Big Louisiana Question

I find myself toying with the idea of a large and powerful (Independent) Louisiana as a Superpower in modern times.

Unfortunately, all of the PODs I seem to pick are illogical or still leave Louisiana too small to develop or compete with their Anglo or Hispanic neighbors.

Help please?
 
I suppose you could go with the USA fails to form, and Louisiana winds up expanding west and going to war with Mexico which ends with Louisiana owning Texas. If they can beat the various other states west they could also get a nice piece of California I suppose.

I'm not sure when they'd wind up independent or what happens with the Louisiana Territory (they certainly don't have enough of a population to keep out of various American hands) but the only way Louisiana is a major player is if the American states squabble with each other a lot.
 
If Jefferson doesn't purchase Louisiana, or if Congress refutes it, you could have it developing independence during the *Napoleonic Wars.

My Better than One TL has Louisiana becoming the Kingdom of France during the Alt-Napoleonic Wars (as Portugal and Brazil did IOTL), and the King takes up residence in New Orleans as of 1815.
 

Germaniac

Donor
Or one of my favorites, aaron burr breaks off louisiana from the United States along with significant Mexican territory and forms the Kingdom of Burrtonia
 
If Jefferson doesn't purchase Louisiana, or if Congress refutes it, you could have it developing independence during the *Napoleonic Wars.

My Better than One TL has Louisiana becoming the Kingdom of France during the Alt-Napoleonic Wars (as Portugal and Brazil did IOTL), and the King takes up residence in New Orleans as of 1815.


My first thought was much like your first thought. Perhaps some Bonapartian folks move to the area after the fall of the Empire. They rebel at a later date and France proper is too weak or even not allowed to intervene. The US supports the venture and the British take no action or what they do is too limited to make a difference. With the US reluctant and no unable to expand coast to coast the new Louisiana Republic takes up the idea and goes Gulf to Coast gaining power along the way at the expense of Mexico. The relationships such a thing creates with France, Mexico, Britain, USA, and Canada eventually are quite interesting. Have to work on some maps.

As for the King coming over ... seems there isn't much incentive for him to cross the pond before the land is up for sale. Probably could accomplish a lot more staying closer to Europe.
 
My first thought was much like your first thought. Perhaps some Bonapartian folks move to the area after the fall of the Empire. They rebel at a later date and France proper is too weak or even not allowed to intervene. The US supports the venture and the British take no action or what they do is too limited to make a difference. With the US reluctant and no unable to expand coast to coast the new Louisiana Republic takes up the idea and goes Gulf to Coast gaining power along the way at the expense of Mexico. The relationships such a thing creates with France, Mexico, Britain, USA, and Canada eventually are quite interesting. Have to work on some maps.

Sounds pretty cool!

As for the King coming over ... seems there isn't much incentive for him to cross the pond before the land is up for sale. Probably could accomplish a lot more staying closer to Europe.

Well, there's not much incentive for him to stay in Europe when Ney has consolidated his grip on France, and he's alienated the British public with his ill-informed ideas on how best to win his throne back. He realises that he's basically run out of welcome in Europe, and runs across the Atlantic to people who have been begging him to acknowledge them for the last five years.
 
My first idea for a POD would be to have no Seignurial System in New France by Louis XIII which would encourage the Huguenots to flee and settle in the New World.

Finding no welcome in Quebec and New Orleans, they instead settle towards the source of the Mississippi Valley in OTL Illinois, Missouri, and Indiana.
 

Thande

Donor
My first idea for a POD would be to have no Seignurial System in New France by Louis XIII which would encourage the Huguenots to flee and settle in the New World.

There was briefly a Huguenot colony in Florida in OTL, so that might work.
 
I was personally hoping for something to happen before the American Revolution

I agree you would need to keep British/American interests out of the area until the steam boat can be perfected to navigate the rivers. Then, the Louisiana territory would have the resources to develop on its own.
 
I don't see where there are any real answers to the question of population, at least in the northern portions of Louisiana.

Unless the British had some way of forcing them to stay ... seems like a rather large number of people from the former New France would be all too happy to resettle in a new New France. They could scatter or congregate in several areas. Possible all along the Mississippi, creating some type of social or lingual barrier to American expansion along the way.
 
Your best bet would just be having a failed ARW, then making Louisiana into an analog of the US. You could end up with a Louisiana controlling all but the eastern seaboard of OTL's America, and possibly some of the eastern seaboard (no US=weaker states=ripe for the conquering!). Getting it off to a good start might be difficult. Probably strong ties with the Europeans, leading to a lot of investments; maybe a reasonable degree of freedom, attracting settlers that don't like the instability of the eastern seaboard. Once you get off to a good start, though, it should be reasonably easy.

Or one of my favorites, aaron burr breaks off louisiana from the United States along with significant Mexican territory and forms the Kingdom of Burrtonia

God no. @_@
 
predating the ARW is much preferred, and my rough idea does have the ARW failing with some interesting long term results.

For the record, when the 7 Years War broke out, there were only 70,000 Frenchmen in all of New France, from Quebec to Idaho and New Orleans.

There were over a million English settlers along the East Coast.
 
predating the ARW is much preferred, and my rough idea does have the ARW failing with some interesting long term results.

For the record, when the 7 Years War broke out, there were only 70,000 Frenchmen in all of New France, from Quebec to Idaho and New Orleans.

There were over a million English settlers along the East Coast.

And I believe Canada held 60,000-65,000 of those settlers, which ought give an idea on Louisiana's population of the time.
 
And I believe Canada held 60,000-65,000 of those settlers, which ought give an idea on Louisiana's population of the time.

Exactly. You can see how I'm having such a hard time making the region a self-sufficient independent entity, much less my goal of making it a superpower.
 
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