Australia as a Russian colony

I've had a thought for a while about Australia, or at least Western Australia, being a Russian colony, with Afrikaans as one of the main languages.

How do you think it would play out?
 
I would think you would need earlier and more extensive development of the Russian far east, but to be honest I'm not really an expert on this subject.

Also, I'm not sure how Afrikaans would end up as one of the languages.
 

Pangur

Donor
How do to manage to combine a Russian colony and Afrikaans as one of the main languages, in Western Australia? It may be possible to have some other colonial power than the British in the mix however I think that you have to be looking at a date prior to 1829 at least and more likely 1800. The reason for this is that by 1829 UK really see all of the continent as belonging to them ans have used force to remove any other colonies.
 
Dutch make settle colony in Australia, Russians smash them in a big European war (to get land access to the Dutch) and take Australia. They also rush the Far east to get better access to Australia. Though you need Russia to actually WANT Australia instead of just taking piles of cash and trade concessions.
 

Pangur

Donor
Dutch make settle colony in Australia, Russians smash them in a big European war (to get land access to the Dutch) and take Australia. They also rush the Far east to get better access to Australia. Though you need Russia to actually WANT Australia instead of just taking piles of cash and trade concessions.

There is a really important line in the above reply, if you have Russia wanting Aussie then most likely so would others which could well give you a Spanish colony as well. AS for the why did, have the mineral wealth found earlier
 
This is going to be difficult since Russia didn't acquire a Pacific port until 1812, and getting to Australia from the Atlantic is going to mean going past Britain, which is going to be quite tricky.
 
I havent internet access to confirm the details but wasnt there a Russian expedition in the Pacific late 1700-early 1800s? Believe they got naming r ights to some islands they discovered. Whats the whaling and sealing like in Western Australia like? Could that not inspired some early intetest in the region. And its the Indian ocean that side of Australia. Sily bugger me.
 
Whaling expeditions =/= colonisation. Also, you'd have to get a fleet out prior to 1800 to beat the British there, which isn't going to be easy since at this point Russia had no ports in the Pacific capable of launching a fleet.
 
Maybe have the Dutch settle in a couple of spots on the West coast of Australia. W hen the British sieze the Cape colonies at the end of the Napoleananic wars inspire a goodly number of the Boes decide to say bugger this and sail off to join them rather than trekking of the nort in OTL. The Dutch were already in the East Indies and these Dutch settlements would be under their protection. Australia is a huge continent and all sorts of setlement could be posdible.
 
Doesnt have to be an Official Russian colony. How about private citizens from Russia who happen to go whaling and sealing and for whatever reason happen to stay and the Russian government send out an agent and mayb. e a gunboat to protect and further their interests. I know the Spanish in the Americas started pushing up into Northern Pacific coast of what became Canada in the 1700s to prevent Rusian expansion so the Russians must have had some naval capacity even if it was based out of the Baltic. Anyway given the nature of the land Dutch/Afrakaner settlement could grow close to Rusian onesand even developed ties like trade or defence with each other.

Sorry im typing on this poxy phone and the screen is so small its worsr than useless
 
So its possible they would have given the Dutch any settlements in West Australia back to them as well? I always thought the British took them, at least in the beginning, to deprive them to the French? Many of the Dutch in the colonies at the time were pretty anti-Napoleon anyway. They keep The Cape and some other places after agitation in Britain for their retention.
 
There is a really important line in the above reply, if you have Russia wanting Aussie then most likely so would others which could well give you a Spanish colony as well. AS for the why did, have the mineral wealth found earlier
Ivangorod Prosperous has Russia actually taking the Philippines from Spain but the farthest south Russia's Pacific colony got was OTL Papua New Guinea. Maybe northeastern Australia might be a good Russian colony on the Australian continent.

This is going to be difficult since Russia didn't acquire a Pacific port until 1812, and getting to Australia from the Atlantic is going to mean going past Britain, which is going to be quite tricky.

Semyon Dezhnev's expeditions in Alaska and Siberia did occur in the 1650s, but no one paid attention to Dezhnev's expeditions. Perhaps if Russia expands first into Manchuria though, that would be another story.
 
I havent internet access to confirm the details but wasnt there a Russian expedition in the Pacific late 1700-early 1800s? ...

That would be Vitus Bearing, a Dane & mariner working for Peter the Great. His explorations of the Siberian Pacifc & Arctic, and Alaskan coasts started in the 1720s.
 
Semyon Dezhnev's expeditions in Alaska and Siberia did occur in the 1650s, but no one paid attention to Dezhnev's expeditions. Perhaps if Russia expands first into Manchuria though, that would be another story.
There's a big difference between Alaska and Siberia, and Australia. For one, you have to get down past China and Japan.
 
I've had a thought for a while about Australia, or at least Western Australia, being a Russian colony, with Afrikaans as one of the main languages.

How do you think it would play out?

Not well, the Boers would destroy the aborigines and have little in common with their Russian overlords.
 
I've had a thought for a while about Australia, or at least Western Australia, being a Russian colony, with Afrikaans as one of the main languages.

How do you think it would play out?

You've posted this in "after 1900."

So you're not getting Afrikaans. Westralia splitting and becoming an ASSR is really quite unlikely.

Slightly less unlikely is Labor caving to the 1949 miners, the miners being fully jumped by the CPA, and the CPA forcing Labor into a dependent coalition… "Tankie" Australia. Given its geographic distance it is highly unlikely to be more closely tied to the Soviet Union than, say, Romania or Albania.

yours,
Sam R.
 
There's a big difference between Alaska and Siberia, and Australia. For one, you have to get down past China and Japan.

Starting with the early 19th c. it's pretty doable, but the Russians would have to use the Baltic as their port of origin like historically, and that need at least some degree of British acquiescence.
 
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