BTW Trinidad and Tobago, though rich, would be controlled by the WIC (West-Indische Compagnie = Dutch West India Company).
Thats true but its still going to be a major money spinner while the Cape was not.
BTW Trinidad and Tobago, though rich, would be controlled by the WIC (West-Indische Compagnie = Dutch West India Company).
I agree with Pompejus on this one; I'd like to see a TL where the Cape remains Dutch.
BTW Trinidad and Tobago, though rich, would be controlled by the WIC (West-Indische Compagnie = Dutch West India Company).
I know this is silly of course but weren't they Spanish at this point and since Spain is either an ally of the French or neutral, why are they part of the package.
While valuable they are rather under developed until the arrival of French planters during the Napoleonic War.
Quick question: Is the USA going to be be butterflied away by this? It seems like it would make a natural ally for the would be republic in Australia.
Like the time line....but some points.
As pointed by JanPrimus, the Dutch would not trade the cape for sugar flint colonies in the West Indies...
The cape colony was not that big, there was plenty of room at the Southern tip of the African continent for an other refreshing station, like the British did in OTL with Natal.
I also think the VOC had more interested in a "European" colony close to Batavia for the production of food as you described in the 17th century. Pieterz. Coen was one of the propagandist of a Calvinist colony as a base for expansion in Asia.
An other thing, since there is a small colony, would this not trigger a VOC governor to sent out an expedition to find out if Australia was one large continent or a huge island? Like Van Diemen ordered to Abel Tasman,( but he screwed up)? And would they not send again an expedition to New Zeeland, just to look again if there is trade with the ''savages'' is possible?
1731: On his third journey of exploration Captain van der Valk circumnavigates the continent surveying the coast up to the already known Janszoon Peninsular [Cape York Peninsular] in some detail.
I obviously can't get into too many details but suffice to say one of my major aims of this tl is to make *Australian history much more interesting than otl. This isn't just going to be otl Australia but speaking Dutch and settled earlier.
I live in Australia and despite being a pom love the country but no country has as dull and uneventful story as Australia. No civil wars, no invasions, no Little Big Horns or Isandlwanas, no contesting colonial powers, no coups, nothing. Even New Zealand had the Land Wars.
The biggest political controversy is the Whitlam sacking, an event that was really pretty minor by international standards. The biggest attacks on Australia is either the arrival of the First Fleet or the Japanese bombing of Darwin which was on such a tiny scale that it doesn't make it into most histories.