I missed any changes in France that would cause massive emigration. OTL the French had very few settlers willing to go overseas.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.
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.
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...