PC: Non-Anglo settler colonialism

Disclaimer: This post is not to be used as an endorsement of settler colonialism, which has invariably only benefited the settlers whilst displacing the native populations of said settler colonies.

For a variety of reasons, settler colonialism in OTL has been associated with the British colonial empire, and four influential contemporary states (the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) are all former British possessions, speak English, and generally have a white majority/plurality.

However, what I want to know is how plausible is it for the concept of the "settler colony" to not be pretty much dominated by the Anglosphere? Would it require something like, for instance, a less decisive British victory in the Seven Years' War? Demographic changes in continental Europe to create a need to send people to the colonies?
 
  • brazil
  • the entire Caribbean technically qualifies in a way that's even more pervasive
  • colombia and Argentina
  • algeria
  • boers and dutch involvement in the cape
  • taiwan
realistically, i don't think you need to add more. these colonies already existed, it's just this is an anglophone board where latin america doesn't get a lot of attention, and more than a few settler classes have been expelled.
 
  • brazil
  • the entire Caribbean technically qualifies in a way that's even more pervasive
  • colombia and Argentina
  • algeria
  • boers and dutch involvement in the cape
  • taiwan
realistically, i don't think you need to add more. these colonies already existed, it's just this is an anglophone board where latin america doesn't get a lot of attention, and more than a few settler classes have been expelled.
All really good counter-examples! Brazil would definitely count, for sure. The Caribbean basically saw its indigenous population wiped out, much like in most of North America, though they're IIRC more populated by descendants of enslaved people, mostly of African descent.
Argentina insisting on its "whiteness" is a historical meme.
The Boers definitely count.
And it's easy to forget Taiwan wasn't originally populated by Han Chinese - in fact, the aboriginal peoples are basically the ur-Austronesians, more related to, say, the Ivatans of Batanes.
 
Japanese in Hokkaido.
Russians in Siberia.

And Namibia is still 07% "White" (mostly still German, or have Anglos & Boers from South Africa moved there in large enough numbers to push them out of 1st place?).
 
Argentina insisting on its "whiteness" is a historical meme.
What do you mean? It's still a mostly European country if you go either by identity, ancestry or language(even historically), the difference with the US seems to me that the founding stock was more male biased and thus native women entered the founding community and through low migration rates and slow growth you had a small mestizo community which then mixed with more European in the mid-late 19th century, but they are still majority European compared to the Andean countries or Mesoamerica.
In fact it would take very little to make Argentina like Quebec or the US. Just make more women migrate and have more migrations overall(double or triple what the Spanish sent before 1700) and then you would have a mostly European founding stock.
 
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  • boers and dutch involvement in the cape
To be fair, this was unintentional on the part of the VOC.
realistically, i don't think you need to add more. these colonies already existed, it's just this is an anglophone board where latin america doesn't get a lot of attention, and more than a few settler classes have been expelled.
Yup.
Argentina insisting on its "whiteness" is a historical meme.
If it's a meme, its a correct meme. By skin color, the majority of Argentina is white.

To answer the question, yes it would be very possible to get non-Anglo settler colonialism, because it has happened quite a lot OTL.

If you get Latin America to be rich and stable from independence, and you create new destinations for the millions of European emigrants that left for the USA, Brazil, and Southern Cone IOTL. Some new ones might even be enticed to leave that didn't OTL, with the staunchly Catholic Spanish colonies looking attractive for many settlers.

The Germans could have really dominated Namibia, while the Italians could with Libya as well.

In Asia, if Japan keeps Sakhalin (Karafuto), and maybe nabs the Philippines, there could be a lot of settlers there. IOTL the Japanese heavily settled Micronesia, but most of the settlers were expelled after WW2, so that also fulfills the challenge.

In East Africa, there was de facto Indian settler colonialism which created a backlash from the Native africans that was seen in the independence movements of OTL.

Denmark or AH could have held onto the Andaman and Nicobar islands and forced the natives off their land, perhaps becoming an version of Australia for either of these countries.

Also IOTL the Javanese practice de facto settler colonialism among the many islands of Indonesia.

Russia IOTL also practiced settler colonialism in Central Asia. IIRC Kazakhstan at one point was plurality Russian.
 
Japanese in Hokkaido.
Russians in Siberia.

And Namibia is still 07% "White" (mostly still German, or have Anglos & Boers from South Africa moved there in large enough numbers to push them out of 1st place?).
Two thirds of the White people in Namibia are Afrikaans speakers and a third German speakers.
 
The only other country to send out as many people as England did was Portugal, which has kept exporting its own population even to the present day. While the demographic profile of these migrants was largely single men, degredado criminals, "King's Orphans" for marriage in Asia and of course the crypto-Jews, if they had a colony suitable for family settlement I don't see a reason why Azoreans, Madeirans (and mainlanders, just less than the islanders) wouldn't be interested.

In that vein, the Portuguese could've settled in North America, the Southern Cone, and the Cape of Good Hope areas. The latter two fit their agricultural toolkit at the time of colonization, and play into Aleixo Garcia/the Inca/Brasil and the Asiatic trade routes respectively. They could've have also settled Australia, although I imagine other locations would be more tempting. Of course, any of these colonies would receive competition from Brazil, but life in Portuguese Africa and Asia could be pretty tough (threadbare garrisons, tropical disease, etc.)

As for the other colonial nations, the key would be sending out more people to the right places. France feared having a Huguenot-dominated colony, and had relatively more land in Europe to settle internally. The Dutch IOTL achieved religious pluralism and a great deal of mercantile wealth, reducing the incentive to settle (so much so that even New Amsterdam was ~40% English. Not to mention the big Huguenot presence at the Cape.) The Spanish conquered the big ticket items early and at that point how do settler colonies, which require a lot of investment to bear economic fruit, compete with the New World equivalent of Powerball?

If you set up the factors, you could plausibly allow any nation within range to colonize the settler-friendly parts of the Americas. The Scandies are a good, plausible option; if a large German polity arises in Hannover a couple centuries early then they have location, maritime infrastructure and more than enough reason to get out of Germany. An alternate Castille, one which relies on the knowledge of Basque fishermen and gets boxed out of the rest of the Atlantic by the Portuguese, could also have easily colonized North America.

France is the other big what-if, but you'd need clear royal investment and not being neighbors to the British colonies for a slow-burn French colonization of Quebec (or elsewhere, if they can steal one of the various Brasilian ports they were interested in). In that vein, an Equinoctial France in a world sans the de Sa family, starting from alt-Rio de Janeiro, could definitely expand into the Southern Cone. The Jesuits weren't fully entrenched in Paraguay, Spain sent the Peruvian trade via Panama and hadn't yet created the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, and extractive industries could be supported by the French equivalent of the bandeirantes in the interior.

As with Quebec, France would probably need to send more people, but they wouldn't be next to the massive demographic disparity of the British in America. Plus, they'd probably be the ones to discover the riches of Minas Gerais, and nothing brings settlers like a gold rush. The later option for them is of course Australia, but I think there'd only be the incentive to settle there if Colbert pulled off creating a French East India company (maybe they take the Philippines in an alt-WoSS?)
 
The only other country to send out as many people as England did was Portugal, which has kept exporting its own population even to the present day. While the demographic profile of these migrants was largely single men, degredado criminals, "King's Orphans" for marriage in Asia and of course the crypto-Jews, if they had a colony suitable for family settlement I don't see a reason why Azoreans, Madeirans (and mainlanders, just less than the islanders) wouldn't be interested.

In that vein, the Portuguese could've settled in North America, the Southern Cone, and the Cape of Good Hope areas. The latter two fit their agricultural toolkit at the time of colonization, and play into Aleixo Garcia/the Inca/Brasil and the Asiatic trade routes respectively. They could've have also settled Australia, although I imagine other locations would be more tempting. Of course, any of these colonies would receive competition from Brazil, but life in Portuguese Africa and Asia could be pretty tough (threadbare garrisons, tropical disease, etc.)

As for the other colonial nations, the key would be sending out more people to the right places. France feared having a Huguenot-dominated colony, and had relatively more land in Europe to settle internally. The Dutch IOTL achieved religious pluralism and a great deal of mercantile wealth, reducing the incentive to settle (so much so that even New Amsterdam was ~40% English. Not to mention the big Huguenot presence at the Cape.) The Spanish conquered the big ticket items early and at that point how do settler colonies, which require a lot of investment to bear economic fruit, compete with the New World equivalent of Powerball?

If you set up the factors, you could plausibly allow any nation within range to colonize the settler-friendly parts of the Americas. The Scandies are a good, plausible option; if a large German polity arises in Hannover a couple centuries early then they have location, maritime infrastructure and more than enough reason to get out of Germany. An alternate Castille, one which relies on the knowledge of Basque fishermen and gets boxed out of the rest of the Atlantic by the Portuguese, could also have easily colonized North America.

France is the other big what-if, but you'd need clear royal investment and not being neighbors to the British colonies for a slow-burn French colonization of Quebec (or elsewhere, if they can steal one of the various Brasilian ports they were interested in). In that vein, an Equinoctial France in a world sans the de Sa family, starting from alt-Rio de Janeiro, could definitely expand into the Southern Cone. The Jesuits weren't fully entrenched in Paraguay, Spain sent the Peruvian trade via Panama and hadn't yet created the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, and extractive industries could be supported by the French equivalent of the bandeirantes in the interior.

As with Quebec, France would probably need to send more people, but they wouldn't be next to the massive demographic disparity of the British in America. Plus, they'd probably be the ones to discover the riches of Minas Gerais, and nothing brings settlers like a gold rush. The later option for them is of course Australia, but I think there'd only be the incentive to settle there if Colbert pulled off creating a French East India company (maybe they take the Philippines in an alt-WoSS?)
I don't really understand the "France had more internal land to settle", it's not like they were colonizing new regions and it's not like England was over-populated, given it was itself growing a lot demographically.

Also saying that Netherlands achieved religious pluralism is quite wrong, Catholics were themselves persecuted.
 
Also saying that Netherlands achieved religious pluralism is quite wrong, Catholics were themselves persecuted.
No they were not. Catholics were allowed to be catholic (which is why there are so many chatolics in the Netherlands), as long as they worshipped out of sight. They did not have the same oppertunities like the calvinists had. But they could even rise to relatively important positions. They were second class citizens, but I would not call it persecuted.
 
No they were not. Catholics were allowed to be catholic (which is why there are so many chatolics in the Netherlands), as long as they worshipped out of sight. They did not have the same oppertunities like the calvinists had. But they could even rise to relatively important positions. They were second class citizens, but I would not call it persecuted.
I wouldn't call it religious pluralism either.
 
I wouldn't call it religious pluralism either.
That is true. But it was better to be a catholic in the Netherlands than a protestant an basicly every single catholic country. And since the Dutch republic was a relatively liberal and wealthy country, in many cases it was better to be a catholic in the Netherlands than a poor catholic in a catholic country.
 
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Disclaimer: This post is not to be used as an endorsement of settler colonialism, which has invariably only benefited the settlers whilst displacing the native populations of said settler colonies.

For a variety of reasons, settler colonialism in OTL has been associated with the British colonial empire, and four influential contemporary states (the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) are all former British possessions, speak English, and generally have a white majority/plurality.

However, what I want to know is how plausible is it for the concept of the "settler colony" to not be pretty much dominated by the Anglosphere? Would it require something like, for instance, a less decisive British victory in the Seven Years' War? Demographic changes in continental Europe to create a need to send people to the colonies?
I think you can get French or Spanish to go to Louisianna or could get spanish to go to California Texas area if they kept it (easy to keep.)
Also if Germany kep Namibia longer or Italy kept Tunisia longer. You can also get Japanese colonisation of more areas if they conquer them (government encourages this.)
 
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All really good counter-examples! Brazil would definitely count, for sure. The Caribbean basically saw its indigenous population wiped out, much like in most of North America, though they're IIRC more populated by descendants of enslaved people, mostly of African descent.
Argentina insisting on its "whiteness" is a historical meme.
The Boers definitely count.
And it's easy to forget Taiwan wasn't originally populated by Han Chinese - in fact, the aboriginal peoples are basically the ur-Austronesians, more related to, say, the Ivatans of Batanes.
Technically the entirety of China except for a small area in the center between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers used to be Chinese colonies.
 
There are about 180-200 million White people in Latin America of Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, German and Eastern European stock out of 650 million population. In the US, Canada, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand combined, there are about 250 million. It's not such a big difference.

As @AltoRegnant stated above, in a very Anglocentric forum, they're just ignored as if they even existed, but they're out there for the past five centuries. And as English-speaking settlers, they also engulfed entire continents, controlling all political and economic structures till this day.
 
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For a variety of reasons, settler colonialism in OTL has been associated with the British colonial empire, and four influential contemporary states (the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand) are all former British possessions, speak English, and generally have a white majority/plurality.
Well, it's true that Canada is a former British possession, but it doesn't entirely speak English, and it was a settler colony for a century and a half before the British conquest.
 
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