[forkinsocket]

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[AmericaUnite]

I had read that there were European trappers, explorers, etc. here before the Pilgrims. Even Jamestown. Plymouth was the first successful colony.

[SamuraiScot]

if a few things had turned out differently, we might all be bundled up in scarves and hats bearing the fleur-de-lys insignia of the New France Patriots.

John Keegan describes why things fell as they did in his great book about America, Warpaths. He says that while the Brits were sending settlers to America, the French were unwilling to do more than license a few trappers and fur-trading posts.

You can't hold a territory without boots on the ground, now, can you? It was very hard on the few French colonists that lived on this continent. In retrospect, France was lucky to hang onto Quebec.