WI: French Huguenots Attempt to Settle Argentina/Uruguay Area Instead of Brazil

As the tin says, what if the French Huguenot settlers of Brazil in the 1500s had instead attempted to settle in Argentina and Uruguay? Would they be able to last longer further south? Would they be joined by more French Protestants?
 
The big question is - why? American settlement at the time was almost entirely concentrated in Brazil and north. The first Spanish settlement that far south would be at the end of the 17th Century, over a hundred years later. And why not, say, Newfoundland or the North American East Coast, which is similarly unsettled but much, much closer to home.

I mean, it could be done, and maybe successfully (though any colony at the mouth of the La Plata would probably get subsumed)...
 
The big question is - why? American settlement at the time was almost entirely concentrated in Brazil and north. The first Spanish settlement that far south would be at the end of the 17th Century, over a hundred years later. And why not, say, Newfoundland or the North American East Coast, which is similarly unsettled but much, much closer to home.

I mean, it could be done, and maybe successfully (though any colony at the mouth of the La Plata would probably get subsumed)...

They did try to settle the North American East Coast, though. In Florida. Where they were killed by the Spanish. Anyway, maybe they see Portuguese ships and try to avoid them, leading to them overshooting and ending up further south than Brazil in OTL Uruguay similarly to how the Pilgrims ended up in New England instead of their intended Virginia
 
The first Spanish settlement that far south would be at the end of the 17th Century, over a hundred years later...

Actually, Buenos Aires was founded in 1536. It was abandonded a few years later, in 1541, after the colonist experienced hunger and Amerindian attacks. Survivors established themselves in Asunción, modern day Paraguay. It was from Asunción that Buenos Aires was founded again in 1580.
 
Actually, Buenos Aires was founded in 1536. It was abandonded a few years later, in 1541, after the colonist experienced hunger and Amerindian attacks. Survivors established themselves in Asunción, modern day Paraguay. It was from Asunción that Buenos Aires was founded again in 1580.

I stand corrected, apparently.
 
They did try to settle the North American East Coast, though. In Florida. Where they were killed by the Spanish.

Florida isn't far from Cuba, though, where the Spanish were entrenched.

Farther north the Huguenots might have been okay. The New York region, which had been explored by Verrazzano for France, could have been a good location. It's strange to me that no Europeans apparently wanted to settle there before the 17th century.
 
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