Gian
Banned
Finally posted another alt-history map. Let me know in the comments what you think (also in DA as well)
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.
While not exactly the official motto of the Adelian Republic, those three words do serve well to describe the indomitable spirit of its people. It has allowed these hardy folk, the descendants of French colonists from what are now the Northeastern United States, to survive the harsh Antarctic winter, endure the early years in exile from their homes and persecution under two empires, to build a nation of their very own. To them, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm is the epitome of that spirit of defiance to the bitter end, and one whose death at the hands of the British in the Plains of Abraham is often a symbol of mourning amongst the Adelian people.
For it is no secret that they call what would come afterwards le Grand Dérangement "the Great Upheaval." In the midst of the titantic clash of empires known as the Nine Years' War [1], the British began a policy of expelling the French settlers present in North America, starting with Nova Scotia (under the direction of Governor Charles Lawrence) and ultimately extending to the Wolfe river [2] valley under newly-installed Governor James Wolfe. [3] By the time the war finally ended in 1765, the French were kicked out of North America completely, its lands totally occupied by the British[4], and the people that once lived in its lands packed into ships bound for France with British colonists from New England sent to take their place.
For these former settlers, that might have been the end of their story, until a chance discovery by one Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec would see the French government, already straining from the cost of war and resettling the now-homeless refugees, send them to a remote chain of islands in the southern Indian Ocean, hoping to establish a base where the explorer could find and colonize the fabled Terra Austalis. While these plans never materialized (the British later establishing a colony and expanding across the whole of Australia), the 42,500 North American transplants [5] would thrive in their isolated corner of the world. But it wouldn't be until another voyage by a different explorer that would .
With Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen's discovery of the Antarctic continent in 1820, the settlers sought an opportunity and following in the footsetps of another explorer, one Jules Dumont d'Urville, headed southwards, towards a spot north of the Antarctic Circle. This was the second round of expansion, where the settlers again survived and established settlements in the , all in the absence of French government support, which was being tied up in the greener pastures of Algeria. However, storm clouds were brewing in this isolated patch of the world, especially as Antarctica became cut and divided between Great Britain and the Russian Empire. Finally, in the midst of the Crimean War, to the shock and surprise of the combatants, a small Russian naval fleet operating from present-day Bellinsgauzenia would seize the French colonies on the Antarctic coast. Only Kerguelen and the islands of the Indian Ocean was spared the bear's wrath.
For the settlers that lived on the Adelian coast, uncertainty was setting in. Their forebears had endured a few years of British occupation back in Kerguelen during the Napoleonic Wars, and now faced what would be a half-century of Russian control. Fear set in that another round of expulsions was on the way, especially after tsar Alexander III tried to forcibly assimiliate these settlers (often banning practice of the Catholic faith and speaking French in public), while sending Russian settlers and Cossacks to the region. [6] While it started to subside under Nicholas II (no doubt due to the realities of the Entente Cordiale), it would not be until the 1917, when in the midst of chaos brought by the Russian Revolution, the Adelian provinces of the mainland declared independence. They would come to seize the mainly-Russophone New Vestfold region in the ensuing civil war, while Kerguelen would join their federation via referendum in the 1960s, finally bringing all of French Antarctica under one banner once more.
Today, Adelia stands as one of the largest of the Antarctic nations, a titan amonst the continent in terms of both its size and population. The bounties of the seas, and in the earth through rich iron and uranium deposits have turned the country into an economic powerhouse. And while its people have a reputation for being both insular and conservative, they have also been more accepting of refugees in recent years, becoming a melting pot of cultures, languages, and creeds.
It was that spirit of defiance against the odds, forged in the battlefields of North America, that has enabled a band of exiles to forge a nation and a future for themselves, and nowhere is this symbolage more apparent than at Christmastime. While the feast of St. John the Baptist, falling in the depths of the Southern winter, is often a symbolic day of mourning commemorating their days of exile, the celebration of Christ's birth in the midnight sun is always remembered as a time of renewal and the promise of a better tomorrow.
[1] This is one of the major PoDs (and the most obvious; it's in the name right)
[2] The St. Lawrence River in our world (furiously renamed by the British to remove any vestigial remains of the region's French heritage)
[3] Another is that Wolfe survives the battle that killed him in our world (the aforementioned Battle of Quebec). However, the fatal shot to the chest is instead closer to the head, leaving him with some head injuries that left him insane enough to extend Lawrence's expulsion order to the St. Lawrence valley.
[4] Before you ask, yes the alt!Treaty of Paris had all of New France and Louisiana ceded to Britain (including St. Pierre and Miquelon, which the French retained in our world, but lost even this one in this one), with a stipulation that the original inhabitants were forbidden from ever returning (That bit was rescinded after the Revolutionary War, which still happens in this world). The Spanish would also cede East Florida and Cuba to Britain as a result of that war too.
[5] These include 7,500 exiles from Nova Scotia (what would become the Louisiana Cajuns in our world), 25,000 from the St. Lawrence valley (taking that number from ratio of exiles in this case; the population of New France was around 50,000 and there were 15,000 French settlers living in Nova Scotia before the Expulsion), plus another 10,000 which the French also recruited to come to Kerguelen (that in our world, were sent to Guiana where all but a few hundred died of disease).
[6] This actually happened in Nova Scotia in our world where the British (especially under Lawrence) sent in Anglo-Protestant settlers from New England to the eastern part of the province, especially near present-day Halifax. This ultimately made it easier to expel the French inhabitants when the time came.
L'Étoile du Sud
(DA link in the image itself)
(DA link in the image itself)
Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken.
While not exactly the official motto of the Adelian Republic, those three words do serve well to describe the indomitable spirit of its people. It has allowed these hardy folk, the descendants of French colonists from what are now the Northeastern United States, to survive the harsh Antarctic winter, endure the early years in exile from their homes and persecution under two empires, to build a nation of their very own. To them, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm is the epitome of that spirit of defiance to the bitter end, and one whose death at the hands of the British in the Plains of Abraham is often a symbol of mourning amongst the Adelian people.
For it is no secret that they call what would come afterwards le Grand Dérangement "the Great Upheaval." In the midst of the titantic clash of empires known as the Nine Years' War [1], the British began a policy of expelling the French settlers present in North America, starting with Nova Scotia (under the direction of Governor Charles Lawrence) and ultimately extending to the Wolfe river [2] valley under newly-installed Governor James Wolfe. [3] By the time the war finally ended in 1765, the French were kicked out of North America completely, its lands totally occupied by the British[4], and the people that once lived in its lands packed into ships bound for France with British colonists from New England sent to take their place.
For these former settlers, that might have been the end of their story, until a chance discovery by one Yves-Joseph de Kerguelen-Trémarec would see the French government, already straining from the cost of war and resettling the now-homeless refugees, send them to a remote chain of islands in the southern Indian Ocean, hoping to establish a base where the explorer could find and colonize the fabled Terra Austalis. While these plans never materialized (the British later establishing a colony and expanding across the whole of Australia), the 42,500 North American transplants [5] would thrive in their isolated corner of the world. But it wouldn't be until another voyage by a different explorer that would .
With Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen's discovery of the Antarctic continent in 1820, the settlers sought an opportunity and following in the footsetps of another explorer, one Jules Dumont d'Urville, headed southwards, towards a spot north of the Antarctic Circle. This was the second round of expansion, where the settlers again survived and established settlements in the , all in the absence of French government support, which was being tied up in the greener pastures of Algeria. However, storm clouds were brewing in this isolated patch of the world, especially as Antarctica became cut and divided between Great Britain and the Russian Empire. Finally, in the midst of the Crimean War, to the shock and surprise of the combatants, a small Russian naval fleet operating from present-day Bellinsgauzenia would seize the French colonies on the Antarctic coast. Only Kerguelen and the islands of the Indian Ocean was spared the bear's wrath.
For the settlers that lived on the Adelian coast, uncertainty was setting in. Their forebears had endured a few years of British occupation back in Kerguelen during the Napoleonic Wars, and now faced what would be a half-century of Russian control. Fear set in that another round of expulsions was on the way, especially after tsar Alexander III tried to forcibly assimiliate these settlers (often banning practice of the Catholic faith and speaking French in public), while sending Russian settlers and Cossacks to the region. [6] While it started to subside under Nicholas II (no doubt due to the realities of the Entente Cordiale), it would not be until the 1917, when in the midst of chaos brought by the Russian Revolution, the Adelian provinces of the mainland declared independence. They would come to seize the mainly-Russophone New Vestfold region in the ensuing civil war, while Kerguelen would join their federation via referendum in the 1960s, finally bringing all of French Antarctica under one banner once more.
Today, Adelia stands as one of the largest of the Antarctic nations, a titan amonst the continent in terms of both its size and population. The bounties of the seas, and in the earth through rich iron and uranium deposits have turned the country into an economic powerhouse. And while its people have a reputation for being both insular and conservative, they have also been more accepting of refugees in recent years, becoming a melting pot of cultures, languages, and creeds.
It was that spirit of defiance against the odds, forged in the battlefields of North America, that has enabled a band of exiles to forge a nation and a future for themselves, and nowhere is this symbolage more apparent than at Christmastime. While the feast of St. John the Baptist, falling in the depths of the Southern winter, is often a symbolic day of mourning commemorating their days of exile, the celebration of Christ's birth in the midnight sun is always remembered as a time of renewal and the promise of a better tomorrow.
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[1] This is one of the major PoDs (and the most obvious; it's in the name right)
[2] The St. Lawrence River in our world (furiously renamed by the British to remove any vestigial remains of the region's French heritage)
[3] Another is that Wolfe survives the battle that killed him in our world (the aforementioned Battle of Quebec). However, the fatal shot to the chest is instead closer to the head, leaving him with some head injuries that left him insane enough to extend Lawrence's expulsion order to the St. Lawrence valley.
[4] Before you ask, yes the alt!Treaty of Paris had all of New France and Louisiana ceded to Britain (including St. Pierre and Miquelon, which the French retained in our world, but lost even this one in this one), with a stipulation that the original inhabitants were forbidden from ever returning (That bit was rescinded after the Revolutionary War, which still happens in this world). The Spanish would also cede East Florida and Cuba to Britain as a result of that war too.
[5] These include 7,500 exiles from Nova Scotia (what would become the Louisiana Cajuns in our world), 25,000 from the St. Lawrence valley (taking that number from ratio of exiles in this case; the population of New France was around 50,000 and there were 15,000 French settlers living in Nova Scotia before the Expulsion), plus another 10,000 which the French also recruited to come to Kerguelen (that in our world, were sent to Guiana where all but a few hundred died of disease).
[6] This actually happened in Nova Scotia in our world where the British (especially under Lawrence) sent in Anglo-Protestant settlers from New England to the eastern part of the province, especially near present-day Halifax. This ultimately made it easier to expel the French inhabitants when the time came.
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