What if a different country sets up major eastern North American colonies before Britain? And which country would it be? I think it would be Spain that takes the east, but its just a guess........
New World Colonies
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Hmmm...the Netherlands most likely. They've got the naval power and if they get stuck into the fur industry they'd probably get quite involved. The thing is, with the Dutch style of colonization you get a few merchants to manage trade but you don't get the waves of settlers like Britain encouraged and the accompanying development.
Maybe if a Dutch trader descovers tobacco and introduces it to the Netherlands. He might convince the Lords XVII in Amsterdam that tobacco plantations would be very profitable.
In this case, you get Dutch overseers and a large population of enslaved natives and blacks. A Dutch Eastern America would look a lot more like Java or South Africa- no climate of intellectual stimulation like the British colonists had with their universities and town meetings. You'd have a tightly controlled system of Company plantations run by Dutchmen who'd send their sons back to the Netherlands and not keep them in the colonies.
Read James Michener's The Covenant for an excellent outline of Dutch vs. British or French colonial philosophy.
Maybe if a Dutch trader descovers tobacco and introduces it to the Netherlands. He might convince the Lords XVII in Amsterdam that tobacco plantations would be very profitable.
In this case, you get Dutch overseers and a large population of enslaved natives and blacks. A Dutch Eastern America would look a lot more like Java or South Africa- no climate of intellectual stimulation like the British colonists had with their universities and town meetings. You'd have a tightly controlled system of Company plantations run by Dutchmen who'd send their sons back to the Netherlands and not keep them in the colonies.
Read James Michener's The Covenant for an excellent outline of Dutch vs. British or French colonial philosophy.
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Chingo360 said:
Without a MAJOR PoD, none of the Italian states or Russia will be up to the task of colonising the East coast of N. America.
France is a possibility though.
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Chingo360 said:
And they did in OTL, hence Russian Alaska.
Unfortunately, we're talking about the EAST coast here.
My best guess would be either the Scandinavians (Norway, Sweden or Denmark) or the Netherlands.
Two problems, Denmark and Gibraltar. Too easy to cut off any nation wishing to resupply their colonies. Courland is the only Baltic Sea nation to acualtly colonize. Bringing Scadinavia into should be easier though, as I do believe Sweden had a colony on the Delware river for a short time. Alternatively if we could up Morrococo's intrest...
You mean a Zion America? Well the export of a certain nationiality could be explained I personally doubt strong loyal communities could be exported from Western Europe to North America. As noted above the differences between the Dutch and English colonies also can see a difference between the Spainsh and Portuguese models. The Spainsh sought to establise colonies to rule over populations, while the English sought to take advantage of the raw resources, but found extensions of their home goverment the best way to to do so...The French exploited raw resources indirectly, more as a way to spite the English in their attempts to richen their own empire. Portugal's philosphy was much like Spain's except that they mixed in various elements of the Dutch's mercantile ways.Wendell said:
I also don't see the motivation for the jews to flee to the new world at the point of discovery, however one could be manufactured I suppose.
The obvious counter to English colonies were the French. They were the only other viable colonial power (in that they were able to project power from their colonies)... but they still suffered from a population that was unwilling or unable to colonize the new world in the numbers necessary to not have someone else walk over their colonial empire, or perhaps the French government wasn't as keen on having private property in the hands of the unwashed masses, which was a factor in the English colonizing in droves.
So give France a chance to introduce very generous "land to the masses" policy in the colonies, and give them a 10 year head start on the british, and you have a French colonial empire rather than a British colonial empire.
So give France a chance to introduce very generous "land to the masses" policy in the colonies, and give them a 10 year head start on the british, and you have a French colonial empire rather than a British colonial empire.
I believe the French Monarchy wanted to keep New France for the fur trade, and therefore large numbers of colonists would interfere with that. They did not encourage colonization at all, wanting to keep their people home. It's too bad, as France then had one of the largest population in Europe, and could have given a lot of those people a better life. The French policies towards the Native Americans were much friendlier than the English ones, so the whole future of N. America could have been different.drewmc2001 said:
Well this is for colonizing the east coast of North America, and it's kind of hard to send ships there if you have to pass by the damned Swedish navy first.Chingo360 said:
Furthermore, Central and Eastern Asia is just as good as any trans-oceanic colony, at least in terms of resources and places to send people you don't like. Even better, you don't need ships!
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sbegin said:The French policies towards the Native Americans were much friendlier than the English ones, so the whole future of N. America could have been different.
You could argue that the reason why French policies towards the N. Americans were so much friendlier than English ones was because of the relatively smaller population of colonists in the first place. They didn't have to go pushing into Indian territory in the way the English colonists did as there was enough space for them to coexist. This could be a reason behind the greater incidence of French-Native intermarriage as well: with a larger population base in N. America, English colonists would have had somewhat easier access to their own womenfolk.
I doubt that French-Native relations would have been nearly as cordial if they had come over in numbers similar to the English.