WI: British Catholic colony?

Let's say that at some point, probably during the 17th century, the British* government decides that the best way to deal with its Catholic population is to dump them somewhere far away where they can't cause any trouble. So they set up a colony in North America where Catholics are guaranteed freedom of religion and full political rights, and offer free (or at least subsidised) passage to any Catholic from England, Scotland or Ireland who wants to move there.

Assuming that this colony is able to get off the ground, what effects does this have down the line? How would it view and be viewed by the rest of the British realm? If there's some sort of AWI equivalent, would it remain loyal or join the rebellion, and with what consequences?




(* Yes, I know Britain didn't technically exist yet, but the three kingdoms were pretty interdependent even before the Act of Union, so it makes a convenient shorthand.)
 
Your best bet is Maryland. It was created to be a haven for Roman Catholics under the time of King Charles I. Of course, it didn't last long between all the Anglicans, Puritans, and Quakers also in the colony, the Glorious Revolution back in England, and the Protestant Revolution in Maryland.
 
Perhaps the puritans/pilgrims settle further south (OTL Philadelphia maybe) and OTL New England and Maritimes are a catholic colony of largely Irish stock.
 
Perhaps the puritans/pilgrims settle further south (OTL Philadelphia maybe) and OTL New England and Maritimes are a catholic colony of largely Irish stock.
Then again, they may not want the Catholic colony to be so close to French Canada, due to the fear of the colony defecting.
 
The idea of deporting religious minorities as france tried to do probably wouldn't occur to the englishi in the 17th century as they were not fighting the same sort of conflict that the french were in the 16th century. The conflict was more between high anglicans/arminians and die hard protestants. Anyway the potential for catholics to go rogue once in the new world would make this proposition unlikely to go through
 
Your best bet is Maryland. It was created to be a haven for Roman Catholics under the time of King Charles I. Of course, it didn't last long between all the Anglicans, Puritans, and Quakers also in the colony, the Glorious Revolution back in England, and the Protestant Revolution in Maryland.

Interesting. So is there any way to stop Maryland going hard Protestant?

The idea of deporting religious minorities as france tried to do probably wouldn't occur to the englishi in the 17th century as they were not fighting the same sort of conflict that the french were in the 16th century. The conflict was more between high anglicans/arminians and die hard protestants. Anyway the potential for catholics to go rogue once in the new world would make this proposition unlikely to go through

The British did actually have a policy of turning a blind eye to the recruitment of Irish Catholic soldiers by foreign armies, on the grounds that it was better to get them out of the country than to have them hanging around and causing disruption. Getting them out of the country by sending them off to a colony somewhere isn't too dissimilar a concept, and if the government was prepared to risk Irish soldiers enlisting in the armies of Britain's enemies (and to be fair they did eventually put a stop to this, but only after several decades), the fear of them going rogue somewhere on the other side of the world shouldn't be insurmountable.
 
Interesting. So is there any way to stop Maryland going hard Protestant?



The British did actually have a policy of turning a blind eye to the recruitment of Irish Catholic soldiers by foreign armies, on the grounds that it was better to get them out of the country than to have them hanging around and causing disruption. Getting them out of the country by sending them off to a colony somewhere isn't too dissimilar a concept, and if the government was prepared to risk Irish soldiers enlisting in the armies of Britain's enemies (and to be fair they did eventually put a stop to this, but only after several decades), the fear of them going rogue somewhere on the other side of the world shouldn't be insurmountable.

Yeah i think its definitely possible for the british to encourage catholics to migrate to the new world or specific colonies but for it to make sense the perceived "catholic threat" would have to be greater than otl for it to seem worth it.
 
Interesting. So is there any way to stop Maryland going hard Protestant?



The British did actually have a policy of turning a blind eye to the recruitment of Irish Catholic soldiers by foreign armies, on the grounds that it was better to get them out of the country than to have them hanging around and causing disruption. Getting them out of the country by sending them off to a colony somewhere isn't too dissimilar a concept, and if the government was prepared to risk Irish soldiers enlisting in the armies of Britain's enemies (and to be fair they did eventually put a stop to this, but only after several decades), the fear of them going rogue somewhere on the other side of the world shouldn't be insurmountable.

Yeah i think its definitely possible for the british to encourage catholics to migrate to the new world or specific colonies but for it to make sense the perceived "catholic threat" would have to be greater than otl for it to seem worth it.

Hmm...maybe have Cromwell take a look at Maryland, and go 'Well, something Charles did right' and use it to send Catholics out of England. Anything to increase the Catholic population (Such the Irish and Scottish Catholics) to overtake the various Protestant faiths within the region, while keeping the historic law of religious toleration it had before hand.

After that, Maryland becomes a oddity, dislike by many of the Protestant Faith, while becoming rich like in OTL with all the tobacco plantations. As long as the English-the British don't screw them religious, they might stay loyal(ish) but that just depends of what happen in TTL.
 
Hmm...maybe have Cromwell take a look at Maryland, and go 'Well, something Charles did right' and use it to send Catholics out of England. Anything to increase the Catholic population (Such the Irish and Scottish Catholics) to overtake the various Protestant faiths within the region, while keeping the historic law of religious toleration it had before hand.

After that, Maryland becomes a oddity, dislike by many of the Protestant Faith, while becoming rich like in OTL with all the tobacco plantations. As long as the English-the British don't screw them religious, they might stay loyal(ish) but that just depends of what happen in TTL.
I'd think that it would need to be relatively isolated, being surrounded bu protestant colonies isn't the best position and Britain would probably stack the deck in the protestant's favor if the colony becomes profitable
 
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