Will Kürlich Kerl
Banned
What happens if Great Britain gets Louisiana from France at the end of the 7 Years' War instead of Spain?
Here's what I would argue the default path is-
British ruled Louisiana does attract some english-speaking merchants in addition to military and civilian officials, but the British government's focus is mainly on pacification, so there is an equivalent to the Quebec Act, and British interest in controlling settlement expansion is only strengthened and the colonists of the seaboard have one more irritant.
The 13 colonies break away as in OTL, and New Orleans is as likely to stay British as Quebec. This makes for an eventual USA/BNA border in between the Alleghenies and the Mississippi, blocking US expansion in the short term and guaranteeing more bitter and determined Anglo-American-Native conflict over the long-term.
The only potential wildcard is perhaps a French reclamation of Louisiana, as a consequence of New Orleans being more accessible to Franco-Spanish forces based in the Caribbean or New Spain, making an operation by the Bourbon powers more feasible than up the St. Lawrence.
The only potential wildcard is perhaps a French reclamation of Louisiana, as a consequence of New Orleans being more accessible to Franco-Spanish forces based in the Caribbean or New Spain, making an operation by the Bourbon powers more feasible than up the St. Lawrence.
You are aware that Montreal had about three times the population of New Orleans around the time of the Revolution, right? And that apart from that and St. Louis, there were basically no (European) settlements worth mentioning in Louisiana? It's silly to assume that because they kept Canada the British would somehow be able to forcibly keep Louisiana, too, since Louisiana was even more sparsely populated than Canada at that time. Besides, even if that somehow happened, the 13 colonies had nowhere else to expand, so they'd expend as much effort as would be necessary in order to push their way into the territory. In the long run, London just can't stop them.
New Orleans is all Britain has to control. Under belated Spanish efforts, the city was a boomtown at the end of the 1700's. Under British command, who's to say it doesn't boom earlier?