Wacky locations for a Colony

Under what circumstances would we see a British colony in Yamchatka and how successful could it possibly be?
 
If we both mean this place then yes.

Trade with China was of great importance to Britain. It's quite close to China, has arable land to support a colony and is difficult to attack by land. It can be used as a base of operations to control the nearby coasts and deny Russia the warm water port they desire. When gold and oil are discovered in Alaska then it can be used to secure the region until more colonists can arrive.
 
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How about as a retreat for a persecuted religious or ethnic group that wants to get away from the reach of the Great Powers or as a Gulag where undesirables can be placed?
 
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In theory, the British could colonize Kamchatka if they wanted, but I can't see why they'd have a reason to. It's farther from Britain by sea than just about anywhere in the world and there's nothing of value there the British won't find in, say, Canada or Australia.
 
@vuun good point.

@CountDVB thanks for that. Would it be useful at all for denying Russia a warm water port in the east?

How can we get a version Bronze Age Collapse to occur in the 1700s on a global scale? Such an catastrophic event would see large amounts of people fleeing the more populated regions of the world to hide in remote locations, among which may or may not be Kamchatka (probably wandering slightly off topic)?
 
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I use this a lot, but it's such an easy POD. Petropavlovsk falls during the Crimean War, Britain nabs it in the peace treaty.

A small naval station is established, a trade post and a trickle of settlers start flowing in. It's administered from Victoria, British Columbia as sort of a quasi-dominion that straddles the Pacific. Winds up as a Canadian territory, and limps along until mining starts being a concern in the area and the Siberian mountains.

It probably has a far bigger effect on Canadian foreign policy than anything else. Canada was intensely and irrationally racist to the Japanese and having something that almost directly borders them is going to amp it up to 11. Japan may also wind up with all of Sakhalin now that Russia lost their (at the time) major outlet on the Pacific.
 
Possible but unlikely. Kamchatka hadn't any worth for the British, a piece of 'frozen wilderness' as was Alaska, too remote and expansive to administer or even develop.
 
@The Gunslinger, that's sounds like an interesting situation. Quite interested to see those timelines you wrote.

@galileo-034, good point. Could a private interest be interested in the area?

Perhaps we could combine your two points. Perhaps Britain gets the land in a peace treaty, it may go to the Canadians. Because of how remote and hard to develop it is bought off the Canadians at a very cheap price by a private group. An oppressed racial group such as the Irish or Jewish migrate to the area to start a new country far from the European powers where they will be left in peace. They could be lead by some kind of messiah figure who claims it will be their promised land. Many are lost but eventually the colony gets established, at which time they invite other oppressed groups to join them in this safe haven. Canada accepts the sale as it results in an influx of settlers to secure the area against the Japanese.
 
Still unlikely. If taken, it would have probably been returned in the peace treaty. Kamchatka hadn't any worth for the British or the Canadians, but it had one for the Russians.
After the treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, the mouth of the Amur river was closed to the Russians by Qing China and their only outlets on the Pacific Ocean were the ports of Okhotsk (and later Ayan) and Petropavlosk.
Petropavlosk was also more a convenient port sheltered in the Avacha bay and was the primary base for the Russian Siberian flottilla (then embryo of their Pacific fleet).

Still, there was an interesting TL in a 20th century setting on Kamchatka, but that's about an American story: https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ry-of-beringia-and-the-fiftieth-state.271964/ .

PS: The thread title can be edited with thread tools tab.
 
Yamchatka


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I regret nothing.
 
@galileo-034, point taken. I've gotten round to changing the title.

@ArchimedesCircle, nice.

What other weird locations could have been more expensively settled in history? There's plenty of Gold in the Yukon, perhaps that could be the start of a large settlement?
 
Russia had so much land that they really couldn't fill all of it. In a time line where Russia loses or never gains some of its 'colonies' (the Baltic, the Caucasuses, Finland) it might focus on other areas like Siberia (most of which is still very sparsely populated) or it might go for direct control over its puppets in Asia, maybe scooping up large chunks of Mongolia or Xinjiang during a war with China. If Japan pulls its Meiji late you might see Russia go for Korea or Hokkaido.

Another possible TL would be the opposite- the Anglo-Russian rivalry over the Great Game spills into an actual conflict where the Brits win. Without Russia to interfere British control extends over Afghanistan, Tibet and possibly Turkestan. If the war is really destructive a England feels in a vindictive mood they might even take Kamchatka or Outer Manchuria to limit Russia's access to the pacific.
 
@ArchimedesCircle, good idea. What is a good opportunity to inflict such a loss on Russia?

A Swedish victory during the Great Northern War could be a good point to take out Russia's Baltic ambitions and keep Finland firmly in Sweden's sphere of influence. Butterflies mean that the Turkish hegemony over the Caucasus stays strong, leaving the east as Russia's only real option for expansion.
 
How about a colony in Svalbard after oil is discovered there. A pretty small one but still a colony never the less.

This might relate to another colony idea. Could America pre-1800's have ever made a half white, half black person a general? This person would be the son of an influential and famous white General, merely the last member of a prestigious, rich and accomplished military family. The person could be a talented leader who proved themselves early in their career.
 
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