alternatehistory.com

This timeline is partly based on a prior timeline I did, so it will have some similarities, but I'm looking towards taking it all the way to 2012 by the time I finish.

The short of it is the US covers more territory, and the British and German Empires still stand to this day in an altered form.


Timeline:
1763- Seven Year's War - the war comes to a close, and in the complicated series of exchanges France exchanges Louisiana to Spain and receive Cuba in exchange. Unfortunately, the French navy is crippled after the war, and it will take some time for them to be able to challenge the United Kingdom on the seas. Providencia is transferred to the United Kingdom as a rub against Spain in the final Treaty of Paris. Prussia, the United Kingdom's ally, is mentioned in the Treaty of Paris, and instead of restoring Caribbean islands to France, Dominica, Grenada, and Saint Lucia are given to Prussia. In a letter to the king of Great Britain, Frederick mentions wanting some islands in the Caribbean where his wife, the Empress, could spend her time, which apparently, the king remembered.

Gains after the War:
*United Kingdom: Canada, Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Florida, Providencia
*France: Cuba
*Prussia: Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia
*Spain: Louisiana west of the Mississippi, Manila

1763-73 - France sends settlers to Cuba from both France and her former island possessions, beginning the transformation of the island into a French colony. Havana is renamed "Nouveau Savoie" by the mapmakers in Paris, who also move the capital to the south-eastern side of the island to facilitate Caribbean and European trade.

*Prussia is not terribly interested in its colonies, but does send a slow stream of colonists and administrators to its new island possessions. King Frederick I, King in Prussia, does establish a new capital at Hubertusburg, formerly Roseau, Dominica. In 1764, the King sends four ships to the islands to survey the lands and settle on each island. A second round of ships, bearing 1400 people from Austria, Prussia, Bohemia, and Bavaria, find over half the first settlers died of tropical disease to which they had no immunity. Some settlers blamed the slave population, and agitated for the removal of anyone not speaking the German language. By 1770, the islands together hold a German speaking population of 5500, most in the settlement of Hubertusburg. By 1776, there are 7120 "Germans" living on the islands, in the towns of Hubertusburg, Freiburg, and Neuburg.

1769 - Pierre du Calvet submits a letter to Guy Carleton about reforming the colony further, but not much is done. Du Calvet continues agitating and writing letters, eventually corresponding with Eddy and other patriots, stirring up Patriot sympathies in Quebec.

1772-1776 - Yorkshire Emigration to Nova Scotia does not occur in as large a number as OTL, allowing Patriot sympathies to ground themselves during the Eddy Rebellion.

1774 - Quebec Act passed; Quebec is extended into the Ohio River valley, but they are not allowed to practice Catholicism. The Anglican church is to be the church of the colony, and the colonists are to speak English. Enraged Quebecois write pamphlets urging rebellion. Their cries are heard within Boston, New York, and Charles Town, adding fuel to the fire of the growing Patriot cause. Patriots meet with Guy Carleton, assuring that if they do not stand together, they will fall separately.
* Across the colonies of British North America, the Intolerable Acts enrage a number of British citizens. King George underestimates the reaction to what he believes to be entirely within his power as Sovereign
* According to Commentaries on the Laws of England, a tract from 1765 by Sir William Blackstone, there must be a sovereign in every society, who had ultimate authority, and that authority was Parliament. Hence, the colonials must submit to the new trade acts that King George III supported

1775 - Events are coming to a head. By May of this year, a Nova Scotian delegation led by Philip Knaut, Richard John Uniacke, and Jonathan Eddy, and even Denis Viger from Quebec joined fifty-six others in Philadelphia to discuss their situation. Some wanted to entreat the king again, others voted for outright independence. Either way, the momentum was gathering. The storm is coming. Fleury Mesplet reprints the "Letter to the Inhabitants of Quebec" with help from du Calvet, promising the Quebecois representative government under an American system, where they could practice Catholicism freely and return to French law. Pierre Eugene du Simitiere translated this letter, and drafted several additional letters spread amongst Quebec citizens. Carleton's attempts to clamp down on this treason unfortunately led to the enflaming of the patriot cause in the north.
*Governor Francis Legge's efforts at reforming Nova Scotia and keep her loyal to the United Kingdom alienate the south of Nova Scotia in larger numbers, so much so that Jonathan Eddy of Cumberland and Philip Knaut of Lunenburg travel to Philadelphia.
*March 12 - Richard Uniacke sends a pamphlet to several landowners who lost their land to the Quit-Rent on St. John's Island, urging them to join the other colonies in Philadelphia. While the colony does not, the stirrings of Patriot sympathy have begun.
*April 18 - Concord - General Gage sends troops into Concord to capture munitions. Riders, including Paul Revere, alert the countryside to the presence of British troops, who face militia once they reach Lexington. After facing armed rebels, they must then fight their way back to Boston, taking casualties along the way.
*May 10 - In Philadelphia, Pierre du Calvet and Denis Viger represent Quebec. Fort Ticonderoga is captured by the Americans.
*June 14: Congress votes to create a Continental Army, and George Washington is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and begins amassing his resources.


*June 17: Guy Johnson, a British Loyalist, goes to Fort Ontario to enlist Indian aid against the rebels, raising 1500 Mohawk Indians to his cause. He had left his estate in New York with 200 Loyalist and Indian supporters.
-Battle of Bunker Hill: British Viscount Howe leads a force of 3,000 against an American force of around 2,500. His first two assaults were firmly repulsed by the colonials, but his third managed to gain the objective. The victory cost the British 1,203 men, which Howe described as "success ... too dearly bought."
*July 6: Congress passes a Declaration of Causes for their taking up arms against the United Kingdom
*July: Sam Kirkland, a missionary who was very influential with the Oneidas, delivers a statement from Congress:

"we desire you to remain at home, and not join either side, but to keep the hatchet buried deep"

-despite this statement, many Oneidas and Tuscaroras hold sympathies with the rebels.


July 1775 - George Washington in appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, and begins amassing his resources.
*August 21 1775 - Generals Schuyler and Montgomery fight in the north, preparing for the Siege of Fort St. Jean
*September 4: Hector Theophilus de Cramahé, Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, turns to the Loyalist cause, on promise of the governorship of Quebec on British victory. He acts as a spy for the British for most of 1775.
*September 7: the first approach at the Siege of Fort St. Jean goes well for the Americans, receiving another 800 men from the Connecticut militia.
*September 8: Schuyler sent Ethan Allen (acting as a volunteer since he had been deposed as head of the Green Mountain Boys by Seth Warner) and John Brown to circulate a proclamation announcing the Americans' arrival, and their desire to "free the Canadians from the bondage of British rule." Allen and Brown traveled through the parishes between St. Jean and Montreal, where they were well-received, and even provided with local guards. James Livingston, a local grain merchant (and a relative of Montgomery's wife), began raising a local militia near Chambly, eventually gathering nearly 500 men, commanding the 1st Canadian Regiment as Lt. Colonel.
*September 10-October 28: Schuyler and Montgomery lead a seige on Fort St. Jean, and manage to capture it, taking advantage of the darkness and the locals' knowledge of the area. While some colonials were distrustful of the Quebeckers in their midst, the locals made their loyalties to their fellow Patriots well known. The attack is bouyed by
Pierre-Stanislas Bédard's regiment of 400 men from Quebec (later, the 3rd Canadian regiment).

(Fort St. Jean)
Sept 15: - Gen. Montgomery lays siege to Isle aux Noix on Lake Champlain, and takes Fort Chambly soon after. He advances towards Montreal.

(Fort Chambly)

October 12 - Gen Montgomery takes Montreal on Oct. 12, forcing British retreat. Citizens celebrate his arrival with a feast in the Revolution's honor. General Benedict Arnold leads a troop of 1100 into Canada, but does not make it in time to assist, due to disease of his troops. He arrives too late for anything but to assist in securing the city and countryside. His actions in the countryside were mottled in their efforts to help the Patriot cause, but his Navy patrolled Lake Champlain, frustrating British Naval efforts on the lake. Cramahé withdraws from Montreal with the British, convinced that the city is indefensible, but promising the British a way to capture Quebec City. Anthony Anderson, from Quebec, had joined Bédard's troop, and drew up, along with du Calvet, Meusply, and forty others, drafted a declaration of Quebec independence; Christophe Pélissier, a munitions supplier and patriot sympathizer, urged them to wait until the capture of Quebec City, when the Canadiennes could be better assured their security.


Fall/Winter 1775 - General Carleton digs in his defenses of Quebec, ordering all able-bodied to take up arms or be treated as a rebel and spy. Generals Montgomery and Schuyler, having rested and refreshed in Montreal, march to Quebec, along with General Arnold.
*December
-1 - General Montgomery arrives with reinforcements (350 from New York, 220 from the Canadian 1st Regiment, and 180 from surrounding villages) for the coming battle.
-12 - American forces get artillery assistance, with 12 cannons, which they place 700 yards from the city walls. General Montgomery sent a message for Guy Carleton to surrender via an envoy on December 6, but the message is burned unread. Again, a message is sent, this time, pamphlets spread under cover of darkness via three French-speaking spies around the pubs and houses. Carleton ignored it again.
-14 - while General Montgomery was planning his attack on the city, Christophe Pélissier, a supporter of the American cause, came to see him. He ran the St. Maurice Ironworks. He and Montgomery discussed the idea of holding a provincial convention to elect representatives to Congress. Pélissier recommended against this until after Quebec City had been taken, as the inhabitants would not feel free to act in that way until their security was better assured. Their loyalty to the cause was great, but they needed more American forces to help their security. The two agreed that Pélissier's ironworks would provide munitions (ammunition, cannonballs, and the like) for the siege.
-27: Montgomery prepares the troops for attack when a snowstorm arrives, hiding their advance. At first dawn on December 28, the cannons fired. The Battle of Quebec City was a pincher where the British thought the Americans were advancing from the north, but they had advanced from the east and south. Realizing too late that the attacks from the north and east were feints, General Carleton was caught unawares of the force of Americans who had breaches the north walls, having used the Quebecois to first enter the city and kill the troops at the gate to let them enter unharmed. Montgomery himself sawed through some of the palisades, leading forces into a blockhouse, where the defenders were storing munitions, which were unfortunately occupied by only three militia, who missed, and were shot point-blank by Montgomery and his men. The cannon in the blockhouse were turned on the defenders, allowing the Americans to advance further into the city. Meanwhile, Arnold is shot in the ankle, and gives command to Daniel Morgan, who captures Palace Gate from the British. Within several hours of fighting, the Americans capture Quebec City, accepting Guy Carleton's surrender at 1 PM by a limping General Arnold, who had been shot in the leg, but still managed to walk to meet Carleton. Colonel James Livingston, whose 1st Canadian Regiment served along the eastern front, is placed in command of the city until elections can be held. Several hundred Loyalists are taken prisoner, and moved to Trois Rivieres.






Some small changes other than the more obvious ones:

*General Montgomery doesn't die at point-blank range
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