English Canada/French Carolina: A Timeline
- Thread starter Gabingston
- Start date
I'd wish, but the British don't have a great track record with indigenous peoples (then again, no European colonial power really does). The Tierra Del Fuego (although the name may be different ITTL, Fuegia maybe?) gold rush is still gonna happen ITTL, and gold rushes are usually disasters for the indigenous population (California Gold Rush for example).
Speaking of the Fuegians, any chance their domesticated foxes become popular pets? Or at least, not exterminated like OTL?
I'd hope that they wouldn't be exterminated, but I bet the Brits would just stick to their brand of canine.
Part 38: The Land At the End of the World
Part 38: The Land at the End of the World
We now return to Patagonia, the upstart British colony at the Southern end of South America. By 1845, only about 5,000 settlers lived in Patagonia, most of them clustered around Williamstown. The other British settlements I mentioned in my previous Patagonia update are just small fishing outposts, albeit with permanent residents. Ships coming from Britain would arrive with supplies and settlers every month or two, keeping the colony afloat while parties kept exploring up the Clear River for arable land. After hundreds of miles (and what must’ve felt like 40 years) wandering across the desert, the Andes were finally reached. The climate pretty abruptly went from bone-dry to soaking wet (an extreme rain shadow), and the terrain from rolling steppe to soaring, snow-capped peaks, but in that transitional zone lay fertile, pleasant valleys. While this area wouldn’t be settled immediately, it would be on the mind of the colonial authorities for the future.
In the meantime, there was a much more pressing matter at hand: famine. Not in Patagonia, even with the limited farmland, there was still more than enough to go around with such a small population, but in Ireland. I’ve already talked about the Irish Potato Famine (which still occurs ITTL, just pushed back by a few years) in a previous update, so no need to go into the details here, but I didn’t go into the effects it had on Patagonia because I planned to talk about it in a future update, and that time is now.
The Patagonia Company figured that this was a prime opportunity to attract a large amount of settlers fleeing the famine, so soon after the famine began in 1848, the company began recruiting across the Emerald Isle. Between 1849 and 1853, about 12,000 Irish (about 6,500 Catholics and 5,500 Protestants) settled in Patagonia, as well as 8,000 others, many of them Scots fleeing a similar famine in the Highlands. The population soared from 5,000 in 1845 to 35,200 in 1855, a more than seven fold increase. Seeing the increasingly Celtic character of Patagonia as a positive, a Welsh colony was founded in the Early 1860s, being given land in a newly discovered valley, with the primary Welsh settlement being Jonesville, named for the visionary behind the Welsh colony. Irrigation from two nearby lakes provided the water needed for agriculture in this arid landscape, and soon the Welsh valley was the breadbasket of Patagonia.
By 1870, the population had grown to 87,000, due to consistent immigration from the motherland and a high birth rate, typical of settler colonies. The following decades in Patagonia would see a major change in the colony, but that is a story for another time, farewell from The Land at the End of the World.
So, I'm gonna do an update on New Zealand.
I posted a poll on who colonizes it a while back, and the results were as follows:
I posted a poll on who colonizes it a while back, and the results were as follows:
- Sweden/Denmark: 4 Votes
- Britain: 3 Votes
- More Than One Colonizer: 3 Votes
- France: 2 Votes
- Netherlands: 1 Vote
- Spain: 1 Vote
- Portugal: 1 Vote
- Prussia: 1 Vote
So, the results for the New Zealand Follow-Up Poll are in:
- Sweden/Denmark: 6 Votes
- Multiple Colonizers: 3 Votes
- Britain: 2 Votes
- France: 2 Votes
Sweden colonizes south island, Denmark the north. They remain officaly part of their respective realms, but because of their location they posses a great deal of autonomy. During the late 19th century, early 20th, they each hold a referendum on leaving and declaring independence, afterwards they form a union.
Just throwing this out there too: there were Norwegian separatists in otl to break away from Sweden. Maybe some of them go and create a colony on some of the tiny islands like the Cook islands or Pitt Islands. They could call it New Norway or something.
Just throwing this out there too: there were Norwegian separatists in otl to break away from Sweden. Maybe some of them go and create a colony on some of the tiny islands like the Cook islands or Pitt Islands. They could call it New Norway or something.
Because the Napoleonic Wars never happen, Norway is still in a union with Denmark.
Oops! Well, I'm sure there were still people who wanted an independent Norway?
IIRC the Napoleonic Wars also made nationalist sentiments a lot more prominent, so while I expect Norway to gain independence eventually, it'll probably be a bit delayed.
I wonder how the Danish will interact with the Maori. I'd imagine, being a small nation colonizing a land on the other side of the world that they'd have to give significant concessions to the Maori. The pre-colonization population of the Maori was around 100,000 to 120,000, most of whom lived on the North Island (the North Island is three times the size of Denmark, so it is quite sparsely populated, while the South Island would seem dang near uninhabited). The Maori did suffer from Old World diseases, but not to the same extent as the Native Americans and Australian Aborigines (Maori infighting did take a significant toll as well).
I am going to guess something similar to that of the Danes Greenland or the Swedes in New Sweden.