• Hi Guest!

    The costs of running this forum are covered by Sea Lion Press. If you'd like to help support the company and the forum, visit patreon.com/sealionpress

Maximum British Demands in the Seven Years' War?

S

Simon

Oblivious
Assume for a moment that due to [REASONS] the first peace feelers are rebuffed and that the British don't sit down with the French until roughly six months later than our timeline. This means that the siege of Cassel has been successfully carried through and news of the fall and occupation of Manilla have reached Europe before they start to negotiate the preliminary peace treaty. With all that in mind what is the maximum that people think Britain could potentially get away with demanding in an alternate Treaty of Paris?
 
Last edited:
Thande said:
Cuba, the Philippines and the French sugar islands would probably be brought up, though I doubt the Philippines could realistically have been held.
Click to expand...

Perhaps some British ship captures an outpost or two in California as well. Britain sought to capture Nicaragua as well.

Both seem basically tied to the idea that Britain wanted fairly easy connection between the Caribbean (Cuba) and Asia (the Philippines). One cuts the distance, and the other could serve as an important way-station/safe harbor.

The First Cevallos Expedition could fail, Portugal could retain Urugay (Sacramento), and Britain could perhaps seize the Rio de la Plata.

If we really want to be wanky, Britain could hold onto Louisiana if it doesn't have to make concessions to get back Menorce. A big requirement would be avoiding the fall of Menorca. Britain horse-traded other lands away to get that back.
 
Last edited:
Thande said:
Cuba, the Philippines and the French sugar islands would probably be brought up, though I doubt the Philippines could realistically have been held.
Click to expand...
Agreed on the Philippines. Cuba would certainly be popular with some people – including the local Spanish merchants who apparently found the British administration's lack of trade controls quite agreeable, the sugar lobby representing already existing British sugar producers however are not going to like the idea of another large 'domestic' supplier suddenly entering the market. Cuba is also such a linchpin of the Spanish holdings in the West that I'd expect them to be loathe to surrender it.

What do people think about Louisiana? Now it would require the British to have discovered the existance of the Treaty of Fontainebleau and its terms but offering to trade eastern Louisiana and Florida in exchange for Manilla/the Philippines and western Louisiana for Havana/Cuba. It wouldn't promise immediate gains like the two prizes but it opens up the North American interior and controlling New Orleans and the Mississippi River easier access to it.

The other idea I had was to also include the Balearics. Our timeline's treaty already included Minorca being returned but would the British be interested in the other three islands? On the one hand it removes Spanish influence from nearby, on the other I'm not sure how much they would actually bring since Port Mahon was the main reason for British interest.
 
There's a short story by S.M. Stirling, "Cops and Robbers", that has Pitt the Elder staying in power, and thus Britain takes all the French territories, along with all the Spanish and Dutch (Mexico, South America, Indonesia, the Cape, Ceylon) in what's known in that TL as the Ten Years' War. Thanks to this, according to the lead (villainess) character, "the American colonies never became seriously disaffected," and "enough independent revenue made the Crown free of Parliament, so even poor crack-brained Georgie was able to bring off the coup and make the monarchy absolute again." Being a Stirling story, it's iffy at best on a number of levels, but the territorial claims seemed interesting enough to add to the discussion here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top