Finished with the update! I actually don't know how this update ended up so long. I think my inner academic started taking over.
The World in a New Century, Section XV: The Indies and the Pacific
Published by the McNally Corporation in Chicago, 1901.
The East Indies:
The islands of the East Indies have been sought over for centuries by several colonial powers seeking to add the wealth of the spices from the Indies to their empires. The first were the Spanish and Portuguese, who were followed by the Dutch, the British, and finally the Belgians. The British have, through treaties and war, been kicked out of the islands but still keep an influence over the trade through their control of the Malay Peninsula. The Portuguese, the first to establish a presence in the East Indies in the 1500s, have also been largely evicted from the islands. Their only possession in the region is the eastern half of the island of Timor and a small group of islands to the north. Portuguese Timor is rather insignificant, and still remains largely agricultural with its exports of sandalwood and coffee.
The Dutch East Indies comprise most of the Malenesian Archipelago[1]. The main islands of the Dutch East Indies are Sumatra and Java, the two large islands in the west. These two islands are very densely populated and have provided the majority of the wealth the Dutch East Indies brings in for the Netherlands. The administration of the East Indies is heavily involved in the farming of cash crops on the islands, including the many spices that originate from the islands, sugar, sandalwood, and other such valuable crops. The isle of Java is home to the central capital of the Dutch East Indies, the city of Batavia. While Java has become solidified under the Dutch colonial rule, other places in the Dutch East Indies are still very hostile to Dutch rule. The region of Atjeh in northern Sumatra was only pacified and incorporated in the past decade, and large parts of the island of New Guinea remain unexplored and only marginally claimed by the Netherlands.
While the Netherlands control the majority of the Malenesian Archipelago, Belgium possesses the island of Borneo. The Belgian presence in Borneo was first established in the south and west of the island when the country became independent as part of the reparations from the Dutch government, and the main cities on the island remain in those same areas. Belgium began their colonial operations on the island in the southern city of Banjarmasin, but after the colonization of their mainland possessions, the colonial capital of Borneo was moved north to Pontianak[2]. While Belgium controls the entire island, they have maintained the sultanate of Brunei on the northern coast as a protectorate.
Outside of the Malanesian Archipelago is the Philippine islands, also known as the Spanish East Indies. The Spanish have had almost as long a presence in the East Indies as the Portuguese, though the Spanish territory in the region has not waned over the centuries. The islands are governed by the Spanish colonial officials in Manila and by an upper class of educated native Filipinos known as ilustrados. The ilustrados are natives that have been educated and civilized in a system of Spanish-run schools and universities, which were established and expanded under the reign of king Alfonso. The reign of king Alfonso XII also brought about several improvements in the infrastructure and industry of Manila and other cities on the northern island of Luzon. However, these reforms have also led to a movement for independence for the islands, which has recently gained strength among the ilustrados and the native Filipinos.
Australasia: Great Britain's last major colony is Australasia. The islands of Australia, Tasmania, and the two islands of New Zealand form the bulk of Australasia along with a few minor surrounding islands. Australasia was one of the last places in the world to be settled by Europeans, and even today British settlement of the land is rather sparse. In Australia, the far southeast of the island has been densely settled thanks to the Irish diaspora and the gold rushes in the area in the latter half of the 19th century. Such cities as Sydney and Australasia's capital of Melbourne have boomed to become the largest cities in Australasia. However, other parts of the island are completely uncivilized and only inhabited by the native Australian tribes. New Zealand has also received a large amount of immigration such that whites and Mongolians are the majority of the population of the islands, but the Maori natives still have a substantial minority.
Interestingly, Australasia has managed to remain a single colonial entity, unlike British North America. This may be because the settling of Australasia has primarily only been by people from the British Isles. As fewer national and religious conflicts have arisen in Australasia, the region has remained under a single colonial administration. However, it remains to be seen whether Australasia will stay together if and when it becomes a dominion and is given full self-governance.
Pacific Islands: The Pacific Ocean contains tens of thousands of islands that have been explored by numerous naval expeditions over the past two centuries. However as most of these islands are very small in size, only a few islands or island chains are significant enough to mention here. The largest archipelago of the Pacific Ocean is Hawaii. The chain of islands lies at the center of the Pacific Ocean far away from any other landmass. The islands used to be controlled by a native monarchy, but in the past decade Japan and California have divided the islands between them. California has taken the eastern group of islands including Oahu and Hawaii, while Japan has taken Kauai and all islands to the west.
The other major island group in the Pacific is the Ladrones Islands. These islands have been colonized by the Spanish and include the island of Guaján, which is the largest of the Ladrones Islands[3]. It was used as a major stopover on the route of the Spanish ships between the Philippines and New Spain during the height of the Spanish Empire. Many of the rest of the island in the Pacific have been claimed by either Great Britain, Spain, or Japan, but these islands remain uninhabited or inhabited by the natives. France also has a minor presence in the Pacific, having established a colonial presence on the islands of Palau east of the Philippines and Tahiti in far eastern Polynesia. While several other nominal claims have been made, the majority of the islands remain unexplored due to the dangers of tropical diseases and the uncivilized cannibals who inhabit many of the islands[4].
[1] TTL's Indonesian archipelago, after the Dutch term Maleische, meaning Malay.
[2] West coast of Borneo near the Indonesia-Malaysia border.
[3] Ladrones Islands was the Spanish colonial name for the Mariana Islands. Guaján is the old Spanish name for Guam.
[4] Tales of cannibalism in New Guinea and the Pacific are still abound. Also there are probably some butterflies from Gauguin not making Tahiti and the Pacific look romantic.
