The French fleet off Yorktown gets stomped by the British and the ARW doesn't end in 1781, but 1783, two years longer, liberating more slaves and compromising more Loyalists. Things go on much as in OTL as far as the war is concerned.
Canada is loyalist but there are more Loyalist refugees from the US because they have a longer period of negotiations to realise that their side is going to lose. In OTL many Loyalists and especially escaped slaves were unable to make it out in time, but on this ATL the process is longer drawn out and more Loyalists make it out to Canada with cargo to establish farms, and more escaped slaves make it out to Florida to live off fishing, hunting, and slash and burn farming. Two years more is time to establish farms for the sudden influx of refugees to use as a base to expand.
But when the Loyalist who suggested Australia as a colony gets his hearing, some of the Loyalist refugees get involved and reorient things. Tasmania is investigated by an expedition in 1784 to choose a site and is selected for the prisoners that Britain can no longer sell into indentures, but the mainland is suggested instead of Sierra Leone for the escaped slaves from Florida who are feeling nervous about the expansionist Americans next door.
When the colony fleet makes it to Tasmania in 1790 instead of 1786 as in OTL, the left behind crewmen have some cleared space and a crop in. With the experience of a few years behind them they are more successfull and the colony gets off to a faster start. Sheep and flax are the two crops most profitable under the circumstances. Sheep breed so fast that the convicts are mostly working in clearing land for the herds within a few years.
On the mainland it's different. The escaped slaves have a settlement on what is Melbourne in OTL. It's a colony of mostly protestant freedmen intent on prosperity and civilisation. Australia avoids the egalitarian and free spirited culture of OTL. It's a little Boston of religion and farming and herding. Cotton is more common as a crop as the settled region spreads up the Murray river towards the warmer north.
Slaves in the United States think of it as a paradise of freedom. Every black youth dreams of escaping, not to the racist and snowy northern United States, but instead to the free and warm Australia. Discovery of gold in 1835 by an expedition sure doesn't hurt things in that department. Unlike the OTL Australia of squattocracy, this ATL is more organised about exploration and looking for minerals and other resources.
On Tasmania it's prisoners only. No or few free settlers allowed and the culture is even more hedonistic than OTL. No Methodists in Melbourne to tone things down. Herding, mining, fishing, lumbering, farming and that's about it. Population increase is much slower. Many of the children of the prisoners move to Australia and blend in with the more civilised church centered Melbourne settlements. Others move to New Zealand and settle it considerably faster than in OTL, especially after the discovery of gold in South Island.
Tasmania winds up with a population of about a million, New Zealand with a population of about five million, and Australia as a whole with a population of forty million, mostly descended from freed slaves from the ARW and a substantial chunk of immigrants before, during, and after the ACW, many of them after having married volunteer soldiers from the AVDLAC expeditionary force that fought for the Union against the Confederacy.
The descendents of the convicts are free and equal citizens of Australia. And you had better remember it.
Canada also has a much larger population. With Australia mostly full of former slaves, and Tasmania pretty much still a prison camp, Canada and America are going to get a bigger share of immigration. Canada doesn't export food and has a more industrial orientation around coal in the west, and hydro in the west and the east.
Canada is loyalist but there are more Loyalist refugees from the US because they have a longer period of negotiations to realise that their side is going to lose. In OTL many Loyalists and especially escaped slaves were unable to make it out in time, but on this ATL the process is longer drawn out and more Loyalists make it out to Canada with cargo to establish farms, and more escaped slaves make it out to Florida to live off fishing, hunting, and slash and burn farming. Two years more is time to establish farms for the sudden influx of refugees to use as a base to expand.
But when the Loyalist who suggested Australia as a colony gets his hearing, some of the Loyalist refugees get involved and reorient things. Tasmania is investigated by an expedition in 1784 to choose a site and is selected for the prisoners that Britain can no longer sell into indentures, but the mainland is suggested instead of Sierra Leone for the escaped slaves from Florida who are feeling nervous about the expansionist Americans next door.
When the colony fleet makes it to Tasmania in 1790 instead of 1786 as in OTL, the left behind crewmen have some cleared space and a crop in. With the experience of a few years behind them they are more successfull and the colony gets off to a faster start. Sheep and flax are the two crops most profitable under the circumstances. Sheep breed so fast that the convicts are mostly working in clearing land for the herds within a few years.
On the mainland it's different. The escaped slaves have a settlement on what is Melbourne in OTL. It's a colony of mostly protestant freedmen intent on prosperity and civilisation. Australia avoids the egalitarian and free spirited culture of OTL. It's a little Boston of religion and farming and herding. Cotton is more common as a crop as the settled region spreads up the Murray river towards the warmer north.
Slaves in the United States think of it as a paradise of freedom. Every black youth dreams of escaping, not to the racist and snowy northern United States, but instead to the free and warm Australia. Discovery of gold in 1835 by an expedition sure doesn't hurt things in that department. Unlike the OTL Australia of squattocracy, this ATL is more organised about exploration and looking for minerals and other resources.
On Tasmania it's prisoners only. No or few free settlers allowed and the culture is even more hedonistic than OTL. No Methodists in Melbourne to tone things down. Herding, mining, fishing, lumbering, farming and that's about it. Population increase is much slower. Many of the children of the prisoners move to Australia and blend in with the more civilised church centered Melbourne settlements. Others move to New Zealand and settle it considerably faster than in OTL, especially after the discovery of gold in South Island.
Tasmania winds up with a population of about a million, New Zealand with a population of about five million, and Australia as a whole with a population of forty million, mostly descended from freed slaves from the ARW and a substantial chunk of immigrants before, during, and after the ACW, many of them after having married volunteer soldiers from the AVDLAC expeditionary force that fought for the Union against the Confederacy.
The descendents of the convicts are free and equal citizens of Australia. And you had better remember it.
Canada also has a much larger population. With Australia mostly full of former slaves, and Tasmania pretty much still a prison camp, Canada and America are going to get a bigger share of immigration. Canada doesn't export food and has a more industrial orientation around coal in the west, and hydro in the west and the east.
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