Live, from New Livonia City, it's...

[Dr. Waterhouse]

Recently I was perusing wikipedia (through which all things truly are possible), and I came across a bit of actual history that I found absolutely jawdropping.

Evidently in the seventeenth century the Duchy of Courland (currently the southern half of Latvia) under Duke Jacob Kettler had a lovely little empire stretching from the West Indies (where it for a time ruled Tobago) to several fortresses in Africa which exported, according to wikipedia "sugar, tobacco, coffee, cotton, ginger, indigo, rum, cocoa, tortoise shells, tropical birds and their feathers."

Of course, it goes without saying that if I was stuck in the Baltic winters of the seventeenth century (mini-ice age, remember) and had sailing ships and sufficient gunpowder, I'd sail to the Carribean and claim myself an island as well. Lutherans from frigid climes still do much the same thing in the western hemisphere even today, only instead of weaponry and galleons they wield time shares and winnebagos.

Now, more seriously for our purposes, we all know how relatively small European countries (see Denmark), or relatively non-obvious participants in the Atlantic colonization process (see Sweden) were involved with varying degrees of success in colonizing the New World. Most of them of course fell away quickly, trampled by the militarily more powerful states.

My challenge, assignment, prompt, what have you, is to find the most unlikely European state (especially if it was independent for only a nano-second or so) and find a plausible way for it to lay hold of prime New World real estate, with the wildest current-day deviations from actual history. In short, bonus points if everyone in the Western hemisphere is now speaking Basque.

Go!

 

[Ofaloaf]

In an early draft of my current TL (cough), I had Brittany gain independence from France for roughly a decade before Spanish support faltered and France retook it. If Brittany could somehow retain independence long enough, the likeliest colonial holdings might probably be somewhere in the Maritimes, somewhat along the lines of French Acadia or Newfoundland, or it could be another of those own-a-single-Caribbean-island-and-never-talk-about-it sort of things.

 

[Matthais Corvinus]

In an early draft of my current TL (cough), I had Brittany gain independence from France for roughly a decade before Spanish support faltered and France retook it. If Brittany could somehow retain independence long enough, the likeliest colonial holdings might probably be somewhere in the Maritimes, somewhat along the lines of French Acadia or Newfoundland, or it could be another of those own-a-single-Caribbean-island-and-never-talk-about-it sort of things.

Henry Tudor dies at Bosworth Field, and thus fails in his bid for the English throne. Richard III cements the Yorkist claim on the English throne, using the opportunity presented by Bosworth to eliminate some of his domestic enemies, including the recently deceased usurper's step-father. Richard III arranges with Duke of Brittany Francis to marry his daughter, Anne of Brittany.

Columbus ends up coming north, and young Anne decides she likes this sailor, so she supports him. Columbus, sailing for Anne, finds Hispanola. Anne and Richard have kids, and Brittany stays independent of France, albeit as the junior partner of the England-Brittany personal union.

In the New World the English-Brittany team ends up being quite successful, and the Aztec are found and conquered. The wealth from this conquest fuels English ambitions, including continued wars with the French, and the Scots. In the Americas, certain colonies are owned by the Duchy of Brittany, and as a result their colonial charter demand that only Bretons can be appointed. This creates a series of Breton-dominated islands in the West Indies, including OTL Hispaniola and Cuba.

 

[Gerald]

Columbus stays Genoese. Cabot stays Venetian. Verrazzano stays Florentine. They convince their home city-states to turn to the Atlantic. Spain, Portugal, France and England will still follow them and get the larger part of America, but...

Some major power borrows a lot of money from Luxembourg/Liechtenstein/San Marino. It becomes so indebted that it decides to give one of its colonies to its creditor as a repayment (and now we have a colonial power with absolutely no access to the sea. Does it get a bonus?)