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Whilst doing research for an early 19th-century TL I came across this article on JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/stable/27547532 .

The article discusses the issue of the non-payment of the 25 million francs of French reparations agree in 1831. The required appropriations were denied by the French government in 1834, which then refused to negotiate due to insulting language used by Jackson when discussing the matter with Congress. Cass suggested the issue of letters of marque to allow Americans to compensate themselves from French shipping. If one was to suppose that relations continued to deteriorate (the exact circumstances can be put down to Jackson's temper and Hanlon's Razor) then how might the war go?

If war was seen as genuinely likely then it is possible that the defense spending bill of 1835 which aimed to appropriate $3 million for fortifications of coastal settlements might go through. I don't know much about the relative strengths of French and American military at this point but I imagine that it would probably come down to threats on the American seaboard, trade, and possibly American attacks on French Caribbean colonies?
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