Le Grand Empire Français: A French Empire Timeline
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1844-1848 War For The West
War For The West
With all the land out west and settlers moving to it in droves, and along with that the settlers are coming from two rival empires, France and Britain, this would mean there would definitely be a conflict between the French and the British in North America, and this war would determine if the west is going to be British or French, unlike our timelines division of North vs South, and Northerners and Southerners in the British colonies (Our timeline United States) would be more united, because of the French presence in North America, they would start to view themselves either as British or Anglo American rather than as Northerners or Southerners, the same would go for the French colonists where Acadians and Quebecois would start to view themselves as French and as a single identity as well due to the British presence as well, these groups would still of course retain their own regional identities but would be more united.
The Anglo Americans want to capture St. Louis and the rest of Western Louisiana from the French, so Anglo Americans armies would start to march troops to these areas, like the American colonists themselves did in the Seven Years War at Fort Duquesne, and would start to fire the first shots of what I am going to call the Western War or the War For The West. There would also be conflicts between French and Anglo settlers in Southern Ontario because that region would have a lot of tensions between English and French settlers similar to Acadia and Newfoundland before the Seven Years War, even without Loyalists, Southern Ontario would at least have some English settlers, but the French would be a bit more numerous in the region, So English and French would fight over who would get Southern Ontario as well. The French in North America would retain Louisiana south of the 30th Parallel because that region is very strategic due to the access to the Mississippi river and it would also have warm water ports which would be very important to the French as well because the majority of the ports in French Canada would be frozen for a good half of the year and the region would be a majority French region as well.
1848 Treaty Of Washington
- French influence solidified in Southern Ontario.
- French would get Western Canada.
- French would get Northern 2/3rd of Northwest (OTL British Columbia and Washington).
- French would retain Louisiana south of the 30th parallel.
- British would get Western Louisiana south of the 42nd Parallel.
- British would annex Texas, California, and Deseret.
- British would get New Mexico (OTL Arizona and New Mexico) from Spain.
- British would get Oregon (OTL Oregon, Southern Idaho, and Western Wyoming).
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1848-1855 Gold Rush
Gold Rush
In the 1850s and in North America, and the western frontier parts of North America has a lot of natural resources, and gold is especially one of them, there are places where people have found gold especially in Sutter's Mill in California, but gold was also found in places such as Canada and Australia as well, and the gold rush and other gold rushes will attract many people to come and settle in these regions, many parts of the Western frontier regions of North America and also Australia are shaped by much of the activities and the migrations from other countries that were caused by gold rushes, the gold rush itself, led to the settlement and rapid population growth of California by American settlers.
In French North America gold was founded near our timelines British Columbia with earlier and smaller gold rushes occurring in Quebec and Newfoundland in the 1820s, most of the gold mines in French North America would be located around our timelines British Columbia and Canadian shield (OTL Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nunavut, and Northwest Territory) regions, so the first major gold rush in French North America would most likely be around our timelines British Columbia.
In British North America gold was founded in California, gold was also discovered outside the British North America colonies in Australia and New Zealand as well, but there would be more than that, the British have just annexed a lot of land other than just California from the Spanish, during the Western War, also known as the War of the West, where more minor gold rushes, such as our timelines Gila River gold rush, would take place mostly around our timelines Arizona, New Mexico, and Nevada.
Map of major North American gold rushes.
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1850-1882 Chinese Diaspora
Chinese Diaspora
The Gold Rush would bring in many immigrants and many of these immigrants would cross not only the Atlantic Ocean but also the Pacific Ocean where many immigrants from China coming mostly from the Guangdong Province will come to North America, both British and French North America, to look for many riches especially gold because it was a gold rush, the colonies would also want a cheap source of labour and whom the Chinese would be viewed as a source of cheap labour for both the British and French North American colonies.
However the Chinese weren’t only coming because of the Gold Rush but the Chinese are also working in factory jobs a lot of whom would be working in garment factories many of these factories in the San Francisco area, Chinese immigrants would also be very important when it comes to building the railroads, especially in the Western part of North America in which the Chinese would take many jobs, many of which are very deadly due to explosions, snowstorms, avalanches, extreme weather, and many more dangers to build the railroads, and would be working with the European immigrants, such as the Irish and German immigrants, in the Eastern parts of North America, to build the first railroads and finish them and would connect them together which would complete what would be known as the First Transcontinental Railroad. Many Chinese immigrants would grow to be successful entrepreneurs as well.
But all of these accomplishments from Chinese immigrants would of course come with many hardships and discrimination that Chinese immigrants and their descendants would of course face, such as discrimination such as anti Chinese sentiment, racism, and a perfect example would be things like many articles on newspapers that would be saying bad things about the Chinese (Eg. they are taking out jobs), which would end up generating a lot of anti Chinese and in general anti Asian immigrant attitudes from other groups such as workers of different ancestral and ethnic groups who are unemployed and are desperate and trying to look for a job.
There were also other bad stuff such as physical assaults like the 1871 Chinese Massacre, and the Chinese would also face many discriminatory policies such as something that would be very much like that of our timelines Chinese Exclusion Act in the United States and the 1923 Chinese Immigration Act in Canada, which would entirely ban or severely restrict Chinese from immigrating to the British colonies and the French colonies would most likely do the same thing with their immigration policy as well.
1853-1856 Crimean War
Crimean War
Once upon a time, there was a Russian Tsar and he was named Nicholas, and he was known as Nicholas I of Russia, his rallying cry was Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and Nationality, he was also highly expansionist, as he fought many other wars against other powers such as Persia, to get land in the Caucasus region and around the Black and Caspian Seas for the Russian Empire. The next country that will come under the threat of invasion from the ever expanding Russia in 1853 and that would be the Ottoman Empire, the Crimean war would be the deadliest war since our timelines Napoleonic Wars or in this timeline the deadliest war since the French and Indian War, it is believed that the war could of happened due to religious disagreements between Catholic France and Orthodox Russia, one of the largest goals of Russia during the 19th century would be to get a warm water port, and to conquer Orthodox and Slavic lands in the Balkan region of Southeastern Europe, the Russians also hoped to control Constantinople which was the birthplace of Orthodox Christianity.
The European powers wanted to maintain the balance of power as stated under the Congress of Vienna in our timeline, but in this timeline without the Napoleonic wars, which would mean there would be no Congress of Vienna, but the European powers wanted to maintain a balance of power long before the Congress of Vienna, a perfect example would be the War Of The Spanish Succession in 1700-1714, where most of the entire European continent was fighting against the combined empires of France and Spain during a succession crisis, and the French during the War Of The Spanish Succession almost conquered much of Europe as well. The same thing could and would be said for this, but with Russia in the Balkans, so both Britain and France would join up against the Russia to maintain the balance of power, and to prevent Russia, from conquering much of the Ottoman Empire as well. The British and French would win the war against Russia, like they did in our timeline, the British and French would still be allies against Russia because the French and British in our timeline were allies against Russia in our timeline because they kind of had to in order to preserve the balance of power.
The main places where the French and Russians would be rivals would be in Central Asia because the French are based in India and the Russians based in Siberia and Kazakhstan and to a much lesser extent North America where the Russians are based in Alaska while the French are based in Canada which is known as New France, and yes due to the French presence in India, I forgot to mention British reactions to the French in India. It would cause the British to look elsewhere for colonies and the British are going to take some off of the Dutch such as South Africa, Malaya, and maybe even Indonesia, so Southeast Asia would be a stronghold for the British Empire due to the French presence in India. The British would take South Africa in 1806, Malacca in 1824, and Malaya in 1826, the same as our timeline, because the British would still want those colonies, and the British didn’t give those colonies back to the Dutch after the Napoleonic Wars in our timeline. The French presence in India would make the British want more from the Dutch so the British would take Indonesia sometime around 1820s most likely 1828.
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1853-1868 The Perry Expedition And The Meiji Restoration
The Perry Expedition And The Meiji Restoration
After both the British and the French in North America completed their westward expansion on the North American continent, both of them, the British and the French gained access to the Pacific Ocean, which the Pacific Ocean has access to many different places of the, and the most notable of these places the European powers want to get access to the most would be East Asia, particularly China, due to trading opportunities, But we are talking about Japan and the access the west coast rather than China.
1853 was a really important year for Japan and that is when Matthew Perry (who will still exist in this timeline) approached Edo Harbour with 4 ships in his first voyage, and 7 in his second voyage. This resulted in Japan being opened by the western powers or a western power and was forced to trade without very much choice. The Japanese had realized they needed to modernize in order to survive (the same reason why Japan went isolationist) was the threat of outside powers or in this case the western powers. The Americans wanted to end the 214 years of Japanese isolation that happened since 1639 as well as having place where they could trade and also dock their ships in the Pacific near the Eastern Seaboard of Asia as well. During a visit Perry gave the Japanese Emperor, many new technologies that never existed in Japan, such as a Telegram and a Model Train, I didn’t say this but Matthew Perry would still exist in this alternate timeline but he would be working for the British government based in British North America.
The Meiji Restoration (Meiji means enlightened rule) will occur in 1868 around 15 years after the Matthew Perry expedition, the Meiji Restoration would result in social classes such as the Samurai as well as the Feudal systems being obsolete, marked with the decline of the Daimyos and Shoguns who were basically the Japanese landed aristocracy. The industrialization of Japan would be similar to that of our timeline with the Japanese building their first railroads in 1872 with the help of the European powers (mostly British). Before the Perry Expedition in 1853, and the Meiji Restoration in 1868, the Japanese Emperor was basically a figurehead, but this will change with the Japanese Emperor and monarchy would come to be more powerful than the aristocracy (Daimyos and Shogun).
It is likely Russia would sell Alaska to British North America for fear of a French North American conquest. The reason why Russia sold Alaska to the United States in our timeline was to contain the British based in British Canada. The same would be for this timeline but the British would sell Alaska to the Anglo Americans to contain the French based in French Canada (New France/French North America).
OTL The Russians were not trying to contain the English. They had known since the Crimean War that the British would seek to take Alaska to eject the Russians from the American continent.
Therefore, if they were going to lose the territory, they might as well try to sell it beforehand. So they tried to sell it to the United States so that the British would then outbid the Russians and buy Alaska at a much higher price. But London didn't take the bait and Washington ended up with a land covered with ice without knowing what to do with it.
Thank you, Merci. So basically Russia basically used that opportunity of westward expansion to get money before it was taken from them. That would mean that the Russians might sell it to France instead or Alaska might become a Quebec of the Russian Empire. But again in our timeline, the reason why Russia didn't sell Alaska to Canada, was because Canada was controlled by the British, and the British and the Russians basically were in a cold war in the 19th century, known as the Great Game, which they as in both the British and the Russians competed in Afghanistan and Central Asia for empire and territorial gain. The Great Game in this timeline would be between the French and the Russians for the same reasons.
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OTL That Moscow is was motivated more to sell in Washington than in London is possible. But it was also found out that buying by the United States is still a quirk of our world. The Alaska of our time had almost no value, that's why British Canada did not outbid to get it. Moreover the Americans seriously wondered what use Alaska would be after the purchase.
As long as the Great Game was limited mainly to the Asian continent, North America was at best secondary, at worst insignificant in the Anglo-Russian rivalry.
Edit: I misread your message, I thought you were talking about OTL, so much for me.
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I think the Anglo North Americans would most likely outbid the French North Americans on Alaska. The French North Americans would be far more overstretched than the British North Americans and with France and Russia being rivals (due to territorial rivalries in Central Asia) it is likely the Russians would sell Alaska to the British.
I am thinking about the Civil War because what allowed the Civil War to happen is that the South expected aid from the European powers (Eg. Britain and France) and if it happened in this timeline aid would be from France and Spain. The reason why the South didn't get aid from the European powers, was that a lot of the European powers were anti slavery, and during the time of the Emancipation Proclamation, which basically said the Union was going to be restored and slavery abolished, meant the European powers had very little, if any, interest in helping the South. Due to the French presence in North America, the Civil War might not happen, because the Anglo Americans would view themselves as simply British subjects, rather than as Northerners and Southerners. An America that remained part of Britain, would mean slavery wouldn't last as long and would have less time to expand, and even if the Civil War did happen it would be quick and the South rejoined with British North America.