Philippines oriented British Empire

Here's a fun what if.

In the 7 Years War, the British Captured Havana and Manila as well as spread their influence quite heavily in India.

What if the British had failed in India, maybe Clive succeeds in offing himself in one of the many attempts, BUT the British retain Cuba and Manilla. The focus of their empire proceeds to be oriented around developing and protecting the route to Manilla and access to Chinese and Southeast Asian Wealth.

I imagine this could perhaps involve the San Juan River Campaign going differently, resulting in a British Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
 

xsampa

Banned
British Phillippines means that the focus on their empire will be Southeast and East Asia, and it will be less oriented towards Africa outside of important waystations like South Africa and Madagascar. Also, potential expansion into Okinawa, Taiwan and Guam.
 
The main point of taking the cape OTL was to have a shorter route to India, so the British likely won't take much of an interest in Africa aside from some west African mid-stations (Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gold Coast, etc) and west african targeted colonialism (OTL Nigeria).

TTL, the Rio de la Plata Basin and/or Tierra del Fuego would be a better equivalent I think. Argentinians even make for a good Boer equivalent.
 
I don't think the British would buy all Philippines, they would get only Luzon (like the Americans originally planned) and most likely they will be the ones who open Japan as well, if they do get at least Luzon, they will not acquire Malaya and swap possesions with the Dutch.

So no HongKong ITTL and no Malaysia.
 
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Another thing is if the British get Luzon, we might see the Spanish East Indies granted independence by spain itself creating a hispanophone country in SE Asia and the Dutch East Indies divided by other powers.
 
Very interesting. Does this mean the French get (most of) India? Do the British also tak Indonesia as well? This would make a great TL.
 
Very interesting. Does this mean the French get (most of) India? Do the British also tak Indonesia as well? This would make a great TL.

France would, at the least, retain Carnatic and the Northern Sakhars methinks. Southern India (Mysore, Hyderabad, Travancore, etc) would be under French influence.

Without the Napoleonic Wars (and with a French India increasing Paris's coffers, that could be butterflied away) the Dutch may not lose Java (briefly), Ceylon or the Cape here.

Meanwhile the British settlements at Penang and Bengkulu precede the British capturing Manilla TTL. A similar division of Austronesia (British North Borneo and Malaya, Dutch remainder) would probably make sense here. Maybe there'd be little differences like where the line is drawn in Borneo (I think the Bulungan Sultanate and Lanfang Republic would fall into the British Sphere), Aceh (which could be a British protectorate) or Britain taking Taiwan and the Pescadores.

Another thing is if the British get Luzon, we might see the Spanish East Indies granted independence by spain itself creating a hispanophone country in SE Asia and the Dutch East Indies divided by other powers.

That seems a bit silly. There's no precedent for a country ever granting a colony independence to spite another country. What's more likely is the British administer Luzon, Visayas, and Zamboanga directly while treating Maguindanao and Sulu as Princely States.
 
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That seems a bit silly. There's no precedent for a country ever granting a colony independence to spite another country. What's more likely is the British administer Luzon, Visayas, and Zamboanga directly while treating Maguindanao and Sulu as Princely States.



I did not mean that they will not grant them independence in order to spite one country, I said they will get independence as a hispanophone country from Spain in 20th century which is closely tied to Spain while Luzon becomes part of the Commonwealth.
 
I did not mean that they will not grant them independence in order to spite one country, I said they will get independence as a hispanophone country from Spain in 20th century which is closely tied to Spain while Luzon becomes part of the Commonwealth.

But the British control the whole of the Philippines.
 
But the British control the whole of the Philippines.

That is what I said if British gain control only of Luzon, I don't think they would have interests in getting Visayas and Mindanao since the Spanish might not want to cede it since the Spanish still wants the control of the spice trade via ternate and maluku.
 
My opinion is the British making Luzon and Vismin as separate colonies...or the British swap Visayas and Mindanao for something else...like they swapped colonies with the Dutch...and switch focus to Japan and Ryukyu instead..

Japan and Ryukyu weren't very wealthy and were quite resource-poor.

Meanwhile, why would the British want their archipelago divided? That's just asking for a security risk. Better to assert control over the whole thing.

I think this is roughly what a British East Asian Empire could look like.

upload_2019-1-3_9-4-4.png
 
Japan and Ryukyu weren't very wealthy and were quite resource-poor.

Meanwhile, why would the British want their archipelago divided? That's just asking for a security risk. Better to assert control over the whole thing.

I think this is roughly what a British East Asian Empire could look like.

View attachment 429996

I don't think so, they swapped their interests and territories in the maritime south east asia except borneo with the Dutch , if they Acquire the Philippines, I think they will focus on the Pacific and sell Visayas and Mindanao in order to focus on getting territories like Formosa and control over Pacific and act more like America in OTL and focus on dominating western pacific, the British still don't know the resources in Mindanao at that point.

I think the British getting the PH will very well fit in a scenario where in the American revolution does not happen.
 
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Well maybe my mum’s family would be immigranting to Britain as well as Australia. English speaking rates for Filipinos would be higher and there would be less tribal dialects in existence. More filipino nurses in Britain also instead of Indian. Curry would not be a British staple. Even Filipino food would be different because we got inspired by Spanish dishes.
 
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