What if James Cook was never born?

[funnyhat]

Interestingly enough in many cases the British/English offered to return the settler colonies, but France and the Netherlands chose other, more profitable colonies. Surinam for New Netherlands and a sugar island for New France (can't remember which one though, Martinique?)

It was Guadeloupe. It’s not entirely clear how much of New France the British were offering in exchange though.

 

[unprincipled peter]

I forget the details, but I recall reading about Cook's voyage to the west coast of the US, specifically to the Nootka sound/Vancouver region. There was some evidence that he had advance knowledge of the region from Spanish exploration a few years earlier. My fuzzy memory says he had a copy of a journal from the Spanish captain. How he got it is something of a mystery, but if one likes a spy tale, one could conjure up espionage. Likewise, there were rumors that the Spanish had previously visited the Hawaiian Islands. And the dutch, and French had already visited Australia. If one follows the espionage tale, it could be construed that Cook was sent on a mission to discover, and claim, that which had already been discovered. Not to dismiss his well documented competence, but I think the world was a little more understood than when Columbus set sail. There were certainly a lot of gaps in knowledge, but I don't think he was so special that another captain who had gotten command couldn't have accomplished the journeys.

 

[twovultures]

While the Royal Society would have sent another captain, James Cook was very competent-cool-headed, disciplined, and better than the average 18th century European at navigating cross-cultural contact. A different explorer could see very different results-for example, losing their nerve on the Great Barrier Reef and making some choices that sees the expedition disappear into the sea rather than survive and limp back to Indonesia after repairs, as Cook's did. That would certainly butterfly British colonization of Australia as it happened IOTL.

Of course, Cook made mistakes, and certainly fatal ones in the end. A better managed initial contact with Hawaii by a British explorer could see the islands colonized by Britain early on instead of being united under a native monarchy as per OTL. Perhaps 'saving the poor Hawaiian wretches' from the brutality of war sparked by trade with Europeans for guns could provide the impetus for colonization.

 

[galanx]

The Royal Society believed the Great Southern Continent to be further south. Cook was delayed by his exploration of New Zealand which caused him to catch favourable winds which led to his discovery of Australia.
In my TL he is killed by natives in the Pacific North-West; his place is taken by John Byron ( Foulweather Jack: the poet's grandfather) who is less curious, thus missing the winds and sailing too far south; leaving western Australia to be claimed by the French;eastern Australia by the Dutch.
Haven't decided if they'll clash. Maybe a role for a young adventurer named Napoleon who sailed with La Perouse.