
Note: I felt like this was needed. I love where I live, and wanted to put it into a timeline of sorts. And yes, I have multiple other timelines going... anyway... I have to give much credit to Turquoise Blue’s series on the High Kingdom of Aurelia, it’s very interesting and sort of inspired me to work on this. So thanks. Anyway, I know I have other timelines and stuff started that I should probably work on, but it just felt like I needed to do this. Well, that’s off my chest. Let me start, then.
The year is 1779. A war is going on currently between the British and their former colonies on the east coast of North America. However, the western coast is comparatively very peaceful. James Cook, a famous British explorer has recently set sail after getting to Hawaii. He had a very close call with the king of the Hawaiians, who attempted murder on Cook(
Point of Divergence!!!). When Cook arrived on the west coast, he was in OTL Alaska, which he named New Oxford. He continued down the coast, setting the border of New Oxford at around the northern part of OTL Portland, Oregon. On his journey, he discovered the Miwok tribe, whom he attacked, eventually claiming the Alta California region for Great Britain. It was renamed to New Albion, and several people wishing to settle there unloaded, soon to be killed by invading tribes. Cook continued south and eventually got to the Spanish mission of Los Angeles, who agreed, after a show of weapons, to not settle north of San Luis. Anything north of there would be New Albion, and north of the Hood River would be New Oxford. Cook finally returned to London after attempting to visit Japan, where he was denied due to their isolationist policies.
The description of “New Albion” by Cook made many British natives eager to move to the “Cook Bay” in New Albion. Soon, many British colonists arrived in ships in London that would round the cape of Magellan in a perilous journey. Soon enough, by 1800, the city of Cooktown (San Francisco) grew to a population of 5,000. The British cared little about this small colony, and they only really used it as a threat to declare war on the Spanish, due to their claims to the North American west coast. A fine border was finally established at 36 North Latitude, which was wildly helpful due to fights between Spanish and British colonists.
On the east coast, the British lost a war with the Americans. However, many people still loyal to the British crown needed a place to escape to. Canada was the obvious first choice, but several thousand began to trek to the west on a perilous journey to New Albion. It certainly helped bolster the population though, bringing the colony from around 9,000 all the way to 1,600. Califia remained mostly silent for a while, but grew a large population of Asian immigrants due to their close proximity, and the fact that they wanted to start a new life.