Liberia Timeline Revisited

Hey everyone,

So I decided to take another shot at my Liberia timeline, this time taking into consideration your ideas about either a surviving Dutch East India CO., or moving the colony to Natal. Tell me if this sounds better, again any feedback would be great for me to get while I'm continuing on with this timeline.

Liberian Timeline

1822- The American Colonization Society, after an extended study for the settlement of freed slaves along the west coast of Africa showed that there was a chance that a great number of settlers could be killed by the native diseases, decided to open a series of talks with the British government for settlement rights within Cape Colony. Their reasoning was to ensure the peaceful settlement of the former slaves in a protected area, with a stable government to oversee their transition to this new land with as few problems as possible. Though the British denied the request from the ACS to settle the former slaves in Cape Colony due to issues that may arise with the Dutch settlers over granting land rights to freed slaves, they suggested that the uninhabited area of land known as “Natalia” might be used to settle the former slaves. It was relatively close to the British settlements in Cape Colony, it had a fair amount of arable land, and good harbors for ships to use for safe havens during storms. The one concern among the members of the ACS for settlement in Natalia was the presence of the Zulu tribe in northern Natalia, lead by the vicious chieftain, Shaka. These concerns were taken into consideration, however were eventually put on the back burner in hopes of getting the colony up and running as soon as possible.

1829- Thanks to the success of the ACS in settling both ex-slaves and the first groups of inmates with few problems, the US Congress agreed to begin partially funding the society on the grounds that all lands held by the ACS at the time of the congressional vote would therefore become a US territory. The ACS agreed to the terms of the congress’ bill, and in the last session of congress before the Christmas break, the bill was passed by a slim majority.

1823-1840- Over the next seventeen years, 95,000 colonists (50,000 freed black slaves, 25,000 European emigrants, and 20,000 American emigrants) would make Natalia their home. The majority of American emigrants to Natalia were not willing settlers, the American government began an experiment in the early 1830’s to settle violent, and as some deemed, unredeemable, criminals in out of the way areas to see if they were capable of returning to society. With this in mind, nearly 15,000 violent prison inmates were shipped to Natalia in an 11-year period of time between 1829 and 1840. Many lawyers argued that their forced emigration to Natalia was a violation of their constitutional rights, however since the ACS was, by 1830, partially funded by the US Congress and thus all lands held by the ACS considered US territory, it was not a violation of the inmates constitutional rights to be shipped from one territory of the United States, to another.

1840- After seventeen years of relative peace, the settlers of Natalia were in for a large shock. The local Zulu tribal leaders had begun a series of border incursions over the past year, probing further and further into Natalia in an attempt to discern where the weaknesses of Natalia may lie, weaknesses that could be exploited quite well by the feared Zulu warriors. In the Natalia capital, Freetown, the US Marine garrison was small, only around 500 US Marines and a handful of Natalia militia were capable of repelling the Zulu attack. With this in mind, the local tribal leaders dispatched 3,000 warriors to Natalia to torch the local settlements, kill or enslave the population, and generally wreak havoc.

1841-43- Known in Liberia as the Natalia-Zulu Wars, known in Europe and America as the American Zulu War.
 
Calling the Natalian/Liberian capital "Freetown" could confuse it with the city in Sierra Leone, established 1792.
 
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