I'm reviving an older timeline with a bit more info on the United Kingdom. I just want to make sure I make it as realistic as I can when I finally set it to print.
I have three scenarios for this:
1. British North America here includes Cuba, another slave territory, captured in 1740, as well as Cartagena de Indias and its surrounding land. Cuba had a number of settlers from Scotland, Ireland, Georgia, and the Carolinas, and is culturally part of the south, though separated by Spanish Florida. Cartagena is separate and holds around 23,000 British and several thousand slaves.
The French and Indian War proceeded much like OTL; Britain gained Florida; though the Seven Years' War in Europe resulted in Prussia demanding compensation, which it received in the form of Guadeloupe and Martinique, from France. France did receive Hispaniola, though it would lose it in the Napoleonic Wars. Acadian expulsions led to increased settlement in the Louisiana Territory, which the Acadiens expected to become French. Rather than disperse, they remained together.
This revolution proceeded much like ours, leading into 1776, but with the "Intolerable Acts" affecting Canada, Nova Scotia, and Cuba. Americans were able, with French help, to secure Cuba, and even Bermuda and the Bahamas. Expelled from North America, the British king falls into delerium, and George IV comes into regency sooner. The British government comes into a 'settler craze' for new lands. British Honduras came into being in 1785-6 with a brief on the ground war pushing inland, and the Mosquito Coast became British Central America. Spain's Empire begins fracturing at this, with British Loyalists landing at BH, MC, and what would be called British Columbia. Soon, Britain even settles New Caledonia and Patagonia, unclaimed and unsettled lands. George IV, with Pitt and Fox working together, is not as inconsequential, and pushes Parliament to increase settlers for a truly Britannic Empire across the world.
2. Same as 1, but British Cuba remains isolated from the American Revolution and becomes the big stop-off for thousands of loyalists, making it a very loyal island for the British, and making the Caribbean, a "British Lake." The British manage a capture of Hispaniola here also. Loyalists make British Cuba, British Columbia, British Honduras, and the Mosquito Coast increasingly British, and push inward, leading to a Central American war with Spain. With its military leaving America, and not much left to secure Rupert's Land, the British Navy sails for, and secures British Honduras far inland, and pushes the Mosquito Coast to the Pacific. Even British Columbia swells with its military power. Spain's colonies begin growing chaotic and start breaking, leading Spain to send its own forces to quell the rebellions. The unfortunate effect is to tamper the income from the colonies, dampen colonization, and lead to a further downward spiral of its colonies.
3. British colonies are the same as OTL, but they lose Canada/Quebec and Nova Scotia. Where do the Loyalists go?
The question is, in either scenario, what's the reaction in Britain to losing all of North America? Who drops out of power, and who stays? What's the most likely effect on the British Empire? Do they try for more or hold and kind of stagnate? And which kind of British government could press for more colonization and territory for the crown? British 18th/19th century politics is not a strong suit, so any assistance here would be greatly appreciated.