America and India
OK, I've created the map for the Americas using Victoria II. The shape of Venezuela looks pretty realistic, I think, whilst Ecuador sitting between Peru and Granada may look perilous on the map, but no more so than Belgium between France and the Netherlands did.
The United Kingdom of Patagonia and Araucania is going to be the Mapuche kingdom, and I rather fancy it would be shortened to Patagonia, to represent the fact that the Western tribes are predominant as being the ones most focused upon by the French, and where the French have poured in money and arms. Araucania is theoretically equal, but probably not, whilst in the political theory of the time France has imported a prince to be king. This latter made perfect sense in OTL in new countries where no noble would bow down by instinct to another, so that the raising above all nobles of a native as king was an insult to them all, and a constant challenge for them to resist the pretenses of one of their own number to greater glory. OTL one saw this in Serbia and in Romania, but it is equally applicable to the Mapuche where no chief would accept the elevation of another chief to the kingship and in OTL they opted for a French adventurer. Here, they can go one better and have a French noble, supported by the Emperor, as their king.
I'm leaning towards a Ney, not necessarily the head of the dynasty, who would have better things to do, but his brother, or second son, ie a junior line, but not so junior that it does not stand next to the senior line. I'm sure Napoleon II would grant him a suitable noble title before he sets off for, and arrives in, Patagonia. Thus he would arrive as a duke of France, and the choice of both the council of chiefs and the French Emperor, and be enthroned as King of the United Kingdom of Patagonia and Araucania.
But it is a poor kingdom, even French aid cannot do much against that as there is little to work with. No doubt France can provide some rudimentary industry in the ports, and maybe a class of adventurer willing to work as clerks for the capital, but Patagonia is going to be a weak and difficult nation on the world scene. It is going to take some struggle to drag it from this to anything like civilisation.
I could see a small Personal Guard of veteran ex-French soldiers, good men, attracted by the Ney name, rather than scoundrels out for a buck. They would protect the king, and provide the force of law and order, both in the capital and in any area where chiefs clash and the central authority needs to impose itself. Such is the advantage in having the French Empire as your sponsor.
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Regarding India, I am thinking that the main effects of the Peace of 1815 is to see Mysore fully freed up to be a French ally, and the EIC's dominion over Delhi reined back, to make the Mughals once again in charge of their local affairs. In addition, Denmark would continue to expand and develop their Indian holdings.
I don't doubt the Anglo-Marathi tensions which led in OTL to the third, and final, Anglo-Marathi War, but in a world where France has much more diplomatic presence, and a vested interest in the Indian balance of power I don't see it leading to such drastic outcomes as in OTL. In fact, France may even be able to play the role of an Honest Broker, much no doubt to Hastings' fury, but probably with Alexander of Russia's support.
These years immediately after the Peace of 1815 are going to be delicate ones for Britain, who knows more than anyone else that resurrecting the fatalistic war spirit of the pre-1815 years is impossible. Any attempt to rekindle a general war for anything less than the threat of imminent invasion is likely to result in mass unrest, and even national revolution, and British statesmen have to bear this in mind.
France's main aim is going to be to protect Mysore and to insulate it from the advance of British territory, so they will probably accept British gains in the North around Surat as a balance against enforcing a return to the status quo ante bellum further South.
The Maratha empire, such as it is, will be dead for sure, but its constituent states will survive more than OTL, and with more territory than OTL
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE that Britain does not know that it is coming off worse here than it did in OTL. To the politicians in London the fact that they not only avoided a reopening of the war with France, but made some significant gains North of Bombay is going to seem like a good outcome. Complete victory and the conquest and obliteration of the Marathi states is going to remain the domain of the dreamer and nutcase.
France's position in the decades ahead is going to be important, creating its own Indian Alliance to balance the power of the EIC and its vassals. Apart from Pondicherry, France is going to be acting in terms of diplomacy not conquest, focusing on the twin bastions of Delhi and Mysore, whilst Hyderabad will be pulled every which way by Britain and France in their rivalry.
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
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