WI : French Antarctique and Southern Cone

Probably we would need to change French approach to colonialism from scratch. But what would it take to get French Antarctique hold and expand to engulf the southern cone ?
 
You'd need a sting, why would they go there? Could it be used as a base?

The issue of motivation here is because the French don't have much reason to go there, no close by territory to protect, no need for naval base in this area...

Other than that, they'd need to be there first. Maybe it could be used as a hardcore training ground?
 

Oceano

Banned
They would have to beat the Portuguese. The Tamoios Confederation War came quite close, but that didn't work.

Also the Portuguese have a innate logistic advantage in that its faster for mainland Portugal to supply the colonies than it is for France.

Also, for the Portuguese, colonization is the main objective, while its a sideshow for France, and pretty much a protestant/hughenot effort.

France could really do better in Central and North America, maybe northern South America. But Brazil? The Portuguese straight-out #REKT every foreigner who ever tried to take it, and the ones they could't (the dutch), the luso-brazilians did it themselves.
 
Have the very good and competent governor Mem de Sa assigned elsewhere. The Portuguese at the time were focused in the Brasilian north, and if Brasil's leadership is incompetent, a French colony in Rio de Janeiro could be given the breathing room to expand.

You'd also need more Frenchmen to come over; the Portuguese historically sent a very large amount of people overseas relative to their total population, whereas the French, and the Dutch, sent very few.

There's also the option of France Equinoxiale in what is now Maranhao. If St. Louis (now Sao Luis) can survive and expand into Grao-Para and the Guyanas, then the French could dominate the Amazon.
 
Top