How can Hanauisch-India succeed?

[Treppe]

I was reading about Hanauisch-India the other day and now I'm playing with the idea of writing a (short) narrative about an alternate developement.

Sadly all information I found on the net is a rather short, german wikipedia entry (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanauisch-Indien).
It says that Count Friedrich Casimir von Hanau purchased the entire (!!!) territory between the Orinoco River and the Amazonas River in 1669 from the Dutch West India Company. His plan was to earn enough money with this colony to pay off his huge debts.

But the whole venture became a (financial) desaster. Not a single ship was send to the newly acquired colony.
It is said that Count Friedrich Casimir tried to sell it in 1672 to the King of England (who was not interested).
Further it is said that he played with the idea of converting to catholicism in order to get support from other catholic states and to mortgage the county of Hanau-Lichtenberg (one of his two counties) to get the necessary amount of money to enforce his colonial plans.

So how could a successfull colony in the guyanas be founded following the purchase by Hanau? Can the count somehow manage to acquire enough money/loans and support to forward his colonial ambitions? Would he sell it? And if yes who would buy it?
Will the Habsburg Kaiser buy it? Will the Brandenburgers buy it (who became interested in oversea trade and colonies in 1680? What about the ambitious Dukes of Saxony?

Anything you throw at me will be helpful so just post your 2 cents.

 

[Nugax]

Well there are many problems with development:

1) Lots of other powers won't recognise the claim of the West India Company, so even if a success is made of it it might get taken away.
2) Its tremendously horrible land where the best you can hope for is marginal plantations.
3) Due to how unhealthy and unpleasent the climate is you need to import slave labour but then you're competing for slaves with the much more lucrative island plantations, and your slaves can escape into the jungles and later raid plantations to boot.

Overall its really a terrible investment, that will return very slight profits, especially if you're trying to run it as one coordinated colony and have management costs on top.

You could handwave the discovery of gold in Amapa to the period which might spark a flurry of interest and have the Count sell it on the high, but Europeans won't be sticking around to make the area a properly developed colony.

 

[Treppe]

1) Lots of other powers won't recognise the claim of the West India Company, so even if a success is made of it it might get taken away.

In the Peace of Breda, which concluded the second anglo-dutch war, the netherlands gave up their New Amsterdam (New York) Colony and therefore the english accepted the dutch claims on the guyanas.
The French are a wholly different issue, which will make the upstart of the colony much more entertaining ( with the Franco-Dutch war starting in 1672).

2) Its tremendously horrible land where the best you can hope for is marginal plantations.

In 1669 central europe was still suffering from the thirty years war. Famines were afaik comon place. Disease were taking there toll. And many were unhappy about religious issues.
A colony in the Americas could work as a valve. Disburden the agriculture and give shelter to religous refugees.
Huge profits might not be possible through sugar plantations but there might be other ways to earn a living, and at least as subjects of Count Friedrich Casimir they would pay their taxes.

3) Due to how unhealthy and unpleasent the climate is you need to import slave labour but then you're competing for slaves with the much more lucrative island plantations, and your slaves can escape into the jungles and later raid plantations to boot.

I'm not fond of slave labour either, but it could be done especially on some river islands.

Overall its really a terrible investment, that will return very slight profits, especially if you're trying to run it as one coordinated colony and have management costs on top.

There won't be a centralized administration for a vast territory. Most of it will just be claimed. Up to the outbreak of the Franco-Dutch War not more than 3 Expeditions (4 tops) will make it to the Guyanas bringing roughly a thousand people to the new world, founding two major settlements at the mouths of the Essequibo and Demerara Rivers and half a dozen smaller settlements.


My major Problem however is not how the Settlers survive, earn their living etc, but how the Count can manage to get the money to get them there in the first place.

About the economics in the region. Could Tobacco, Coffee or Cotton be cultivated? And when was rice introduced in the americas?

 

[Ziomatrix]

In 1669 central europe was still suffering from the thirty years war. Famines were afaik comon place. Disease were taking there toll. And many were unhappy about religious issues.
A colony in the Americas could work as a valve. Disburden the agriculture and give shelter to religous refugees.
Huge profits might not be possible through sugar plantations but there might be other ways to earn a living, and at least as subjects of Count Friedrich Casimir they would pay their taxes.

About the economics in the region. Could Tobacco, Coffee or Cotton be cultivated? And when was rice introduced in the americas?

Just to let you know, rainforest soil is not known to be the best cultivatable due to only a thin layer of compost soil above a large layer of compacted clay with an exception of some mysterious patches which archeologists are only figure out the cause and benefit of today.

Now before anyone goes off on how plantation were established in what is today Brazil consider that largest concentration of farming lay in the south even until this day.

 

[Shawn Endresen]

Hmm. You may not be able to grow tobacco, cotton or sugarcane there, but it looks adequate for rice and indigo.

The idea of converting to Catholicism in order to get foreign sponsorship looks like it would have merit. Can it be turned into a penal colony, so that the HRE (and possibly the French too?) can dump their undesirables? In the short term the timing is awful - the casualties of the 30 years war mean that skilled labor is in too much demand, and land too cheap, to make colonization immediately profitable to anyone. His plan to pay of his debts is doomed, but perhaps he'll get a colony out of it.

How about the Huguenots? OTL most of them moved east and became Prussians; perhaps they could be enticed to move to the New World (thus also significantly weakening Prussia)? That presumably means the Count stays Protestant.

 

[Treppe]

Hmm. You may not be able to grow tobacco, cotton or sugarcane there, but it looks adequate for rice and indigo.

Rice and Indigo are a great combination if I understand the wikipedia article correctly. You can plant both (parallel or consecutively?) but only need the amount of workers (mostly slaves) for one.

Tobacco and Cotton might be out of the window but I'm pretty sure that Sugar Cane is one of the major agricultural products of the Guyanas today!

Can it be turned into a penal colony, so that the HRE (and possibly the French too?) can dump their undesirables?

It could be possible, but it's imho not what Count Friedrich Casimir wants (he is envisioning an utopia of somekind). But it was common place to 'recruit' enough settlers by offering pardon to convicts (especially military convicts, e.g. deserters) in exchange for settling in the new world.

How about the Huguenots?

Great idea, almost forgot them. Count Friedrich Casimir offered shelter to many huguenots in his counties so why not get them shipped over the ocean.



Both, Brandenburgian colonial desire and the beginning of the major huguenot wave of refugees, happened in 1685. Coincidence?

I don't think so .
Let's say Count Friedrich Casimir converts to catholicism in 1670 and gets the necessary funds from the Duke of Lothringen to mount an expedition with 600 settlers to the mouth of the Essequibo river.
The colony (which means two settlements totalling 1000-1500 settlers) survives the Franco-Dutch War 1672-1679 intact. With these settlements in the region to support them the dutch may have a chance to take the french settlement of Cayenne (as it only was 28 houses large by that time, it wouldn't be a too hard time for them).
In 1685 Friedrich Wilhelm von Brandenburg purchases the colony from Count Friedrich Casimir of Hanau. In the following years many settlers from Brandenburg arrive, a good share of them french Huguenotts.

How will things develop from there?

 

[Monty Burns]

I think a possibility could be to take a cooperative approach. Found a company, in which other smaller German states and imperial cities can get a share - but have to contribute capital and settlers. Hanau itself cannot settle such a large quantity of land. But if dozens of smaller counties, dukedoms and imperial cities contribute, in particular Bremen, Hamburg and Lubeck as trading centres and ports, it may be easier.

 

[Nugax]

Mass colonisation is silly at this point in time - settlers are just going to fall apart and die. After the first batches run into problems support will evaporate.

 

[Treppe]

A cooperative aproach would't work (imho). Most german realms were rivalling with each other and the Hanse was in rapid decline.
Besides the catholic option the count could have asked the Nassauers (rulers of Hessen-Nassau and strong connections to the Netherlands) for support.

How about one of the Fuggers purchases the colony from Hanau?

Mass colonisation is silly at this point in time - settlers are just going to fall apart and die. After the first batches run into problems support will evaporate.

I'm not talking about mass colonisation but more along the lines of New Netherlands and New Sweden.