Take a country that historically had no colonies and find a plausible location for it to colonize
- Thread starter Steno
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Norway establish a colony on Kerguelen. Gottorp setting up slave forts in Africa and a sugar island in the Caribbean.
After Icelandic Christians rejected compromise at the Althing of 999 Iceland feared it would be cut off from European trade and be vunerable to boycott and invasion in the future.
Just afterwards the first stories of Vinland reached Iceland and the Icelanders seized upon this as a possible alternative source of resources. Within ten years fully 5000 people, 1 in 6 Icelanders flooded Vinland. They were reinforced by Norwegian settlers fleeing the discord at home who both filled empty crofts in Iceland and reinforced the Icelanders in Vinland.
As a result, for two centuries until improvements in sailing technology allowed it to be bypassed, Iceland became a lynchpin in a trade network stretching from the town's of the mound builders on the Mississippi to the lands of the Kievian Russ to the east.
Just afterwards the first stories of Vinland reached Iceland and the Icelanders seized upon this as a possible alternative source of resources. Within ten years fully 5000 people, 1 in 6 Icelanders flooded Vinland. They were reinforced by Norwegian settlers fleeing the discord at home who both filled empty crofts in Iceland and reinforced the Icelanders in Vinland.
As a result, for two centuries until improvements in sailing technology allowed it to be bypassed, Iceland became a lynchpin in a trade network stretching from the town's of the mound builders on the Mississippi to the lands of the Kievian Russ to the east.
- Let Byzantine survive and has strong foothold at least in Suzen. Then it could have some small colonies in East Africa and India.
- Incas survives and on 17th century they found some bases to Pacific Islands.
- United States never adopt Monroe Doctrine and goes colonisation of Africa.
- Brazil manages somehow capture Angola from Portugal on 19th century.
- Incas survives and on 17th century they found some bases to Pacific Islands.
- United States never adopt Monroe Doctrine and goes colonisation of Africa.
- Brazil manages somehow capture Angola from Portugal on 19th century.
Problem with Kurland is that it has quiet bad sea routes to its colonies. It can't control and supply them when some enemy state can easly block Kurland from its colonies. Probably it was reason why it lost some small islands in OTL.
The issue is that it was trying to colonize one of the last uncolonized yet viable West Indies islands (Tobago and Trinidad), and really the only reason why they kept loosing was because of Spanish pirates that would raid the island, and the fact that the tiny duchy really couldn't afford to staff a fleet big enough to chase off competitors. However, in Australia, there really wasn't this pressure, so if Kurland can at least solidify it's presence in Africa or even Tobago (have England be more keen about hunting Spanish privateers?) and you could have a tiny Kurlander colonial empire, fundamentally up to the whims of the European powers and yet not unsuccessful.
Norway claims Markland and Vinland. Black Death is delayed in Europe, the contact to
After a new and more succesful approach to set up a surviving settlement in the New world ( after Eriksons failure), Norway colonizes Vinland and Markland by order of the king himself. The Black Death is delayed in Europe, contact between Norway, Iceland, Greenland, Markland and Vinland never ceases. Due to population pressure more and more colonists resettle in Vinland, also most Greenlanders resettle AS the climate is cooling. Also Germans from the HRE and other Europeans take oppurtunity to resettle, many serfs try to escape their living conditions. The Catholic Church orders several bishops and missionaries to the New World as the settlers are expanding along the Coast and into the hinterland. Beaver pelts are one of the new products in Europe.Norway claims the monopoly over the trans Atlantic trade but rivals try to establish themselves and disrupt the Norwegian trade. The Hanseatic League, Denmark, England etc. send ships.
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We could consider Taiwan to have been a Chinese colony, before it was later formally incorporated into China.
Crazy Boris
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I’ve heard about a Malian king who supposedly sent maritime expeditions west into the Atlantic, (although this might just be legend) but it was wiped out by a storm before it could reach the Americas. I could see Mali possibly hitting the Caribbean by chance and colonizing the islands there and then move into the mainland much like OTL Spain.
Deleted member 114175
Among archaeologists of the southwestern United States and Mexico, an older hypothesis to explain the sophistication of the ancient Hohokam culture's irrigation systems was that the Hohokam culture was founded directly by immigrants from Mesoamerica in what was essentially a single, quick migration event across Aridoamerica. This hypothesis has largely been discarded, and most archaeologists now contend that although the Hohokam were part of a cultural continuum and exchanged goods and ideas with Mesoamerica, they largely did not exchange populations and developed in situ among the other cultures of Oasisamerica.
However, in an alternate timeline, one could imagine a direct Mesoamerican colony to the north. The Hohokam played a role as important middlemen between Mesoamerica and the cultural center of ancient Pueblo peoples at Chaco Canyon. Some scholars have actually proposed that residents of the Chaco Canyon culture were Mesoamerican merchants who directed communication and trade.
In an alternate history, one could see the Toltec Empire sending a trade mission and settlers up north to form a direct colony in what is at present the US state of Arizona. If so, it wouldn't be the Toltec Empire's first colony (they had colonial settlements in Veracruz closer to home, and in the Maya region) but it would be their farthest.
However, in an alternate timeline, one could imagine a direct Mesoamerican colony to the north. The Hohokam played a role as important middlemen between Mesoamerica and the cultural center of ancient Pueblo peoples at Chaco Canyon. Some scholars have actually proposed that residents of the Chaco Canyon culture were Mesoamerican merchants who directed communication and trade.
In an alternate history, one could see the Toltec Empire sending a trade mission and settlers up north to form a direct colony in what is at present the US state of Arizona. If so, it wouldn't be the Toltec Empire's first colony (they had colonial settlements in Veracruz closer to home, and in the Maya region) but it would be their farthest.
Zachariah
Banned
The Chola colonize Northern Australia via the Lesser Sunda Islands, with a Chola Prince dispatched to establish a base for expeditionary forces to subdue the local kingdoms of the Lesser Sunda Islands in the same manner as Rajamuda Lumaya was sent to the Philippines, but one who stays loyal instead of rebelling and established his own independent Rajahnate as Sri Lumay did in Cebu. Or, for a later suggestion, Baron Gustav Von Overbeck successfully manages to convince his home country, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, to support his bid to acquire the territory of North Borneo as a colony of Austria-Hungary. As such, Overbeck never transfers its rights to the Dent brothers, and the British North Borneo Company is never formed; instead, Baron Von Overbeck becomes Rajah Von Overbeck instead, starting the Von Overbeck dynasty, and founding and ruling his Kingdom of Sabah as a protectorate of Austria-Hungary in the same manner as James Brooke's Kingdom of Sarawak;
China and Japan making different decisions from 1450-1650 offers all kinds of opportunities. It's not hard to imagine Australia, New Zealand and many of the Polynesian islands becoming colonies of either one. Or the North American West Coast.