I don't see the US getting the Oregon territory honestly. Here, Britain and France will probably cooperate, radical, yes, but the truth is, both of them have American territories who are endangered by the US, and the US being able to exert influence and pressure in the pacific is not something they want either. Rivalry or not the US is a huge danger to the maintenance of Californie and Canada by both Empires, while the two territories barely pose danger to each other. I could see the two Empires going hand in hand when it comes to safeguarding their pacific and more generally N.A possessions, and thus I think there is a high probability of Oregon going it's own way or being absorbed by Britain.
Californie- French California
- Thread starter The Tai-Pan
- Start date
Deleted member 169412
And Cajuns, too. I don't know whether America had started repressing Cajun French yet but if it does decide to start doing that, I could see a lot of Louisianans deciding to pack their bags and head for Saint-François, Sacrement or Saint-Didace-d'Alcala.
They weren't, in theory. Colonials could get French citizenship (the évolues) but this was hard to do and, if I remember rightly, was seen by lots of Muslims as being morally the same as apostasy so it was pretty rare.
I am not sure about this. Among other things, these Francophones are on the other side of the continent. There is a long Francophone connection to British Columbia, Canadiens in the fur trade, but it would be distant. It would be difficult to extend it to mass migration, perhaps, at least until you got a transatlantic railroad.
The analogies here would be to the indigenous peoples. The Kanaks were not slaughtered as thoroughly as California's indigenous peoples, but different territories. Would French rule prevent the genocides of OTL?
One area where the Algerian experience would be highly relevant, I think, would be in the willingness to incorporate immigrants. Most of the pieds noirs seem to have been of mostly non-French ancestry, particularly Spanish but also Italian and Maltese with a scattering of others. I think California is likely to attract lots of Latin migrants particularly, from Europe and from America. Why not lots of Mexicans?
(A thought: This will have brought France to the point where it will literally have a border with Mexico. What will become of Franco-Mexican affairs?)
Just go with the ideas that you think are best. I can guarantee you this will be a nice TL in the end.
You'll do great! We're shouting out ideas, but don't feel like you have to use any of them - it's your story after all. I think this one has a whiff of greatness about it. It's certainly a unique and fun idea. It's gonna be awesome!
lol if the U.S. goes the Timeline-191 Sonora-Chihuahua route just to get adjacent to the Pacific.
Deleted member 169412
True, but that didn't stop the Mormons migrating to Utah, or more generally speaking pioneers taking the Oregon Trail, both of which were around this time.
People in that time wanted cheap land, and Californie would absolutely offer that to Francophones. Add that to the fact that religious persecution is a pretty big driving factor, and I could see lots of Cajuns migrating west if an anti-Catholic president gets elected (which wouldn't be ASB; heck, the Know-Nothings got elected OTL, and TTL America has a border with two Catholic countries which it's hostile to and is just about to receive a lot of Catholic migrants, unless the Irish famine gets butterflied away somehow. It would be very easy for someone to get elected President by promising to "do something about those filthy Papists" and that would cause lots of Catholics to think about leaving.)
Post #2- Arrival
Post #2- Arrival
“It is evident that California will belong to whatever nation chooses to send there a man-of-war and two hundred men."- Eugene Mofras, 1840
Louis Tardy de Montravel, the newly appointed French commissioner to California and currently headed to such new land, was a frustrated man. It wasn’t that his assigned task was dangerous and took him to the edge of the known world, which it did. It wasn’t that he was dreadfully uninformed about the current situation in California, which he was. It wasn’t even that his task force was woefully small, which it was with only three ships and one hundred marines at his command. No, Montravel was frustrated because he did not know what was expected of him. What exactly was his task in the newly acquired landscape?
Was it to found a new and expansive French colony? Unlikely considering he had been given no settlers or charters of settlement. Was it perhaps more in the nature of a scientific survey of an exotic landscape? Hardly, since no scientist or naturalist was assigned to him or supplies offered. Perhaps it was to seek a buyer for unwanted property? He was hardly likely to find such a person on the outer borders of the Pacific world. Confronted with such a vague assignment, the French admiral simply decided to take California as he found it. He had little other choice, with so little to go on.
Montravel, the first French official in Monte Rey, later in life.
The French weren’t even sure of where to first land. While the capital of Alta California was Monterey, what the French called Monte Rey, Montravel was unsure if sailing into the heart of Mexican power, such as it was, was wise. Perhaps it would be best to first stop in Los Angeles, the largest city in the region, to get the lay of the land? Or even some smaller city or town? In the end Montravel decided that it was to sail straight to the heart of the matter, so he set course to Monte Rey.
Like most of his countrymen Montravel barely knew California even existed, let alone any details. If pressed, he would have guessed a vast desert region filled with nomadic ‘Red Indians’, along with a few sleepy Mexican villages and missions. What the admiral found was quite different and far more dynamic and interesting.
California was indeed on the fringes of a crumbling empire, but was all the more connected to the world because of it. For decades Mexico had implemented mercantilist policies which forbid any foreign ships from even docking in California. However as Mexican control over the far flung territory retreated, and flagrant violations mounted, the laws were finally repealed in the 1830’s. As a result international trade was picking up in the area, with dozens of ships now docking at Monterey, Los Angeles and other California cities. The main export were hides, tallow and other products from the expansive ranches run by the Californios, which basically acted as landed gentry in the region. The cattle trade was highly profitable and was virtually the only income stream keeping the local economy afloat. The fur trade was in a long decline and other resources were simply not developed or discovered as of yet.
It was also a surprisingly cosmopolitan place. The biggest group was, of course, the Native Americans even if the European reports frequently discounted them entirely. In the 1840’s there were still well over 200,000 Native Americans in California and the surrounding regions, shared out among many tribes and cultural groups. Disease had devastated them during the Spanish and Mexican periods, with the damage compounded when their lands had been taken by Spanish settlers. Many Indians worked as virtual slaves on the missions and other agricultural plantations. Still, tens of thousands of others lived in fairly remote areas, little touched by the Europeans or their customs.
A Russian depiction of native Northern Californians.
As for the Europeans, it was a wide range. Many of course were the Mexican inhabitants who had moved in the areas centuries ago with everything from poor farmers and tradesmen to the owners of vast ranching estates that ruled as virtual kings. There were many others however. There were still Russians, the leftovers of the now basically defunct Fort Ross, that southernmost outpost of the Tsar’s vast empire. They had dwindled as the fur trade declined but the fort was still there, and some Russians remained. There were British sailors in most of the harbors, drawn by the cattle trade. There were Americans as well, both sea going merchants and a tiny collection of trappers and traders who had followed trails from Oregon. They were few in number as of yet, but their numbers were increasing. Mexico had, as in Texas, encouraged Eurpoeans settlement in California so there was a small sprinkling of Swiss, Germans and Scandinavians as well. There were even French, mostly fur traders from the north, the fabled voyageurs, crossing the border from Oregon.
So this was what Montravel found when he docked his ship at Monterey in January of 1841, a diverse and interconnected trading world focused on international commerce.The backbone of this were the excellent ports, which Montravel noticed instantly and remarked upon as ‘splendid’. His initial reception was remarkably less so. News had reached California months ago, of course, of the planned French take over and had caused considerable confusion. California was used to being a backwater for the Mexican government but to be bought and sold like a cattle herd was more than a little galling. The astute also considered that while Mexico had never been able to exert much control over their far flung northern territories, France may have a less laissez faire attitude. Might the quasi independence of the local elites be coming to an end?
Leading among these wary figures contemplating a dim future was Juan Bautista Alvarado the current, at least until he was removed by the French, governor of Alta California. A colorful figure, Alvarado was a Californian native born in Monterey itself and had risen to power by backing a independence movement for the territory and coming out on top during a brief civil war between various local factions. By 1841 he was well entrenched in power, having sided with the powerful Californio ranchers and given them vast land grants. At a stroke however, the treaty of Veracruz threw all of his hard won work into doubt. Alvarado, like many Mexican officials, saw Montravel’s arrival as the possible beginning of the end.
Ironically however it was a Frenchman who greeted Montravel at the docks, A rather interesting individual man named Eugene Duflot de Mofras. Mofras had been an attaché at the French embassy in Mexico City and, before the Pastry War, had been sent out on a fact finding to Alta California. For the last two years Mofras had been traveling all over this extensive land, taking notes, creating maps and in general amassing information on the territory. Montravel hadn’t even known Mofras existed but by happy chance, he now had access to this treasure trove of priceless information.
Still, Montravel’s first duty upon landing was obvious. He gathered up his marines and marched directly to the rambling old fort that protected Monterey, the Presidio. There, while crowds of curious onlookers watched, they conducted a short ceremony and raised the French tricolor over the aged fortifications. French Californie had, officially, begun. Next Montravel asked for the Mexican officials to assemble in order to begin the transition. Alvarado did not come however and instead fled the city, heading southward with a few aides. The rest of the city officials complied however and Montravel soon found himself in charge of Monterey.
Alvarado, one of the few former Mexican officials to flee the city.
It might seem surprising that the local transition of power was so smooth but it should be remembered that while two ships and a hundred marines was pitifully small by European or American standards, it was the strongest military force in California by far. While Montravel’s power only reached the muzzle of his guns, within that circle it was absolute.
For the next several months the French admiral adjusted to his new role as master and commander of Monterey, and in theory, all of California. He met with local landowners and merchants, assuring them French administration would be fair, efficient and non-invasive. Montravel had no idea if this would be true, but it sounded good. More importantly he also met with a man who was destined to have a considerable role in Californie affairs. John Augustus Sutter was a Swiss-French immigrant drawn to the region, after many travels, by Mexican promises of landed estates for willing farmers. Beyond simple economic development the Mexican offer had also been predicated on a strategic desire to ‘buttress the frontier and maintain it against Indians, Russians, Americans and British.’ Sutter had grand plans of a vast estate and settlement named New Helvetia and had been on the verge of cementing the deal with Alvarado when news of the French capture of the region was announced. Much preferring to work the French anyway, being a confirmed Francophile, Sutter waited for Montravel’s arrival to finalize his grant.
The French admiral and the Swiss émigré got along well, both relieved to work with each other then the, they judged, slovenly Mexican officials. Using their mother tongues, Sutter was quickly granted his vast tract of land as well as other rights and privileges. Montravel was pleased that his nation had at least one firm ally out in the hinterlands, beyond the reach of his naval guns.
By fall 1841, Montravel had seen enough to submit his first preliminary report back to Paris. He said he found the land fertile and productive, if wild and untamed. The ports were excellent, and the locals few, disorganized and had taken easily to French control. Along with his own personal views of the local areas and personalities, he included a much larger appendix based on Monfas’s work, which gave descriptions of places from the Klamath River to the Sea of Cortez. Montravel ended his report by suggesting California could be a useful colony and if sale was desired, some degree of political control needed to be enforced. He strongly advocated more men, more ships and systematic French political administration over at least the entire coastline.
The first steps had been taken but who knew where they would lead?
“It is evident that California will belong to whatever nation chooses to send there a man-of-war and two hundred men."- Eugene Mofras, 1840
Louis Tardy de Montravel, the newly appointed French commissioner to California and currently headed to such new land, was a frustrated man. It wasn’t that his assigned task was dangerous and took him to the edge of the known world, which it did. It wasn’t that he was dreadfully uninformed about the current situation in California, which he was. It wasn’t even that his task force was woefully small, which it was with only three ships and one hundred marines at his command. No, Montravel was frustrated because he did not know what was expected of him. What exactly was his task in the newly acquired landscape?
Was it to found a new and expansive French colony? Unlikely considering he had been given no settlers or charters of settlement. Was it perhaps more in the nature of a scientific survey of an exotic landscape? Hardly, since no scientist or naturalist was assigned to him or supplies offered. Perhaps it was to seek a buyer for unwanted property? He was hardly likely to find such a person on the outer borders of the Pacific world. Confronted with such a vague assignment, the French admiral simply decided to take California as he found it. He had little other choice, with so little to go on.
Montravel, the first French official in Monte Rey, later in life.
The French weren’t even sure of where to first land. While the capital of Alta California was Monterey, what the French called Monte Rey, Montravel was unsure if sailing into the heart of Mexican power, such as it was, was wise. Perhaps it would be best to first stop in Los Angeles, the largest city in the region, to get the lay of the land? Or even some smaller city or town? In the end Montravel decided that it was to sail straight to the heart of the matter, so he set course to Monte Rey.
Like most of his countrymen Montravel barely knew California even existed, let alone any details. If pressed, he would have guessed a vast desert region filled with nomadic ‘Red Indians’, along with a few sleepy Mexican villages and missions. What the admiral found was quite different and far more dynamic and interesting.
California was indeed on the fringes of a crumbling empire, but was all the more connected to the world because of it. For decades Mexico had implemented mercantilist policies which forbid any foreign ships from even docking in California. However as Mexican control over the far flung territory retreated, and flagrant violations mounted, the laws were finally repealed in the 1830’s. As a result international trade was picking up in the area, with dozens of ships now docking at Monterey, Los Angeles and other California cities. The main export were hides, tallow and other products from the expansive ranches run by the Californios, which basically acted as landed gentry in the region. The cattle trade was highly profitable and was virtually the only income stream keeping the local economy afloat. The fur trade was in a long decline and other resources were simply not developed or discovered as of yet.
It was also a surprisingly cosmopolitan place. The biggest group was, of course, the Native Americans even if the European reports frequently discounted them entirely. In the 1840’s there were still well over 200,000 Native Americans in California and the surrounding regions, shared out among many tribes and cultural groups. Disease had devastated them during the Spanish and Mexican periods, with the damage compounded when their lands had been taken by Spanish settlers. Many Indians worked as virtual slaves on the missions and other agricultural plantations. Still, tens of thousands of others lived in fairly remote areas, little touched by the Europeans or their customs.
A Russian depiction of native Northern Californians.
As for the Europeans, it was a wide range. Many of course were the Mexican inhabitants who had moved in the areas centuries ago with everything from poor farmers and tradesmen to the owners of vast ranching estates that ruled as virtual kings. There were many others however. There were still Russians, the leftovers of the now basically defunct Fort Ross, that southernmost outpost of the Tsar’s vast empire. They had dwindled as the fur trade declined but the fort was still there, and some Russians remained. There were British sailors in most of the harbors, drawn by the cattle trade. There were Americans as well, both sea going merchants and a tiny collection of trappers and traders who had followed trails from Oregon. They were few in number as of yet, but their numbers were increasing. Mexico had, as in Texas, encouraged Eurpoeans settlement in California so there was a small sprinkling of Swiss, Germans and Scandinavians as well. There were even French, mostly fur traders from the north, the fabled voyageurs, crossing the border from Oregon.
So this was what Montravel found when he docked his ship at Monterey in January of 1841, a diverse and interconnected trading world focused on international commerce.The backbone of this were the excellent ports, which Montravel noticed instantly and remarked upon as ‘splendid’. His initial reception was remarkably less so. News had reached California months ago, of course, of the planned French take over and had caused considerable confusion. California was used to being a backwater for the Mexican government but to be bought and sold like a cattle herd was more than a little galling. The astute also considered that while Mexico had never been able to exert much control over their far flung northern territories, France may have a less laissez faire attitude. Might the quasi independence of the local elites be coming to an end?
Leading among these wary figures contemplating a dim future was Juan Bautista Alvarado the current, at least until he was removed by the French, governor of Alta California. A colorful figure, Alvarado was a Californian native born in Monterey itself and had risen to power by backing a independence movement for the territory and coming out on top during a brief civil war between various local factions. By 1841 he was well entrenched in power, having sided with the powerful Californio ranchers and given them vast land grants. At a stroke however, the treaty of Veracruz threw all of his hard won work into doubt. Alvarado, like many Mexican officials, saw Montravel’s arrival as the possible beginning of the end.
Ironically however it was a Frenchman who greeted Montravel at the docks, A rather interesting individual man named Eugene Duflot de Mofras. Mofras had been an attaché at the French embassy in Mexico City and, before the Pastry War, had been sent out on a fact finding to Alta California. For the last two years Mofras had been traveling all over this extensive land, taking notes, creating maps and in general amassing information on the territory. Montravel hadn’t even known Mofras existed but by happy chance, he now had access to this treasure trove of priceless information.
Still, Montravel’s first duty upon landing was obvious. He gathered up his marines and marched directly to the rambling old fort that protected Monterey, the Presidio. There, while crowds of curious onlookers watched, they conducted a short ceremony and raised the French tricolor over the aged fortifications. French Californie had, officially, begun. Next Montravel asked for the Mexican officials to assemble in order to begin the transition. Alvarado did not come however and instead fled the city, heading southward with a few aides. The rest of the city officials complied however and Montravel soon found himself in charge of Monterey.
Alvarado, one of the few former Mexican officials to flee the city.
It might seem surprising that the local transition of power was so smooth but it should be remembered that while two ships and a hundred marines was pitifully small by European or American standards, it was the strongest military force in California by far. While Montravel’s power only reached the muzzle of his guns, within that circle it was absolute.
For the next several months the French admiral adjusted to his new role as master and commander of Monterey, and in theory, all of California. He met with local landowners and merchants, assuring them French administration would be fair, efficient and non-invasive. Montravel had no idea if this would be true, but it sounded good. More importantly he also met with a man who was destined to have a considerable role in Californie affairs. John Augustus Sutter was a Swiss-French immigrant drawn to the region, after many travels, by Mexican promises of landed estates for willing farmers. Beyond simple economic development the Mexican offer had also been predicated on a strategic desire to ‘buttress the frontier and maintain it against Indians, Russians, Americans and British.’ Sutter had grand plans of a vast estate and settlement named New Helvetia and had been on the verge of cementing the deal with Alvarado when news of the French capture of the region was announced. Much preferring to work the French anyway, being a confirmed Francophile, Sutter waited for Montravel’s arrival to finalize his grant.
The French admiral and the Swiss émigré got along well, both relieved to work with each other then the, they judged, slovenly Mexican officials. Using their mother tongues, Sutter was quickly granted his vast tract of land as well as other rights and privileges. Montravel was pleased that his nation had at least one firm ally out in the hinterlands, beyond the reach of his naval guns.
By fall 1841, Montravel had seen enough to submit his first preliminary report back to Paris. He said he found the land fertile and productive, if wild and untamed. The ports were excellent, and the locals few, disorganized and had taken easily to French control. Along with his own personal views of the local areas and personalities, he included a much larger appendix based on Monfas’s work, which gave descriptions of places from the Klamath River to the Sea of Cortez. Montravel ended his report by suggesting California could be a useful colony and if sale was desired, some degree of political control needed to be enforced. He strongly advocated more men, more ships and systematic French political administration over at least the entire coastline.
The first steps had been taken but who knew where they would lead?
It would be interesting if Alvarado attempts some sort of resistance movement from SoCal, but this early on he would likely lack the numbers and the interest to do so. It seems like there weren't very many Californios around even by the time of the Bear Flag Republic. There was an amazingly written but sadly unfinished Victoria AAR with an independent Californian republic playthrough where he had a prominent role.
Well-written piece, captures the uncertain and bewildered nature of the French assumption quite well. Guess Sutter is going to remain independent in this history. I wonder if gold will be discovered sooner than in OTL? A happy coincidence that Duflot de Mofras was operating in the area at the time. Also wondering what French policy towards the natives will be, at this time historically it seems like they didn't have many New World holdings, besides like Guyana.
Well-written piece, captures the uncertain and bewildered nature of the French assumption quite well. Guess Sutter is going to remain independent in this history. I wonder if gold will be discovered sooner than in OTL? A happy coincidence that Duflot de Mofras was operating in the area at the time. Also wondering what French policy towards the natives will be, at this time historically it seems like they didn't have many New World holdings, besides like Guyana.
Thanks! I have plans for Alvarado. Can't have the French have everything their own way.....
Yeah when I stumbled on Mofras (I am using an excellent OTL map he made as a source) it seemed very unlikely but history is like that sometimes! He really was there.
Really enjoyed how you're making the steps here. No need to rush but just enjoy the slow introduction and the players that will shape and change French California, some good start before the inevitable conflict arises.
Worried I was going too slow, with all of the grand plans and thoughts being suggested here!
Also of note- Frémont's first expedition to the west arrives in 1842, and I'm not sure if it would've been butterflied away by the POD. Incidentally, his father was a French Canadian.
Even before the canal they would need to build a railway. According to Wikipedia the French attempted to do this in 1838 but gave up. It was the annexation of California after the Mexican War that got the US interested and the railway was built in the mid-1850s. In TTL US would have little interest but the French would absolutely need this railway.
