Union of The Three Crowns: The History of The Nordic Empire

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A Random Man

A Random Man

Nice chapter, all this colonization of North America is reminding me of the Anglo-Dutch America subreddit with the USA (TTL called "CAS" Confederation of American States) having a Dutch North and English South. Keep up the good work. More maps would be great.
 
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Gabingston

Gabingston

A Random Man said:
Nice chapter, all this colonization of North America is reminding me of the Anglo-Dutch America subreddit with the USA (CAS Confederation of American States) having a Dutch North and English South. Keep up the good work. More maps would be great.
Click to expand...
Sounds interesting, can you link me to that?
 
Gabingston

Gabingston

The English colonies in the American South will be familiar to OTL and yet also a bit different. You'll see why when I put out the update, which will likely come in early July.
 
Chapter 19: The Beginnings of English North America
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    • Gabingston

    Gabingston

    Union of The Three Crowns: The History of The Nordic Empire

    Chapter 19: The Beginnings of English North America    ​

    After covering the early developments of the Dutch colonial empire in the previous update, I shall now move on to the colonial endeavors of the English. Being an island nation on the west coast of Europe, it was not a surprise that the English would take a keen interest in the Americas once news of its existence reached them. Italian navigator John Cabot was hired by King Henry VII to explore the New World and possibly find a route to the far east. Cabot would conduct his voyage to the New World in 1497, just five years after Columbus, landing in Vinland near the future Nordic settlements of Kristianshavn and Jubelkappe. Cabot would explore the eastern shore of Vinland before returning to England. While John Cabot would die shortly after the voyage, his son Sebastian would continue his father’s efforts, exploring much of the North American east coast, before he too would return to jolly old England.
    In spite of this early exploration, England wouldn’t enter the colonial game for nearly another century, as the country was dealing with its own internal problems that I’ll cover in a future update. By the time the 16th Century was coming to a close, though, England would officially enter the colonial game. English explorers and privateers began to go to the New World in greater and greater numbers through the 1570s and 1580s, and with that came greater English knowledge of and interest in the area, the latter of which was piqued by the news of the Scandinavian settlement of the mainland. In September of 1586, Queen Elizabeth I (she still comes to the throne ITTL) granted a group of nobles and merchants from the area around Bristol a charter to establish colonies on the eastern seaboard of North America. With the Spanish established in the far south and the Scandinavians in the far north, the men that got the charter opted for a settlement in the central region, somewhere in the range of 35 to 40 degrees north. Over the next several years funds were secured, settlers were recruited and missions to scout out possible locations for settlement were conducted. Finally, in June of 1589, a fleet of ships carrying food, water, livestock, various other supplies and, most importantly, over 200 settlers departed from Bristol, with their destination being the east coast of North America. Specifically, they were to settle at the entrance of a large bay, located roughly halfway down the coast, as it looked to be a prime location that would sooner or later be settled by some European power, especially since the Spanish had previously attempted it. Previous exploration had established the entrance to the bay at about the 37th parallel north, so that was where the expedition was going to aim. The voyage across the Atlantic was long and arduous, with several of the colonists perishing along the way, but by late August they had reached the mainland, stopping briefly to gather fresh water. They landed just south of 38 degrees, on a coastline dotted with barrier islands and lagoons, so they would have to go a bit further south if they were to find the bay they were targeting. After traveling southward along the coast for a day or two, they found a large opening into a sizable body of water, which they figured must be the bay they were looking for. The bay quickly curved north, making the land they’d sailed along a peninsula, while numerous rivers and streams fed into the western shore of the bay. The south shore of the bay opened into a large inlet, with a sizable natural harbor and a verdant shore. They figured that the entrance to the bay would eventually be a strategically advantageous location and that they might as well settle there now. Thus, on August 28th, 1589, Bristol was founded, named for the city from which they departed, the first English settlement in North America.
    Now it was time to get to work. The proprietors of the charter were to be granted land in the colony, which would be worked by the colonists. Some of the proprietors would move to the colony themselves, while others would send over one of their relatives to inherit the land grant. In order to get a workforce, the proprietors would recruit workers as indentured servants, paying for their passage across the Atlantic in return for several years of labor from said servant, after which they’d be free. Frequently these indentured servants were convicts, most often debtors or petty thieves, establishing a long-standing English tradition of using convicts as colonists. Due to the hot climate and unfamiliar terrain, the colony would struggle early on, with disease and conflicts with the natives claiming the lives of many early settlers. In spite of that, the colony would survive, with 2,000 English settlers residing in the colony as of 1610. Early growth was concentrated along the Bristol River, mainly in the form of large estates that grew cash crops. By this point in time the main cash crop has become tobacco, which had been acquired by privateers from the West Indies and introduced to the Chesapeake colony. More Englishmen would arrive between 1610 and 1620, to where the English population in the Chesapeake had grown to 5,000 by 1620. By this point a few more settlements like Bridgewater, Warrosquyoake and Kecoughtan had popped up around the lower Chesapeake, though these were mere hamlets at this point. 1620 would be about the time that the destiny of the colony would change forever, as a new group of Englishmen would show up in the Chesapeake…
    The English Reformation had begun nearly a century ago by this point, and in that time the majority of the English population had become Protestant, mostly following the state-run Church of England. However, there were a sizable number of Protestants who had broken with the CoE and founded their own sects. One of the most prominent of these were the Purifiers, a sect of English Protestants who embraced Calvinist theology, a decentralized church structure and believed the Church of England to have retained too many Catholic practices and traditions. The Purifiers were popular among the mercantile and educated classes in England and in the region of East Anglia, which had strong trade connections with the majority Calvinist Netherlands on the other side of the North Sea. With the success of the North American colony, Purifiers began to come to the conclusion that it was in their best interest to found their own colony where they could live as they saw fit. Thus, in early August of 1618, a group of ships carrying 120 Purifier settlers plus supplies and necessities left from the port of Southampton, bound for the Chesapeake Bay. The journey was to be lengthy and treacherous, but the colonists knew that it would be worth it. After 10 long weeks of traversing the open ocean, the fleet finally made it to Bristol. They weren’t going to stay there long, though, because they’d set out to settle the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay that had hitherto been unsettled by Europeans. Thus, after gathering needed supplies from Bristol, they turned north and sailed up the bay. It’d been reported that the northern part of the Chesapeake was home to numerous inlets and natural harbors, which would be good locations for coastal communities. Within a couple of days the Purifier fleet had reached this indented section of coastline, and with the colonists eager to settle down, they decided to set up their settlement in one of these inlets. So, on the 16th of November, 1618, the colony of Providence was founded, named as such due to the colonists’ belief that it was divine providence that had brought them to this new land. The Providence colony would struggle early on, as it was established late in the year shortly before winter, plus the obvious fact that they were in a new, unfamiliar land, but eventually it’d stabilize and start growing rapidly due to new migrants from England and the Purifiers’ sky high birth rate. More Purifier settlements would be founded in the upper Chesapeake over the coming years like Salem, Bethlehem and, what would eventually become the premier city in the upper Chesapeake region, Ipswich.
    In spite of their geographic proximity, the southern and northern Chesapeake colonies would take drastically different paths of development. The lower Chesapeake was settled by aristocrats and landowners looking for more land, which led the colony to develop along stratified, aristocratic lines. The landed gentry would get labor for their properties at first by importing indentured servants and/or convicts, which I mentioned earlier in the update. However, it turned out that people weren’t too keen on crossing an ocean just to remain a peasant, so another, darker solution to the labor issue was found. Yup, slavery. The first shipment of African captives would come in 1616, and while they too technically started as indentured servants, it would evolve over the next few decades into full-on chattel slavery, which would have massive ramifications on the development of English North America in the future.
    Meanwhile, the Purifier colony in the upper Chesapeake was mainly settled by family units, who would set up their own family farms. With the massive birth rates and continuing migration from England, the Purifier colony had little need for slavery or indentured servitude. The two colonies also differed in cultural respects, with the southern colony being more lively and fun but also more dysfunctional and violent while the northern Purifiers were moral busybodies who also happened to build one of the most orderly, educated and prosperous societies in the world. Finally, the colonists in the two regions came from different parts of England, with the southern colonists coming mainly from Southwestern England, while the Purifiers came largely from East Anglia.
    Regardless of their differences, both colonies would expand over the coming decades. By 1650 basically the entire Chesapeake Bay was under some sort of English influence, whether in the form of towns, farms, plantations or fishing camps. The southern colony would expand with new settlements and plantations like Somerset, Cinquoteck and Huntingdon, while the Purifiers in the north would establish places like Harwich, Portsmouth, Colchester, Lynn and Norwich. In addition to these colonies around the Chesapeake, the English crown would also expand southward along the coast in order to prevent another European power (most notably the Spanish) from settling in the region and threatening their existing colonies to the north. In 1644 the English would found the settlement of Newhampton further south along the coast, establishing an English foothold closer to the Spanish colony in Florida (more on that in a future update).
    Between the two Chesapeake colonies and the recently established southern colony, English North America had a population around 45,000 in 1650, roughly evenly distributed between the northern and southern colonies. The strong majority of the settlers were of English origin, with the remainder being a mix of the three other ethnic groups from the British Isles (Scots, Welsh and Irish), continental Europeans and Africans, the latter of whom numbered about a thousand at this time. As for the political boundaries within the colony, it’d originally been unified as the colonial charter of New Albion. With the growing divide between the upper and lower Chesapeake, though, it was decided in 1645 to split the New Albion colony in two. The upper Chesapeake would become the colony of New Anglia, named for the East Anglia region where many of the Purifier settlers originated. The lower Chesapeake would become the colony of Regina, named for the late Queen Elizabeth. The border between these two colonies was drawn along a major river and one of its tributaries. Newhampton was at this point the only settlement south of the Chesapeake, but more would be founded as the 17th Century continued.
    I was originally planning on covering all of the English colonial projects through 1650 in one update, but as this one got longer I figured it’d be better to split it into two. Thus, the next update will cover the early English colonial endeavors in the Caribbean, Africa and the Orient. I would’ve had both this and the EC/FC update out sooner had I not gone on vacation last week, but hey, better late than never. The next update in both timelines should be out within this month, maybe sooner that that. For now, though, this is what I’ve got. I wish you guys a good summer (or winter if you’re from the Southern Hemisphere) and I’ll see you guys next time.
     
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    • ClockworkDawn

    Curious to see how relations with the natives plays out here. There was a lot of disruption in the area in OTL and I imagine it would be the same here... but I do wonder if we might see more inland state building efforts succeed? The Iroquois are a common candidate for that, and one wonders if the English may use them as a buffer against Dutch settlement further inland? Hope to see more on the natives at some point!
     
    Gabingston

    Gabingston

    ClockworkDawn said:
    Curious to see how relations with the natives plays out here. There was a lot of disruption in the area in OTL and I imagine it would be the same here... but I do wonder if we might see more inland state building efforts succeed? The Iroquois are a common candidate for that, and one wonders if the English may use them as a buffer against Dutch settlement further inland? Hope to see more on the natives at some point!
    Click to expand...
    The Iroquois would be located between the Dutch and Nordic colonies, so while I could see them surviving as an independent buffer state between the future Dutch and Nordic countries in North America, it wouldn't have much to do with the English. On a related note, it'll be interesting to see what English policy towards the Five Civilized Tribes will be (why am I saying that? I'm the one who makes all the decisions).
     

    ClockworkDawn

    Gabingston said:
    The Iroquois would be located between the Dutch and Nordic colonies, so while I could see them surviving as an independent buffer state between the future Dutch and Nordic countries in North America, it wouldn't have much to do with the English. On a related note, it'll be interesting to see what English policy towards the Five Civilized Tribes will be (why am I saying that? I'm the one who makes all the decisions).
    Click to expand...
    Right sorry, got my geography confused! Still, it'll be neat to see. I feel like we'll definitely at least see more variety on the eastern seaboard in terms of states and languages, which in turn will likely give the natives more opportunity to succeed in the interior.

    Alternately, perhaps there will be a race to the center so to speak? Euros rushing towards the middle... might not bode well for the people already living there.
     
    Gabingston

    Gabingston

    ClockworkDawn said:
    Right sorry, got my geography confused! Still, it'll be neat to see. I feel like we'll definitely at least see more variety on the eastern seaboard in terms of states and languages, which in turn will likely give the natives more opportunity to succeed in the interior.

    Alternately, perhaps there will be a race to the center so to speak? Euros rushing towards the middle... might not bode well for the people already living there.
    Click to expand...
    I've already been thinking about how the borders in the Midwest will shake up, though obviously a lot of the details are yet to be determined.
     
    Chapter 20: English West Indies and West Africa
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    • Gabingston

    Gabingston

    Union of The Three Crowns: The History of The Nordic Empire

    Chapter 20: English West Indies and West Africa    ​

    In the previous update I talked about the early English colonies on the North American mainland, so now I’ll get to more of England’s colonial efforts during the early to mid 17th Century, this time focusing on West Africa and the West Indies. England was among the earliest European countries to look at overseas expansion, with John Cabot sailing to North America for the English crown only a few years after Columbus’ famed voyage. While internal issues would prevent England from furthering their efforts for the first half of the 17th Century, by the latter part of the century exploration had resumed. Even before England officially established overseas colonies, sailors and privateers were already present in the New World, particularly in the West Indies, and fishermen were making regular voyages to the Grand Banks, which the Nordic colonizers allowed so long as no permanent English settlements were established.
    As covered in the last update, 1589 would mark the establishment of the first permanent English colony in the New World. Not only would it give England a foothold in North America, but it’d also provide a forward operating base to settle in the West Indies. The Charter of the West Indies was established by the elderly Queen Elizabeth I in 1597, granting royal patronage for an expedition to settle in the Antilles. A colony in the West Indies would give the English navy and privateers a permanent base to harass the Spanish (a favorite hobby of the English during this era), as well as enabling the English to grow tropical cash crops like sugar, which was really beginning to take off. Several exploration missions would be conducted in the following years to determine a suitable location for settlement, and by 1601 they’d determined where they wanted to settle. Thus, in November of that year, a fleet would depart from Southampton, bound for the island the Spanish called Trinidad.
    While right off the coast of South America, Spanish control over the island was only nominal, with all Spanish settlements to date being temporary. The English figured that they could easily dislodge the Spanish presence. The English fleet would take the Canary Current down the west coast of Europe and Africa before heading west across the Atlantic along the North Equatorial Current, and in February of 1602 they would spot land along the South American coast. The place they landed turned out not to be terribly far from their destination, as Trinidad was reached just a few days later. Upon arrival the English would find a small Spanish presence, and since some of the English ships were equipped with ammunition, the English were quickly able to dislodge the Spanish, with the aid of the natives. The Spanish garrison would flee to the mainland, and thus Trinidad would come under English rule.
    The island’s name would be anglicized to Trinity (yes, I know that the English kept the Trinidad name IOTL), and the settlement of Port Elizabeth would be founded as the colony’s main port. A second settlement of Placentia would be founded to the south four years later, furthering English control over the island. If the going for the English was tough in the subtropical Chesapeake colonies, then the tropical climate of Trinity may as well have been hell. The sun beat down relentlessly, the heat was intolerably oppressive, and diseases like malaria and yellow fever (no, not that yellow fever) killed colonists on the regular. In spite of these challenges, the English presence in the West Indies would not only persist, but expand over the coming decades. The nearby island of Bellaforme was colonized soon after Trinity, establishing the English as the controllers of the two southernmost Antillean islands. Further north, the English would also settle the islands of Antigua and Montserrat, giving them a strong presence in the northern Antilles. While Spain was still the premier power in the West Indies, they were beginning to face some stiff competition from the English, Dutch and other powers that I will get to soon.
    Before we move on to other areas of the world where the English were beginning to set up shop in, I want to touch on how their West Indian colonies were run. The initial labor source for the West Indian colonies were indentured servants and convicts from the British Isles, whether they be poor Englishmen or Irish POWs. As mentioned earlier, though, these white indentured servants would drop dead like flies in the tropical heat of the Caribbean. Those who managed to survive would usually GTFO as fast as possible, not wanting to live in what amounted to hell on earth, many of which would head to the North American colonies. Because of this, the colony would search for an additional labor source. Using the natives as labor was considered, but the natives of Trinity had been instrumental in kicking out the Spanish, so the English decided not to stab them in the back (well, at least for now). They still needed a new labor source, though, so take a wild guess where this is going…
    If you guessed slavery, you would be correct. The Atlantic Slave Trade had originated in the previous century, with Spanish and Portuguese ships taking captives from West/Central Africa to the Spanish colonies and Portuguese Brazil. By the early 17th Century other European powers were beginning to get involved in the slave trade as well, most notably the English. The first Africans taken to the English West Indies arrived in Trinity in 1612, and by 1650 thousands of Africans had been taken in chains to the English colonies. Africans were made to cultivate tropical cash crops like sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee, and the lives of the enslaved after disembarking from the hellish trans-Atlantic voyage were usually short and bleak. As I’ve mentioned before, though, the Atlantic Slave Trade will be the subject of a future update, so I won’t go on about it any longer here.
    The Atlantic Slave Trade does provide a convenient segue to talk about the English colonies in Africa, though. In order to get involved in the slave trade, the English would build several forts along the West African coast. One of these, Fort Gambra, was located at the mouth of the appropriately named Gambra River, while the other, Fort Nungo, would be on the Gold Coast near the existing forts of the Dutch and Portuguese. These forts weren’t just used to trade with the locals, but also as waystations to go to the East Indies. In 1596, Queen Elizabeth I would proclaim a royal charter for the establishment of an English trade company to operate in the Orient, to be named the English Company of the Indies, or ECI for short. The ECI was given funds to establish trading posts, forts and colonies around the Indian Ocean, from the Cape of Good Hope all the way to the Far East. So, the ECI would get to work…
    I was supposed to talk about the English colonial efforts in the West Indies, West Africa and Asia     in one update, but it was running on way too long, so I decided to split it yet again. As of now it looks as though there will be two more English colonial updates, one on Asia and the other on South Africa. The Asia update will be coming out by the end of the month, while the South Africa one will come in August.
     
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