Danes and Swedes in North America

Could Denmark and/or Swede colonize North America?
In the way Britain or Spain did? No, both countries are too small. In the way France did? Maybe. In the way the Netherlands did? Yes.

If there is no dominating colonizing countrie in North America (like OTL Britain), it is possible for North America to be divided between various European countries and Denmark and Sweden could be part of it.
 
Sweden already did. Nothing extensive like the English, French or Spanish but it wasn't that much smaller than what the Dutch did.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Even the French colonization of North America was rather illusory. Aside from the settlements in Quebec and at New Orleans, most of the enormous swaths of blue you see on the maps showing "New France" just indicates regions where a few hundred priests and fur-trappers wandered about. Nothing at all like the English or Spanish colonies.
 

katchen

Banned
In Denmark's case, the Danes would need to abolish all vestiges of feudalism and free up Norwegian and Icelandic farmers as well as Danish farmers to migrate to colonies first. There is a reason why Denmark did not found colonies. Estate holders in Denmark and Norway feared the loss of their laborers. In fact it got so bad that from 1733 until the early 1800s, at the behest of estate holders, Denmark actually legally bound people to work on the estates on which they were born unless they could buy their way out of that bondage.
For that reason, Greenland was kept under the tight control of Danish missionaries until 1944, which is why Greenland is still largely Innuit and not totally settled by Danes.
Sweden was held back from settling the New World because it was hemmed in to the west by Norway and Denmark until 1809 at which point most of the viable areas to settle in the world were already claimed. PODs in which Sweden either gets control of Norway or gets early(16th or early 17th Century) control of Lapland and Norrland/or Trondelag from Denmark are PODs in which it is realistic for Sweden to turn it's energies outward instead of inward, across the Baltic, making too many enemies of too big and powerful nations such as Russia and Prussia.
And unlike Denmark, Sweden never had feudalism, so Swedes and Finns are free to settle in the New World. And what the Swedes, Finns and Lapps have going for them is the ability to settle and prosper in colder climates than any other Europeans save Russians. Swedes know how to farm in Newfoundland, even during the Little Ice Age, and to settle Finns and Lapps in Labrador and around Hudson's Bay and get sustainable yields of furs and reindeer hides and meat, kept cold by ice during the trip across the Atlantic---until they discover the vast fertile Great Plains around Lake Winnipeg and Lake Michigan. There's no reason, given a POD of the 16th Century with Sweden getting ports at Namsos, Trondheim, Bodo and Narvik, that there can't be well over 100-200 million Swedish speakers in the world by the year 2000.
 
In Denmark's case, the Danes would need to abolish all vestiges of feudalism and free up Norwegian and Icelandic farmers as well as Danish farmers to migrate to colonies first. There is a reason why Denmark did not found colonies. Estate holders in Denmark and Norway feared the loss of their laborers. In fact it got so bad that from 1733 until the early 1800s, at the behest of estate holders, Denmark actually legally bound people to work on the estates on which they were born unless they could buy their way out of that bondage.
For that reason, Greenland was kept under the tight control of Danish missionaries until 1944, which is why Greenland is still largely Innuit and not totally settled by Danes.
Sweden was held back from settling the New World because it was hemmed in to the west by Norway and Denmark until 1809 at which point most of the viable areas to settle in the world were already claimed. PODs in which Sweden either gets control of Norway or gets early(16th or early 17th Century) control of Lapland and Norrland/or Trondelag from Denmark are PODs in which it is realistic for Sweden to turn it's energies outward instead of inward, across the Baltic, making too many enemies of too big and powerful nations such as Russia and Prussia.
And unlike Denmark, Sweden never had feudalism, so Swedes and Finns are free to settle in the New World. And what the Swedes, Finns and Lapps have going for them is the ability to settle and prosper in colder climates than any other Europeans save Russians. Swedes know how to farm in Newfoundland, even during the Little Ice Age, and to settle Finns and Lapps in Labrador and around Hudson's Bay and get sustainable yields of furs and reindeer hides and meat, kept cold by ice during the trip across the Atlantic---until they discover the vast fertile Great Plains around Lake Winnipeg and Lake Michigan. There's no reason, given a POD of the 16th Century with Sweden getting ports at Namsos, Trondheim, Bodo and Narvik, that there can't be well over 100-200 million Swedish speakers in the world by the year 2000.
im not sure if Norways coast is really good enough to use as blue water bases.

however, if the Swedes can take Trongelag and neutralize Denmark (maybe get them to somehow let Norway go? While maybe also taking Iceland, they could have a way of settling canada as long as the Danes aren't doing all they can to bring stronger powers into play (the Dutch, Brits, Muscovites) in fact a Norwegian vassal could very much keep Denmark at bay and maybe they turn toward Germany. Then the Swedes will be able to use their own bases backed by the icy Norweigan ports to support a colony.

After than it just becomes a fight to build enough infrastructure and population to fend off the naturally more powerful colonial powers such as Britain and France.
After so long, it wouldn't really matter if the Brits conquered New Sweden because the population would be too large to curb its growth.
 
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