DBWI: Canada doesn't join the ARW?

Now don't cry ASB on me, hear me out first.

OTL, the Quebec Act did two things that pissed off the colonies. It gave everything north of the Ohio River and west of the Appalachians to the Hudson Bay Company, and extended the Irish Penal Acts to Canada.

But I was digging through the achieves of Parliament and discovered that the first reading of the Quebec Act was completely different from the one that eventually passed. It gave a fair portion of what became the North West Territory to Quebec, and actually loosened the restrictions on Catholicism in the colonies.

What happened to change the bill so much? News reached London that Guy Carleton's house had burnt down during a Canadian protest about religious discrimination.

So, what if the conciliatory version of the Quebec Act had passed and kept Canada neutral instead of swinging them firmly into the Patriot camp?

((OOC: Hopefully I've done the DBWI thing right this time, PoD is as I've described.))
 
The US could very well lose the war. There were several points where the Continental Army barely eked out a victory, such as at the Battle of Breed's Hill, and where the Continentals barely managed to escape decisive defeat, like the Battle of New York. The addition of an additional front to keep an eye on could drain away enough men from New England to be decisive in the initial battles of the war.

If the US succeeds, it will likely be much longer than OTL, maybe extending into the 1780s. If the war lasts long that long, the US will likely end up heavily indebted to France and Spain, rather than loosely aligned as OTL. The US will probably end up more unitary and centralized, a) they will be more homogeneous without Quebec, and b) they will have to be more organized to survive sharing a continent with their former masters.

The OTL postwar reconciliation will definitely not happen because the US will want to take Canada and the Ohio basin to remove any threat from their former masters and the British will want to keep the Canadians from getting any ideas about independence. I can see a strong France-US alliance opposing the British throughout the early 1800s.

TTL's US will definitely be weaker OTL, since they will effectively be confined to the East Coast. I just can't see that Britain would hand over the Ohio basin postwar since they only handed it over OTL because it was completely cut off from British control. TTL's US will probably end up a French satellite.
 
TTL's US will definitely be weaker OTL, since they will effectively be confined to the East Coast. I just can't see that Britain would hand over the Ohio basin postwar since they only handed it over OTL because it was completely cut off from British control. TTL's US will probably end up a French satellite.
Even if somehow the the Americans could have pushed the British out of the Ohio basin, I can't imagine the British holding on to just Canada for long. The land they'd be left with would be poor and hard to sustain, at least not for a long time. If they don't just pull out entirely (except for Newfoundland), I can easily see the Quebecois either getting their own independance soon with American aid, or just swamped with American immigrants and squatters until they're so assimilated the British have no power left. In a few generations, any land held by the British in North America would be firmly under the USA's grasp.
 
Hmm, "Canada" is an interesting choice. I always thought the southernmost British colonies like Georgia or South Carolina were more likely to stay loyalist.
In any case, could this mean less British settlers in South Africa with more land nearby in North America?

(OOC: ;))
 
Quebecois

Uh, what about the guys in Montreal? I was talking about Canada, including what became South Canada and Carleton, not just a city in Canada.

((Canada is what the French people called the whole area, naming it after the city came later, when the Brits were in control.))
 
Uh, what about the guys in Montreal? I was talking about Canada, including what became South Canada and Carleton, not just a city in Canada.

((Canada is what the French people called the whole area, naming it after the city came later, when the Brits were in control.))
I was under the impresssion that the majority of the French-speakers in the region lived in the city of Quebec, since the old city of Montreal was evacuated. But actually, that probably wouldn't happen ITTL. In any case, that same area would obviously be quickly overrun by Americans. The French won't be able to reproduce fast enough to outnumber the Americans...and that's considering the small exodus of Americans that'd probably leave to Canada after USA get it's independance. I can't imagine there being more than just a few housand loyalists, and they'd probably still consider themselves citizens of the states they left, wanting to be re-connected with their home states. The desire to be annexed by the USA would probably haunt Canada for the few decades it'd survive.
 
I was under the impresssion that the majority of the French-speakers in the region lived in the city of Quebec, since the old city of Montreal was evacuated.


:confused::eek::confused: They have like, four different states up above the Great Lakes that only have French as an official language, and that's completely ignoring all the Francophones down in Louisiana (where they're a majority).



Although, since you wouldn't see as much french emigration during the French Revolution, you could be right about them getting swamped by Anglophones.
 
:confused::eek::confused: They have like, four different states up above the Great Lakes that only have French as an official language, and that's completely ignoring all the Francophones down in Louisiana (where they're a majority).
Not at the time of the revolution, though. They were much fewer in number, and less spread out. In Canada, at least.
 
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