It's possible. It also depends on whether or not the Huguenots survive by the time the English get there. If they do, they will have a strong ally so that in 1685 France may not send Catholics over to dilute it since it's quite possible that Great Britain can help protect the Huguenots in La Floride. The French will probably still colonize Canada, since it would be "New France" instead of “Nouvelle-Normandie” or “Nouvelle-Bourgogne” or whatever it decides to change its name to.
La Floride: A French Huguenot Colony in North America
- Thread starter PGSBHurricane
- Start date
unprincipled peter
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on the date of POD, the entirety of the eastern seaboard is completely available. The English and Dutch have not established any colonies.
A Huguenot settler colony (or two, or three) won't impact ability to do OTL Canada, which was mostly fur trading outposts with minimal immigration.
I have the extreme advantage of hindsight, but if'n I were to dream up the best French colonization of North America, I would move the enterprise north. Florida is hot, with tropical disease and storms, but very limited for traditional European crops, and limited for cash crops. It doesn't have much to offer geographically. Carolina (s)/Virginia are far more attractive for both farming and cash crops, and perhaps far enough north to avoid the ire of the Spanish. Further north, the Hudson River Valley is excellent for farming and for the fur trade. Establish a French presence on both the Hudson and St Lawrence, you can control the Great Lakes Region. To get really greedy, take Hudson's Bay (which was also there for the taking), and the French control the fur trade. This squeezes the British in New England. It's way too ambitious to establish the French everywhere, but with the Huguenots in the middle and/or New York, and a minimal effort presence in Canada (as OTL, but preferably with just a little more oomph), the French are set up pretty well, while at the same time beating the English to much of OTL British North America. Dreaming of Florida is setting the sights mighty low (no offense to the OP). It's like opting for a plot of desert over a lush garden.
The cultural center of the colony is at Charlesfort (since it was the first settlement), which is in modern South Carolina. It doesn't really go south of OTL Jacksonville, Florida.
But I do agree, you have the whole eastern coast, why not choose say Virginia or Maryland, if not Hudson valley?
I guess I feel like that would defeat the purpose of why I created this TL, which is to explore if the attempted settlements of OTL worked out better (with some twists along the way). But I digress.
All right, but I think that they might as well land either in S. Carolina, Florida, N. Carolina or Virginia , because they were un-occupied. I think that they just sailed in general direction of America and then they tried to find good enough place to settle, a bit north or south, all the same to them...
Despite its name, the epicenter will not be in Florida proper but OTL Carolinas.
Chapter One: A Whole New World
Chapter One: A Whole New World
Before 1562, there was one other attempt at Huguenot colonization in the Americas. The first colony was called France Antarctique, dating back to 1555 when French vice-admiral Nicolas Durand de Villegaignon (a Catholic knight in the Order of Malta,) led a fleet of two ships containing 600 soldiers and colonists to South America. They took possession of a small island in the Guanabara Bay, in front of present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The fort was named Fort Coligny, in honor of Gaspard de Coligny. Largely unnoticed by the Portuguese, Villegaignon called for more colonists in 1556. Two years later, Villegaignon returned to France in disgust with the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the colony in order to obtain more funds and ships for the Huguenot colony, but the Crown did not consider it much of a priority at the time. In 1560, Mem de Sá, the Governor-General of Brazil, was commanded by the Portuguese government to expel the French Huguenots from their colony. On March 15, 1560, a fleet of 26 warships and 2,000 soldiers attacked Fort Coligny and destroyed it within three days, but the colonists escaped to the mainland with the help of Native Brazilians before they could be driven off. Their fortunes came to an end in January 1567 when a new attack force under the command of Estácio de Sá expelled the French from Brazil, and Villegagnon agreed to give up any claims to France Antarctique.
Meanwhile, there was a second attempt at colonization in the Americas by the Huguenots, this time to the North. This second colony was located in the Florida region, with plans created by French Huguenot leader, Admiral of France Gaspard de Coligny, and led by Norman navigator Jean Ribault. Coligny immediately set his sights on Florida following the loss of Fort Coligny in 1560. In February 1562, they left France and landed along the shores of the Rivière de Mai (or what the Spanish called the Río San Juan) near Spanish Florida on April 30. However, they determined it wasn’t suitable for colonization at the time and relocated northward soon after. With 28 troops, including his second-in-command René Goulaine de Laudonnière, and 150 civilian men, Ribault landed at the Bras de Mer aux Port-Royal along the Rivières Chenonceaux et Livourne on May 17. They named the settlement Charlesfort for the 12-year-old king of France, Charles IX. Almost no one expected the colony to survive more than a year. A major part of this expectation was because almost no one knew how to grow crops and survival would depend on relations with the Native Americans as well as the provisions they arrived in the New World with. Ribault then returned to France to arrange supplies for the new colony, leaving the colony in the hands of Captain Albert de la Pierria while Gaspard de Coligny was also in Europe.
Departing Charlesfort on June 11, Ribault's intentions while in France were to collect supplies for the fort and return to North America by the end of the year. When he arrived at Le Havre, France (about 85 kilometers from his birth town of Dieppe) he found about the breaking out of the French Wars of Religion between the Roman Catholic majority of France and the Protestant Huguenots. Both sides, following the seizure of Orleans by Louis, Prince of Condé, began peace talks on May 18. The initial round of negotiations failed because the Huguenots insisted on the removal of Guise from the French court, but the Crown refused. In June, Anne de Montmorency stepped in with potential terms including banning all preachers from France and the removal of Protestant princes from the country until the King came of age. Neither was acceptable to Conde, but he saw the latter as the lesser of two evils. Using this as a starting point, he agreed they would be imprisoned in the Tower of London in exile. The Edict of Amboise, signed on October 26, 1562, the same day the Siege of Rouen ended, restricted communal Calvinist worship to the suburbs of one town in each bailliage excluding Paris (exceptions being Protestant nobles) outside of towns held by Huguenot garrisons at the end of the war. Sized property of the Catholic Church would be returned while political and religious leagues would be suspended. Finally, the Crown agreed to pay for The Huguenot Army if they promised to leave France.
After Ribault arrived in France, he assisted the Huguenots at Dieppe but was forced to flee to England when his birth city fell to Catholic forces. While in England, he found an audience with Queen Elizabeth I and organized some backers for a plan to settle in America. However, not wanting to anger her brother-in-law Phillip II of Spain, she had him arrested in June 1563 in The Tower of London from June 1563 through fall 1564. Nevertheless, the 1562 Peace of Amboise allowed Gaspard de Coligny to devote his attention back to North America. In the wake of the whereabouts of Ribault in Europe, Coligny appointed Ribault's former lieutenant, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, to replace Ribault as the commander of the Charlesfort colony and any other potential Huguenot colonies in North America. To most settlers, this was a welcome change. Charlesfort had begun to fall into despair. The heavy discipline used by Captain Albert de la Pierria was starting to lead to a mutiny among the soldiers. Fortunately, René Goulaine de Laudonnière, was able to end the worst of the despair, as he called for more supplies to be shipped in, and prevent any real mutineering from happening. In the meantime, they were able to gather some additional supplies and exchange some other goods with local Native tribes like the Orista And Escamacu peoples. In 1564, Laudonnière sailed south in a crude vessel hoping to find more trading partners and perhaps a spot for a new settlement.
Hi guys, sorry if this update is a little rushed. Hurricane Henri (which is interestingly a name of French origin) is supposed to arrive here tomorrow and I could be out without power for several days so I figured this was my last chance to post a new update before the storm.
I do have a better understanding of what the final boundaries for La Floride will be, although it's not quite set.
Interesting so if I understand the location right the colony is located in southern South Carolina which is a much better place than Florida.
The cultural and commercial center should be in the Carolinas. At most, St. Augustine should be the southern boundary (if that). Here is a good idea of what the colony should look like, even though it isn’t finalized.
Charlesfort was actually the first settlement IOTL. The problem is that bad timing caused a wide array of problems that TTL will avoid the worst of, and Fort Caroline became attempt #2.
Could you please just write an OTL names of locations mentioned in TL?
Also, why Florida, why not name the colony Carolina or, maybe later, Louisiana?
Also, why Florida, why not name the colony Carolina or, maybe later, Louisiana?
I’m going with La Floride because it was the name of the entire stretch of land IOTL. As far as the French names go, remember that this is not definitely what it will look like and I also plan to do it as I go along, or as each settlement is created. Also,
I plan on making Caroline a province name.
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so will the colonies be loyal to the french monarchy, or will they have an independence streak like a few virginians?
Loyalty is a strong word but until 1685, expect some degree of tolerance towards the French monarchy.
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