Plausubility Check: Foreign Powers settling on Papua New Guinea

So my recent TL idea I want to start is a foreign power colonizing Papua New Guinea in the before 1884 and I was thinking of the following besides the British or the Dutch:

- France

I see as the most plausible due to the an attempted expedition by De Rays.

- Spain

- Portugal

- Russia

-- Independent Explorers, Companies or Adventurers (Know any that could?)

--

Russian had been my main idea of colonizing Papua New Guinea. My POD is that with the Fur Trade declining in Alaska, Russia-American company searches for other places to boost it's profits and decides to start a colony in Papua New Guinea. The government does not support their idea and instead take it upon themselves to colonizing Papua New Guinea and build a fort on the location of modern day Lae and attract settlers from Orthodox nations such as Greece and other nations such as Italy.

Russian-American Company stake their claim on Papua New Guinea and the Brits or the Dutch dont do anything due to how dangerous the island is: Inhabited by headhunters and cannibals but before the start of the Crimean War becomes a profitable colony with it economy based on mining, agriculture and fishing.

--

Share your thoughts and ideas. Thanks.
 
Spain and France are your best bets prior to 1884. They were the only other players, aside from the British & Dutch. Spain, because their treaty with Portugal (& the Pope) divvying up the globe meant that New Guinea fell into their hemisphere, and France, because they had colonies right next door.

Failing that, the Brookes or a similar family might be tempted.
 
Pakenham's Scramble for Africa mentioned that prior to getting involved in the Congo Leopold consulted the British government and asked if they had an interest in New Guinea, if they hadn't then Leopold wanted to found it as a Belgian settler colony. Naturally when the British government heard about this they turned him down both because they thought it was monumentally stupid and because it would have annoyed the Australians.
 
Why not China? or Vietnam? Or Indonesia? :D

Because they're Asian, and only Europeans can colonise far flung islands! If the Majapahit Empire could remain cohesive enough, it's the closest state to NG... What about an Indian polity? They never seen keen on colonising in AH for some reason, surely not the bias of the community. ;)
 
Others and Russia

What about Italy or Portugal in the 19th century?

Also any thoughts on Russia since that is the I am most focused on developing a TL. Just need to see if its plausible.
 
Because they're Asian, and only Europeans can colonise far flung islands! If the Majapahit Empire could remain cohesive enough, it's the closest state to NG... What about an Indian polity? They never seen keen on colonising in AH for some reason, surely not the bias of the community. ;)

Although, to be fair, the Indonesians had vast amounts of more accessible settlement space on Borneo and Sumatra which (IOTL) they were still expanding into. Same reason they never bothered with Australia.

I can't think of an economic incentive for an Indian polity to colonise PNG- if it has that kind of range, it most likely dominates the Indonesian Archipelago and can get anything it would be able to get on PNG from more accessible places.

Not to deny that the community often has a bias- but we do need to consider the economic factors. I really think you need the pointless stupidity of *late* 19th C Imperialism and it's disregard of economic sense to get extensive involvement in PNG.
 
I can't think of an economic incentive for an Indian polity to colonise PNG- if it has that kind of range, it most likely dominates the Indonesian Archipelago and can get anything it would be able to get on PNG from more accessible places.

Not to deny that the community often has a bias- but we do need to consider the economic factors. I really think you need the pointless stupidity of *late* 19th C Imperialism and it's disregard of economic sense to get extensive involvement in PNG.

I don't see what's stopping a Moghul Empire that is able to weather to storm of English and French imperialism to create some money pit settlements on a distant island. Surely any nation with the financial capabilities can just as well try a hand in NG, provided they have a dash of that "pointless stupidity".
 
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I don't see what's stopping a Moghul Empire that is able to weather to storm of English and French imperialism to create some money pit settlements on a distant island. Surely any nation with the financial capabilities can just as well try a hand in NG, provided they have a dash of that "pointless stupidity".

But I'm not sure why a Mughal Empire would have any incentive, even a prestige one.

It would be more like Russia, Austria or the US with "domestic" colonies, adjacent to it's own heartland.

In fact, were the Mughals to look for overseas opportunities, I think they would be far more likely to look to places like Oman, Yemen and East Africa. It was always the South Indian polities which were more involved in SE Asia.
 
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