White Settlement in the years immediately following the war
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]White Settlement in the years immediately following the war[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the lands controlled by the Confederacy, almost all the white settlement was demobilized soldiers (and their families) settled as an in-place militia near the US border, in particular near the forts there. This amounts to some 20k settlers, perhaps. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The Confederacy does allow individual farmers to settle in Indian settlements, and even a few white villages in Indian settled territory. These are allowed explicitly as 'model farms' where modern European agriculture is on display for the locals to learn from and emulate. In total, there are only 1k whites in these model farms. Indian settlement along the borders of the US is also rather more dense, and more intensive and European than elsewhere. (The Confederacy, while it knows it can't carry the entire load of protecting itself from US attack, wants to do as much as possible, as they know darned well that the Brits would take them over if they didn't.) Between losing some land to the US, and the influx of Indians from e.g. Michigan, the Confederacy knows it has to adopt more intensive agriculture to support a higher density of people in the land they have left.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Michigan, at the end of the war, is British controlled, even if the aboriginal rights of the Indians there haven't been extinguished yet. Still, it is obvious and understood that there will be major white settlement there. Thus, the local natives (with the aid of the Confederacy) negotiate land deals with the British/Canadians/Michiganders. These deals are very generous (by OTL standards) in terms of the land left to the locals, but the majority of the fertile land there is opened up to Canadian settlement. Many local Indians head south to the Confederacy, where they can be maîtres chez eux, as it were, but many also stay. Again, any whites who want to settle in the Indian held areas of Michigan have to get permission from the local tribe/nation. Some of these groups welcome some immigration, but most hold off. Many figure that there will be more than enough nearby white farmers that they can learn European techniques from without letting the camel's nose in their tent.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In OTL's Illinois, the picture is mixed. In the north, with Black Hawk's Sauk there is, again, very little white settlement, as they don't feel the pressure to change in quite the same way as those in the Confederacy do. The major exception is a lead-mining community at Galena. The Sauk didn't even invite in model farmers as they aren't as impressed with the urgency of adopting European farming methods. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In the middle, white settlement floods in. The Illinois river valley was the supply/movement route from Lake Michigan/Chicago to Missouri/St .Louis. Before the war the Illinois militia had dispersed the Indian settlement at Peoria (Fort Prevost). So when the fort went in, white settlement moved in to support and supply it. Similarly at Fort Gourock, and to a lesser extent, all along the valley. To some extent, this was a military measure, but partly the locals had been forced to move out, and as there was no one to formally negotiate with, the whites just kind of moved in to fill the vacuum. Very soon those nations regretted not joining the Confederacy and when they did ask the Council to intervene, it did but rather half-heartedly. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The end result is that there is a whole strip of mostly white settlement running diagonally down the middle of Illinois. The Indians aren't kicked out – those that return to their old settlements are welcome, but they are rather swamped by the new white immigrants. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Missouri was already partly opened to white settlement, and most of the Indian nations who lived there had sided with the Americans in the war (to a greater or lesser extent), so they got rather short shrift in any land negotiations. Basically, the British/whites take most of the river bottom land that's suitable for agriculture, and the Indians are forced up onto the prairie.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]OTL's Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota are somewhere in between. The nations there mostly fought with the British, but largely as part of the 'Gathering of the Nations' where they were paid, rather than as nations allied with the British. Thus they are treated 'fairly' by British lights, but not 'generously' as Tecumseh and Black Hawk's peoples are. (Tecumseh might not use the word 'generous'.) In particular, the British/Canadians slowly settle up the Mississippi River into Wisconsin and Minnesota, and along the shore of Lake Michigan. As of yet, there aren't enough settlers in the west to cause a lot of conflict with the natives. Some of the prairie nations furtherest east (some in Illinois, some in very eastern Iowa) start investigating cattle ranching, which is initially not very successful, but beats being tied down as dirt farmers. It also provides a living as bison move west beyond the growing human population.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Note that the white settlement is mostly in river valleys so far, for a couple of reasons. This is partly as a means of transporting goods to and from the farms, but mostly it was the land that was possible to work. Until the advent of the cast-steel mold plough, the tough prairie sod was almost impossible to turn with existing equipment. This means that, for the nonce, the prairies are left to Indians and ranchers (some of whom are both).[/FONT]
), but how much did Britain support e.g. Bolivar after Spain switched sides and/or the war was over. I'm rather afraid my knowledge of South American history is not what it could be. 