AHC/PC: Boers in North America (Pre-USCW)

Well... My scenario played as such:

The War of Austrian Succession having the Spanish defeating the Dutch in the East India Company, forcing a relatively large number of Dutch settlers from their colonies.

The first problem here is there weren't a large number of Dutch settlers in the Indies; there weren't any at all in the 1740s- even in the 19th C there were only scattered plantation owners. In the 18thC the Dutch East India Company was like the British East India Company- forts, traders, and soldiers.


These Dutch try to flee but end up taken by the currents into North America, where they settle on Northern California/Southern Oregon.

European ships of the 18th C weren't taken anywhere by the currents, and their navigators had a reasonable idea of where they were going. If they had already done some exploring of the Pacific Coast- and learned about the value of sea otters to China- they might have headed there deliberately, hoping to get north of Spanish territory in Mexico.

Isolated, they, in the following years, enter into several conflicts with Indian tribes and the growing Spanish presence in California, resulting in a Great Trek that lands them on Eastern Louisiana, where they rapidly set foot, gaining notoriety as they have a "great awakening" of sorts where they develop a recalcitrant calvinism, which also attracts a few Huguenots.

There wasn't any Spanish presence in Alta California at the time; San Diego was the first fort/mission, established in 1769; Spanish overland exploratory expeditions didn't reach San Francisco until 1775.

Never mind launching a trek across the Rockies and into Louisiana Territory.

Not trying to be a downer, and I'm not one who says "all ATLs are virtually ASB" - my New Albion TL in the same time and place stretches the limits- but you're going to have to find a different method of getting enough settlers to the coast. Somehow have the Spanish chase enough Boers out of the Cape; first to the Indies and then to the West Coast?
 
Don't mean to keep harping about sea otters, but not only have I used them in my ATL, but also suggested them for others involving Japanese/Chinese settlement of North America.

Bering's expedition, which was shipwrecked, still made enough money selling sea otter fur to the Chinese to cover the cost of the expedition -from Russia overland to Kamchatka, then building ships there- and give the Czar enough of a profit to get him to send others. The entire existence of Russian Alaska was paid for by the fur trade.

If the Dutch already know about that, and send triangular trading expeditions- Batavia/Oregon/Canton/ Batavia- they might know enough to tempt them to flee there; could also have brought the Spanish in to chase them out and take it for themselves.
 
The first problem here is there weren't a large number of Dutch settlers in the Indies; there weren't any at all in the 1740s- even in the 19th C there were only scattered plantation owners. In the 18thC the Dutch East India Company was like the British East India Company- forts, traders, and soldiers.




European ships of the 18th C weren't taken anywhere by the currents, and their navigators had a reasonable idea of where they were going. If they had already done some exploring of the Pacific Coast- and learned about the value of sea otters to China- they might have headed there deliberately, hoping to get north of Spanish territory in Mexico.



There wasn't any Spanish presence in Alta California at the time; San Diego was the first fort/mission, established in 1769; Spanish overland exploratory expeditions didn't reach San Francisco until 1775.

Never mind launching a trek across the Rockies and into Louisiana Territory.

Not trying to be a downer, and I'm not one who says "all ATLs are virtually ASB" - my New Albion TL in the same time and place stretches the limits- but you're going to have to find a different method of getting enough settlers to the coast. Somehow have the Spanish chase enough Boers out of the Cape; first to the Indies and then to the West Coast?

Don't mean to keep harping about sea otters, but not only have I used them in my ATL, but also suggested them for others involving Japanese/Chinese settlement of North America.

Bering's expedition, which was shipwrecked, still made enough money selling sea otter fur to the Chinese to cover the cost of the expedition -from Russia overland to Kamchatka, then building ships there- and give the Czar enough of a profit to get him to send others. The entire existence of Russian Alaska was paid for by the fur trade.

If the Dutch already know about that, and send triangular trading expeditions- Batavia/Oregon/Canton/ Batavia- they might know enough to tempt them to flee there; could also have brought the Spanish in to chase them out and take it for themselves.
Well... Thanks for the honest critique and for offering me these ideas.

I believe I might have a way to integrate this. I just need a more active participation of the Dutch in the War of Austrian Succession, particularly in helping Britain in their own war against Spain (Not hard to believe the "perfidious Albion" managed to drag the Dutch to the war), angering the Spaniards enough to go crazy in their colonial posessions, especially the less defended such as Suriname and Cape then pursuing the escaping Duch-Americans and Boers moving further to the East.

Add a recent discovery (or re-discovery), of the aforementioned Otter trade, and soon after the war the VOC finds a use for these strayed trekkers.
 
What would happen if a significant part of Hudson Valley Dutch do, in 1664, instead of submitting to English, flee inland to their trade partners Iroquois and settle down there?
 
I think this is possibly being over though. All it would take, in my opinion, is to have some Boers from South Africa have a desire to immigrate, and then chose a western or southern rural area where they feel they could be substantially let alone.

Have it blossom from there, even 60 Boers moving could create a fairly large community for decades to come.
 
What would happen if a significant part of Hudson Valley Dutch do, in 1664, instead of submitting to English, flee inland to their trade partners Iroquois and settle down there?

See something like this is what I was originally thinking of. Something like mixed in with the right amount of events could easily create a North American Boer.
 
Last edited:
Top