Having tried and failed to do this before I am determined to write and finish my first timeline for this board. With that in mind I humbly present my re-working of my hopefully more realistic Draka timeline.
Timeline Segment 1
1775 Benedict Arnold wins the Battle of Quebec, Quebec joins the Revolution.
This is my Point of the Divergence from both OTL and the original Draka timeline.
1779 France, Spain, Netherlands declare war on Great Britain.
1779 British fleet under Admiral Lord Cochrane lands occupying force in Cape Town.
1780 Colonel Ferguson's loyalists victorious in battle of King's Mountain using his experimental rifle. Several Loyalist units, including Tarleton's Legion and the newly formed Ferguson's Legion, re-equipped with Ferguson breech-loaders. Savage partisan warfare throughout Southern colonies. With the rebels allied with Catholic Quebec, Loyalists are more numerous than OTL and inter-American conflict fiercer.
1781 General Cornwallis defeated at Charleston, surrounded he surrenders to American rebels and their French allies.
1782 British naval victories in Caribbean, occupation of Haiti and Trinidad.
1783 Second Peace of Paris. Independence of former British North America except for Newfoundland and Prince Edwards Isle recognized; British Florida is given to the Fourteen Colonies (including Nova Scotia) and most of her conquests in Caribbean are returned to their owners. As partial compensation Britain gains possession of Dutch Cape Colony.
1783 Loyalty Acts passed by British Parliament: the Cape is renamed the Crown Colony of Drakia, and all colonials who fought or otherwise suffered for their loyalty to the Crown are offered transport and land grants; so to are the Hessian and other German mercenaries in British service at the time. General Patrick Ferguson is appointed first Governor-General. First Loyalist refugees arrive in Cape Town. Conquest of Southern Africa begun. With the threat of Patriot lynch mobs behind them 200,000 Tories will leave America of the next decade but the already crowded Home Isles and West Indies are not attractive destinations. The appeal of Drakia is reinforced by the glowing reports of the first Tory settlers. Over the next decade 125,000 Loyalists will move on to the new land of opportunity, taking up the offer of free transport and priority for land distribution. The remainder will stay where they have settled with large concentrations around Dublin and in Jamaica.
1783-90 Around 75,000 Loyalists (not including some 2,000 slaves) arrive along with c. 20,000 Britons and 7,000 Hessians, with relatives and families following in a steady trickle from Germany. At this time the Dutch Afrikaner population is slightly more than 20,000, a slight majority choose to stay on the Cape however roughly 10,000 decide to trek inland to avoid uitlander rule. Many free Cape Coloureds follow them as despite being a slave holding society the Afrikaners lack the strict racial hierarchy of the British or rather the newly arrived Southern Loyalists. Heading inland many settle down to a life of semi-nomadic farming as soon as they get beyond the reach of the British authorities but some keep heading on, eventually reaching the Witwatersrand mountains.
1784 Founding of York (Durban, South Africa), and New Charleston (East London, South Africa), these are small settlements established by motivated pioneers, most of the Loyalists settle in Western Cape. New Charleston is founded by a group of Carolinans who having moved to Newfoundland began to fear that they would lose what the realised was a distinct culture. The settlers quickly come into conflict with the natives and while the general policy is one of expulsion some former Southerners wanting to recreate the plantations they had left behind begin enslaving people, especially around New Charleston.
1783-84 Volcanic eruptions devastate Iceland. 5,000 Icelanders take asylum in Drakia, though most head to Scandinavia but word from these Icelandic migrants to relatives in Norway and Sweden just like letters from Hessian's will help attract a steady flow of non-British migrants from the start.
1786 With the closure of North America to British convict
transportation and with jails filled to overflowing with the flotsam of early Industrial Britain the first convicts are despatched. In order to separate them from slaves they are not leased out to private individuals as in North America but retained by the government and generally used on public works projects such as the grand new Cape Town Courthouse.
1786-90 Continued growth of economy and population and decline in American Loyalist immigration which is being replaced by British immigration with overall numbers around 12,000 a year. The beginning of export trades in tobacco, sugar, wool, salt, hides etc., are established. A major activity is the resupply of ships heading to and from India and the Far East. Settlement is mainly restricted to the immediate environs of Cape Town (40,000) and along the Breed, Berg and Elephant Rivers.
Board of Roads established to begin constructing roads in the new colony, due to shortage of free labour as settlers take up land grants or go into business and the high mortality rate of convicts slaves are soon needed and the first government slaves acquired.
Timeline Segment 1
1775 Benedict Arnold wins the Battle of Quebec, Quebec joins the Revolution.
This is my Point of the Divergence from both OTL and the original Draka timeline.
1779 France, Spain, Netherlands declare war on Great Britain.
1779 British fleet under Admiral Lord Cochrane lands occupying force in Cape Town.
1780 Colonel Ferguson's loyalists victorious in battle of King's Mountain using his experimental rifle. Several Loyalist units, including Tarleton's Legion and the newly formed Ferguson's Legion, re-equipped with Ferguson breech-loaders. Savage partisan warfare throughout Southern colonies. With the rebels allied with Catholic Quebec, Loyalists are more numerous than OTL and inter-American conflict fiercer.
1781 General Cornwallis defeated at Charleston, surrounded he surrenders to American rebels and their French allies.
1782 British naval victories in Caribbean, occupation of Haiti and Trinidad.
1783 Second Peace of Paris. Independence of former British North America except for Newfoundland and Prince Edwards Isle recognized; British Florida is given to the Fourteen Colonies (including Nova Scotia) and most of her conquests in Caribbean are returned to their owners. As partial compensation Britain gains possession of Dutch Cape Colony.
1783 Loyalty Acts passed by British Parliament: the Cape is renamed the Crown Colony of Drakia, and all colonials who fought or otherwise suffered for their loyalty to the Crown are offered transport and land grants; so to are the Hessian and other German mercenaries in British service at the time. General Patrick Ferguson is appointed first Governor-General. First Loyalist refugees arrive in Cape Town. Conquest of Southern Africa begun. With the threat of Patriot lynch mobs behind them 200,000 Tories will leave America of the next decade but the already crowded Home Isles and West Indies are not attractive destinations. The appeal of Drakia is reinforced by the glowing reports of the first Tory settlers. Over the next decade 125,000 Loyalists will move on to the new land of opportunity, taking up the offer of free transport and priority for land distribution. The remainder will stay where they have settled with large concentrations around Dublin and in Jamaica.
1783-90 Around 75,000 Loyalists (not including some 2,000 slaves) arrive along with c. 20,000 Britons and 7,000 Hessians, with relatives and families following in a steady trickle from Germany. At this time the Dutch Afrikaner population is slightly more than 20,000, a slight majority choose to stay on the Cape however roughly 10,000 decide to trek inland to avoid uitlander rule. Many free Cape Coloureds follow them as despite being a slave holding society the Afrikaners lack the strict racial hierarchy of the British or rather the newly arrived Southern Loyalists. Heading inland many settle down to a life of semi-nomadic farming as soon as they get beyond the reach of the British authorities but some keep heading on, eventually reaching the Witwatersrand mountains.
1784 Founding of York (Durban, South Africa), and New Charleston (East London, South Africa), these are small settlements established by motivated pioneers, most of the Loyalists settle in Western Cape. New Charleston is founded by a group of Carolinans who having moved to Newfoundland began to fear that they would lose what the realised was a distinct culture. The settlers quickly come into conflict with the natives and while the general policy is one of expulsion some former Southerners wanting to recreate the plantations they had left behind begin enslaving people, especially around New Charleston.
1783-84 Volcanic eruptions devastate Iceland. 5,000 Icelanders take asylum in Drakia, though most head to Scandinavia but word from these Icelandic migrants to relatives in Norway and Sweden just like letters from Hessian's will help attract a steady flow of non-British migrants from the start.
1786 With the closure of North America to British convict
transportation and with jails filled to overflowing with the flotsam of early Industrial Britain the first convicts are despatched. In order to separate them from slaves they are not leased out to private individuals as in North America but retained by the government and generally used on public works projects such as the grand new Cape Town Courthouse.
1786-90 Continued growth of economy and population and decline in American Loyalist immigration which is being replaced by British immigration with overall numbers around 12,000 a year. The beginning of export trades in tobacco, sugar, wool, salt, hides etc., are established. A major activity is the resupply of ships heading to and from India and the Far East. Settlement is mainly restricted to the immediate environs of Cape Town (40,000) and along the Breed, Berg and Elephant Rivers.
Board of Roads established to begin constructing roads in the new colony, due to shortage of free labour as settlers take up land grants or go into business and the high mortality rate of convicts slaves are soon needed and the first government slaves acquired.
Last edited: