AHC: More 'White Rajahs'

I probably ought to make it clear at this point that I don't approve of colonialism or Imperialism, and I wish I didn't have to say that.

Sarawak was ruled for about a hundred years by the Brooke family, which was started by a British adventurer who cleared out a load of pirates from the area around Kuching and created himself a country which he passed on to his nephew and his nephew's family. In the same period, a Frenchman called Orélie-Antoine de Tounens was chosen as King of Araucania and Patagonia by a bunch of Mapuche chiefs and lasted for a couple of years before he was arrested and deported back to France. As far as I know, these are the only examples of Europeans establishing monarchies in areas outside of Europe (apart from 'proper' colonies like the British Raj in India).

So are there any people in that sort of period who tried to do similar things, or seem like the sort of people who would try? How would these countries work out in the short term and the long run?

This is also open to individuals of other races doing similar things, like Ethiopians going to Australia or Peruvians colonising Japan, if such things are plausible at all.
 
I probably ought to make it clear at this point that I don't approve of colonialism or Imperialism, and I wish I didn't have to say that.

Sarawak was ruled for about a hundred years by the Brooke family, which was started by a British adventurer who cleared out a load of pirates from the area around Kuching and created himself a country which he passed on to his nephew and his nephew's family. In the same period, a Frenchman called Orélie-Antoine de Tounens was chosen as King of Araucania and Patagonia by a bunch of Mapuche chiefs and lasted for a couple of years before he was arrested and deported back to France. As far as I know, these are the only examples of Europeans establishing monarchies in areas outside of Europe (apart from 'proper' colonies like the British Raj in India).

So are there any people in that sort of period who tried to do similar things, or seem like the sort of people who would try? How would these countries work out in the short term and the long run?

This is also open to individuals of other races doing similar things, like Ethiopians going to Australia or Peruvians colonising Japan, if such things are plausible at all.

An interesting challenge, and whilst there are downsides to colonialism and imperialism there are good sides. India wouldn't be the nation it is today, without having had a taste of 'market capitalism' that the Brits offered it.
 
An interesting challenge, and whilst there are downsides to colonialism and imperialism there are good sides. India wouldn't be the nation it is today, without having had a taste of 'market capitalism' that the Brits offered it.
India was deindustralized by the British. I don't see how you can say India would be less successful had the British not arrived.

Even without British rule there were clear trends towards centralization and modernization; the best example is of course Mysore.
 
India was deindustralized by the British. I don't see how you can say India would be less successful had the British not arrived.

Even without British rule there were clear trends towards centralization and modernization; the best example is of course Mysore.

Never said it would be less successful, I did however, say that it wouldn't be the nation it is today without the raj there, two different things.

And yes, there were trends towards centralization and modernization, under Mysore and the Maratha empires.
 

GdwnsnHo

Banned
India was deindustralized by the British. I don't see how you can say India would be less successful had the British not arrived.

Even without British rule there were clear trends towards centralization and modernization; the best example is of course Mysore.

India wouldn't be the same nation without the British. As in culturally.

We have to remember how culturally distinct different regions of India were prior to the arrival of the British, and still is. They didn't naturally exist as one polity.

Nothing about better/worse. Just different. I'd honestly expect a few Indian states. Dharmic, Telugu, Tamil, Rajput, Punjabi, Bengali, etc. In a world that had nationalism elsewhere, I can't see why India without a unifying "Other" would be any different.
 
From World Statesmen:

Caulker Chieftancies

Note: In the mid-18th century, two Englishmen, James Cleveland and Skinner Caulker settled in what is now Sierra Leone, intermarried with locals, and established themselves rulers of several coastal districts. In an early feud between the two families, the Clevelands were eliminated, but the Caulkers prospered and founded dynasties which had great impact on Sierra Leone history throughout the 19th Century. Though the kingdoms they set up have not endured, the Caulker family is still very numerous and influential in the nation.

Banana (Plantain) Islands
c.1770 Banana (or Plantain) Islands settlement (a small island off
the southern shores of the Freetown Penisula).
1820 Incorporated into Sierra Leone colony, Caulker
dynasty moves to Bumpe.

Chiefs
c.1770 - 24 Mar 1791 James Cleveland (b. 1754? - d. 1791)
1791 - 1797 William Cleveland (d. 1797)
1791 - 1810 Stephen Caulker (d. 1810)
(in opposition to 1797)
1810 - 1820 Thomas Stephen Caulker (d. 1832)

Bompey (Bumpe)
1820 Bompey (Bumpe) chiefdom under Caulker dynasty in south-central
Sierra Leone, concentrated in the northwestern portion of
Southern Province.
1888 Incorporated into Sierra Leone.

Paramount Chiefs
1820 - 1832 Thomas Stephen Caulker (s.a.)
1832 - 1842 Charles Caulker (d. 1842)
1842 - 1857 Thomas Kon Tham Caulker (d. 1857)
1857 - 1864 Thomas Theophilus Caulker (Tham Bum)
1864 - 1888 Richard Canreba Caulker (1st time) (d. 1901)
1888 - 1895 Vacant
1895 - 1898 Richard Canreba Caulker (2nd time) (s.a.)
1899 - 1902 James Canreba Caulker
1902 - 1907 John Canreba Caulker
1907 - 1921 Thomas Canreba Caulker
1921 - 1954 Albert Gbosowah Caulker
1954 - 1983 William I. Caulker
1984 - Charles B. Caulker
Shenge (later Kagboro)

1810 George Stephen Caulker given old Kagboro chiefdom by his father,
Stephen Caulker of Plantin (Shenge chiefdom).
1861 British protectorate.
1888 Incorporated into Sierra Leone.
.... Renamed Kagboro chiefdom

Ruler
1800 - 1810 Yah Kumba (f)
Paramount Chiefs
1810 - 1831 George Stephen Caulker I (d. 1831)
(Ba Charch)
1831 - 1842 Thomas Stephen Caulker -Regent (d. 1871)
1842 - 1849 Thomas George Kugba Caulker I
1849 - 15 Aug 1871 Thomas Stephen Caulker (s.a.)
15 Aug 1871 - 1881 George Stephen Caulker II (d. 1881)
1881 - 1888 Thomas Kugba Caulker II
1888 - 1898 Thomas Neale-Caulker (d. 1898)
1898 - 1909 Sophia Neale-Caluker (f) (d. af.1915)
1909 - 1911 Sei Lebbi
1911 - 1919 Gbana Bome
1919 - 1932 Samuel Africanus Caulker (d. 1932)
1933 - 1954 Alphonso Theophilus Caulker (d. 1954)
1954 - 1961 .... -Regent
8 May 1961 - 1999 Honoria Bailor-Caulker (f) (b. 1922 - d. 1999)
(in exile from 1982)
1999 - 2002 .... -Regent
2002 - 4 Apr 2008 Sigismund Oldman Caulker
4 Apr 2008 - 29 Dec 2009 Mohammed Joe Moriba -Regent
29 Dec 2009 - Doris Lenga-Kroma Caulker (f)
(Gbabiyor II)

Other interesting cases are the Kingdom of Araucania-Patagonia and Maurice Benyovszky's kingdom in Madagascar. For the 20th Century example, there's also the Kingdom of La Gonave.
 
Thank you very much to Darthfanta and Pa Dutch. There was obviously a lot more of this going on than I thought.

Probably best to leave the India chat in Chat.
 
The State of Muskogee

The State of Muskogee was a proclaimed sovereign nation located in Florida, founded in 1799 and led by William Augustus Bowles, a Loyalist veteran of the American Revolutionary War who lived among the Muscogee, and envisioned uniting the American Indians of the Southeast into a single nation that could resist the expansion of the United States. Bowles enjoyed the support of the Miccosukee (Seminole) and several bands of Muscogee, and envisioned his state as eventually growing to encompass the Cherokee, Upper and Lower Creeks, Choctaw and Chickasaw.
wiki

Though given the neighborhood, not much chance of success.
 
Jonathan Lambert, an american whaler, tried to set up his own kingdom on tristan la coruna but that wasn't inhabited and so doesn't really count.

The hms bounty mutineers in the pitcairns might count more? Or you know, the boers?

Oh hell does William Walker count? Or Ptolemy? Or Jan Janszoon, the dutch convert to islam who ran the corsair republic in sale, morocco?

In terms of people who might realistically have set themselves up as kings over natives but didn't.

Benyovszky, the hungarian who was a french governor in madagascar and self declared king?

Or Francisco Feliz de Sousa, who was a half breed brazilian slave trader who was made viceory of the rebelious port of whydah by gezo of dahomey and could have easily won his independence in different circumstances?
 
On the Gambier Islands a French Jesuit turned the country into a despotic theocracy, kill hundreds with his brutal methods of repression and insane building projects.

On Easter Island, a French businessman bought the entire island and proceeded to deflower almost every Rapanui girl.

Baron Ungern Sternberg is still worshiped as a deity by some of the people I have spoken to here in Mongolia, though I think 'White Khan' applies better to him.

Captain John Nicholson was worshiped as a god in rural Punjab until well into the 1980s. If he had deserted, he could have carved out his own little Kingdom.

The Pacific Islands are very promising; look at the Bounty Mutineers carving out three little island paradises for themselves! North America in the 16th and 17th century could work as well. Or shipwrecked sailors in any anonymous shore across Africa or Asia.
 
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