Alright bit of an update. I drafted this map a few days ago, sorry it's
really rough, I'm not subscribing to these borders at all it was just a general sketch to get my creative juices flowing for the sake of hockey
. Walls of text below, beware
.
Anyway, I'll give you general reasoning so you can fix the borders in your head
.
The general PoD is during the Seven Years' War in 1755 and in 1759 at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. For those who are unfamiliar with the history,
this is a good briefing.
I'm taking liberties with the 1755 PoD, assuming things go similarly to OTL. Here the British decide not to begin mass deporting Acadiens from Nova Scotia, instead containing them and forbidding movement or communications. They plan to deport them closer to the end of the war, in order to concentrate on the remaining conquest of Canada.
The 1759 PoD assumes Wolfe attempts a similar attack on Quebec City (it's likely he would I think). The actual assault was almost ASB in luck, but that's history. ITTL, Montcalm makes a very brash tactical decision to withhold his forces and allow the British to set up for an engagement on the Plains. This would allow Colonel Louis Antoine de Bougainville's to set up a flank behind the British forces, leaving them nowhere to go but back down the earthworks. He allows the British to entrench themselves in their camp, which conventionally was a boneheaded move. Because he waited unlike IOTL, Wolfe's forces are better entrenched in a favorable formation and have manage to establish much of their camp to better suit the battle (IOTL a lot of houses and stores were burned). However, Bougainville's men actually get into place for the start of the battle- which means the British forces are going to end up in a pincer attack by both French forces- which also severely outnumber them. When Montcalm's forces engage the British line, Bougainville flanks them from the rear, something the British did not expect.
Montcalm's line suffers and gets disorganized as IOTL because Wolfe had quite a good volley strategy against the French. However the difference here is Bougainville's flank attack incapacitates a good quarter of the British as they're focusing fire elsewhere. This allows Montcalm and Bougainville to establish positioning on the British entrenchment and it ultimately falls. Some of the Highlanders leap from the Earthworks rather then surrender, and the British forces fall into a really disorganized retreat (a parallel to the French retreat IOTL which was similarly disorganized). British forces are dispersed, most of their leaders killed (which they also were IOTL) but Wolfe survives, despite being shot in the wrist and lower stomach. Most of Wolfe's 4800 regulars are captured, wounded or killed.
This is a fairly significant changing point in the war. Where IOTL the French were basically doomed at this point, having lost Québec and Louisbourg; here they manage to hang on, and with a significant number of British prisoners. I imagine the British and French would trade engagements throughout the rest of the war: Montcalm I think, is unlikely to stretch his forces south of the Great Lakes and will probably lose that territory. The peace treaty used in this map was a similar victory in the early '60s. France retains Île Royale (Cape Breton Island) with a demolished Louisbourg, which I believe would incense colonists who methodically destroyed it in 1760. The French would also retain the lands north of the Ottawa river (Quebec), which would've been a very significant cessation as before they had lands as far down as the Ohio. This territory would get further defined by keeping lands north of Miramichi river and the Tobique river (a tributary of the Saint Jean). The rest of the land gets ceded to the British.
That was the general idea. Montcalm would go down a hero in French-Canadian history, whereas Wolfe would lose face for having lost his entire force in a pitched battle.
This map above comes from sort of long-term generalizations I made just for stimulating thought, it's nowhere near a final draft. The idea would be the British ultimately manage to reconquer the French territories at some point: I think this map assumes relatively early conquest, but it could take many years (perhaps in some TLs not at all). The British forcibly deport Acadiens but give them a choice of going north to Île Royale or to French Acadia (the part of the map that's New Brunswick / Gaspe). I'm assuming an American Revolution of sorts happen, and I still think it's realistic within this timeline. I think this map sort of assumes re-conquest of the French
then war. You can see Lake Champlain is retained in the map, as well as the northern third of Maine partitioned between Quebec and New Brunswick (the upper third is meant to be partitioned into Acadia). There's also a piece of territory nestled in Northern New York that touches on the western edges of Lake Champlain. Since I intended this to be a more peaceful TL (better for hockey) I'm imagining whoever's governor of Canada is a bit more serious about ceding lands to the Mohawk / Iroquois, who I'm assuming help them out still in the American Revolutionary War. With more British success and a desire by whoever's governor to contain Native Americans and avoid conflict from expanded settlements, they take the largely depopulated / not so useful Northern New York land, as well as the western bit of Lake Champlain and cede it as a semi-province to the Iroquois.
I generalized a bit more population success in Nova Scotia and Ontario. Quebec has a bit more breathing room to get big, and no Acadia deportations leaves a significant French population in northern New Brunswick and Île Royale. I imagine Louisbourg gets rebuilt, and is not wrecked when the British retake it so it remains the principle port on Île Royale. In the west, you can see British Columbia sort of awkwardly partitioned. I carved out the land in the Yukon south of the Yukon river and merged it with the greater part of the Alaska Panhandle (I am assuming a British purchase) and the Stikine Territory. The Oregon Dispute (assuming it still happens) leaves the British not with the Columbia River, but territory as far south as Bellingham Bay (a bit further), allowing more southernly environs of Vancouver to develop. Vancouver Island remain a colony- this and the Yukon were done mostly for aesthetics, feasibility is another thing.
The west was inspired by that other Canadian thread with more favorable southern borders. Alberta gets the larger part of land south of Red Deer, the eastern bit of B.C. (along the Rockies) and a chunk of the Idaho Panhandle that ends up being British here. Assiniboia is OTL southern Saskatchewan and the western third of OTL Manitoba. Saskatchewan is northern Saskatchewan on that map. Athabasca is the big chunk of northern territory, with the only notable settlement probably being Edmonton. Because Canada keeps more of the Red River here, I imagined the borders of Manitoba being more southernly focused, so Assiniboia gets a chunk of them. I'm also assuming they get a much higher population, so they get a more favorable result in the eventual dispute with Northwestern Ontario.
The rest is just the Northwest Territories. Ungava District was kept in the NWT in this map but it was more time constraints and forgetfullness, not any purpose. East of Lake Winnipeg the NWT territories were drawn up randomly too just for aesthetics, as I imagine that territory would be disputed between Athabasca, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. If you look carefully, you can also see my misplaced National Capital Region messily around the general area where Ottawa might be (I'm probably well off).
That's sort of the general direction I was going to go in anyway, sorry for so much text. I won't replicate the map for the end of my TL I'll try and look more stuff up and draw on past "New France survives" type TLs. If you have any comments or suggestions on future events, probably specifically the American Revolution and the implications of a Montcalm victory in Europe I'd be happy to hear them. I'm also somewhat interested in what would happen to Île Royale and Acadia in this scenario, where they are left grafted onto French lands. Would they ultimately have the time to get larger populations that could make some of their cities significant? I am imagining here Louisbourg and perhaps a port on Chaleurs Bay. Or will they sort of just be obscure backwaters with a majority Francophone population in Acadia and a large Francophone population in Louisbourg, however it's population ends up.
The creation of an Iroquois state I've always thought left open some interesting possibilities in the future. Native Americans were mostly heavily mistreated in British-controlled areas of Canada. The Métis were repressed, the Cree stuck in residential schools, etc. With the Iroquois however, if they're given nominal 'protectoratehood' here as opposed to just a land grant in the middle of Ontario, perhaps the British would focus on deporting Native Americans to Iroquois Province as opposed to chasing them more westward. Not sure how feasible or realistic this is, I'm sure if anyone bothers to read this they're already skeptical of a Native American province. However, if we just assume that train of thought happens, it might be possible that this region becomes somewhat densely populated with a wide variety of North Americans (Iroquois culture is very melting pot anyway).
I also realize, butterflies
when it comes to the Oregon Dispute and Alaska Purchase, but these are just aesthetic assumptions we'll come to them when we get there. Not even sure how Alaskans would feel about being bought by Canada ITTL
. I also feel that the NWT borders are unrealistic at this point and I'd have to look more at Athabasca / Saskatchewan borders, but resources are hard to find. It seems like Ontario would want a bigger cut of them. Because it's a hockey-oriented TL however I feel a bit more liberal when it comes to borders, going more for 'coolness' as opposed to realism, and I think I'll defer to that just for interests sake. It's like a provincially balkanized Canada which is, I admit a fairly interesting prospect given how conservative we've been with provinces so far compared to say the U.S.
