French Australia

What if Australia has been colonized by the French instead of the British?

Would the French settlers colonize Australia as British did in Australia in OTL?

Would Australia be prosper under French colonization?




You can post your ATL for the French Australia.

You can post your map for the French Australia.
 
I write without authority, but I don't think the French would be able to settle and hold-on to a continent sized colony like Australia - they just weren't the settle-down kind...

Look at Nor Am, where they laid claim to most of the continent through Nouvelle France and Louisiana. That was fine until the Birtish and then the Americans wanted it. After that there just wasn't enough of a population base to resist (even though they tried in Quebec). The highly profitable sugar plantations in the Caribbean islands were a different matter, and much easier to defend.

I don't see a settlement of Australia (le Sud-terre?) would be all that different if the French were the first to claim it. A few coastal outposts perhaps, maybe along the north as victualling posts for the Far East trade? But large scale colonization, not likely. The expansionist English would set up their own colonies and eventually annex most if not all of it.
 
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