Admiral Matt
Gone Fishin'
If Gibraltar is a settler colony, so are Singapore and Hong Kong. I'd argue the same for Sierra Leone as well.
AHC: Britain retains a non-settler colony that isn't an island
- Thread starter Zuvarq
- Start date
If Gibraltar is a settler colony, so are Singapore and Hong Kong. I'd argue the same for Sierra Leone as well.
It's a settler colony because 100% of its population descends from settlers. Singapore, HK and Sierra Leone's natives by large do not.
Hmm, Wikipedia says that, at least by surname analysis, about a quarter of Gibraltarians are Andalusian
Flocculencio
Donor
What would be interesting is if the movement for Malayan independence was even more racially polarised. Thus you might have Malay politicians agitating for the exclusion of the Chinese majority Straits Settlements (Singapore, Malacca and Penang) from Malaysia as was the case IOTL with Singapore which was only grudgingly admitted into the Federation and expelled after a few years. If Malaysia gains independence, the Straits Settlements, being essentially trading oriented city states, might well see going with Britain as a viable alternative. This would be especially so given that in such a scenario, racial politics would be even more highly charged. The Chinese and Indians might feel that British protection would be necessary.
Unlike in a lot of other scenarios where colonies that are candidates for being kept are a drain on Britain financially, the Straits Settlements would easily turn a net profit. I suspect that given the political climate of Malaya in the 1960s they'd probably seek some sort of semi-Dominion status. A locally elected Chief Minister and parliament reporting to a Governor-General appointed by Whitehall with Defence and Foreign Policy governed by Britain but most other matters handled by the local government.
The Dominion of the Straits sounds like quite a cool name, incidentally.
Unlike in a lot of other scenarios where colonies that are candidates for being kept are a drain on Britain financially, the Straits Settlements would easily turn a net profit. I suspect that given the political climate of Malaya in the 1960s they'd probably seek some sort of semi-Dominion status. A locally elected Chief Minister and parliament reporting to a Governor-General appointed by Whitehall with Defence and Foreign Policy governed by Britain but most other matters handled by the local government.
The Dominion of the Straits sounds like quite a cool name, incidentally.
Not quite true. While most of the Spanish population of Gibraltar left after it was taken by Britain some did indeed stay there. More Spaniards would come to Gibraltar over time, particularly Minorcans and quite a few Catalans IIRC). As Julius says, about a quarter of Gibraltarians have at least Spanish surnames (a figure not too far from the figure for those with British surnames). It is correct though that much of Gibraltar's population are there due to immigration - Britons, Moroccans, Italians, people from the rest of Spain etc.
Wikipedia isn't a reliable source but I had read about the expulsion of the native Gibraltarians before. The wiki article mentions that the few Spaniards that remained were expelled a few years afterwards. I knew about the Spanish surnames (and the sheer fact that Gibraltarians also speak a kind of Spanglish) but I assume it was due to later migration waves, unrelated with the original population.
Nonetheless, just like Canada or New Zealand, even if not 100% actually has settler ancestors, most do. The major difference is that most of the settlers didn't come from the British Isles themselves...
Yah.
Further, if you ever go to Gibraltar, or nearby or look at a map you can see how it would be nigh on impossible for the locals not to mix in with each other. La Línea de la Concepción is, as the name suggests, right next to the border and the residents of the former spend a lot of time in the latter so far as I can tell. I stayed in La Linea when visiting Gibraltar and there were certainly a lot of English speaking residents or tourists wandering the Spanish side, using Spanish public transport etc.