American colonies you wish had suceeded

I`m actually surprised there has never been a German country in America, after all 30% of all US citizens have German ancestors. More US citizens have German ancestry than English ancestry.
I guess if a major player like Prussia or Austria would have supported a colony that would have changed.

The German-descended population is closer to 17% actually, if you're counting the whole United States population and not just non-Hispanic whites.

The English-descended population is much bigger in reality than it is on paper, because the census data only relies on self-reported identification. The 2010 American Community Survey only counted 9% of the population having English heritage, but also counted a significant number of people claiming "American" ancestry, especially in the southern states which were heavily settled by English colonists. Also, the 1980 Census reported 26% of the population having English ancestry when “English" was listed as one of the options on paper.

Anyway, German states won't have big colonies in the New World because Germany didn't unify until too late and Austria wasn't in a good geographic position to pursue overseas colonies.
 
My two cents for the USA are:

A surviving New Sweden. {Delaware/Southwestern New Jersey}

A surviving New Netherlands. {New York City & surrounding area(s)}

For the rest of the Americas:


1) More Dutch holdings in the Caribbean; maybe they somehow get & hold Jamaica or take Hispaniola from Spain.


2) Courland's colony which somebody else already mentioned.


3) Welsh Patagonia always intrigues me.


4) A "German speaking" Paraguay.


5) More Russians in western Alaska sounds interesting...just so long as we still get Alaska anyway :D.


Best, Joho :).




 
I made a thread about this just a few weeks ago, but New Netherland is definitely mine. As far as I'm aware, the consensus here is more or less that England would have inevitably conquered it. If the Dutch could've kept it for just a little longer, though, I think it could've been something like a Dutch Quebec. It would be interesting to see how that affects the American Revolution, assuming it isn't butterflied away at that point.

The trouble with a Dutch Quebec though is that the Dutch are just so much closer to the British culturally, linguistically ,religiously, etc.... than the French. It is a lot more likely they would be integrated and keep only a minimum of stand out traits. I don't think a true analogue is really possible.
(with the Boers in South Africa other factors were at play that wouldn't apply with an urban colony in the OTL NE US)
 
The trouble with a Dutch Quebec though is that the Dutch are just so much closer to the British culturally, linguistically ,religiously, etc.... than the French. It is a lot more likely they would be integrated and keep only a minimum of stand out traits. I don't think a true analogue is really possible.
(with the Boers in South Africa other factors were at play that wouldn't apply with an urban colony in the OTL NE US)

It wasn't until the 1770s that English was used in schools in NY, Kingston continued to use Dutch for church liturgy until 1808. Governor George Clinton's wife and Alexander Hamilton's wife both spoke fluent Dutch despite both being born American. "Stand out traits" are more than a minimum today- Santa Claus and his associated mythos in the US is almost all a result of Dutch NY influence for instance, place names in NY's Hudson Valley and NJ tend to be Dutch. Albany NY's complacency to authority is called in political science literature the "Patroonship effect" after the 1600s Dutch patroonships.
 
The Scottish colony of Darien succeeds...with the Highland Clans of the Central American Highlands...

outlander-starz-clansmen-new-cast-photo.jpg

And those Confederates think they know what a Lost Cause is! Bah!
 
New Netherlands surviving and forming it's own country and a French speaking Louisiana country would have made North America so much more culturally and linguistically interesting.
 
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