I
1794-1805
Departing from France during the bloody Reign of Terror, three ships full of nobles, clergymen, and terrified members of the third estate who wished to flee the turmoil. The three ships, bought from the British merchant marine with the dwindling riches of the organizer Jean-Luc Auger, collectively held one hundred forty nine people. Many of the group were royalist sailors who would man the ships.
Once safely out of port, the "fleet" set a course for a group of isolated islands in the South Pacific that had been charted in the last thirty years by the British explorer James Cook and the ship the H.M.S Bounty respectively. A several month long journey brought them to the island of Rarotonga.
Rarotonga was the largest island in the group and home to three vaka (tribe) of Māori people. In May of 1795, the ships made landfall and for the first time interacted with the Te Au O Tonga tribe and negotiated purchase of land. These settlers declared the area of the island they owned Bourbonia and the then being built town Louisville (OTL Avarua). In order to establish rules and peace, a provisional government was established with Jean-Luc Auger, Charles DuPont, and Frederic Fillon serving in a council of three as the executive, judicial, and legislative leaders of the colony.
The members of the third estate who came were put to work planting wheat, potatoes, pineapples, and coconuts while the nobles established new estates. The merchants and skilled workers took their place in the society as well. But the planned aristocracy wouldn't last as long as it did in France in generations. The nobles lacked enough workers to farm the plantations, thus forcing them to become farmers themselves. The grand estates that the nobles had envisioned were divided amongst the settlers or abandoned. As much as Auger hoped to escape the revolutionary ideas of his homeland, more rights and representation for the everyday citizen was an attractive idea for many. DuPont backed the rights of the people, himself a moderate who had attracted the ire of Robespierre before his exile. This drew criticisms from Auger and Fillon, who loudly called him a revolutionary. For the time being, Bourbonia would remain an oligarchy.
Bourbonia had it's internal petty squabbles, but it's relations with the Māori were cordial and pleasant. Definite borders were established between the French and the Te Au O Tonga territory. Lacking a large number of women, some of the French took Māori women as wives.
Living in their small island, they were unaware of the fall of the republic and the rise of the man from Corsica.
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Author's note: I know, I already have two timelines going on, but this idea just kept popping up.
Departing from France during the bloody Reign of Terror, three ships full of nobles, clergymen, and terrified members of the third estate who wished to flee the turmoil. The three ships, bought from the British merchant marine with the dwindling riches of the organizer Jean-Luc Auger, collectively held one hundred forty nine people. Many of the group were royalist sailors who would man the ships.
Once safely out of port, the "fleet" set a course for a group of isolated islands in the South Pacific that had been charted in the last thirty years by the British explorer James Cook and the ship the H.M.S Bounty respectively. A several month long journey brought them to the island of Rarotonga.
Rarotonga was the largest island in the group and home to three vaka (tribe) of Māori people. In May of 1795, the ships made landfall and for the first time interacted with the Te Au O Tonga tribe and negotiated purchase of land. These settlers declared the area of the island they owned Bourbonia and the then being built town Louisville (OTL Avarua). In order to establish rules and peace, a provisional government was established with Jean-Luc Auger, Charles DuPont, and Frederic Fillon serving in a council of three as the executive, judicial, and legislative leaders of the colony.
The members of the third estate who came were put to work planting wheat, potatoes, pineapples, and coconuts while the nobles established new estates. The merchants and skilled workers took their place in the society as well. But the planned aristocracy wouldn't last as long as it did in France in generations. The nobles lacked enough workers to farm the plantations, thus forcing them to become farmers themselves. The grand estates that the nobles had envisioned were divided amongst the settlers or abandoned. As much as Auger hoped to escape the revolutionary ideas of his homeland, more rights and representation for the everyday citizen was an attractive idea for many. DuPont backed the rights of the people, himself a moderate who had attracted the ire of Robespierre before his exile. This drew criticisms from Auger and Fillon, who loudly called him a revolutionary. For the time being, Bourbonia would remain an oligarchy.
Bourbonia had it's internal petty squabbles, but it's relations with the Māori were cordial and pleasant. Definite borders were established between the French and the Te Au O Tonga territory. Lacking a large number of women, some of the French took Māori women as wives.
Living in their small island, they were unaware of the fall of the republic and the rise of the man from Corsica.
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Author's note: I know, I already have two timelines going on, but this idea just kept popping up.