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In OTL, the first notable French voyage taught in school history books and historical atlases was Verrazano's up the east coast (if you go to his hometown of Greve, have some pork!) in the 1520s.

Often, France's slow and lackluster colonial performance in the 1500s and 1600s is attributed to the Wars of Religion. But Protestantism wasn't even a thing in France until the late 1520s. It wasn't a problem for the crown at all until the affair of the placards in 1530. It didn't really form a political threat until some nobles started to convert after 1650, and the religious wars proper didn't start until 1562.

Sure, France had a largely continental focus at this time. Italy was the main prize it wanted. But that was the main prize Spain wanted too! And they only realized just how much a bonanza the Americas were a couple decades after the initial conquests.

And if Spain could walk and chew gum at the same time (and play guitar, and roll "r's", and light stakes, and do some saintworthy things, etc....) why couldn't the more populous France.

Indeed the Franco-Spanish rivalry over Italy would seem to encourage the French to compete with the Spanish on as many fronts as possible.

Sure the Castilians and Iberians may have had a lead in ships sailors to a degree, but Italians were available for hire all over the place. France had fishing-based communities (Bretons) just like Spain (Basques).

So what if the French crown decided to begin outfitting its own expeditions to the western hemisphere to make its own opportunities and compete with or even sabotage the French from a short while after Columbus's return from his first voyage and the Europe-wide publicity it generated.

There's that pesky Tordesillas line, but it's not like France respected it for more than a couple decades if ever. I could easily see the French saying "eff that, it's a Spanish Pope for crying out loud, that's not fair"

So what would be the effects if Spain and France race each other to explore, claim islands and then stretches of the mainland? What does France have to overcome to play in the game that I left out.

Could we see something like Spain dominating the northern Caribbean and Mexico, but the French getting to Panama and South America and eventually Peru?

Your thoughts please.
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