Australian AH Challange!

[Silent Cal]

A random thought that came to me this morning.

Your challenge is to create a TL where:

1. Australia is not colonized by the British, but by another European power.

2. *Australia grows populous and prosperous through bigger immigration than OTL.

3. *Australia wins its independence (not necesserally by force) before 1900 and dominates a large chunk of the Pacific, but maintains good relations with Britain and the USA.

4. *Australia wins a war against Japan in the 1940s as part of a greater conflict that engulfs the world and occupies it (it can be jointly with another power) until at least the 60s after the war.

 

[sunsurf]

The Portuguese supposedly sighted Australia in 1522, but didn't stick around.

Dutch sailors sighted Australia in about 1607, were attacked by Aborigines and didn't stick around.

So the Portuguese colonize SE Australia, around OTL Victoria, and expand into Eastern and Southern Australia.

The Dutch colonize Cape York, and dominate Northern Australia.

The Dutch sailor Abel Tasman sets up a colony in Tasmania.

The Dutch encourage emigration for several reasons. To get rid of religious and political dissidents, to sell ships and supplies necessary for getting to Australia, and to exploit the vast wealth of the continent, and to take over the continent before the Portuguese do. (This is the period of those big religious wars in Europe.)

The Portuguese have many of the same attitudes, and encourage colonization.

The Aborigines are caught in the middle, and appeal to somebody from Indonesia for help. The Indonesians invade, "protecting" the Aborigines. I don't know how much "protection" the Aborigines would really get?

So the 3-way war ends in a tie, with the continent divided between Portugal, Holland and Indonesia, and the population is at least what it was in OTL 1800.
(There were lots of deaths, but lots of immigrant colonists.)

Did you want the continent to be one country? Maybe the Dutch throw out the other two powers, or the Indonesians or Portuguese do.

Because Australia is not available, Britain sends its convicts to North America. They hold onto Quebec, and make concessions to the Americans, so the American Revolution is avoided. Because Britain is concentrating on the Americas, and manages to get some of Latin America from the incompetent Spaniard rulers, they don't colonize the Pacific as much.

As a result, European colonists in Australia send out expeditions to New Zealand, Hawaii and other places. A famous Dutch-Australian artist settles in Tahiti and founds a colony there, for example. So the Pacific becomes an Australian region.

Militarism rises in Japan, they see Australia as a threat. Australia supports the Okinawans against Japan, and a war breaks out over control of Okinawa.

Japan invades China and Australian territories, and at the end of the war Japan is divided between China and Australia, with Sakhalin Island left for the Ainu to have their own republic.

The Russian Revolution happens around this time, and many of the Romanovs are would-be warlords who try to take over, or at least conquer little bits and pieces of Asia, and the Russian empire collapses.

Twenty years later a new puppet emperor gains the throne and the Australians let him sign a new treaty and new constitution, and withdraw from their part of Japan.

 

[Silent Cal]

Sorry, I forgot to clarify.

- The USA must still exist, and stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in one form or another (its up to you, really)

- And yes, Australia, as a continent must be eventually united as an independent country (again, it's up to you how to achieve this).

 

[Rockingham]

I think getting the Dutch to do the colonizing is the right attitude. Perhaps it would be ideal however if they were to utilize Indonesia as a source of colonists-after all. it is rather more popolous then the Netherlands, and closer. Of course, that removes the religious idealist aspect of it, but since when was the DEIC religiously motivated?


BCS in this situation- A large "Indonesian" state comprising of OTL Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, the Phillipines and much of the Pacific. It is predominantly Muslim, but has a large Chinese(also utilised as colonists) and Christian population as well (Perhaps some Indian settlers wouln't go amiss either). This means the state is essentially secular in its laws. It is meritocratic, however, a legacy from its status as a succesor of the DEIC.

 

[sunsurf]

Okay, thanks.

What does BCS stand for?

In this timeline...the British gave the 13 colonies some degree of autonomy or independence, maybe united with Canada?

Around 1790, something like the French Revolution breaks out. It's in Holland instead of France in this timeline. It turns really ugly, like in OTL, and somebody similar to Napoleon comes along. He's Flemish/Dutch, and tries to tone down the revolutionary fervor. His name is Antheunis Schoonvliet.

A young crown prince (analogous to Louis XVII or XVIII) comes along. His name is Balduin, and now he's old enough to take the throne, and has received a liberal education. He's more popular, the people think he's more liberal than the Napoleon-analogue.

The Napoleon-analogue knows when he's not wanted. The new young king either allows/forces him to escape, or assigns him to unify Australia. He uses his personal and tactical skills to unite the Dutch colonists to conquer the rest of Australia. He encourages the Indonesians to side with the Dutch against the Portuguese.

The Portuguese king and his vassals aren't nearly as smart and antagonize the Indonesians, who kick out the people in charge of the Portuguese colonies.

Australia is then unified by 1830.

The Aborigines are confined to reservations in central Australia. (How much involvement in the fighting would they have?)

How's that?

 

[Lord Grattan]

Why does Australia get to remain a unified continent/nation?

 

[Riain]

The Dutch explore SE Australia before 1650 and a Mediteranean country (eg Venice) sets up a settlement near the mouth of the Murray before 1660 (don't ask why, the exploration triggered it off). The vastly different settlement pattern from OTL gives vastly different results, the colony expanding quickly into a vacum using suitable Med agricultre and a bent for self sufficiency since the colony was unable to expect assistance from *Venice. Other European powers set up colonies in Australia, but find that *New Venice in control of the Murray-Darling basin leaves them hemmed into the east coast, and SW of WA. (A bit like the 13 colonies and the Appalacians). So the eve of the French revolution sees *New Venice holding the coastline between Spencer gulf and the east end of Bass st, and the Murray-Darling basin, as a virtually independent, self-sufficient state, with a lot of gold wealth. Other Europeans have settlements dotted around the coast.

 

[sunsurf]

Calcion wanted the scenario to have a united Australia. He's the one to ask why.

The government is a Constitutional monarchy, secular. Their first priority was to unify Indonesia and include it in its budding empire. An Australian admiral does what Peary did in OTL, forcibly opening trade relations with Japan. This has unintended consequences, with Japan modernizing and becoming militaristic, trying to take over China and Korea in the early 20th century.

The Russian Revolution breaks out in 1908. The Czar is Basil II; he has 7 brothers. The youngest, Dimitri, is a socialist, this TL's version of Lenin. He leads the revolution. But the other brothers take the opportunity to try to carve out their own empires, trying to take over everything. Basil and all 7 brothers die in the fighting, and/but the damage is done. The empire breaks apart, Prussia and Austria-Hungary take the opportunity to take what they think is rightfully theirs, and the war lasts until 1912. Prussia survives, much smaller, but the Austro-Hungarian empire has collapsed, and Central Europe is Balkanized. The League of Unified Nations is formed with its headquarters in Geneva. People similar to Hitler remain on the fringes, not taken seriously.

But one person does become prominent. Antoine Gorodets is a right-wing radical who is expelled from the kingdom of Bohemia. He makes his way to Australia, makes some incendiary speeches, is expelled again, and in 1929 goes to Japan to encourage the Japanese to expand their empire into Siberia, where he hopes they will help him carve out his own independent kingdom. He's a lot less influential than he thinks he is, but what he does is enough to push the Japanese over the edge.

The Sino-Japanese war begins. In 1935 they invade Okinawa, and Australia declares war.

Gorodets fled the country, to South America, where he became a minor newsletter editor, ignored by practically everybody. He started writing lurid sci-fi novels, "so bad they're good", collected by sci-fi geeks.