Louisiana (Vikings in the New World)

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Louisiana
Republic of Louisiana
Timeline: Vikings in the New World

Flag of Louisiana Location of Louisiana Motto Liberté et Justice pour tous. ("Liberty and Justice for all!")
Anthem	""Levez Haut" (Raise High)"
Capital	Anneville
Largest city	Audubon
Other cities	Menton, Du Bois
Language   official	French
others	English, Spanish
Religion   main	Christian
others	Judaism, Islam
Ethnic Groups   main	French
others	English
Demonym	Louisianian
Population	59,105,147
Currency	Louisianan Denier

History

French Colonization of Louisiana

The French ship known as the Saint Hildebrand set sail from Brittany in 1256, after receiving news of Vinland about 75 years earlier. The French king at the time, King Louis IX, decided to send out a small exploration ship to begin a new colony in Erikson. The captain of this ship, Armand Achille, set up the colony of Louisiana, named after the king. The first settlement's name was known as Ville de Achille, or Achille's Town. After the other settlements in the region modernized and overtook it, Achille's Town eventually morphed into the modern-day town of Achillia.

Expansion

It wasn't until the mid-1270's that they began to expand from their current settlements, and even then it went slow. Settlements went down the coast of Fleurie (OTL Florida) first, and then jumped down to the Antillies. This would prove to be good for France, as their erratic colonization plans lead them to keep other colonies from forming in the lower half of Erikson. The Island of Antillia (OTL Cuba) was discovered first in 1326, and the settlement of Bon Air was founded. It was the first settlement on the islands in Central Erikson, until its collapse in 1365. The town of Saint Marie was founded next (in 1338), which grew into one of the biggest ports in Antillia.

Meanwhile, in the mainland of the French colonies, expansion was still failing to occur. Settlements went up and down the coast (until reaching the English settlements to the north), but it wasn't until the very late-1300's until they began to expand inward. The first place that they did this was in the far north, even though they had to cross the Dubuque mountains (OTL Appalachians). Jacques Dubuque (whom the mountains were named after), famed fur trader and merchant in the region, founded the city of Terre Haute deep in the mountains. It grew slowly but steadily, eventually becoming a populous stop for merchants in the 1600's (until its eventual collapse in 1865). The city of Audubon, which was founded in 1402 on the coast of West Fleurie, grew very quickly, as it became the largest port between Louisiana and Antillia.

More cities were formed, as settlement expanded inland. A young man named Francis Ansel built one of the first farms far inland (OTL Texas), causing the entire region to be named after him. A somewhat feudal system developed in the region where Ansel settled, where high ranking officials held power over lower ranks, and they held power over the peasants. However, most of this would phase out by the Industrial Revolution centuries later.

French Decolonization of the New World

Libération!

In the late-1400's to early-1500's, Louisiana began to desire independence. After seeing New England fight against its mother country, some groups in Louisiana wished to achieve the same. The Fête Liberté, meaning Freedom Party, was the largest group around. They mostly operated around Fleurie and the south. The second largest group was the Children of Erikson, an English-speaking, very religious, group that operated out of the north. Both advocated for freedom from France, and both began their campaigns peacefully. However, as time went on, France didn't make any formal response to these groups, which caused them to begin a path of violence.

The Battle of Menton was what finally inspired the French to respond to these attacks. In the small town of Menton, a near-suburb of Saint Marie, the Fête Liberté attacked. Trying to start a full-scale rebellion, they raided the storage of rifles in the town, and used them to attack and kill many of the French sympathizers. However, this did not succeed. French troops from the bordering city quickly sent troops in to fight them, quelling the revolt within hours. By the end of it, eighteen people had died, with many others having to leave with serious injuries. After this news got back to Europe, the French government was appalled. However, they knew that the Fête Liberté was trying to start a fight, and instead attempted to strike a deal. A diplomat from France met with the leader of the group at the time, Amédée Beaumont.

Amédée wanted total freedom for every French possession in the Americas, but he knew that that plan would not succeed without a fight. Instead, he allowed the French to keep their western, scattered about farmland (located in OTL Texas) along with the recently acquired Portuguese colony of Mexique. But he made sure that Louisiana and Crotteau would both be freed by the year 1625 (it was nearly 1570 at the time), or else he would start a much more successful rebellion. The French government did not find this deal too absurd, and agreed to leave the issue of "freedom by 1625" to their successors.

By the time 1623 came, much of the general public wanted independence from France. The farmers in the west still feared that freedom from France would warrant sanctions from the rest of Europe, which pressured them to stay for the time being. By this time, Amédée, now in his late 70's, decided to pay another visit to France. He met with the king at the time, King Louis XIII, and asked him very peacefully for independence. Even though he wanted to hold Louisiana for two more years, he agreed to the deal on one condition; a new capitol would be built on his wife's honor. His name already applied to the entire nation, but wanted to show Anne how much of a loyal king he was. Louisiana was formally freed that night, on September 14, 1623. The capitol was built soon after, and was named Anneville, keeping up the deal made.

Relations with Anselia and New England

Anselia

Soon after Louisiana was freed, the farming regions to the west (known as Anselia, due to the old French explorer Francis Ansel) began to have second thoughts about staying with France. After Louisiana wrote a very successful constitution, people realized that independence might earn them more recognition as a hub of trade. A diplomat from the (much smaller) western branch of the Fête Liberté decided to meet with both French and Louisianan officials. France realized that their Eriksonian empire was collapsing regardless, and didn't think of Anselia as being worth very much. The same went to Mexique, which was basically a "crawling infestation of Aztecs and Portuguese" to them (even though it had been majorly French since the late-1500's). Both nations were freed on February 14th, 1636.

A short lived union was made with both of these former colonies, where Mexique and Anselia both were semi-independent provinces. This union lasted for nearly twenty months, but fell apart relatively peacefully. Both nations were on good terms with each other, but decided to let their differences get between them. Louisiana supported Anselian independence fully and whole-heartedly, and there were many parties once it was freed. The President of Louisiana at the time, Aimé Bonhomme, sent diplomats out to try to get Anselia to secede from its union with Mexique and to join Louisiana in change. However, this idea didn't work, since the identities of the two regions were much farther apart than the differences between Anselia and Mexique. However, Bonhomme respected this, and allowed them their independence peacefully. After that, the two nations were on extremely good terms; the only thing that kept them from uniting were their political and agricultural differences.

New England

Relations with New England were just as good. Trade was frequent, even more so after independence happened. Cross-immigration became commonplace, with south New England having a large French-speaking population, and with north Louisiana having a large English-speaking population. Good were imported all the way from Vinland, with furs and, to a lesser extant, tobacco becoming very valuable in the south. New England attempted to turn Louisiana away from trade with Europe after it gained independence (since it wanted it to be much more dependent on the New England), but they respectfully declined.

Provinces

1. Arkannan (3,165,690)
2. Maraister (3,996,544)
3. Dubuque (7,493,995)
4. Savane (10,392,399)
5. Ouest Fleurie (8,954,302)
6. Nouveau Piémont (13,459,302)
7. Fleurie (11,293,965)
8. Quartier de Faucher (348,950)

Total Population (2015 estimate): 59,105,147