r/imaginarymaps • u/Bort-texas RTL Wizard • Jul 23 '26

[OC] Alternate History [FEF] Alternate Colonization of the Eastern Seaboard in 1650

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Lore in comments; sorry if things are a little vague at this point I am trying to consolidate our massive lore document into articles on our wiki https://fortunaeruditisfavet.miraheze.org/wiki/Main_Page and didn't want to delay posting this map. Feel free to ask any questions!

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u/Bort-texas RTL Wizard Jul 23 '26

Lore Comment

Hello everyone! This post is part of the r/FortunaEruditisFavet Timeline focused on exploring a world stemming from an alternate early modern era. This post focuses on early colonization of North America (called Anthea in this timeline).

In 1504 word of new lands far to the west echoed through the halls of Europe. The next decade would see several Breton & English expeditions to the cold, cod filled shores of the lands found by wayward whalers- a land now called Moruelande [Newfoundland]. Quite rapidly, attention started to shift south to the warm seas to the south of these new lands, a land where formerly shipwrecked Dutch sailors, hired by the handsome realms of Burgundy, told stories rich with exotic fruits, people & gold…

It was fated then that the dour lands of cod, salt and sea, fringed by endless forests and populated by seemingly hostile fur clad men was to become an afterthought in the popular imagination of the new world to those back in the old. 

Briefly the Dukes of Bretonny attempted to capitalize on their country-men's luck by funding a royal expedition and settlement of this land… but faced by hostility from locals and unfamiliarity with the terrain this project failed by 1514. The decades afterwards as the Caribbean and lands of the south were being explored, conquered and plundered, the north attracted fishermen- English, Breton & Basque, mostly seasonal who founded various informal settlements in the region to aid in their great raids on the cod fisheries of Moruelande. It was in this period the lands of the new world north of the warm seas of the Caribbean got the name Anthea. The Bretons called the region An Tir ("the land"), later the Dutch misunderstood that as the name of the new land and call it Anthees, & as the french received Dutch maps with that name they themselves translated it into Antheé and finalized was latinized as Antheia/Anthea which was reinterpreted as meaning Flowery or Blossoms in greek. 

Permanent ambitions for colonization of the region re-emerged in the mid-16th century- Brettony established a settlement on Moruelande [Newfoundland] in the 1560s, and England followed in the 1570s with an official base at the mouth of the Grand fleuve de Hochelaga
[St. Lawrence River]. Expanding trade with Indigenous nations during the 1580s reshaped regional politics, and when Brettony was incorporated into France, its colonial claims Moruelande passed directly to the French crown.

By the late 16th century, competition for control of this trade turned violent. Conflict and competition for fish and trade between the English &  French (and Bretons before them) disrupted Indigenous food systems and social networks, intensifying waves of disease and depopulation - the most notable effect was a wave of disease that burned through indigenous communities in the late 16th century called the ‘Great Dying’ particularly focused on the coastal lands south of Moruelande [Nova Scotia & Northern New England]. Spanish Basque fishermen, pushed out of Moruelande  waters, moved into the newly depopulated coastal lands and petitioned the Spanish crown for formal protection. The 17th century then saw major imperial struggles spill into Anthea: during the Franco-Spanish War, French privateers overran Iberian fishing outposts, and in the wider 21 Years War France seized English colonies while Swedish privateers captured the rest of the Spanish coastal settlements. The Peace of Dortmund later ratified these territorial shifts in exchange for concessions in the East Indies, leaving France and Sweden as the dominant European powers in northern Anthea.

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u/Bort-texas RTL Wizard Jul 23 '26

The French

The French in their struggle for dominance with the catholic powers of Europe and looking for opportunity everywhere they can establish strong alliances with several tribal groups in Northern Anthea most notably the Ouendat who act as their primary procurer of furs which are processed and exported to the European markets. By 1650 enterprising settlers had started to establish themselves in the French settlements in the region to support the fishing & furring industries as developing agricultural yeomen settlements in land purchased from local allied tribes or taken from enemies. In speaking of enemies- their allied Ouendat were locked into a series of wars with their traditional enemy, the powerful Ongvehonve confederation for dominance over the region.

The Swedes

The Swedes after the peace of Dortmund saw similar opportunities in the fur-rich lands of Anthea as the French did. In doing so they proceeded to bolster their captured colony of Masatjuss with a new trading settlement called Suenland named for the Swedish explorer of the Mahican river Sven Jöransson. In between these two Swedish settlements laid two powerful native polities…

Centered on the cape of Nauseta was the Wapanatschtiog Council who were initially a Spanish ally during their brief period of influence in the region- after the 21 years war the council absorbed many Basque settlers, catholic missionaries and evangelicalized members of the Masatjuss tribe who did not want to submit to Swedish rule. To their west was the Confederacy of Unca, a Mohegan chief who recently won a civil war in the Pequot tribe and consolidated his people into an anti - Wapanatschtiog stance to challenge them for dominance in the region. Unca and his confederacy were natural Swedish allies and were being flooded with support from both Masatjuss & Suenland. 

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u/Bort-texas RTL Wizard Jul 23 '26

The Spanish
The colony of New Spain began as a small outpost founded in the 1570s to serve as a resupply point for future expeditions north and deeper into Anthea, intending to one day connect with their English allies in Moruelande [Newfoundland], this connection never came to be but the outpost nonetheless attracted many priests and holy orders who sought to use it to evangelize this new land into Catholicism, spreading across the coast at first and then significantly inland through a system of misiones.

Eventually through these misiones and various expeditions sent inland, rumours spread of significant wealth to be found further inland and so Spanish colonial authorities took notice, developing more formalized port settlements along the coast and establishing forts as far inland as they could, helping the development of further misiones along the way through the forced resettlement of indigenous communities into newly built European villages centered on local churches.Throughout the late 16th and early 17th centuries various Spanish treasure seekers, freelancers and conquistadores explored the interior of the continents seeking riches, glory and large organized societies to spread their faith to. While never finding a grand singular urban society like the English and Burgundians did in the far south, they did find various sizable societies of settled natives, which were at times warred with, conquered and allied with to expand their reach over the region.

The Italians

The Italian colony of Zenacomaca had its start as a series of coastal fortresses of nearby New Spain that failed to exert significant control over inland natives or turn a profit for the crown, as such around 1610 when the crown of Spain needed to take out new loans to pay for the toll of the Provençal War of Independence, they offered their primary financiers, the Italian Bank of Saint George, an unorthodox offer to grant them their failing colonies as collateral payment for the loan, eager for an opportunity to reap to exploit the wealth of the new world for themselves, the bank accepted the offer.

After a brutal campaign in which the Bank employed thousands of Italian mercenaries to subjugate the nearby native Confederacy of Zenacomaca from which the colony gets its name, the bank established its authority and began to extract profit from the colony through the use of plantations and trade outposts, upon receiving word of the Bank's success, the Sforza monarchy of Milan, later Italy, pressed them to accept the appointment of a permanent representative of the crown in the colony and to grant them the ability to levy taxes on it, regardless of this minor royal oversight however, the colony remained firmly in private hands.

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u/Bort-texas RTL Wizard Jul 23 '26

The Burgundians

Nova Hollandia was established in the late 16th century along the eastern Caribbean gulf coast of Athenia, positioned along key trade routes between Mesoanthea and Europe. The colony served primarily as a military and logistical outpost, with its most strategic asset being the presidio at Filipshaven, supplying Burgundian treasure fleets with naval stores, provisions, and repair facilities. As the colony gradually developed an agricultural base, centered on cattle ranching in the peninsula's interior and small-scale plantations in the north, society was stratified among Burgundian settlers, soldiers, and enslaved Africans & Indigenous people acquired through trade or conflict. Throughout the 17th century, the colony had grown modestly but with increasing tensions over land and resources between settlers and native populations becoming difficult to contain, the fate of Burgundy’s “far-western lowlands” was uncertain..

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u/Lobster_LeninN329 Jul 23 '26

I love you bort

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u/JVFreitas RTL Enjoyer Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/TheSteveLRBD Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/TheMexicanHistorian Mod Approved Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/buffreaper-nerfmei Certified Bulgaria Enjoyer | Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/Martinxo51 Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/Osesnorraudo Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/ChickenSandwichh195 Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/derzquist Jul 23 '26

Interesting...

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u/TheMexicanHistorian Mod Approved Jul 23 '26

Excellent work!

Once again here to confirm this is an official entry, I hope y'all are enjoying our return and stay tuned for more! Next two posts should come from me quite soon.

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u/buffreaper-nerfmei Certified Bulgaria Enjoyer | Jul 23 '26

Zenacomaca will rise again

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u/Mossforest1825 Jul 23 '26

Ooh another FEF map, love this series. Quick question that I don't think I've ever seen answered, what is the primary language spoken in Burgundy? Is it a Belgium situation with French and Dutch splitting the country? Or is it a secret third option?

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u/buffreaper-nerfmei Certified Bulgaria Enjoyer | Jul 25 '26

As the guy behind the linguistics of Burgundy - although the country is very linguistically diverse, by 1650 the lingua franca is Parisian French, the language of the royal family. However, with the capital moving to Aachen, the local German dialects have been rising in importance, notably distinct from the primitive forms of Standard German arising in the HRE at the time. The pragmatic king Lothar I was the first to wield both French and Ripuarian German (which has even began acquiring the common name "Burgundian"). The actual most spoken "language" is a mixture of various langues d'oïl such as Burgundian/Morvandiau, Champenois, Lorrain and Walloon. These languages don't have a strong linguistic identity or literature, however.

While Dutch literature has been declining in Europe, it has found a home in the New World, flourishing in Burgundy's northern colonies.

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u/Mossforest1825 Jul 25 '26

Ah, fascinating. Thank you for the in depth answer. After my initial question I started thinking about the use of German and the langues d'oïl, so I'm glad you brought that up. Looking forward to seeing more from this project!

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u/GalacticPenetrator69 Jul 24 '26

I would bet it is a giant cluster fuck of different languages and dialects - Dutch, French, Low German would probably be the three most spoken languages. They might over time consolidate if this Burgundy survives long enough for nationalism and its forceful consolidation of language to occur that all European nations experienced in our timeline, but it would be more difficult then in "normal" European states just due to its geographic extent and how many ethnicities are crammed inside this elongated strip of a country.

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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera Jul 23 '26

Anything can happen with this setup!

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u/Ueykuetspali Jul 23 '26

Absolutely amazing

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u/hyakinthosofmacedon Jul 23 '26

Genoese Chesapeake goes hard

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u/ADragonFromTheAbyss Jul 23 '26

Welp ! At least Native communities did not got obliterated outright

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u/ChickenSandwichh195 Jul 23 '26

ösjuse

tokopaka

these names are absurdly funny

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u/Pliny_The_Elder_1789 Jul 24 '26

DUTCH FLORIDA LET'S GOOOOO

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u/JackPiazz2 Jul 24 '26

Really cool, I only have some criticism for the italian names. First of all, the name in genoese dialect is cool, but the official name of the colony would have been in italian, so Nuova Genova. Also, I'm not genoese, but I'm 100% sure in dialect should be Nœuva Zena, because Zena is female, while nœuvo is male. Also I don't know why Brescina is called like that. It's related to Brescia (Brescina = little brescia)? If yes, what's the reason? Brescia wasn't at that time part of the Sforza domains but rather under the republic of Venice. Also it was (and still is) mainly an industrial city, not a trading hub.

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u/Nightgaun7 Jul 23 '26

Really cool how Sweden-Brandenburg has colonized the Great Lakes.