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Part 4 - Iberian Australis
Part 4 - Iberian Australis
In 1641 Spain was earning a lot of money from growing cotton in the Caribbean. The king Philip IV thought that another tropical place to grow cotton could make Spain an even greater power, especially during the Thirty Years War. So the king sent out Andres Correa to travel around Australis to find out if it was suitable for growing cotton, which certain parts were. Philip IV, fearing the Dutch (their enemies) would take the land first, quickly sent out 5,000 colonists to settle in Philipsville, Los Correa and San Francisco. Philipsville is more south than many of the cotton-growing areas, but is used as a place for Spanish colonists to settle, unlike the northern towns meant for growing cotton., so there was no need in colonising down south. However the colonists needed workers, slaves. And the closest place with the population for that was South-East Asia, so a year later, Spain invaded the country of Brunei, on Borneo, to use for gathering slaves. By 1650 there would be 12,000 Spanish settlers and 40,000 Asian slaves working on cotton fields.
Seeing Spain be successful in using slaves to grow things in Australia, Portugal decided to colonize North-West Australia to use slaves to gather sandalwood. In 1645, Portugal sent 2,000 colonists to colonise Machado and Teixchera. They started to import slaves from Timor and the newly colonized Lesser Sunda Islands and sold sandalwood around the world, increasing the population to 4,000 settlers and 17,000 slaves by 1650.

Australis Population Stats as of 1650 (inc. slaves)
Portuguese Australis: 21,000
Spanish Australis: 52,000
New Holland: 30,000
Total: 103,000
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