For God, for Glory, for the Netherlands!

Good timeline, though I miss Java and the Maluku Islands. They are too important to not have them gain, I think
 
Upon taking the colony of New Friesland*, from the Dutch, the French expelled all of its Dutch and protestant population. This only amounted to a few thousand people, who moved to either New Holland or the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa. Most of the population of the colony, which was renamed New France, were Catholic Hispanics left over from the period of Spanish control, who were quite happy to live under the French. Even they were not all that numerous, and New France was still sparsely populated.
However, the heavy restrictions imposed on the French peasantry by the government meant that there was no lack of settlers willing to come over for a better life, and the French government, which entertained dreams of using New France as a base against the Spanish silver mines in Potosi, were happy to let them. By 1700, French outnumbered Spanish in the colony, and its capital, Buenos Aires under the Spanish, Willemstad under the Dutch, and now Asheville (for Jean Ashe, a French general of Irish descent who led takeover of the city) was largely Francophone.

*Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay
I missed any changes in France that would cause massive emigration. OTL the French had very few settlers willing to go overseas.
 
I missed any changes in France that would cause massive emigration. OTL the French had very few settlers willing to go overseas.

Basically, France did much worse in TTL's Thirty Years War than OTL (they got their rear handed to them by the Dutch, and at the same time had to face a renewed Huegonot revolt, and wound up expelling all of them). So by 1650, the French crown was almost bankrupt and large parts of the country were depopulated.

The crown basically delt with this by decreasing the power of the nobility and taxing their lands, and encouraging trade/supporting the urban bourgeoisie (because they pay taxes). To deal with the population problem, (and attendent labor scarcities) the crown harshly restricted the rights of peasants, tying them to their estates and taxing them enough to force many into debt. Thus, the lot of French peasants is even worse than OTL, and by the late 1600's a good many are willing to take any opportunity to get out of metropolitan France-so when the French wanted to populate their new colony in Argentina, all they had to do was offer any takers a land grant and debt forgiveness, and they had people lining up at the door.

Though, note that at the current point (1740's) the traders and urban middle classes have become much more powerful as compared to the nobles, and (especially with TTL's Enlightenment-more on that in an update or two) a lot them are beginning to question the wisdom of treating the lower class so harshly-both for moral reasons and because well-off farmers with their own land have more money to spend than indebted sharecroppers/tenant farmers. So the late 18th century will see some reforms.
 
To give this bump more substance than "UPDATE AAAAGH!!!", here's a greater coat of arms of the Habsburg Netherlands in their current configuration.

There's probably a lordship or two missing because ahahaha, I ran out of quarters.

CoA_Greater-Netherlands.png
 
To give this bump more substance than "UPDATE AAAAGH!!!", here's a greater coat of arms of the Habsburg Netherlands in their current configuration.

There's probably a lordship or two missing because ahahaha, I ran out of quarters.

Wow, thanks for making that!

I must say though, it does look very cluttered...I wonder if the Dutch wouldn't go for something more like Imperial Russia's coat of arms-a central shield with a a few of the major province's arms, and the rest as miniature arms in a circle around the center.

I'll try and get an update in soon:eek:-I haven't quite decided where I want this TL to go.
 
Brilliant Greater Coat of Arms Saya Aensland!
(Sorry for the late reaction, thankfully someone bumped this thread;).)

One small question I recognize every arms on it except one, what does the shield between Limburg and Overijssel (and above Burgundy Modern) represent?
 
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I hereby request the help of my faithful readers...

No, this TL is not quite dead-I would like to continue it. However, I haven't quite been able to get over my rather annoying case of writer's block with regards to it. I have some general ideas-I'm going to have the Netherlands aquire Munster and its circle at some point (possibly in a rewrite of the Danish-Dutch war), and towards the end of the 18th century, a revolution in France (which won't be as traumatic as OTL, and will produce a constitutional monarchy-TTL already has Poland and the Netherlands to show how a powerful constitutional monarchy can be constructed). And of course, during the 19th century, Dutch industry (fueled by the coalfields of Wallonia and the Ruhr, and iron from its ally Lorraine) will become the envy of continental Europe. But...I can't seem to come up with specifics-wars, rulers,-and all-to turn this broad outline into a TL. So, I hereby open up the floor to the board-if there's anything you'd like to see happen, any idea you might have, please share it. I might use it, or you might help me come up with something new on my own. Either way, I'm going to need help to get this TL going...
 
I hereby request the help of my faithful readers...

No, this TL is not quite dead-I would like to continue it. However, I haven't quite been able to get over my rather annoying case of writer's block with regards to it. I have some general ideas-I'm going to have the Netherlands aquire Munster and its circle at some point (possibly in a rewrite of the Danish-Dutch war), and towards the end of the 18th century, a revolution in France (which won't be as traumatic as OTL, and will produce a constitutional monarchy-TTL already has Poland and the Netherlands to show how a powerful constitutional monarchy can be constructed). And of course, during the 19th century, Dutch industry (fueled by the coalfields of Wallonia and the Ruhr, and iron from its ally Lorraine) will become the envy of continental Europe. But...I can't seem to come up with specifics-wars, rulers,-and all-to turn this broad outline into a TL. So, I hereby open up the floor to the board-if there's anything you'd like to see happen, any idea you might have, please share it. I might use it, or you might help me come up with something new on my own. Either way, I'm going to need help to get this TL going...

What's the current situation in Europe? Some kind of map or summary of the current situation, however rough, would be nice.
 
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