OK, here's the bare outline of a possible timeline where a substantial mixed European-Native American civilization develops.
John Cabot made a trip across the north Atlantic with funding from English merchants in 1497, and explored the coast of Newfoundland. On a second voyage a couple of years later, his ships disappeared - presumably they got wrecked or sunk somewhere and everyone was killed.
Here's the POD - Cabot survived his second voyage, and makes a 3rd one as well - and discovers the St Lawrence river on his third expedition. At first, this doesn't change much - none of his voyages revealed any signs of gold or rich cities, and the fact that the St Lawrence is fresh water shows that it can't be a direct passage to the Pacific or Asia. Everyone loses interest in this part of N America for a while - except for the native Indian nations, who are unfortuntely hit with a smallpox epidemic inadvertently brought by one of Cabot's crewmen.
In England, Henry VIII separates the Church of England from Rome, marries a new wife, shuts down and plunders the monasteries, and faces a rebellion of Catholics in northern England called the "Pilgrimage of Grace". This revolt fails, and some of its supporters have to flee England. However, one of the aristocrats who had been active in the Pilgrimage of Grace has a different idea - he wants to take English Catholics and found a new colony - "Mary's Land" - in the St Lawrence River valley, which according to Cabot and a couple of other explorers is good, fertile farmland with a mild climate (at least in the summer). This man manages to pull together a few hundred Catholics, mainly from the Lancashire region of England, including aristocrats, priests and monks, peasant tenants and their families, and a few craftsmen. The sail across the Atlantic, go up the St Lawrence, and establish the colony of "New Albion" where OTL's Montreal was established.
Unfortunately, the colonists are NOT prepared for the harsh winter, and face hostile natives who remember that earlier white visitors brought deadly disease. Different factions of the colony squabble, there is fighting against the Indians and among themselves, and hunger leading to starvation. The colony falls apart, and some of the colonists, including craftsmen and farmers, end up being essentially adopted into local Algonquian speaking tribes to replace men and women lost to smallpox.
For the rest of the 16th century, little is known in Europe about the fate of these colonists. Then, at the beginning of the 17th century, a French explorer (either Champlain or a close analogue), enters the St Lawrence and is quite suprised to find towns and villages upriver where the people work metal, have incorporated some European features into their houses, have English words mixed in with their Algonquian speech, and have religious beliefs that clearly incorporate elements of Catholicism. By this point, there are several thousand people in this "Anglo-Algonquian" civilization.
John Cabot made a trip across the north Atlantic with funding from English merchants in 1497, and explored the coast of Newfoundland. On a second voyage a couple of years later, his ships disappeared - presumably they got wrecked or sunk somewhere and everyone was killed.
Here's the POD - Cabot survived his second voyage, and makes a 3rd one as well - and discovers the St Lawrence river on his third expedition. At first, this doesn't change much - none of his voyages revealed any signs of gold or rich cities, and the fact that the St Lawrence is fresh water shows that it can't be a direct passage to the Pacific or Asia. Everyone loses interest in this part of N America for a while - except for the native Indian nations, who are unfortuntely hit with a smallpox epidemic inadvertently brought by one of Cabot's crewmen.
In England, Henry VIII separates the Church of England from Rome, marries a new wife, shuts down and plunders the monasteries, and faces a rebellion of Catholics in northern England called the "Pilgrimage of Grace". This revolt fails, and some of its supporters have to flee England. However, one of the aristocrats who had been active in the Pilgrimage of Grace has a different idea - he wants to take English Catholics and found a new colony - "Mary's Land" - in the St Lawrence River valley, which according to Cabot and a couple of other explorers is good, fertile farmland with a mild climate (at least in the summer). This man manages to pull together a few hundred Catholics, mainly from the Lancashire region of England, including aristocrats, priests and monks, peasant tenants and their families, and a few craftsmen. The sail across the Atlantic, go up the St Lawrence, and establish the colony of "New Albion" where OTL's Montreal was established.
Unfortunately, the colonists are NOT prepared for the harsh winter, and face hostile natives who remember that earlier white visitors brought deadly disease. Different factions of the colony squabble, there is fighting against the Indians and among themselves, and hunger leading to starvation. The colony falls apart, and some of the colonists, including craftsmen and farmers, end up being essentially adopted into local Algonquian speaking tribes to replace men and women lost to smallpox.
For the rest of the 16th century, little is known in Europe about the fate of these colonists. Then, at the beginning of the 17th century, a French explorer (either Champlain or a close analogue), enters the St Lawrence and is quite suprised to find towns and villages upriver where the people work metal, have incorporated some European features into their houses, have English words mixed in with their Algonquian speech, and have religious beliefs that clearly incorporate elements of Catholicism. By this point, there are several thousand people in this "Anglo-Algonquian" civilization.
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