DBWI: Non-Portuguese Colonisation of Azania

As we all know, the modern coutry of Azania (Portuguese: Azânia) grew out of Portuguese the settlements of Boa Esperança, located in the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope, together with a few smaller scale settlements spread over the east African coast. These settlements were first established in the late 15th century, and were intended to serve as a base to further Portuguese ambitions in India.

With the favourable climate on their side, the european population of these settlements grew exponentially over time, eventually mixing with the native Africans as well as a fair amount of Indians, Sinhalanese and east and southeast asians brought over by the Portuguese.

Eventually, Portuguese-Azanian "bandeirantes" dramatically pushed the borders of the colony northwards, leaving the territories that now form Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo as its only direct neighbours.

Today, Azania is an independent federal republic and has the highest HDI of the African continent. It's also one of the most heavily miscegenated countries in the world, with the overwhelming majority of its population being mixed-race, with different percentages of european, african and asian DNA, depending on each individual case.

But what if the Portuguese had decided not to colonise Azania? People are always speaking of how the got overstretched, so this may be possible. Who else could have got it? Could we get a Spanish Azania? What about a Dutch or English Azania? Who are the most likely alternate colonisers, in your opinion?

Also, what would modern-day Azania look like with a different coloniser.
 
The colonization of Azania by the Portuguese always made sense to me: it was a sparsely populated region with a Mediterranean style climate where Portugal's agricultural package could be easily transplanted, it had a base population of natives in the western half that wasn't too large to threaten the Portuguese colonists but was also large enough to make up for the initially small labor force and lack of marriageable European women in the colony, and - perhaps most importantly - it was literally halfway in between Portugal and all of its profitable colonies in the Indian Ocean and Asia.

Without a Portuguese Azania, I can see the trade and colonization efforts of the Portuguese in East Africa, India, and the Far East getting strangulated as soon as another European power (or, God forbid, the Ottomans or Persians) decides to involve itself in those regions. The Portuguese were already stretched thin as it was, with a population no larger than 2 million in the 16th century, and with a great deal of enemies acquired with its aggressive entrance into Asia and Africa I can easily see Portugal's competitors finding ready allies.

Without Portugal, colonization of Azania could be anyone's game. Spain might have ended up in the region in order to protect their interests in the South Atlantic and keep the Portuguese from getting too big for their britches, but it would also constitute a more direct violation of the Treaty of Tordesillas. The Dutch, English, and French might also want to colonize the area to solidify their trading ventures in Asia and possibly dump some of their religious minorities. Without the historic Portuguese and Spanish acceptance of miscegenation, however, I can't see this colony ever getting very large, and it will probably get overrun by the Xhosa once European firearms start to filter into their society.
 
Without the historic Portuguese and Spanish acceptance of miscegenation, however, I can't see this colony ever getting very large, and it will probably get overrun by the Xhosa once European firearms start to filter into their society.

I see your point. Indeed, a Dutch or British Azania would surely be a lot smaller due to limitations in population size, however, I disagree in regards of it being overrun by the Xhosa. There aren't many succesful cases or African tribes managing to fend off European coloniser. Without miscegenation, I think Azania would probably just end up being a "normal" colony, with a large native population being ruled by a small european elite.

In this alternate Azania, slavery would most likely get codified according to racial lines (with white europeans always being the masters and black africans always being the slaves), as it was in the United Sates and other slave societies. This would create a very different situation from the one we had in OTL Azania, where slavery was codified according to religion instead, as Portuguese law forbade the enslavement of any christians but allowed for the enslavement of all non-christians, regardless of race. This created a seemingly strange situation for visitors from other countries, who were often perplexed to see mixed-raced and even pure African masters ordering around large contingents of slaves, which often included a fair amount of lighter-skinned muslims.
 

raharris1973

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I basically agree with the climactic and crop package argument Torbald makes.

English or Dutch seems ASB, they would not know what to do with the Mediteranean.

Absent political constraints, Spain might make an even better and more powerful colonizer for Azania.

I would tend to discount the French too, I see them as more northern European than not, but if they are smart enough to leave the colonization mainly to Provencals, they may get a working and profitable agriculture and viniculture going.
 
Oman would have certainly snatched it up and was well on it's way to do so before the Portuguese gained a footing. The coastal empire was stretching further and further south, and if the land was not already claimed by the time Oman conquered the Zulu kingdom then I could definitely see the sultanate gaining control of the entire region.
 
Without Azania, Brazil would probably stay Portuguese and never be absorbed into the Spanish Empire, which could lead to some very interesting things. Maybe Brazil might end up as the USA of South America? The southern parts are climatically similar to parts of southern Europe, the indigenous population was never very high, it has lots of useful land for agriculture and it would have lots of unclaimed and/or sparsely populated land to expand into. Maybe this Brazil will extend across the Andes and into the Pacific?

Maybe the Dutch might settle Azania instead of Nieuw Holland? Azania has a lot of the same things that Nieuw Holland has, with the bonus of being a better stopover between Europe and the East Indies. In this situation Nieuw Holland might even be divided between multiple European powers, and maybe some Asian ones too.

Dutch Azania would probably be similar to the northern colonies in Nieuw Holland, with a small European population ruling over a much larger indigenous, Asian and African slave population. Expect lots of racial segregation, lots of dictators and little wealth.
 
Oman would have certainly snatched it up and was well on it's way to do so before the Portuguese gained a footing. The coastal empire was stretching further and further south, and if the land was not already claimed by the time Oman conquered the Zulu kingdom then I could definitely see the sultanate gaining control of the entire region.

I don't see why Oman would colonise Azania, like OTL they would probably keep their African colonies, but start focusing on India and the Persian Gulf instead.
 
I basically agree with the climactic and crop package argument Torbald makes.

English or Dutch seems ASB, they would not know what to do with the Mediteranean.

Absent political constraints, Spain might make an even better and more powerful colonizer for Azania.

I would tend to discount the French too, I see them as more northern European than not, but if they are smart enough to leave the colonization mainly to Provencals, they may get a working and profitable agriculture and viniculture going.

Some of the first parts of Nieuw Holland colonised by the Dutch have a mediterranean climate and most of it is even hotter. Today Nieuw Holland (all countries combined) is majority white European.
 
So, assuming the Dutch colonise Azania ITTL, how would that affect non-european settlement in the country? Under Portuguese rule, Azania received large numbers of Indians, Sinhalanese, south east Asians and quite a lot of Chinese (mostly from around Macau). Which peoples would the Dutch bring over? Certainly more south east Asians, but probably not as many workers from these other places. If there are still significant numbers of Chinese, they are unlikely to be cantonese-speaking. What effect could this have on Azanian culture?
 
So, assuming the Dutch colonise Azania ITTL, how would that affect non-european settlement in the country? Under Portuguese rule, Azania received large numbers of Indians, Sinhalanese, south east Asians and quite a lot of Chinese (mostly from around Macau). Which peoples would the Dutch bring over? Certainly more south east Asians, but probably not as many workers from these other places. If there are still significant numbers of Chinese, they are unlikely to be cantonese-speaking. What effect could this have on Azanian culture?

What about other Mediterranean Europeans, like Italians, southern French (maybe Huguenots?) etc? It might make more sense for the Dutch to recruit from areas where people are more used to Azania's climate.
 
I don't see why Oman would colonise Azania, like OTL they would probably keep their African colonies, but start focusing on India and the Persian Gulf instead.

And risk drawing the err of the Ottoman Caliphate? I don't think so. There's a reason Oman focused on expanding out of Zanzibar rather than turning east; their low manpower base meant they needed to take advantage of their regional slave-soldier system and Swahili mercenaries/clients to subdue their rivals, taking advantage of their wealth and exploiting regional opium addictions. Moving against the Ottoman zone of interest would have been suicidal.
 
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