AH Challenge: Portuguese Australia

What if Portuguese discovery of Australia is true and if it is true, Portuguese had decided to colonise Australia in ATL instead of not in OTL, What would be the timeline for ATL Portuguese Australia? and What would be the treatment of Portuguese to the Aborigines? Would Australia compare to Brazil if Portuguese had decided to colonise Australia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Portuguese_discovery_of_Australia

Vallard_map_rotated.jpg
 
Australia can't support as many people as Brazil. A huge chunk of it is desert, and a lot of the rest is only suitable for ranching.
 
Australia can't support as many people as Brazil. A huge chunk of it is desert, and a lot of the rest is only suitable for ranching.


Ranching? :eek: So I gather the 5 million or so people of Sydney are moo cows... that actually may explain a lot! :D

Seriously, it all depends upon whether the east coast is discovered and if the Portuguese are willing to take a risk. The British were, albeit only to set up a place to dump convicts at first.

As for what happens as a Portuguese colony - well I'd dare say not overly much different to the OTL other than conditions could end up a lot worse. Certainly we'd never have the population of Brazil. If anything we may end up like a larger East Timor...
 
I don't think this is what you're going for, but i had this idea a while ago and never developed it.

My idea for Portugese settlement of Australia would be a ship bound for Timor is wrecked close to the northern Austalian coast, so most of the crew survives. They're discovered about ten years later, by that time most of them have married. A dozen or so of these ship-wrecked sailors decide to stay and start plantations, enough to get a ship or two a year to stop in and sell supplies. When Christianity gets banned in Japan, many escape and end up in Australia (cheap farm labor?), and when the Jesuits are suppressed many of them come too. In the whole, this colony would be small and agrarian with strong religious tendancies. Due to bored Jesuits, i would expect a good (possibly excellent) university in the main port town and proselitization among the Aborigines, maybe even a system of missions.

Questions i have about this, is there gold to find, any native plants that would be profitable to export, can tea or spices grow well in N Australia? Naturally, discovery of gold or large tea/spice plantations would really change things, but i think the above is a good start.
 
I don't think this is what you're going for, but i had this idea a while ago and never developed it.

My idea for Portugese settlement of Australia would be a ship bound for Timor is wrecked close to the northern Austalian coast, so most of the crew survives. They're discovered about ten years later, by that time most of them have married. A dozen or so of these ship-wrecked sailors decide to stay and start plantations, enough to get a ship or two a year to stop in and sell supplies. When Christianity gets banned in Japan, many escape and end up in Australia (cheap farm labor?), and when the Jesuits are suppressed many of them come too. In the whole, this colony would be small and agrarian with strong religious tendancies. Due to bored Jesuits, i would expect a good (possibly excellent) university in the main port town and proselitization among the Aborigines, maybe even a system of missions.

Questions i have about this, is there gold to find, any native plants that would be profitable to export, can tea or spices grow well in N Australia? Naturally, discovery of gold or large tea/spice plantations would really change things, but i think the above is a good start.

Hello freodhoric, I agree on your point except in the 4th sentence. How Japanese Christians would escape Japan since Nagasaki port is closed for the Portuguese ships?
 
Last edited:
Joseph Solis in Australia said:
Hello freodhoric, I agree on your point except in the 4th sentence. How Japanese Christians would escape Japan since Nagasaki port is closed for the Portuguese ships?

Moreover, they have got to take a risk of heading for a new land ruled by non-Japanese as opposed to going underground.

I don't think this is what you're going for, but i had this idea a while ago and never developed it.

freodhoric said:
Due to bored Jesuits, i would expect a good (possibly excellent) university in the main port town and proselitization among the Aborigines, maybe even a system of missions.

Missions probably, university, somehow I doubt it. Lack of students for one thing.
 
How Japanese Christians would escape Japan since Nagasaki port is closed for the Portuguese ships?
Hmm. Research is required. They wouldn't need to have regular port facilities to leave.

Missions probably, university, somehow I doubt it. Lack of students for one thing.
Erk. Yeah, you're right. Lots of small (tiny) towns had an academy for higher education, maybe it could start like that. Teaching the local rich kids, then they become successful traders and the school's reputation spreads.
 
One of these days there needs to be a master list of all of the alternative theories of exploration. Vol. 1-3 will be about discovering the Americas. I guess vol. 4 can be about Australia. I wonder what else is there.
 
I used to work on the farm where the Mahogany ship is supposedly buried. There is a theory that the British quietly sent some soldiers or Marines to destroy the carcass to forestall any other claimant to Australia.

As for Portugal, it didn't have the poeple to spare to colonise Australia, or rule colonists shipped in from elsewhere. She lost her empire of outposts quickly enough as it was. However it would be injteresting if the Mahogany ship did map the south and east coasts of Australia in 1523 because the info would be bound to leak out.
 
I used to work on the farm where the Mahogany ship is supposedly buried. There is a theory that the British quietly sent some soldiers or Marines to destroy the carcass to forestall any other claimant to Australia.

As for Portugal, it didn't have the poeple to spare to colonise Australia, or rule colonists shipped in from elsewhere. She lost her empire of outposts quickly enough as it was. However it would be injteresting if the Mahogany ship did map the south and east coasts of Australia in 1523 because the info would be bound to leak out.

I think if Portugal had colonize Australia, I presume that Portuguese would colonize Australia the same approach as colonization of Brazil and Portuguese would recruit Indian (mainly from Goa area) and Indonesian (mainly from Moluccas, Sumatra and Flores area) to support sugarcane plantation in Northern Australia and in Southern Australia, Portuguese would recruit settlers from Northern Portugal to support the pastoral industry (mainly sheep) in Southeast Australia.
 
Top