Challenge: The USA linguistically diverse from the beginning

I think the best POD for this is to make Dutch an official language in the USA, or maybe only in New York or New Jersey, where there were still quite a lot of Dutch speakers at the time of independence. With Dutch an official language there, when other states become part of the USA, their native language might also become official there (French in Louisiana, Spanish in a lot of other states, Russian in Alaska, if that is not butterflied away)
 
I guess if French Remained in Maine and Germans remained in Pennsylvania and then spread west, but what about intexas? They had planes to colonize that didnt they?
 
I think the best POD for this is to make Dutch an official language in the USA, or maybe only in New York or New Jersey, where there were still quite a lot of Dutch speakers at the time of independence. With Dutch an official language there, when other states become part of the USA, their native language might also become official there (French in Louisiana, Spanish in a lot of other states, Russian in Alaska, if that is not butterflied away)
Is that all there is to it? If that's the case, then all we need is a few Dutch founding fathers and a few German ones. Maybe a prominent German philosopher, a Dutch industrialist, a French war hero. And then add a few prominent lawyers, and then we're done. What were the Roosevelts doing in those days? And can anyone provide any statistics on languages in the colonies?
 
doubt Russian could remain in alaska, there was something like 700 of them living there at the height of their colonization
 
What were the Roosevelts doing in those days?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Roosevelt_%28politician%29

However, I have no idea whether he would have preferred Dutch or English. I've no doubt there were other Dutch in prominent positions at the time.

For the Germans, there were
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Muhlenberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Muhlenberg

And probably some others.

For the French war hero... Well, one comes to mind, but he wasn't a resident.

Heck you could also include Polish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casimir_Pulaski.

I think the problem is that we actually have the scenario you're describing already, and it still didn't happen. Probably because there was too much of an English-speaking majority overriding their influence.
 
How about the English lose the second Anglo-Dutch war, and New Netherland isn't taken until later, in the early 1700s, leading to a larger Dutch population. (OTL was already quite large and influential) And then when the British take over the colony in another war in the 1730s or so, the colony isn't renamed, leading to a greater Dutch identity.

Then, the Seven Years War goes as OTL, but for some reason (say, religious opposition back in England) the Quebec act of 1774 is never passed, leading to more Quebecois to join the American Revolution, and for the British to narrowly lose Canada. New Netherland revolts with the New England colonies for much of the same reasons. (to throw off trade restrictions) The various colonies afterward form into a loose confederation for protection.
 
I thought it wasn't quite that easy. Now, Sucrose, I like your idea, but maybe New Amsterdam would have to wait until the mid-1700s to be captured. How big was New Amsterdam at the time, and how would the Dutch and French cultures affected the United States? I already know there were a lot of similarities between the United States and the Netherlands, but I'm not familiar with the details. Would the Anglo-Americans have gotten along with the French and Dutch Americans? Would Lafayette's career be much different, assuming he wasn't butterflied away? What could the butterflies be of the English losing the Anglo-Dutch War?
 

MAlexMatt

Banned
I thought it wasn't quite that easy. Now, Sucrose, I like your idea, but maybe New Amsterdam would have to wait until the mid-1700s to be captured. How big was New Amsterdam at the time, and how would the Dutch and French cultures affected the United States? I already know there were a lot of similarities between the United States and the Netherlands, but I'm not familiar with the details. Would the Anglo-Americans have gotten along with the French and Dutch Americans? Would Lafayette's career be much different, assuming he wasn't butterflied away? What could the butterflies be of the English losing the Anglo-Dutch War?

The effects would probably be the same as in OTL. New York City is still heavily influenced by its Dutch past, right on down to today. Same thing with New Orleans, the Cajun Coast, and other French/Acadian influenced parts of the US.
 
I thought it wasn't quite that easy. Now, Sucrose, I like your idea, but maybe New Amsterdam would have to wait until the mid-1700s to be captured. How big was New Amsterdam at the time, and how would the Dutch and French cultures affected the United States? I already know there were a lot of similarities between the United States and the Netherlands, but I'm not familiar with the details. Would the Anglo-Americans have gotten along with the French and Dutch Americans? Would Lafayette's career be much different, assuming he wasn't butterflied away? What could the butterflies be of the English losing the Anglo-Dutch War?

I was thinking early 1700s so that the English and Dutch colonists have time to get used to living under the same rule, get their trade networks interwoven, etc, but not so early that English colonists start flooding in and the Dutch start adopting English. New Amsterdam was a nice-sized town when it was captured, another 50 years in the colonial period and it would be quite a bit bigger.

As far as butterflies go, actually the English don't even have to lose the Anglo-Dutch wars, just have the Dutch Republic decide not to trade New Amsterdam away to get their Caribbean islands back, either because the islands or New Amsterdam aren't captured in the ATL.
 
I think that's enough time to lose a lot of Dutch speakers, so that's why I suggested mid-1700s. But then again, there's no need to keep the revolution in the 1770s.
Anyway, going with a POD right after the second Anglo-Dutch War, we're butterflying away a lot, including New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. Among the many other possible questions is, where will the English put their Quakers? Might they have taken a colony in the south?
 
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