WI: The French Revolution successfully establishes its exact goals, and this causes Mexico to keep the Louisiana Territory? How does this huge Mexico affect N. America?
Still has to be populated, and given the realities of the history of New Spain/Mexico from 1803 onwards, seems very unlikely New Spain/Mexico can "hold" Louisiana any more effectively than New Spain held Mexico, Mexico held Texas or the Cession territories, Spain held Florida, Central, and South America, etc.
Best,
Mexico may be able to hold the south, but I agree, the north is gonna go. Of course, it would probably be renamed to something like "Illiña" (as the French pronunciation for Illinois is "Illinwa"). It would lead to interesting butterflies.
But what about Tejas? Could it stay with Mexico if the Americans' settlement is concentrated on Lousiana?
The problem for New Spain/Mexico, however, is that very few people wanted to emigrate there, period, in the Eighteenth Century, and even fewer who did were likely to be loyal to New Spain/Mexico.
The entire "settled" population of the Cession territories before Guadalupe Hidalgo (and predating the California gold rush), for example, was in the tens of thousands ... and something like 90 percent of those who had been Mexican citizens (and before that, if they were old enough, Spanish subjects) chose to become US citizens.
The northern borderlands of New Spain/Mexico were about as far, in terms of travel time, in the 1820s as one could get in the Spanish Empire or Mexico ... and very few people who were identifiably "Spanish" or "Mexican" had much interest in emigrating there. Same for Florida prior to 1819, of course.
Not going to be much different on the upper reaches of the Mississippi or Missouri.
Best,
Yeah, that's probably true. In addition, the US has a population boom. But it would still have some interesting butterflies.