it and (should) aim to reclaim it.

From a British Legal Standpoint Williams has essentially abdicated/gave up his claim by accepting the French destruction of it and becoming solely King of a now separate England and is no longer is the line of succession.

There would be a parallel here in the Byzantine Empire (and even Ottoman Empire) where Anatolian Greeks and Thracian Slavs fervently insisted that they were in fact Romans and even the Turkish Sultan included Caesar of Rome among his titles.

Again, Exactly, the British-in-America would be fervently holding onto the British name like the Greeks did with Rome. While everyone insists they're not British(Roman) they're like 'We frickin' well ARE!' We're not those Pretenders in French Britain(Germany), We're the REAL DEAL'.

Here they're actually right, they literally are the British, they're not another culture/nation claiming to be it, they actually ARE Brit's exiled/settled to/in America.

It's just, do you guys know there are NO Alt-history stories (at least what I've found and I've searched a helluvalot!) where the UK/British Empire moves it's capital to North America? Either by choice or by force. It's why, despite not being a big fan of anime or the magic-y aspect I watch/read Code Geass stuff - because it's the ONLY thing I've found where Britain/the British reinvents itself in North America. (I especially love the term 'Britannian', it sounds so much better than British, Briton, or Britannic like Britannia sounds better than Britain), bonus that it ends up a Militaristic Superpower.

This story has tons of potential - the author is good at writing, updates at an awesome pace, I like the way it's done in that it's not just a dry timeline of events or a pure historical textbook format it's a combination of normal story and the two - and it's set itself up to where what makes the most sense is exactly that, the British reinventing themselves in North America after being kicked out of Europe, and it's just disappointing to me that they're going all 'American' and it's reading like a Monarchist USA not Britian-in-America, they're are quite a few of those whether King George Washington or a Kingdom of Carolina/Virgina etc.

 

[Alt History Buff]

isn't the sugar plantation system just another type of extraction, mostly benefiting a few barons and the mother country?

Not sure Barbados is a good model to hold up. You mention Spain recognizing the need for diversification. There is none on Barbados. That sugar beetle you unleashed on the caribbean will put an end to Barbados as a valuable island and having Spain being thankful it didn't put much effort into developing a sugar industry. If the beetle doesn't make it to South America, there'll be a resurgence of the sugar industry in Brazil, now held by Spain.

Yes but my point was that very little was actually exchanged between Spain and a huge collection of colonies beyond silver and other precious resource extraction. No other exports of note had really been developed in 250 years of Spanish Empire.

 

[Alt History Buff]

There would be a parallel here in the Byzantine Empire (and even Ottoman Empire) where Anatolian Greeks and Thracian Slavs fervently insisted that they were in fact Romans and even the Turkish Sultan included Caesar of Rome among his titles.

Interesting. I never knew that though those eras aren't my area of expertise.

 

[DTF955Baseballfan]

The difference is the Parliament came firstr, and they rejected some of the more aristocratic parts of Britain, like how many people could vote.It'd be different if the aristocracy came first and then set up a Parliament.

If anything, Canada would be the better analogy. They, too, remained British in their minds, I presume, but slowly developed a system that said "We are British, yet we are not."

The king, Henry, came over when Edward was still accepted as the rightful king. He realized that, politically, he had to accept some thigns that were not like his homeland - indeed, there may have been citizens calling themselves British in the colonies up till 1776, but there were plenty of differences between them and their homeland just becasue America was much more rural,it wasn't as industrialized, there was a frontier, the people faced things there they didn't face in Britain aand so had different needs.

So, they weren't going to recreate Britain totally. The aristcrats who came over were going to be rejected becasue there were lots more common peasants who were there first and had their Parliament first. No, they're not going to be totally Britain - especially not when Britain has been divided anyway. And, there are still people alive who recall the time before the Act of Union, or at least knew people who did.

But, the title - Albion's Orphan - sort of depicts that. There should be a sense of "who are we" just like a child who loses their parents at a young age and knows nothing of their heritage.This orphan won't grow up to be what we would know as the United States, either.

BUt, he might grow up to be something like Canada.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1773 - Fall

America/England

Over the past decade since the fall of Great Britain, the new Kingdom of North America and French-installed Kingdom of England would grudgingly attempt to find a new equilibrium. As the respective Kings of both nations were brothers whom routinely accused one another of usurpation and treason (both true to an extent for both William and Henry), the nations found that their natural inclination to trade hindered on a regular basis. England needed American products and America still could not produce all it needed from a manufacturing standpoint.

But the lack of mutual diplomatic recognition would continue to harm consistent trade. When an English sailor was thrown into an American prison for drunken conduct, there was no English ambassador or council present to aid them. When an American trader was accused of avoiding tariffs in his inventory in England, he had no representation there either. Ever year or two, another incident would rise up which drove a wedge between the two nations and their respective monarchs.

It didn't help that William IV's absolute monarchy was being propped up by the French army and the Ministers would accuse America (as well as Scotland, Cornwall and Wales) of harboring criminals whom were instigating rebellion among the much put-upon citizens of England whom hated the French occupation they were forced to pay for and the King whom kowtowed to the Papists.

However, not all was that bad. Against every French intention, the lowered trade barriers between France and England resulted in a slight trade imbalance in the latter's favor. British merchant ships were used widely to supply the French West Indies when French vessels proved inadequate in numbers, capability or cost. It was odd to see the English Flag of St. George carrying French soldiers to Jamaica but the sailors had to work.

Naturally, the French government was pleased with the mutual recriminations between England and their colonies. Even if the French forces withdrew from England tomorrow, it was be decades, maybe generations, before England would return to its former glory.

In the meantime, France enjoyed an upsurge in manufactured goods sales to America whenever England and America had a spat.

Saint Domingue

After years of brutal warfare, Saint Domingue's insurgency had slowly run out of steam, partially by a shortfall of surviving insurgents. Those former slaves whom had sought to fight for their freedom had died of battle wounds, starvation and disease (in increasing order) in such numbers that the rebellion slowly stalled. By 1775, the population of Saint Domingue had fallen to less than a third of its former threshold. Oddly, one of the worst mistakes that the French slaves had made was to spread over the border into Spanish Santo Domingo. Unlike the French side, the heavy majority of the Spanish colony was free and would actively begin to aid the French government when the battle spilled over to their own moribund colony.

Similarly, Guadeloupe and Martinique's rebellions were partially brought under control as well. Again, this was as much due to so many of the insurgents dying as actually defeating them in battle. It was axiomatic that a slave born of Africa and transported across the ocean had an average lifespan of five years. In any of the larger West Indian colonies (and Brazil), the majority of slaves were not native-born but African-born. The latter were typically 80-95% male.

Native-born slaves were obviously 50-50 male to female and had longer lifespans but even these American-born female slaves would seldom live to adulthood or even have enough surviving children to replenish their own numbers. Thus explains the negative 5-8% demographic change per year without replacement shipments from Africa. By 1774, it had been the better part of two decades since Africans arrived in significant numbers. The major islands of the West Indies saw their populations fall by 50-75% on average. Eventually, the gender imbalance would even itself out but the war would then cause terrible famines as food was not brought in to island accustomed to most or all provisions being imported. Those which did habitually allow slaves to farm their own food on pitifully small plots of land would see the war prevent any form of planting or harvests in adequate volumes. Indeed, slaves in the mountains frequently fought over a few mangos or breadfruit (the latter they hated for some reason) they could collect from the trees. Other slaves spent more time hunting feral pigs and goats than fighting the French.

Even when the rebellions were brought under "control", the volume of sugar produced would be a fraction of previous norms. Whenever a sense of normality arrived...yet another rebellion reared its ugly head. By 1774, France was getting tired of sending regiments out to die. Volunteers to the French army had come to a dead stop and conscription was getting increasingly unpopular as most soldiers were being sent to the white man's grave of the West Indies. Mothers protested at the gates of Versailles while Ministers groaned at the expense of regaining the colonies exceeded any projections of revenues. Ironically, the only ones making money in the French West Indies were the American and English traders whom supplied it.

Even in the West Indies, the rivalry between anglophones recurred. On one memorable occasion, a band of bemused French soldiers sat and watched as the crews of an American victualling ship from Baltimore brawled on a Kingston dock with that of an English transport vessel. Wagers were quickly cast about by the French even as the civilians battered one another to a bloody pulp (eventually, the French governor would throw both crews in separate cells until they sobered up).

 

[Jürgen]

Interesting comments.

I included a subplot regarding sugar beet production in a recent TL.

I agree that certain types of British workers would likely emigrate in mass in this TL's scenario. I mentioned metal workers and textile workers but there would be others.

In general I expect a lot of skilled people to emigrate to the continent. While unskilled people emigrates in greater number to America. I suspect that the Dutch specific will see something of a manufacturing boom, but we will likely also see France starting its own industrialization in Belgium. While British exiles will start local ones up in Saxony and Austria. Denmark suffer from a lack of coal, but have the benefits of excellent waterways.

I brought Denmark into this TL because every other TL on this site referring to this era tends to utterly ignore the Danes. This is reasonable given the neutrality espoused by the government of Denmark in OTL. But still, I like to break things up a bit just for creative reasons.

I find Denmark interesting as I believe the Danish Empire at this time was largely equally split in population between Denmark, Norway and Schleswig-Holstein. Adding Hanover would make the Danish Empire around half-German.

Yes, it's around 50/50 at this point

As I believe that German was the court language of the era in Copenhagen, this would probably make the crown even more Germano-centric.

Okay this is complex, the kings from 1648-1808 grew up with Low German as their first language (but was fully bilingual in Danish)[1], the ministers of state was usual German immigrants until the fall of Struense[2]. But the language of the Danish court and administration was Danish, the exception was the German ministry, which administated the kings German possessions, they of course used German in their administration even through they was placed in Copenhagen. The main change here is that the German ministry will likely grow in size and internal prestige in the civil administration.

As Denmark was undergoing great reforms, I have it absorbing immigrants from the rest of Germany of all classes, many going on to America using Denmark as a stepping stone. Recall, in this era, many of the petty princes of Germany were still dictators and peasants could only travel or marry or do anything with permission from the monarch. They would no doubt be going through reform as well but on a prince by prince basis rather than Germany-wide.

Likely, my thoughts; the main centers of improvements in manufacturing will be the bigger states in Germany, you need a major external markets, this means that Austria, Holstein-Hanover (let's call it Lower Saxony for short), Saxony, Swedish Pomerania and Brandenburg will be the centers for increased manufacturing in that order. The Hesse-kassel and the other mercenary state are likely to seek greater integration with Denmark. The Franconia and Swabian circles will likely seek economic integration with Austria[3], which was removing internal custom borders in the Austrian domains creating the biggest free trade zone in the world at the time. The Swedish king/government will likely use Pomerania as a way to increase their funding without dealing with the mess of raising taxes in Sweden, especially Stettin and the customs on exports on the Oder will likely be something of a money machine for the Swedes, hopeful creating greater stability in Sweden.


[1]the king's youngest son at this point was raised with Danish as first language, this was a decision taken by his mother (a German born princess) and all royal children born after him would grow up speaking Danish first and German second. This have some political importance, while German was a more prestigious language, Low German wasn't, and Danish had the prestige that it was the language of the kingdom, while German was the language of the duchies. So by using Danish as administration language the king showed that he was the equal of the other kings of Europe

[2]Struense is incredible unlikely to come near power, so he and the problems he caused will likely be butterflied away.

[3]The Swabian and Franconian circles was pretty much the only place the HRE still functioned as a state, with Bavaria annexed by Austria, the local princes and imperial knights will likely decides to give up a lot of autonomy against greater economic integration with Austria. That bring up a few other details. I think you should retcon a few border changes. I would give Saxony Magdeburg instead of Bayreuth and Ansbach and let Austria take those themselves if they plan to annex Bavaria anyway. I also would suggest giving Sweden all of Pomerania, as it would cut of Brandenburg from trying to regain Prussia (which had a similar population as Brandenburg proper). This fundamental gives Austria de facto control of the modern states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. While Saxony will border directly up to Holstein-Hanover, which will cut down customs to one place to reach the sea, while also allow the Saxons to extend their influence into the Thuringian states.

 

[Jürgen]

On Hanover... I wonder if TTL's Denmark might end up with a pro-German policy and try to take the lead in unifying Germany (similar to the role that OTL Prussia took), be the main alternative to the Catholic Austria in doing so. After all, the Danish king probably has just as many (Low)-German-speaking subjects as Danish ones, what with Schleswig, Holstein, and Hanover being under the Danish monarchy now...

He could very well, but as his domains are overwhelming Low German, we could also see the rise of Low German nationalism instead with Holstein-Hanover being the unifying force behind it.

 

[Alt History Buff]

He could very well, but as his domains are overwhelming Low German, we could also see the rise of Low German nationalism instead with Holstein-Hanover being the unifying force behind it.

Good point. Some of my timelines have tried to establish a Catholic Germany versus a Protestant Germany, a High-German Speaking Germany or a Low-German Speaking Germany. My last one created a Rheinish state.

It was the intent of this TL that the German-speaking areas of the Danish Empire would become the prominent Protestant German power in northern Germany.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1773 - Winter

Bosnia, Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria

Sensing blood given the dismal Ottoman performance against the rebelling Moldavians, Wallachians, Syrians, Egyptians, Georgians and Armenians (to say nothing of the Russians), the final remnants of Ottoman control over the Balkans seemed in great danger as a general rebellion grew throughout Rumelia (Ottoman Balkans not including Greece) and Greece. However, the resistance would be haphazard at best as local politics would dominate the conflict. As much fighting occurred between claimants to various thrones and between ethnic peoples than was focused against the Turk.

Perhaps the greatest advantage the Balkan peoples had over the Porte was the fact that the Russian Navy had utterly wiped out the Ottoman counterpart in the previous war. This would prove massively beneficial to the Greeks whom found they could defend their islands much more easily. Indeed, the Greeks made the greatest gains against the Ottomans early in the rebellion as they were more unified than the other southeastern Europeans. Often, the feuds took a religious dimension as Serbs and Bosniaks fought for territory as well as Muslim Greeks and Bulgarians battled their Christian counterparts.

Though exhausted by year of defeats to Russia and failed campaigns to regain former Eyalets, the Ottoman Empire was hardly finished. While the Ottoman fleet had been destroyed, that did not mean that any other power prevented Turkish troops from crossing into Europe. Reinforcements would filter in even as the Balkans peoples bled one another white.

North Africa

The bizarre coalition of Spanish, Danish, North American and Papal ships would depart from Sicily and cross the narrow stretch of the Mediterranean to Algiers, perhaps the most infamous of the pirate havens. In an unexpected development, the Knights of Saint John would dispatch three armed ships to aid the expedition. Even more surprisingly, a quartet of Irish ships would arrive. Until that moment, none of the temporary allies even knew that Ireland had a navy. However, a Barbary raid had kidnapped sixty Irish citizens earlier in the year in a daring northern raid which had not been attempted in nearly a century. It would only later be determined that the pirates were Tunisian rather than Algerian but that was unknown at this point.

Multiple flags waved over the allied ships but the intent was the same. The allied demanded the immediate return of all European slaves and immediate cessation of all Dey-sponsored pirate activity in perpetuity...or else.

Having frequently been threatened by Europeans in the past with little actual consequences, the Dey didn't feel overly threatened. However, the invaders had brought adequate forces to bear. The great harbor of Algiers was easily enough breeched despite the Dey having ordered several ships sunk to block the harbor. Within days (really hours), the obsolete fortifications would be crushed by dozens of allied ships.

By now, the Dey was rethinking his position. Given that piracy was central to the economy of his domain, he could not merely promise to give up all piracy. Instead, he agreed to release any slaves or hostages of the governments present threatening his city and to cease preying upon the their ships. By this point, though, no one believed such promises. All the assorted Admirals, Captains and Generals agreed that the Dey was making false oaths in order to send the expeditions away. Perhaps never again would such a gathering of power be available. Instead, the assorted forces determined to attack.

Under the nominal command of General Alejandro O'Reilly (a Spaniard of Irish descent), the assembled Marines and army regiments would make landfall with the intent of seizing the city completely. The American contingent was led by a Scotsman named John Paul Jones.

The assault on Algiers Harbor



Though the Algerians would defend several strongpoints with stubborn bravery, the core of the city would fall within three days. So many casualties would be incurred upon the invaders that the infuriated Europeans and North Americans would end up destroying most of the old city to the extent that they actually burned valuable trade goods they could have confiscated.

In honor of his achievement in (at least temporarily silencing a Muslim threat to Christianity), General O'Reilly would be rewarded with a Papal Golden Rose (usually given to women or churches but this current pope had taken a liking to the idea and started a new trend of giving them to men rather than the Blessed Sword and Hat as he though the Rose was more "Holy" than a Sword).

Example of a Golden Rose

 

[Wolfman217]

The difference is the Parliament came firstr, and they rejected some of the more aristocratic parts of Britain, like how many people could vote.It'd be different if the aristocracy came first and then set up a Parliament.

If anything, Canada would be the better analogy. They, too, remained British in their minds, I presume, but slowly developed a system that said "We are British, yet we are not."

The king, Henry, came over when Edward was still accepted as the rightful king. He realized that, politically, he had to accept some thigns that were not like his homeland - indeed, there may have been citizens calling themselves British in the colonies up till 1776, but there were plenty of differences between them and their homeland just becasue America was much more rural,it wasn't as industrialized, there was a frontier, the people faced things there they didn't face in Britain aand so had different needs.

So, they weren't going to recreate Britain totally. The aristcrats who came over were going to be rejected becasue there were lots more common peasants who were there first and had their Parliament first. No, they're not going to be totally Britain - especially not when Britain has been divided anyway. And, there are still people alive who recall the time before the Act of Union, or at least knew people who did.

But, the title - Albion's Orphan - sort of depicts that. There should be a sense of "who are we" just like a child who loses their parents at a young age and knows nothing of their heritage.This orphan won't grow up to be what we would know as the United States, either.

BUt, he might grow up to be something like Canada.

I agree with what your saying, and I meant the same when I said 'reinvent' themselves in North America, of course culturally they'd change, their beliefs and all that would change with different situation they're in etc. they'd especially be more Francophobic and expansionist for one.

But they'd still keep the 'British' name/identifier. Just like the 'English' were very different in the 13th Century compared to today but retained the same name - the English of today are an evolution of previous 'English-ness'. The British-in-America would be an evolution of old 'British-ness' but would still call themselves that - they wouldn't take on the new name/identifier of 'American'.

It's like the difference between a direct descendant and offshoot - Canadian/Australian/American etc were an offshoot of British hence the similarities but distinct name and identifier, they acknowledged they come from British but they separated from it nationally/culturally, whereas the British-in-America here are the direct continuation of it - they are still fundamentally British people, they just now live in America.

So they'd still call themselves British and the successor state to the Kingdom of Great Britain and the British Empire, just like Byzantium didn't call themselves Byzantine or Greek they called themselves Roman.

 

[Tamar of the Tamar tribe]

Poor Cathrine!!!! I have so much pity for her!!! To live out the rest of her days in a Russian covent!!!!!!!!!

 

[Tamar of the Tamar tribe]

Can there please be some glory and happy endings for Napoleon Bonaparte ?

 

[Alt History Buff]

1774 - Spring

New York

Exhausted after a decade of continuous service to the Kingdom of North America, Benjamin Franklin would formally announce his retirement from Parliament, the Old Man no longer capable of sustaining the level of energy necessary. Fortunately, his governing faction remained generally popular despite several controversial issues convulsing the politics of America including the expansion of slavery, diplomatic recognition of the Crown of England and the interpretation of the Bill of Rights in terms of non-Church of England members (this version loyal to King Henry, not King William) being forced to pay tithes, no matter how nominal, to the "official" church.

Franklin's old friend and political ally, John Dickinson of Delaware, was mooted to be the new Treasury Minister. Dickinson would also face a growing clamor for the nation to select a new permanent Capital. New York was a convenient short-term solution but had never been intended to remain the capital for so long. Some Parliamentarians would press for an inland capital but, given the vast majority of the nation lived within a reasonable distance from the sea, this seemed impractical at the moment.

The peaceful transition of power from Franklin to Dickinson would set a precedent in America as it had happened so often in Britain.

By the mid-1770's, America's population had increased past 2.9 million souls, nearly doubling in the past dozen years due to a decade of mass immigration and a high birth rate.

But Dickinson's primary aim for the coming years would be to gradually suffocate the slave trade and institution upon American shores.

Quebec

Though it had taken a decade, the demographic reversal of Quebec and Nova Scotia had been completed. Eventually, the heartless Anglo-American mass evictions of the 70,000 French inhabitants of New France was called off after the first 35,000 had been forcibly expelled. More would leave voluntarily for France, the French West Indies or other parts of North America. Having spent a decade desperately pressing migrants to the north in hopes of forestalling the much-anticipating French reconquest of Quebec, nearly 100,000 migrants had moved to the regions of the City of Quebec to Montreal. Though America was a vast region, the free land and easy access via the St Lawrence would facilitate migration to the remote and cold American north.

Unlike other Territories, there would be no rush to grant the Territory of Quebec to Dominion status (thus granting them seats in Parliament) partially due to the remaining high percentage of Catholics. The Bill of Rights guaranteed that religion could not prohibit anyone from voting or holding public office, even Catholics. There were plenty of them in Pennsylvania and Maryland, though the Kingdom of North America remained very much a Protestant nation.

Eventually, the matter could not be held off any longer and Quebec was granted the vote. It would be the first of a very long line of future Dominions to be added over the course of the next fifty years and beyond.

List of North American Dominions:

Quebec
Montreal
Nova Scotia
Charlottia (New Brunswick, former Acadia west of the Isthmus of Chignecto)
Newfoundland
Vermont (including the contested Hampshire Grants and the western portion of the former district of Maine under the colony of Massachusetts)
Sagadahock (formerly the eastern portion of the district of Maine under the colony of Massachusetts)
Massachusetts
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations
Connecticut
New York
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Delaware
Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia

List of North American Territories:

Hudson
Mississauga
Michigan
Northwest Territory (northwest Mississippi basin)
Ohio
Miami (Indiana)
Chicago (Illinois)
Westsylvania (Western Pennsylvania and parts of Western Virginia)
Shawnee (eastern Kentucky)
Maumee (western Kentucky)
Watauga (Eastern Tennessee)
Southwest Territory (central and western Tennessee, Northern Alabama, Northern Mississippi)
East Florida
West Florida
Hanover (Louisiana)

 

[Alt History Buff]

View attachment 475117

 

[Alt History Buff]

1774 - Summer

Paris

Though the old King would face several illnesses over the past years, he remained in good health in 1774. At sixty-four years old, Louis XV had long since ceased pretending he could run the entire country (3 billion livres in debt proved that) but at least his new ministers had managed to break the regional parliaments to his will...for the most part. Tired of seeing the aristocracy and clergy exempt from taxes, the King's ministers over the past decade had fought tooth and nail to increase taxes on assorted luxury goods and destroy the old tradition that the nobility was exempt. He'd lost more battles than he won but little by little, revenues were increased to the point that the budget was ALMOST balanced.

Of course, the cost of this was the permanent enmity of the regional Parliaments. Like Spain and Austria, the Kingdom of France was not truly centralized. The regional parliaments would claim the sole right to collect taxes (though not levy them) as well as effectively ruling the courts. Louis XV's Ministers would fight this obsolete system for decades not only for the betterment of the nation, the reduction of taxes on the poor in favor of the rich and the consistent application of justice....but also in order to centralize his own power. Naturally, the regional Parliaments fought tooth and nail.

Under Minister Maupeou, the suppression would continue without mercy. If a regional Parliament (not elected but usually just the local nobility) balked at a demand for taxes on silk or sugar or whatever, Maupeou would order them arrested or confined to their homes until they yielded. Naturally, these men would retort with cries of tyranny.

Most bafflingly, the regional Parliaments would actually get the sympathy of large numbers of the common people. Did not the French peasantry not realize that his battle was not only for the nation but for THEM?!! Taxes had not been raised on the lower classes in a generation despite repeated wars. The budget was balanced upon the backs of the rich. And the centralization of the legal system was intended to PREVENT injustice. Yet, the sheep continued to be herded by the nobility and clergy.

Louis XV was rather disgusted with his own people.

It didn't help that the constant flow of soldier into the West Indies was getting ever more unpopular. Tens of thousands of French soldiers had died, mostly disease, in the cursed islands over the past two decades. Sugar, coffee and other production were down to a fraction of previous levels. Even with higher prices (and taxes per shipment), the much-anticipated economic boon of regaining all their sugar islands and those of Britain had yet to materialize. Constant rebellions had prevented the nation from even commencing restocking the islands with slave labor from Africa. Indeed, it had been suggested that, after a generation of constant rebellion fresh in the West Indian minds, that it would be best to simply let the slaves of this generation die off and start fresh when the islands were vacant.

One of Maupeou's adjutants, the Comte de Malartic, was one of those new abolitionists and tried to point out that the costs of maintaining these slave islands was more than they were worth even in peacetime, much less two decades of insurgency. Louis XV didn't have much of an opinion on this but recalled the government revenues that used to be gleaned from the region. It was widely accepted that broken-in slaves or those born in bondage, were more docile than African-born slaves fresh from the boats. As the "docile" slaves were leading the revolts across the Caribbean, the slave trade had effectively been put on hiatus.

Worse, several regiments of conscripts bound for the West Indies had mutinied, once burning down a good portion of Toulon rather than board their ships. This was distressing to all involved as the King did not like the idea of anyone actively rebelling. Several of the regional parliaments would seize upon these events as further evidence of Louis XV's tyranny, not that they really cared about the army or the institution of slavery. Anything to cast the King as a tyrant was seized upon. This was troublesome as Louis XV's leading army officers were, by nature, high nobility. The idea of a bloody military coup was very, very real.

On more than one occasion, the King had thought of abdicating to his 19-year old grandson. However, the boy was so irresolute that it reportedly took years for him to touch his own wife in bed. The Dauphine simply lacked the will to challenge the regional Parliaments and would fold before any opposition. Had Louis XV done such (though he had done his own fair share of backing down), the nation's budget would never have been balanced.

For all the ills of the past sixty years of his reign, France remained a great power whom, with the acquisition of Lorraine and the Austrian Netherlands, held a virtually impregnable position in Europe. No neighbor seemed likely to challenge France with Britain defeated and divided, Spain so far behind economically and Austria so far away.

France had built great schools, military colleges, the best road and bridge network in Europe and had numerous new industries prospering from silk to mining. Financial problems abounded but when didn't such worries crop up?

Louis XV was proud of his achievements and looked forward to years more in power while he attempted to stoke some sort of ambition within his grandson.

 

[Alt History Buff]

1774 - Summer

South Carolina/North Carolina

The great slave revolt of 1774 had, by most observers, come almost out of nowhere. Within just a few weeks, a localized revolt on a few dozen tidewater plantations had erupted into a full-scale insurrection the breadth of South and North Carolina. The former, in particular, had gratefully received over 10,000 slaves imported from the French West Indies. This was the first significant importation of slaves into America in years. However, the French vendors had sold the American plantation owners a shoddy product as the slaves tended to be the most irredeemable of those whom rebelled throughout the West Indies (and hadn't been executed for the fact). By 1772, the fields of South Carolina were almost as flush with white indentured labor as slaves. The mass importation of French, English and assorted African-language speaking slaves would be something of a shock to all involved. Within months, trouble was obviously brewing as mass escapes west and south would see valuable capital wither. Then the inevitable full-blown rebellion rose up with the West Indian-born slaves in command. They retreated to the swamps, emerging to burn crops and plantation houses, a process which had crippled the West Indian economies.

Soon, this would expand into North Carolina. Even many of the indentured servants would join in, mainly desiring to get out of the remainder of their contracts and hating their harsh treatment and inhuman conditions as much as the slaves.

By the summer of 1774, thousands of slaves and indentured servants had fled, hundreds of lives had been lost, must of a harvest had gone uncollected in the fields and rice paddies and several neighboring Dominions and Territories were rethinking the idea of slavery (including Georgia which was, once again, considering approving the institution and Florida, which possessed perhaps the best sugar-producing land in the Kingdom of North America). Property damage would be estimated in the millions of American Pounds Sterling (per the new currency rolled out in 1773) and South Carolina would not recover anytime in the near future.

Eventually, the nation would place a moratorium on the purchase of such "uncivilized" slaves from the French West Indies. Irritated, the French government would also cut off even the modest slave sales from the moribund French African settlements.

John Dickinson, the new Treasury Minister of the Kingdom of North America, would secretly welcome these difficulties and quietly press for a halting of the slave trade. Once the largest slave-owner in Delaware, Dickinson had turned against the institution and voluntarily liberated his chattel. He would find talented young men of similar minds to carry on his work including the young lawyer John Adams of Massachusetts, John Jay of New York and took as his personal secretary the youthful Alexander Hamilton of Nevis.

Northwestern territories

While the nation had placed nice names for assorted regions on the map, in truth, many of the western territories remained very lightly populated indeed. Westsylvania, Ohio, Shawnee, Watauga and West Florida remained the frontier where remote settlements would continue to struggle with local Indian tribes.

Trading centers of Hanover, Fort Detroit and other regions possessed modest towns but their isolation and climate were not particularly suited for intensive settlement. There remained large amounts of land available in the west. Ohio would rapidly gain population but the Indian tribes pushed further and further west would clash with the tribes of Chicago and the Southwest territories. Violence would reign supreme for years as migration to the Mississippi River would virtually halt for a generation.

 

[Deleted member 67076]

Im honestly surprised at this point the French haven't just given liberty to the slaves and turned them into sharecroppers and debt peons. The result would be the same and facilitate colonial settlement from the poorer parts of France without wasting millions in military activities. If anything it would improve the economy over raw sugar as the bulk of the population can now be freed up to do some manufacturing and improve trade with the Spanish and American realms.

At least the slave trade is dying. Ironically the Fulani Jihads are kicking off steam leading to a glut of slaves to sell. But this is better for West Africa in the long run as Sahelian African manufacturing and institutions are were greatly improved under the Fula governments.

 

[Alt History Buff]

Im honestly surprised at this point the French haven't just given liberty to the slaves and turned them into sharecroppers and debt peons. The result would be the same and facilitate colonial settlement from the poorer parts of France without wasting millions in military activities. If anything it would improve the economy over raw sugar as the bulk of the population can now be freed up to do some manufacturing and improve trade with the Spanish and American realms.

At least the slave trade is dying. Ironically the Fulani Jihads are kicking off steam leading to a glut of slaves to sell. But this is better for West Africa in the long run as Sahelian African manufacturing and institutions are were greatly improved under the Fula governments.

Given that sugar cane production is the most unpleasant of all farming practices, any liberated slaves would take literally any other work they could get, including sustenance farming. In OTL, after the emancipation of the West Indian slaves, it became so hard to get any of the manumitted freedmen to work the cane fields that Britain and the Netherlands were forced to bring in Indian labor despite plenty of warm bodies still being present in the West Indies.

Eventually, France will have to accept that, after a decade of expensive occupation, that things can't keep on like this forever.