Challenge: Balkanised Canada without the US gettin' any

Right, that was the scenario I was proposing: Quebec declares independence as the Republic of Canada (or Quebec, not really sure what they called themselves in those days), and is immediately recognized by the United States as an independent republic.

Yes, thank you! You posted it while I was writing my reply.
 
Right, that was the scenario I was proposing: Quebec declares independence as the Republic of Canada (or Quebec, not really sure what they called themselves in those days), and is immediately recognized by the United States as an independent republic.

They most likely would have called themselves Canada, which was the name under French rule. Québec at that time only was the name of the capital.

Speaking of which, I would guess that an independent (French) Canada would be a monarchy; the Canadiens had no experience with self-government at this point, and generally were monarchists (the execution of Louis XVI later on caused outrage in Québec). So if independent, they probably would have invited some prince to become their king. But who would be the monarch - a member of the French royal family? If so, would the U.S. accept this in its neighbor? Lots of interesting butterflies.
 
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Speaking of which, I would guess that an independent (French) Canada would be a monarchy; the Canadiens had no experience with self-government at this point, and generally were monarchists (the execution of Louis XVI later on caused outrage in Québec). So if independent, they probably would have invited some prince to become their king. But who would be the monarch - a member of the French royal family? If so, would the U.S. accept this in its neighbor? Lots of interesting butterflies.

I don't see why not, the US accepted a monarchy as its neighbor to the north IOTL and had no problems with allying with France and Spain. As long as they don't threaten US interests(or are sitting on land the Americans want- and they aren't), they should get along fine.

For the monarch itself, I don't know who would be picked. I don't think anybody close too close to the French throne would want to spend the rest of their lives in Canada. Anybody know of any minor Bourbons who would be up for it?
 
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If Quebec revolted and didn't join the USA, couldn't it just revert to French control? Why argue of who could be the new monarch when I'm sure Louis XVI would be happy to fill the role. :p
 
I don't see why not, the US accepted a monarchy as its neighbor to the north IOTL and had no problems with allying with France and Spain. As long as they don't threaten US interests(or are sitting on land the Americans want- and they aren't), they should get along fine.

But an absentee British monarch (as in OTL) is one thing, and a resident French monarch is another. The American colonials (including Washington himself) had gone to war against France not that long previously. Some probably would not have been happy to return Canada to de facto French control.

In any event the French Revolution would have made things in Canada more interesting a decade later. The U.S. did initially recognize the French Republic, but an independent Kingdom of Canada would have made this much more difficult. It would be interesting if Canada would end up on the side of the British against the French Republic.
 
If Quebec revolted and didn't join the USA, couldn't it just revert to French control? Why argue of who could be the new monarch when I'm sure Louis XVI would be happy to fill the role. :p

I don't think the British would've accepted that. Allowing independence is one thing, ceding territory to a continental power is another.
 
But an absentee British monarch (as in OTL) is one thing, and a resident French monarch is another. The American colonials (including Washington himself) had gone to war against France not that long previously. Some probably would not have been happy to return Canada to de facto French control.

In any event the French Revolution would have made things in Canada more interesting a decade later. The U.S. did initially recognize the French Republic, but an independent Kingdom of Canada would have made this much more difficult. It would be interesting if Canada would end up on the side of the British against the French Republic.

Fair enough. Considering the conservative nature of the Canadiens, the French Revolution would get very interesting- I think war(on some level) between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Canada is certain.
 
Fair enough. Considering the conservative nature of the Canadiens, the French Revolution would get very interesting- I think war(on some level) between the French Republic and the Kingdom of Canada is certain.

It would most likely take the form of resistance to republican authorities as in brittony and the vandée regions OTL. One big advantage the canadiens would have is that they would more then likely have numerical superiority as even with some local republicans, the french would need to transport troops loyal to them to try and quell the uprising. It might actually turn into a situation where trying to retain new france would not be considered worth the effort as any sort of revenues (such as from foodstuff and wood) would be used up by occupation troops or at the very least lower its value.

If you then end up with a non-republican new france, alt-historian might feel the urge to have the current pretender move there but considering the state of infrastructure and low population, he might feel like he would be roughing it too much so that New France would recognise him de jure as their king and consider themselves a province of the soon-to-be-restablished kingdom of france but they would de facto be ruled by the traditional governor-intendant-archbishop triumvirate while the king went from court to court in europe staying with relatives. Having a monarchist colony next door might feel less threatening then an actual monarchy to the republicans down south.
 
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Quebec declares independence as the Republic of Canada (or Quebec, not really sure what they called themselves in those days),

Canada. The name "Province of Quebec" was a british invention and until the 1960s, what we would now call québecois refered to themselves strictly as "canadiens" (english speaking canadians were refered to by the generic "anglais", even scotsmen)
 
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