WI: the British exiled Napoleon to Australia?

[Galba Otho Vitelius]

Napoleon would be happier, since he was intellectually curious, and Australia is a more interesting place than St. Helena.

Otherwise nothing changes. The place was a penal colony and if anything more remote than St. Helena, so no he doesn't escape.

 

[1940LaSalle]

And it's not as if some of the worlds most venomous snakes aren't remarkably common in major cities, or Sydney isn't full of god damn funnel web spiders which are the worlds most frightening animal.

As for what Boney would do, I presume he'd still be poisoned.

Really? Exterminators can't keep them at bay? And how likely are people to come in contact with one? I'm asking, since the Right Coast of the US (a/k/a the Rust Belt) has nothing remotely approaching that or any other venomous creatures for that matter in the metro areas. You'd have to go well out to the middle of nowhere (the New Jersey pine barrens, for example) to have a fighting chance of encountering a rattlesnake, for example--and the brown recluse spider may be in homes but it isn't named that just for grins (good luck trying to find one). Nuisance creatures (hornets; wasps) are not at all uncommon, but unless you're allergic, nothing lethal.

 

[Riain]

Really? Exterminators can't keep them at bay? And how likely are people to come in contact with one?

I've never lived in Sydney so I don't know how common funnel webs are, but I know that if I'm moving things in the backyard I always check for Red Back spiders, which are our 2nd worst but haven't killed anyone for years. As for snakes, in summer almost all walking paths along rivers and creeks from inner suburbs outwards are signed 'beware of snakes' and living in Geelong (pop 200k) I see one or two tiger snakes each summer on the walking path along the Barwon River. The danger is overblown, few people get bitten let alone killed, but I suspect that is at least partly because we're alert to the possibility of a deadly snake encounter the way other cities are alert to the dangers of muggings or dangerous traffic.

 

[Major Major]

Different degrees, though. Lots of places have some venomous creatures; Australia is overrun with the blighters. This is why IMO Australians (bogans excepted) are so chill...if you live somewhere everything, snakes, spiders, seagulls, ice cream etc....is deadly poisonous, you get that way. I mean if death is literally all around you, why hold a grudge?

 

[Major Major]

Will even exiling him to Australia be enough?

 

[James Ricker]

Napoleon leads a revolution,becomes empror of Australia and New Zealand then proceeds to conquer Asia.

 

[Jared]

There are venomous snakes even in France, and Napoleon had been on campaign travelling through rural/lowly populated areas many times, so I'm sure he knew how to avoid a snakebite. It's more likely he would die of malaria or dysentery or something than a provoking a venomous snake.

France has nothing like Australia, with something like 18 of the worlds 20 deadliest venomous snakes (depending on how you count them). And the problem isn't provoking them (well, that is a problem too), but the ones which you don't know are there until it's too late.

To be sure, I was mostly kidding with the original post about dying from snakebite, but dying from snake or spider bites in Australia was a very real risk, especially in this era. Snakes still were found within the urban areas - in so far as 1815 Sydney counted as an urban area - and Sydney funnel webs did (and still do) show up everywhere. One bite from them can be fatal in pre-antivenom days.

Oddly enough, as long as he stayed in Sydney, Napoleon would be safe from malaria. There was malaria in Australia at this point, but further north and nowhere he would be likely to go.

 

[I'm a Genius]

Nah, he wouldn't try to conquer anything. but i bet australia would have a much more competant military.

 

[Tibi088]

For one no one would have heard anything of St Helena.

 

[James XI]

That would be cool but very unlikely. Napoleon would be fighting in an area with a lack of roads, humidity high enough to prevent some artillery from firing, endemic malaria, and a central position in trade requiring a strong naval force to defend. All factors he's unfamiliar with, or simply bad at.

I hear Egypt can get a bit warmish.

 

[yogsothoth]

There's a good chance that at one point or another some hot head would murder him. In general I don't think it would have a huge impact on history.

 

[Joshuapooleanox]

If Napoleon were exiled not to St. Helena, but to Australia, what might happen afterward?

Obviously he takes over Australia and forms the New French Empire!

Also.. it'd mean Australia is mentioned more in history. Otherwise nothing more would happen.

 

[Analytical Engine]

Put him on Norfolk Island.

 

[funnyhat]

Put him on Norfolk Island.

So, the motto of Norfolk Island is "Inasmuch"?

Did they run out of room on the coat of arms for the rest of the sentence?

 

[Indicus]

Knowing how Napoleon's life trajectory goes against pretty much all plausibility, he becomes Emperor of the Australians and conquers all of Oceania, before overexpansion leads to collapse.

 

[Achaemenid Rome]

Knowing how Napoleon's life trajectory goes against pretty much all plausibility, he becomes Emperor of the Australians and conquers all of Oceania, before overexpansion leads to collapse.

And it's the Russians who end up taking him down, after building the Baltic Fleet and circumnavigating Africa.

 

[edgeworthy]

inspired by this quote from terry pratchett's Good Omens, with a addition by me.

And then of course you had Mother Earth, never piss her off, just look at Australia what she is capable of when in a foul mood. The only continent with spiders that are venomous to the angel kind (angels & demons), oh it won't kill, but spending an eon paralysed in excruciating pain is no joy, not even for a demon. Hastur refuses to go there after bitten by them once.

Then there's the part of The Last Continent where DEATH asks for a list of the lethal animals, and is buried by just Volume One. So he asks for a list of the Non-Lethal animals, on a single sheet is written "Some of the Sheep"

 

[general]

 

[Johnrankins]

And it's not as if some of the worlds most venomous snakes aren't remarkably common in major cities, or Sydney isn't full of god damn funnel web spiders which are the worlds most frightening animal.

As for what Boney would do, I presume he'd still be poisoned.

Since most Australians didn't die of poison and Nappy was a genius I don't think he will have much of a problem with that.

 

[M79]

He could learn enough English to escape elsewhere for any number of adventures possibly including India or even Japan. More likely he ends up on some random well-watched estate and might foment some future streak of Aussie independence