WI: Prussia had Overseas Colonies

Ellis MacVey

Donor
I'm referring to colonies in the New World, not in Africa. Yes, I know this is unlikely.

How would the Prussians treat their colonies? How long would they be able to keep them? Who would be their primary rivals?
 

Matteo

Scorpio Retindar said:
I'm referring to colonies in the New World, not in Africa. Yes, I know this is unlikely.

How would the Prussians treat their colonies? How long would they be able to keep them? Who would be their primary rivals?
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How would Prussia have significant colonies ?

To have colonies one country needs a strong enough Navy.

Having a strong enough Navy is very costly.

Prussia can’t spend very much as it did OTL on its army and spend enough to have such a Navy otherwise it won’t turn into a european powerhouse and be overwhelmed by Austrians, Russians, French.
 

Thisisnotausername

The most obvious way is to have Prussia buy the Danish West Indies from the Danes or Saint Barthelemy from the Swedes during the 19th century, because they're an up-and-coming power and they'd like a colony or two just for the prestige value. Given that neither of these entities were profitable, there's a good chance they'll get sold on to the US or Britain or France, and if everything else proceeds as IOTL Germany probably loses them to one of those three after WWI. If Prussia/Germany doesn't sell them or lose them in WWI or the equivalent, however, it can probably hold onto them as overseas dependencies to the present day, similar to the current British, French, and Dutch possessions in the Caribbean.
 

FillyofDelphi

Banned
Nivek said:
I read a TL they got sugar islands from france as a war prize, as they didn't allow slavery, they convince ultra poor people and convicts to work in the sugar plantations alongside some free blacks
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While the sugar islands is a great way to make a small colonial empire worth the expenses, it's a pipe dream to think it could be remotely viable against slave based competition. Setting up the type of person conditions that could encourage that much strongs fit free labor to be willing to do work that dangerious and intensive in that kind of tropical climate when they could be doing literally anything else (A man capable of doing what you need him to do to be an effective cane cutter could easily get work as a laborer or farmhand) would cost you more than slaves. Those plantations would be bleeding red, either in ink form as rivals produce sugar at a price they can't compete with or in blood form as the large population of people who can communicate, have expectations of halfway decent treatment .and aren't held away from outside support by racial fears/prejudices fall on the tiny planter elite.
 
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Nivek

FillyofDelphi said:
While the sugar islands is a great way to make a small colonial empire worth the expenses, it's a pipe dream to think it could be remotely viable against slave based competition. Setting up the type of person conditions that could encourage that much strongs fit free labor to be willing to do work that dangerious and intensive in that kind of tropical climate when they could be doing literally anything else (A man capable of doing what you need him to do to be an effective laborer could easily get work as a laborer or farmhand) would cost you more than slaves. Those plantations would be bleeding red, either in ink form as rivals produce sugar at a price they can't compete with or in blood form as the large population of people who can communicate, have expectations of halfway decent treatment .and aren't held away from outside support by racial fears/prejudices fall on the tiny planter elite.
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Very nice analysis, i only say they've it, not how well worked(that was an old TL) and seems was like a gift they could not refuse, and yeah about competition, even for internal consumption, but that make sense as their Lutheranism didn't allow slavery
 

Kaze

Banned
The way I would go is much earlier - I would take the Pennsylvanian Dutch and make them Prussians. They hold the Germanic colony (the future state of Pennsylvania) until the Wars of Succession (Austrian, Spanish) and the Seven Years War. After the wars of succession, it would be a toss up - option 1. it remains a Prussian colony until the American Revolution. Option 2. The British take it over as part of the wars, then it is British run until the American Revolution (following the model of "New Amsterdam" becoming New York City when Holland lost their war).
 

Zurirach Adankar

In TTL Prussia/Brandenburg owned the Fort "Groß Friedrichsburg" (today Ghana), from 1683 until 1718. Maybe owning a small fort in North America instead is possible.
 
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