Verde y D'Oro Tierra Sud?

I came across a mention of this someplace, & I've wondered about it, so let me pose it here. Australia's population is mostly British. WI it had been colonized by Spain, instead? Would it have become more heavily industrialized? More populous?
 
Spain did very little around Australia, it'd take a big PoD to get them to set up a colony before the British. Besides, the Spanish settled the Americas very early, but those parts are the least industrialised, especially compared to the ex-Brit colony of the USA.

The Portuguese are supposed to have done some quiet exploration in the 1500s, but the Dutch did a lot in the early 1600s, so they're your best bet for pre-British settlement. The eastern half of North America's development is probably a good analogue as to what Australia would be like with an extra 150 years of European settlement.
 
Leaving aside the unlikeliness of a Spanish colonisation of Australia, why would it lead to a greater level of industrialisation? Spain was, in modern history, after all a poorish nation with little ability to invest heavily in a distant and apparently barren land. There is no real prospect of Spanish immigration to the country on the same level as OTL's British and Irish, so in all probability the population would also be much, much smaller.
 
Australia is a strange case in that is was only colonised as the Industrial Revolution started, so Australia had to do everything at once. We had to establish non industrialised things at the same time as the things of the industrial revolution, so could only do a bit of everything. If Australia was colonised in the 1600s we could have built roads, cities, canals, pre-industrial industries (if that makes sense) for 200 years and then when the IR hapened we integrate railways, steel mills etc into an established country.
 
Why Europeans should have tried to populate Australia in the 17th century when there were the Americas closer, and capable of accepting all the available immigrants?
 
The suggestion I saw had something to do with a more arid Spanish climate compared to what Brits were used to, so a more ready adaptation to the Oz climate. Not to say it'd be any sooner than P.I. or Mexico, necessarily. (Unless they stumble on the gold at Bathhurst...)
 
Australia is a strange case in that is was only colonised as the Industrial Revolution started, so Australia had to do everything at once. We had to establish non industrialised things at the same time as the things of the industrial revolution, so could only do a bit of everything. If Australia was colonised in the 1600s we could have built roads, cities, canals, pre-industrial industries (if that makes sense) for 200 years and then when the IR hapened we integrate railways, steel mills etc into an established country.

Australia has very nutrient-poor soils and water management problems for when it comes to transplanting a European agricultural base. I honestly doubt if it even could be properly colonised in the 1600s without an extant agricultural package to bootstrap off (as happened for the Spain in the New World and might happen for Jared's alt-Australia). The Spanish might come, they won't be able to grow or ranch much, and would lack the large supplies of labour pre-industrial mining colonies appear to require. Another Argentina maybe?
 
Low population by immigration would have meant intermarrying with native population. If spanish kings had considered colonizing Australia it could have ended with a majority of mestizo population. It could be interesting imagining how the native myths and thoughs would be sincretized in the catholic cult.
 
Don't Ozzies ranch sheep? Or wouldn't that occur to Spaniards (OTL...; not to say they're stupid:eek:).

Well the Sheep that Australia rode on so to speak was the Marino, as Spanish breed of sheep. But wool didn't become profitable on a large scale until the 20th Century in Australia.
 
Don't Ozzies ranch sheep? Or wouldn't that occur to Spaniards (OTL...; not to say they're stupid:eek:).

Raising sheep isn't that great unless you're selling the wool on, which needs global bulk transport and a demand base - neither of which would exist in the 1600s.
 
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