British Indonesia
- Thread starter Faeelin
- Start date
Faeelin
Banned
I was tlaking about the White Australia policy.
My question is, why would Indonesians and so forth be allowed to settle in Australia when they couldn't OTL?
And of course it would probably have more people than China
And it could be quite powerful if run well.
Flocculencio
Donor
I thought that whoever brought it up was positing that with the British occupying the whole of the East Indies, Northern Australia might actually be seen as viable plantation land as opposed to an isolated coast on the edge of Dutch territory. If this was the case, the settlement of Australia might be carried out in two seperate processes- the first being the trickle of whites to temperate South Australia and the second being the planters and their hordes of servants, coolies and labourers in tropical North Australia.
Thus, Australia probably wouldn't be seen as a single unit in TTL. It would be North Australia and South Australia, two seperate regions divided by howling desert.
How abut one being called Arnhemland, and the other, New South Wales?
Thus, the landmass is Australia, but the polities on the landmass are not.
Flocc & Faeelin, otl that WAS the case in the NT, until a few yrs after 1900 the Chinese & Aboriginal pop DID outnumber the Europeans up in the Top End before the WAP started to take effect. Heck, in the NT today there are still many Aboriginal families who have Chinese blood too due to the orig Chinese settlers marrying into the local indigenous tribes- with surnames begininning with 'Ah'- like the Ahmats, Ahkits, Ah-chees, Ah-wongs etc. I went to school with a fair few of em, real wonderful ppl.
Flocculencio
Donor
Interesting. And in TTL with Arnhemland (Northern Australia) being administered from Singapore by the Governor-General of the East Indies this state of affairs will presumably be intensified.
Flocculencio
Donor
Depends on how they're administered I guess.
Why didn't New Zealand join Australia in OTL?
They didn't want the Maoris to get fucked by the White Australia policy.
Flocculencio
Donor
I see you've added Mindanao- how would that work out?
Had the Spanish already claimed it in the early 19th C? Or are we positing a colonial conflict between Spain and the UK leading to Mindanao being seized.
Perhaps Britain gives more open support to the breakaway S. American Spanish colonies, leading to a declaration of war by Spain. A short sharp struggle later, the British occupy Manila. At the peace table the Spanish gain back most of the Philippines but are forced to cede Mindanao.
I really like what you guys are doing here. Western Australia wasn't settled til the 1820s in OTL, and before that was notionally Dutch, as New Holland (if my memory serves me right); it's on the other side of the continent from NSW, and is separated by a vast desert.
When the Brits annex the Dutch East Indies, could WA get incorporated as part of Arnhemland as well? As it is, drawing a line randomly through the continent seems a bit vague.
This means, essentially, that NSW is just OTL's NSW, VIC, and southern QLD, but that's pretty much the only bits of the country (bar a small part of WA) that are hospitable to European agriculture. Meanwhile, WA is incorporated as part of the USEI.
OK, I admit it, I'm ever so slightly motivated by creating the largest polity humanly possible.
When the Brits annex the Dutch East Indies, could WA get incorporated as part of Arnhemland as well? As it is, drawing a line randomly through the continent seems a bit vague.
This means, essentially, that NSW is just OTL's NSW, VIC, and southern QLD, but that's pretty much the only bits of the country (bar a small part of WA) that are hospitable to European agriculture. Meanwhile, WA is incorporated as part of the USEI.
OK, I admit it, I'm ever so slightly motivated by creating the largest polity humanly possible.
Well...ish. They weren't exactly masters of charity, either.
It's basically the 'tyranny of distance'; there's two thousand miles of stormy sea between us and the Kiwis, and we had decades of divergent cultural evolution. If Federation were today, it'd be silly not to include them, but the distance factor was probably enough to queer the deal.
Then again, there's an even bigger, even less hospitable gap between us and the habitable bits of WA-but don't tell them!
Flocculencio
Donor
Two proposed flags
The first is based on the OTL flag of the Federated Malay States. I decided to switch some of the colours around and add a Union Jack.
The second is simply the flag of OTL's Straits Settlements. The three crowns presumably represent Singapore, Penang and Malacca but I suppose in TTL we could modify the symbolism and say that the three crowns represent the Malay Peninsula, the Archipelago and Arnhemland, the three geographical subregions of the USEI.
The first is based on the OTL flag of the Federated Malay States. I decided to switch some of the colours around and add a Union Jack.
The second is simply the flag of OTL's Straits Settlements. The three crowns presumably represent Singapore, Penang and Malacca but I suppose in TTL we could modify the symbolism and say that the three crowns represent the Malay Peninsula, the Archipelago and Arnhemland, the three geographical subregions of the USEI.