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This chapter will mostly go about the society and economics of Oceania, as nothing relevant really happened during the 18th Century. Oceania was distinct to the colonies in America: most American territories were mining or farming territories, with a ruling class composed by Peninsular Spaniards, followed by the American ones, then the mestizos, the indians and the last in the social pyramid were blacks. Oceania was different, as the native population mixed with the Spanish aswell, but given some colonists came directly from Peruvian mestizos or even Indians, a new social class emerged. The white-maori mestizos were above American indians but under indian-white mestizos, while the Maori in general were considered under the American natives but still over the blacks. Maoris overall were not that numerous and had been exterminated in many areas, most notably northern Ateroa, leading to European and Mestizo colonists pouring in. The similarity of Fernandine climate with that of Spain proper attracted many colonists from the mainland and Oceania became the whitest territory outside Spain proper in the empire.

That wave of colonists brought in a large amount of farm animals, most notably sheep and cows. These extended rapidly across Nueva Asturias and the island's forests were cut down to make space for sheepherds. The Merina sheep (which by the time was considered to produce the best wool) adapted very well from the Spanish steppe to New Asturias' grasslands. Sheep and cow population grew exponentially as the islands were large enough to sustain a huge population. In 1700 there were around 500 sheeps and 120 cows in Nueva Asturias. By 1800 there were 200,000 sheeps and 47,000 cows. The Fernandine wool soon entered the global market when the Spanish allowed foreign powers to trade with Oceania using Spain as an intermediary, however prices were pretty high due to transport costs and Fernandine wool would only become the islands' main exportation in the 1910's.


Back to human populations, these followed their cattle southwards. The main town of Nueva Asturias, Acantilado grew rapidly as the main port of the island, reaching 40,000 inhabitants by 1800. The Spanish settled along the eastern coast of the island as the western part was densely forested and was well inside the roaring forties, which difficulted navigation and settling. The Picos de Europa mountains blocked most of these winds so the eastern part of Nueva Asturias enjoyed a relatively mild climate. Despite Nueva Asturia's population growth surpassing that of Ateroa the northern island remained the most populated one. The main town and capital of Medina de Ateroa thrived as it was the town in which the galleons from Peru arrived, while Almagro served as the main port if you wanted to head for Australia. Almagro was incredibly well located and by 1740 a second harbour was built in the Pacific shore of the city (remember it's in OTL Auckland, at a feasible distance from the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean). Almagro eventually beat Medina's population around the 1790's, but Medina remained the capital of the islands. The overall northern part of Ateroa was settled by a mixeture of Europeans and Americans, while the southern part received more European settlers than American ones. After the First Maori War, the number of maori-spanish mestizos decreased as the natives grew more aggressive to the Spanish, pretty much like the Mapuches of Chile. The society of Oceania grew distinct from that of America as social class distinctions were minimised, and with many settlers coming directly from Spain proper the island's loyalty was unquestioned, and this would prove vital in the next decades.



Australia was also different from the Fernandines. Australian natives were even more scarce and the Spanish initially considered them as inferior to them or the American natives. Relations were initially cordial with the Spanish and natives traded meat with them. An anecdote is still widely remember in Australia: A Spanish colonist walked inland when he sighted a large, human-like animal that which instead of running moved aroung jumping. The Spanish sighted some aboriginals and asked them "¿Qué es eso?" (What's that), to which the natives, who had no idea of Spanish, responded with "Kan garu" (I don't understand you). The Spanish, who completely ignored they didn't understand him, simply understud "Cangarú". And that's how kangaroos got their name. The kangaroos or cangarus are the national symbol of Australia, present in their coat of arms and in the flag. The natives used the kangaroos as their main source of meat and as a sacred animal, the dinning of which was always preceded by a ritual. The Spanish were not so kind and actively hunted the cangarús for their meat, furs and as exportation products themselves. Similar cases happened with other animals such as the Guombas (Wombats) and the Casuaris (Cassowarys), also called Helmet Birds.


The farm animals that the Spanish set free across Australia had wreaked havoc by the 1740's, occupying most of the niches held by native animals wherever they reached. Rabbits were specially invasive and their population went from a three couples set free by a poor trader in 1726 to eight million by 1800. Rabbit meat was used as a food source in Spain proper, so the Australians had no reservations in hunting them whenever they did appear. As Spanish colonists penetrated inland, the center of Australia was gradually divided into huge properties which's only value was their huge size. For example, a certain noble, Alejandro de Luna received 600,000 square kilometers of land in the southwest of the Spanish posessions. Being a rich man as he was, he decided that he could settle the coastal areas and founded the settlement of Ensenada [1] in the northernmost part of the San Bartolomé Bay [2]. De Luna offered parts of his huge territory to other nobles if they assisted in the settlement, and soon a sustainable colony was formed in the southeast, dubbed as New Andalusia. The major settlements were stablished along the western shore of the San Bartolomé Bay and further south with the largest settlements being Aranjuez [3], La Carlina [4] and Nueva Arcos del Mar [5]. By 1800 New Andalusia had a total population of 70,000 colonists.


The Spanish expansion did not limit to the Southwest as the Spanish also spreaded through the southeast and the coasts of OTL Queensland and New South Wales. Spanish settlers founded the town of Puerto Floral in the mouth of the Vega river [6]. The colony of Torres was founded and based aroung the town. Other settlemens also appeared sporadically across the eastern coast of Australia, but none of them would become relevant. By 1800 the whole coast of Australia was well charted, but the inland territories weren't. The next century would see many adventurers explore the interior of the continent in search for gold, water and resources. The Natives simply faded into complete irrelevance past 1720 as their numbers dwindled due to disease and that the Spanish enslaved many of them to work at plantations on the coast, however their numbers didn't grow and they were eventually replaced by African slaves and many of the former Aboriginal slaves ended up being forcibly kicked out to the desert.

However, unlike in the Fernandines, Spain wasn't alone in Australia. The Dutch had stablished a solid presence in the westernmost part of Australia during the late years of the 17th century, and also stablished a fort in the island of Tasmania. During the War of the Quadruple Alliance a Spanish expedition from the Fernandines captured the Dutch settlement of Willelmsfort [7] on November 1719, but had to renounce to the conquest in the subsequent Treaty of The Hague. In such treaty Spain renounced all claims to the island of Tasmania. The Dutch in Australia expanded slowly, as a huge part of their territory was just pure desert, with only Tasmania and the southwesternmost part not being openly hostile. The Dutch behaved moreless like the Spanish and the Dutch made some good money in Tasmania by selling Thylacines' fur and displaying them across Europe as a rare animal from the antipodes. The Dutch stablished coastal towns in the southwest, fishing ports in Tasmania and large agrarian properties in the adjacent lands with these serving as foodstock and overall as sheep farms. The Dutch attempt to colonise Australia to serve as a base against the Spanish would fail as the Spanish would only grow more and more powerful.



Born close to Barcelona in 1704, Manuel quickly found out he had talents as a military officer, fighting against the French oofensive into Aragon in 1719. Then he joined the Order of Malta and spent four years on the island before going back to Spain and sent to fight in Africa in the Sagunto Dragoon Company. He had a relevant paper during the War of the Polish Succession, taking part in the decisive victory at the Battle of Bitonto and later leading the Siege of Gaeta which allowed Spain to re-conquer Naples for the House of Bourbon. He was promoted to field marshal before being sent to America in 1755 to serve as governor of Chile. During that time he built a series of coastal fortifications and others along the Mapuche border while trying to sign a permanent agreement that would allow Spain to supply the island of Chiloé, only succeeding in obtaining a partial agreement. In 1757 he restored the Royal University of St. Philip and in 1758 he created the first permanent army of Chile, the Queen's Dragoons. Due to his good acting he was promoted to Viceroy of Peru in 1761, where he built more fortifications in case of an attack during the Seven Years' War and created another Dragoon Company.


However the act that really brings him into this TL were the series of voyages he organised to the Polynesia after hearing of James' Cook Expeditions. In 1772 he organised an expedition to assure the islands Cook discovered for the Spanish Crown. A fleet set sail from Lima in 1772, commanded by Domingo de Bonechea. Amat also organised a similar expedition from the Fernandines to head east and encounter Bonechea's fleet somewhere close to the Society Islands. Bonechea reached the islands after a pair of months and stablished a small settlement. His mission was to convert the natives to christianity, but those were resilient. The expedition from the Fernandines arrived late, when Bonechea was about to leave Tahiti due to disease, he left the islands to the other expedition and ordered the fleet to sail back to El Callao, though he wouldn't live to see Peru again. The Fernandine expedition stablished better relationships with the natives and when a second Peruvian expedition passed by in 1774, the natives agreed to convert and become subjects of the Spanish monarch Charles III, a monarch, who despite being laicist in his politics, accepted the evangelization of the island. As an anecdote, Queirós (check chapter II) visited a close island and left some dogs there, aswell as a wood cross. The 1774 expedition discovered that island in which the natives mostly fed on dogs, descendants of those left there by Queirós. The Spanish completely charted the islands and named them. Amat's decissions to conquer the whole southern Pacific led to the creation of a permanent Pacific Navy and an increase of evangelization both among Polynesians and Natives.



[1] OTL Port Paterson
[2] OTL Spencer Bay, South Australia
[3] Fisherman's Bay, "
[4] 6 km east of OTL Point Turton
[5] Adelaide
[6] Moresby River, Queensland
[7] OTL Beaconsfield, Tasmania