WI:Heavier and maybe earlier colonization of Papua New Guinea

Would it be possible for Papua New Guinea to be colonized more heavily by the Europeans powers and maybe earlier?
 
I'm not an expert, but I think you may need to answer the question of why should the Europeans add Papaua New Guinea to their colonial empires (other than just simply for prestige) and heavily develop/exploit the area. True, there were a lot of resources to be exploited, but the Europeans (with a possible exception from the Dutch) didn't know that until very late in the colonial era, and they basically didn't do much with it.

IMO, you probably would need an earlier exploration of Papua or make it the backbone of some country's colonial empire, like how the British viewed India as their "Jewel in the Crown". Get some early adventurers to go on an expedition there and get some authors to popularise the area in the public mind.

EDIT: There was one Italian author that seemed to have a thing for the East Indies and even had a popular following: Emilio Salgari. With a few butterflies, he could popularise Papua enough so that the public (or at least some business interests) would keep an eye on it.
 
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PhilippeO

Banned
what about spice ?

Papua is very near moluccas. in the coastal areas, the climate should be similar enough that spice can be grown there. If Dutch hold on moluccas less stable, some other might smuggle spice seed and try grown in other islands.
 
You would need either a more developed Papuas which would require a very early PoD, or get the plan to make it a settler colony for Indos in 20th century go through.
 
I was actually looking at some interesting stuff on New Guinea and that the Sultan of Tidore was backed by Spain to keep Dutch power in check in the region. Spain eventually backed out on 1663 for reasons I do not know of.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidore

How can we manipulate this? Could we see a much larger Spanish East Indies, claiming the entirety of New Guinea? Later on sending in colonists from Mexico, Spain, Philippines etc?
 
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