French South Island?

Is it possible to have a French NZ South Island colony that encompasses the entire Island, before the Treaty of Waitangi effectively gave the British a free hand to gobble the entirety of New Zealand? What would change in the grand scheme of things if such a colony was allowed to exist until the 20th century?
 
You would need to go back really far for this to be plausible, far enough that you're definitely in the wrong forum. New Zealand got responsible government in the 1856 and dominion status in 1907. The Treaty of Waitangi itself was in 1840. That should put this over in "Before 1900".
 
To the actual scenario: the easiest way is to wank French colonialism in the South Pacific by a decade while screwing Britain's by the same. IIRC France claimed Polynesia in 1842. If they go further they could conceivably get to New Zealand and make a claim.

So...get Britain to maybe go to war with someone in the 1830s (I don't have enough knowledge of European history to guess who) and have this butterfly interest in colonizing New Zealand for a bit. France isn't involved and continues exploring, ultimately claiming the South Island. That's my idea.
 
You would need to go back really far for this to be plausible, far enough that you're definitely in the wrong forum. New Zealand got responsible government in the 1856 and dominion status in 1907. The Treaty of Waitangi itself was in 1840. That should put this over in "Before 1900".
whoops, my bad. :p
 
OTL there was an attempt from the Captain Langlois who purchased some land in 1838, came back to France to launch a colonisation company, but when it finally arrived in New Zealand, the British were already ruling the place.
It seems that it was actually the French interest in the place which sped up the British colonisation process, as little has been done previously.

As it has been suggested before, make the french attempts happen 10 years earlier for it to have a chance to work.
 
OTL there was an attempt from the Captain Langlois who purchased some land in 1838, came back to France to launch a colonisation company, but when it finally arrived in New Zealand, the British were already ruling the place.
It seems that it was actually the French interest in the place which sped up the British colonisation process, as little has been done previously.

As it has been suggested before, make the french attempts happen 10 years earlier for it to have a chance to work.
I know of that colony- but the issue is that renewed French expansionism (minus Algeria) doesn't seem to have started until after Napoleon III came into power. Which is problematic.

I doubt a colony in the Pacific would renew people's view of the French Government in a more positive light (why Algeria was conquered).

Anything on the British side that could change things and not cause too many butterflies?

The only thing that comes up from the top of my head is to remove the New Zealand Company (who never really settled a huge number of people, but was a big impetus to kickstart the colony), and have Wakefield do something else. Or die in prison.

Would that leave enough time for the French presence to get large enough to partition NZ?
 
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