I'm not an expert in American history, that's why I can't think of a plausible POD for that. Any ideas? Bonus points if les Etats-Unis d'Amérique occupy at least all the OTL mainland territory of the US.
That would require a POD at the latest in the mid 17th century, preferably sooner, to give the French a shot at being quicker than the English in colonising NA. Problem is you'd need to get the French willing to massively emigrate as well, not something they have ever done in OTL. Another thing is that such a massive change would make North America completely unrecognisable from OTL, whatever the French colonies end up being called at independence (which might be anywhere between 1750-1900) it won't be les États-Unis d'Amerique and neither will it's culture look like the USA of OTL.I'm not an expert in American history, that's why I can't think of a plausible POD for that. Any ideas? Bonus points if les Etats-Unis d'Amérique occupy at least all the OTL mainland territory of the US.
Problem is you'd need to get the French willing to massively emigrate as well, not something they have ever done in OTL.
So basically, let Napoleon lose early and gamble much of France away to Prussia ... ?
*Allow Protestant Frenchmen to migrate but keep them away and/or angry with the nearby large population of Protestants to the south.
So basically, let Napoleon lose early and gamble much of France away to Prussia ... ?
We can have the French somehow won the French and Indian Wars and took the British possessions in North America. After that, the burden of the war forced the French to tax more on the North American colonies. Then cue rebellion and the rest is anyone's guess.
Actually, one might consider a greater defeat of the French in 1763....
Or at least a shift in victories. Have the British do much better in the Caribbean, and a bit worse on the North American continent, such that the French lose all their valuable possessions in the Caribbean (and throw in Guiana as the icing on the cake), but retain their North American possessions (including Canada, Louisiana, and everything between the Mississippi and Appalachians). Have the displaced French move to Louisiana and Canada. That would make for a good start.
Next, have the British shut off immigration to the mainland colonies in order to make them more defensible and to bolster immigration to their new Caribbean possessions. Being cut off at the Appalachians and not allowed to bring in more population will PO the remaining Americans.
I'm not sure. French protectorate or not, I just don't see it without one thing: major French immigration into the heartlands of the USA. Otherwise, somewhere down the line someone in government is going to say "We may be a French protectorate (this may not even be a viable reason if the French have already handed over their protectorate to the new USA) but why are we speaking French when everyone speaks English? It would cause massive chaos to force everyone to switch to French and it would disrupt the government as it would eliminate many potentially influential and skillful politicians from joining the government because they aren't French-fluent. In addition, I think on the back of a revolution against a European colonial power over restrictions placed upon them there won't be much support among the average Americans for a new initiative to place a restriction switching the common tongue to another European language, especially if it's just to appease a new protector who the colonists (probably misguidedly) don't believe that they need. The first party to propose canning the French thing would win massive support.
To me, I just don't see how this could possibly be done without French cultural integration all across the USA, if not cultural assimilation of the USA before the official language changes. The only other way is if the language is forced upon them by a Francophone military oppressor...not very likely. 1763 is just too late IMO.