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This is my first TL here, so bear with me. The timeline developed out of this thread, and I would like to thank the several posters who contributed there and gave me some of the ideas for this TL, especially President Sam Houston, Falastur, and Valdemar II. Besides Louisiana, this TL will feature several other North American nations of my invention, and an altered destiny for many European nations.

1699: Young Joseph Ferdinand, son of the elector of Bavaria and potential heir to the throne of Spain and its European possessions, as well as the extensive German holdings of the House of Wittelsbach, comes down with a case of smallpox. He is very sick for several weeks, and comes close to death. However, almost miraculously, he recovers [POD: He died in OTL]

1701: Charles II, the sickly Hapsburg king of Spain, who had several genetic deformities from his families infamous penchant for marrying cousins, uncles, and nephews dies at 38. Potential contenders exist from both the Hapsburg and Bourbon families, however, either one taking the throne would most likely lead to a war between France and Austria. France, Austria, and Britain agree to accept the succession of Joseph Ferdinand as a neutral compromise. His father Maximilian II, Elector of Bavaria, leaves that country in the hands of a governor and departs for Spain to serve as regent of that country until his eight year old son becomes old enough to rule on his own.

1708: At fifteen, Joseph Ferdinand is deemed old enough and begins ruling on his own. While affairs in Europe occupy much of his time, he becomes convinced that by pursuing an aggressive strategy of colonization in the New World, he can ultimately eject the other European Nations from it. As a first step, he orders the settlement of New Spain north of the Rio Grande, an area known as Tejas. Besides being close to the Caribbean, this area is next to the huge, mostly uninhabited French territory of Louisiana, and would serve as a good base for eventually taking it.
By 1710, two expeditions reach the territory, founding the towns of Nueva Valencia [OTL Galveston] and San Fernando [OTL Corpus Christi]. Over the next decade, settlers begin to move inland from these two bases, founding the outposts of San Gabriel [OTL Houston] in 1715 and Valladolid [OTL Austin] in 1720. Encouraged by the Spanish government, settlers from the territory begin making incursions into Louisiana. In 1720, Tejas and Florida are officially detached from New Spain and placed under the Captaincy-General of Cuba.

1717: French found Nouvelle Orleans. Alarmed by the growing Spanish presence in Tejas, the French begin exempting inhabitants of Louisiana from most taxes. The French establish several forts along the Mississippi river, the largest being Fort-Saint-Jean in OTL Northern Louisiana and Prudhomme [OTL Memphis]. French expeditions continue to penetrate further up the river, expanding there existing settlement at Cahokie, and establishing Fort-Saint-Chartres in Illinois in 1721. Over the next decade, the French found many outposts along the length of the river, and begin exploring up its tributaries.

1723: The Duc de Orleans, regent of France, decrees that anyone willing to perform five years of military service in Louisiana will receive 80 arpents (64-66 acres) of land by the Mississippi River after completing their term of service, and any other settler to the colony will recieve 40 arpents (32-33 acres). This results in a huge influx of French settlers. Since most of the people who come over are young men, the king expands the [OTL] Filles de Roi program, in which young women are recruited from orphanages (and, in this TL, eventually poorer villages and the slums of major French cities) to go to the French colonies of Louisiana and Quebec and marry the men there. Importation of slaves in large numbers begins.

1730: Small towns have grown up around many of the forts and along the Mississippi. The population of Nouvelle Orleans in 1730 exceeds 3,000, and of Louisiana 6,000.
Quebec is also receiving more settlers than OTL. In addition to Tejas, the Spanish have begun to build up La Florida as a colony, sending settlers there.

More to come. If anyone has a good map of the OTL French settlements in Louisiana (the whole colony, not the modern state) and ideas for French town names, it would be greatly appreciated (for provincial names I'll use the OTL names of the states along the Mississippi river, most of them came from French).

All comments are greatly appreciated!
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