How Europeans Almost Divided Australia | History
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 เม.ย. 2022
- In this video, we look at the surprising plans various European countries made to colonize Australia, and explore the reasons they failed.
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Works Cited
[1] Macknight, C. (2008). "A useless discovery? Australia and its people in the eyes of others from Tasman to Cook." The Globe: Journal of the Australian Map Circle, 61, 1-10. hdl.handle.net/1885/38599
[2] King, Robert J. “GUSTAF III’S AUSTRALIAN COLONY.” The Great Circle, vol. 27, no. 2, 2005, pp. 3-20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41563192.
[3] Shepherd, Briana. "Western Australia's French Connection Explored as 200-Year-Old Artefacts Show Napoleon's Plans." ABC News, 12 Sep 2018. www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-1...
[4] Western Australian Museum. "De Saint Aloüarn History." museum.wa.gov.au/research/res...
[5] New South Wales State Library. "French in Australia: The Fate of La Perouse." www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/fre...
[6] "History of Australia." Encyclopedia Britannica. www.britannica.com/place/Aust...
Picture Attributions
By Hellerick - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Lencer - "own work", used:Australia discoveries by Europeans before 1813 de.png by User:LencerGeneric Mapping Tools and SRTM30www.australiaoncd.com.au/disco..., CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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By Nya Sverige.png: Original uploader was Tony92 at fr.wikipediaUSA New Jersey location map.svg: AlexrkUSA New York location map.svg: NordNordWestUSA Delaware location map.svg: Alexrk2derivative work: Arnapha - Nya Sverige.pngUSA New Jersey location map.svgUSA New York location map.svgUSA Delaware location map.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Alexander Altenhof - Own work. Source of Information:Historical atlases- Map "1815 - L'Europe apès le Congrès de Vienne" (Author unknown)(Link)- Ramsay Muir, George Philip (ed.): Philip's New School Atlas of Universal History, George Philip & Son, Ltd., London 1928- Dr. Walter Leisering (ed.): Putzger Historischer Weltatlas, Cornelsen Verlag, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-464-00176-8- Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag (ed.): Großer Historischer Weltatlas, Dritter Teil, Neuzeit, Bayerischer Schulbuch-Verlag, München 1981, ISBN 3-7627-6021-7.- Prof. Dr. Hans-Erich Stier, Prof. Dr. Ernst Kirsten a. o. (ed.): Großer Atlas zur Weltgeschichte, Orbis Verlag, München 1990, ISBN 3-7627-6021-7Other publications- Reinhard Stauber: Der Wiener Kongress, Böhlau Verlag, Wien/Köln/Weimar 2014, ISBN 978-3-8252-4095-0- Thierry Lentz: 1815. Der Wiener Kongress und die Neugründung Europas, Siedler Verlag, München 2014, ISBN 978-3-8275-0027-4, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By ArnoldPlaton - Own work, based on this map and the map from this article, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Charles (Chhrls)Memnon335bc - Derived from:File:Swedish_Empire_(1560-1815)_blank.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
imagine living in that alternate universe where australia is swedish...
Blessed
Christ. Sweedish kangaroos. Stop the madness D:
No way bruh we get fucking wrecked during the summer, and nobody ever gets an AC here
I'm a (partial) Swede in Australia regardless
Yep every night! Heaps of blonde chicks who like bikini beach volley ball! (well some one had to say it)
As an Australian I find this scenario very fascinating. Australia would be just like any other continent, divided between various countries. I wonder how the demographics , culture and cities in Australia would be different.
I think that Australia would have more population today if multiple powers grabbed colonies long term in general with more population bases.
Maybe, maybe not by a large margin though. Most of the country is not habitable.
@@LCCWPresents yeah. Mass slave migration from Africa would've occurred for sure .
While I think Australia would of been more diverse, with less focus on the British heritage, but would still be a single nation. Very similar to say the US.
@@samthesuspect - more like Canada, with the French-speaking province.
Really embarrassed that as an Australian I didn't know about the potential that we could have had Swedish history. Even the scale of French interest wasn't what I thought it was. Great video, really enjoyed it.
It's buried history, a lot of historians don't know about it
Scott McNaughton, as a fellow Australian, I too was unaware of the Swedish interest, and seriously underestimated the interest of the French.
I recall a fantasy that I read (or saw) in which the Norse gods were reincarnated into Australian Scandinavian descendents.
Where were the aboriginals during this ? I wonder if our neighbours the Māori in NZ would have been too much of a challenge for other countries to say let’s spend money to sail there and have some our men die on the trip there then nearly the rest slaughtered so there gravitated towards Australia
the potential is this video was very overstated imo most of the world powers which had the ability to colonise Australia were essentially broke, only reason the British did it was because they didnt want to wait to see if the french would change their mind.
I am Australian. If anyone knew back then what is known now Western Australia would be colonised in a heartbeat. The area shown on your maps undoubtedly has the richest iron ore deposits in the world. Not to mention massive gold and uranium resources. I guess back then they were more interested in agricultural resources and from the coast I do admit that the west doesn't look overly interesting. But things are not as they looked. I don't know where we stand as the biggest wheat exporters in the world but it's definitely in the top dozen countries, and the vast majority of those exports come from Western Australia. Per capita WA (Western Australia) punches massively above its weight on the world stage...BTW I live on the eastern side so this isn't a totally unbiased view!
Spot on! They did not survey back then for mineral wealth!
@@rods6405 The search for Gold in South and Central America was one of the main drivers of colonisation in the 1500s & 1600s. Later the gold rushes in California, Victoria, Yukon & Western Australia were major drivers of immigration.
Sure, but by that logic you could apply this to anyone. Hindsight is 20-20. I’m sure Romans came across oil & regarded as worthless mud at some point.
@@ddc2957 indeed, that is why I said if they knew then what is known now! It's ironic that the western part of Australia was considered back then as about the equivalent as rancid meat!
True, though of course they had no way of knowing, & had to justify expenses for exploration. A guess, or a ‘maybe?’ wouldn’t cut it with the industrialists. The idea of us cut into a few different nations is a fascinating one, though. I bet if it had happened, the British section would have emerged as the powerhouse of the continent. The Spanish, Portuguese & Dutch were all exemplary explorers, but they couldn’t govern a children’s tea party.
I'm Part Spanish born in Australia, I always wondered how Australia would've turned out had the Spanish or Portuguese colonised. I learned a lot from this video. Cheers mate.
Unfortunately, as a portuguese person, if the portuguese had colonized it it would probably have turned out like brazil. As we gave independance to brazil, we might have turned australia onto Brazil 2.
@@gui18bif the only reason Brasil is the way it is is because of bl*cks. Wherever Europeans go, if they don't mix with locals, they create decent societies
If Australia was claimed by the Spanish , Australia would be a corrupted poor third world country just like all those South Americas countries that were conquered by the Spanish and the Aborigines were wiped out completely.
probably like south america... another shithole continent
I've mentioned to people we are lucky The Spanish did not ! Lol. More brutal than the British.. Would be far nicer food though. 😅✌
Why didn’t we learn this in history in high school or university in the 1960s?! We had to wait for the wonderful Fire of Learning and the great TH-cam!!!!
We learnt about this in primary school lol
@Safwaan unless you're from Aus or England to a lesser extent not sure why you'd learn about this
in the 1960s you were still learning about killing blacks or else the land you stole from the americans wouldn't be yours soon.
then toward the 1980s you lost the war vs your pet monkies an tried to reform them as weapons vs arabs to steal their gold. an now you have to learn how the evil BRICS empire took everything from you that you "works so hard for" including stolen lands across seas.
before the 60s it was just "this land is our land; cause we illiterate ; an we cant read; these lyrics"
@@ShawnJonesHellion: Can’t you fucking express yourself logically?!
@@rhzyo: Did you notice 38 upvotes you imbecile! Tells you if the upvoters have some brains which we can assume more than the majority have they too were kept ignorant of these and other facts!
Petition to make an alternate history video about Swedish Australia
😅
Hej, hur mår du, mate? Fika o’clock I reckon.
Interestingly one of their most famous buildings the Sydney Opera House was designed by Bjorn Utzon, a Danish architect.
@@timmmahhhh ???
@@Peter_File69 just showing a Scandinavian connection to Aussieland, that's all.
@@timmmahhhh I think the exterior slso uses some Swedish materials.
In the end, only the Anglo was naive enough to face the mighty Emu
why are you watching if you are only going to comment like a five-year-old surely you're not here to learn
@@garyp4374 Time to quit drinking, Gary.
@@garyp4374 lol first time on the internet, huh?
@@NorCalJuggalo420 I'm from South Australia we don't need alcohol when the marijuana here has the same qualities as horse tranquilizers unlike that Nimbin crap they smoke in the Eastern states
@@gratefulguy4130 yes you're correct I should be you used to complete idiots buy now
It is a common misconception that Dutch colonialism was about conquering lands and expanding territories. It was not, not until the mid of the 19th century. Governors of the VOC were forbidden to expend the trading posts to territories by the board of directors. Colonialism at that time was about establishing a networking of trading posts and earning money by trade. Not that the VOC was adverse of violence: to protect its commercial interests the VOC used violence and ruthlessly kicked the Portuguese out of the region, kept the English at bay and enforced a monopoly on the local people. But this was to protect commercial interests, not to build an empire. Since Australia did not have any produce that could be commercially exploited, it was not more than logical that the Dutch did not venture there.
Also Austria is hard to invade with boats
@@ysbrandd Auwt. Of course you can sail up the Danube. But this was a typo.
geld.
I think by 1780`s the advantages of settlement could be seen by the Dutch but, as the Vid says, Northern Australia was forbidding to European settlement... However they did know of Tasmamia and that could have possibly been Dutch settled and flourished.. As the Vid says.. It was no way a sure thing the whole continent would end up British...
You meant Australia don't you not Austria @@ysbrandd
Nicolas Baudin (France) and Mathew Flinders’ (England) ships briefly drew cannons on each other in 1802 while both on mapping missions. One coming from the west and one from the east. That spot an hour from Adelaide is now called Encounter Bay. As a result of Baudin a number of places in South Australia carry French names, like the well known wine region the Fleurieu Peninsula
Thank you for this, as an Australian I was aware of the British (how could we not!), the French, Dutch, but not so much the Swedish. That was new to me.
The words 'terra australis' (southern land in latin) started turning up on maps in the Roman Empire in the 2nd/3rd century AD. The Romans speculated as to its existence and named it almost 1500 years before any European would see it. Which is wild! It is amazing to me that this fable of sorts about a mythical land of the south existed and was passed down for so so long in Europe, through classical antiquity and all of the middle ages. Its legend was so strong that the word Australis/a started to be used colloquially by convicts and settlers in the 1800's, which is what prompted the British to adopt the word to be the offical name of the country upon the federation of its colonies in 1901.
If it wasn't for sea ice, Antarctica might've been discovered before what we know as Australia, and been named that. And then Australia might've been called New Holland or something else Dutch in origin.
Symmetry - the known lands of the North needed to be balanced by the unknown lands of the south - otherwise the world would be unbalanced. Their philosophical view of nature required a large land in the south to ensure this balance.
@@billburr5881 Aristotle referred to this philosophy.
@EC Ptolemy, a Greek geographer in ancient times, had suggested that there was one huge continent in the south of the world. 1500 years later mapmakers were still putting this imaginary super-continent on their maps. They labeled it, in Latin, Terra Australis Incognita (Unknown Southern Land).
Plato claimed to know about an ancient advanced civilisation called Atlantis. And if you look at the similarities between some ancient monoliths all over the World, it's not impossible that someone with advanced knowledge had already travelled the World.
A well made, interesting and entertainng video!
An Aussie here, who started his schooling in the 1960s.
We learned that Captain Cook "discovered" Australia in 1770, and that the colony - all of it - was founded in 1788 when the First Fleet settled Sydney Cove. Most of us later learned, even in school, that the Dutch had discovered Western Australia and Tasmania much earlier. After all, "Tasmania" was named after a Dutchman - Able Tasman - and had also been known as "Van Diemen's Land". Still, any history apart from British was regarded as "obscure".
It has always puzzled me that the Dutch East Indies are so close to Australia and had been heavily used by Holland for centuries, yet Holland hardly ventured the few extra hundred miles to Australia.
So, as an Aussie I found this fascinating, particular the explanation that the period when other European countries could have laid claims to parts of Australia, and had expressed interest, namely 1770 to 1830, was a period when the European turmoil prevented them. There were also the factors of the great distance from Europe and the unpromising first appearances of the Western Australian coast.
For me the most interesting new detail was that the British did not claim all of Australia initially, and wanted to respect prior Dutch claims to the western part.
I was almost completely unaware of French interest. And, of course, Swedish! That's a great laugh at 17:20!
Three bits of information I have, which were not in the video, or only briefly alluded to, are:
- In 1629 the Dutch ship Batavia was wrecked off the coast of Western Australia and the survivors lasted for several years, before dying out in a Lord of the Flies scenario.
- There are isolated relics of a Portuguese discovery off the South-East Coast in the 1500s.
- While Matthew Flinders was circumnavigating Australia for the first time, for Britain, in 1801 to 1803, the Frenchman Nicolas Baudin was also exploring the coast for Bonaparte. They met at Encounter Bay in South Australia, where the encounter is well-known and commemorated to this day.
the treaty of Tordesillas 1492 . the demarcation lines are still visible today. the border of QLD/NT and NSW and Victoria with SA.
@@jesusislukeskywalker4294Wait what? How?
@@jesusislukeskywalker4294 nope what you are referring to is the treaty of Zaragoza The treaty of Tortedillas was 1494 not 1492 and divided up South America, not terra Australis. The treaty of Zaragoza line is actually a fair bit east of the NT/QLD line and more east than the SA/QLD, SA/NSW and SA/Vic line
Thank you for another exceptionally well presented and informative history lesson. As a relatively recent immigrant to Australia, I found this very interesting.
a replacement for the race you killed to steal their land eh? where have i heard your race doin that b44
Welcome to our country
Had the Dutch claimed the western half, Australia could've been South Africa v2.0
Or Canada 2.0, if the French moved in.
it coukd have been part of indonesia.
As a Aussie I could probably tell you more about U.S history than my own bloody Countries. This was very enthralling.
Was never told about the at school I only learnt that the Spanish sailing ships were outside Sydney Harbour and was about to invade Australia until England joined up with the Spanish to fight France
@@BillWoodhouse-sk2ixI read it was a French frigate in the harbour that left when they saw, (the first fleet) more British ships coming?
Then may I suggest that you start some studies in your local library
Fantastic video, so informative and well presented( without robot voice!) with great visuals Inc maps. As a history buff and an Aussie I learnt so much, thank you !
As an Aussie, like I see many commenting thus far, I've known about much of what was mention, including, but not limited to, claims of Nepoleon wanting Tasmania [back in the day obviously]. However, I have often thought of how fascinating it would have been had "world events" of the day not taken place that steered our island continents future to what it is today.
Hard to imagine anyone wanting Tasmania.
haha lol
@@robinharwood5044 Jews *almost* got it. (Pre Balfour declaration/ Israel) .. 👍
@@user-sk9qo6ts8d Oh just like Uganda, Madagascar etc.
We STAN an academic TH-camr that puts sources and further reading in the description!!!
i had no idea that sweden wanted a piece of australia but thats why i love these videos so much i LOVE history and i always want to learn more about almost everything to do with it so thank you fire of learning for letting me learn this fact
In fact, the first europeans who arrived from the sea to the most northern part of this continent, were the Portuguese, around the XVIth century. They were too much already occupied in Africa, Brazil and Asia, including the nearby island of Timor, so close of Australia.
Australia is both equally glorious and treacherous. About 75%, maybe more of it, being literally untameable wilderness - massive deserts, tropical wetlands teeming with crocs in the north, tropical rainforests in the north east, alpine in the south east, temperate rainforests down the east coast, rural countryside areas which while small compared to the whole country are still bigger than Europe, and all before you get to the bush where crazy volumes of marsupials live. Truly quite a land to try to conquer. So much so, most of it is still considered unfit for mass human habitation today. Truly a naturalists dream.
hah! Ask that to the Aboriginals
Too bad their government went full Nazi during covid and have proven they cannot be trusted.
Wahahahahahah! U don't live here!
Crazy volumes of marsupials? Maybe it's because I'm from WA, but finding anything alive in stuff other than insects or in rivers is rare. I go for hikes in the south west and down near Albany to Esperance and you will see kangaroos, but not many.
Definitely because I'm from WA, when I think about it in the east there are a lot, but they still mostly come out at night
@@drake1896 There are 50million kangaroos in Australia right now. That's alot.
La Perouse is now a place at the edge of Botany Bay where it was once thought La Perouse sunk not far from their landing point. Where they landed was named La Perouse and is a beautiful place. I was raised at Botany Bay.
I'd find it interesting if in an alternate universe over here we had separate countries within Australia that spoke French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish and of course English. The variety of cities and towns would be insane.
As it is now we have a huge Italian Greece migration. Even Adelaide had a German population
I would imagine the Swedes settling cities south of Perth like where present day Bunbury and Albany are.
Imagine Scandinavian inspired cities of a million people dotted along the south west region of Western Australia. Food for thought.
@@Rusty_Gold85 and Danish (depending on who was the victor in the latest German/Danish border skirmish)
My Grandmother's father came from Denmark... but had he been allowed to move ten years earlier he would have come from one of the German states. The border moved 10 miles.
Aren’t we lucky that didn’t happen.
@@marcopolo5157 Well there is a place called Denmark in southern Western Australia.
A lot of traders in the early days (1600s I suppose) sailed a bit too far south on their way to Batavia and collided with the WA coast. They quickly found out it was an extremely inhospitable place, and still is. That probably had a lot to do with why no one wanted Australia till Cook found what the East coast was like. We have a very fortunate history which some people could do well to appreciate.
Yes, i was coming to WA in 2004 and lived 2 years in Mt Magnet. Very inhospitable place. in the 1600 there were easier places to settle. Geraldton was like a holiday retreat for me in 2006. Almost paradise all for me, and no other immigrant around. They just banned passangers to travel on ute trays and stopped smoking in pubs in 2005.
To this story I might add a little more potential confusion. We from that little island (sometimes overlooked on world maps) to the south of the "Mainland", in a way still pay homage to Able Tasman, in that our state was proudly renamed Tasmania in 1856. The first British name associated with our island was Van Diemen's Land. Anthony Van Diemen being the Dutch East Indies Governor and Able Tasman's sponsor, and Tasman of course couldn't name it after himself.
Looks like the Duch missed out on a lot of wealth. Western Australia is full of minerals.
Unbeknownst to most australians (including myself until recent years) two massive regions of Australia were almost given up to the Jewish (pre Israel). The Kimberly's in WA & Tasmania were both considered & rejected (thankfully imo) by Australia government. Pretty interesting.
what do you mean "thankfully"?
Let's work on dividing it now, The British empire is struggling
it got dissolved decades ago?
@@eclectic2327 shush peasant
@@eclectic2327 Quite a few wish it wasn’t. And quite a few want to leverage what they can’t to recreate it
@@eclectic2327 The mighty Britain shall not!
absolutely let's piss off the eastern states and raise the intelligence of the entire country
Thanks for this part of history. We never had the opportunity to learn this in our books in France. At least for myself.🤷♂️🇨🇵
Excellent and very informative! I did not know about the possible Swedish interest in Australia, and only a little about the Dutch and French claims. Thank you!
@ 8:40 that's a gorgeous aerial picture of Stockholm. Gamla Stan, Skeppsholmen, and the Royal Castle all clearly visible.
Potential history is an interesting thing.. New Zealand has a similar history when it comes to potential British vs French colonialism.. While the British focused on the North Island, the French were interested in the South Island, had a small encampment in Akaroa, today 1 hours drive from what is now the city of Christchurch, the biggest city in the South Island. (Today Akaroa capitalises on it's French history to boost it's National & International tourism) .
The French landed in Akaroa before the British had interest in the south Island. But they had to go back to their consulate in Tahiti (Or it could have been New Caledonia) to get support & permission from the French Government to claim the land, of which permission was granted.
But by the time French explorers & officials got back to Akaroa, the British had staked their flag. Literally only a months or 2 months difference & as a South Islander i could be speaking French instead of English. & what are now officially recognised as the New Zealand Wars, between the British (Via the Colony of New South Wales, who sent 20,000 troops to fight the Maori), & various united Maori tribes, themselves armed with muskets, & highly skilled with them after 60 years of inter tribal warfare (Much of it instigated by British Colonialists to gain land) & skilled with guerrilla tactics (as well as being the inventors of trench warfare), even winning some battles & even taking British soldiers as slaves) could have been much bloodier & lasted much longer.
As it would also have been a war between the tribes & the French & British, & tribal/colonial alliances, in the same way that happened in the US & Canada. Where the British & French both allied/exploited competing tribes for their own goals.. The highly possible "what ifs" of history are fascinating..
NZ used to “apart” of NSW pre 1850 too
@@blank.9301 Yeah I mentioned that in my comment.. The colony of NSW that had dominion over the New Zealand colony at the time, sent 20,000 troops to NZ to fight the Maori, who by that time were well skilled with muskets & trench warfare.. Despite the 20,000 troops & multiple ships with cannons, they didn't win the war easily & in fact even lost a couple of battles.. The tactics the Maori learnt through 60 years of their own musket assisted, inter tribal battles, & the battles against the british colonisers, informed the trench warfare tactics used in WW1.
Or " How Australia Was Saved From Two Centuries Of Pickled Herring".
Albeit replaced by crippling alcoholism 😂
Not to mention fermented herring.
@@ddc2957 can you made alcohol from fermented herring?
I love your channel keep up the great stuff
Imagine arriving in a land that was already mapped 150 years ago and saying you "discovered" it, lmao. The portuguese were the ones discovering australia.
The west coast, but they didn’t like what they saw.
It was the Dutch.
As A Swedish Person I Never Knew My Country Almost Colonzie Australia.
In general, your country in the medieval period colonized the entire inhabited world, starting from Russia to France to Britain to the island of Sicily to North Africa. So that the Russian owes his nickname to Rurik, who is the chief of a Swedish tribe. I do not think that Australia is difficult for these people
@@abedmarachli7345 Normans are not Swedes. There was no major Viking settlement in Sicily or North Africa that I know.
@@abedmarachli7345 The name Russia doesnt come from Rurik but from Rus, Rurik was chieftain of the Rus, who were swedish vikings.
@@tylerellis9097 The Goths are Swedish peoples, there is even an island in Sweden called Gotland, and once in BC there was a water flood or something that led to the migration of these peoples to Europe and the so-called period of the Cimbrian wars with the Roman Empire began, you mean Norway and Denmark, they are all in fact Vikings but Norway and Denmark Go west, but Sweden go east. Finally, note the word Norman, meaning the man from the north.
@@abedmarachli7345 The Goths were not Swedish when they Migrated to those places. Some scholars think they originated in Southern Sweden but they migrated to modern day Poland in the 1st Century AD. By the 2nd century they began migrating to the Black Sea and they to western Germany in the 3rd before migrating to the Roman Empire in the 4th. While their language shared a few words with Swedish it’s classified as a completely completely different language branch in the Germanic language family as East Germanic. Modern Swedes do not descend from them.
The Northmen who settled in Normandy were Norse(and primarily Danish/Norwegian) ......until they quickly adopted the French language, Culture, Catholic faith and interbreeded with the more populous Locals. By the Time the Normans came to Southern Italy, Anatolia, England and the Levant they were Feudal French Speaking Catholics who fought with Heavy Cavalry and pioneered the First Knights while having lived in France for 100 years.
If we’re talking about actual Swedes then we look towards Russia with the Kievan Rus and Byzantium as part of the Varangian Guard. Then the Baltics/Finland with the Swedish Empire.
A scrambled Australia is one of my favourite alternate history scenario. Imagine an Australian front during WW1 or small colonial wars against other Europeans and natives
In the northern winter of 1814, a French armada set sail for New South Wales. The Armada’s mission was the invasion of Sydney, and its inspiration and its fate were interwoven with one of history’s greatest love stories-Napoleon and Josephine. The Empress Josephine was fascinated by all things Australian. In the gardens of her grand estate, Malmaison, she kept kangaroos, emus, black swans, and other Australian animals, along with hundreds of native plants brought back by French explorers in peacetime. And even when war raged between France and Britain, ships known to be carrying Australian flora and fauna for "Josephine’s Ark" were given safe passage. Napoleon, too, had an abiding interest in Australia, but for quite different reasons. What Britain and its Australian colonies did not know was that French explorers visiting these shores, purporting to be naturalists on scientific expeditions, were in fact spies, gathering vital information on the colony’s defenses. It was ripe for the picking. The conquest of Australia was on Bonaparte’s agenda for world domination, and detailed plans had been made for the invasion and for how French Australia would be governed. How it all came together and how it fell apart is a remarkable tale-history with an element of the "What if?" Napoleon's Australia: The Incredible Story of Bonaparte's Secret Plan to Invade Australia Paperback - by Author Terry Smyth
Excellent content.
"I hope you enjoyed this video."
I always do thanks for making awesome videos
According to Swedish documents their Colony would probably have been settled in the Nuyts Land which seems plausible as Bolts had som experience with this region from his time with the British East India Company.
Nothing came of this as mentioned in the video and the first Swedish emigrants arrived in the early 1830's, settling in the Swan River area, Western Australia.
Interestinlgly a Swedish botanist, David Solander, part of the James Cook expedition in 1770 was probably the first European(and also the first university educated person) to set foot in many parts of Australia.
As a Kiwi, I knew about the presence of the Dutch and the French in the Pacific. But the Swedes in Oz was an eye opener!
The Dutch briefly colonized the Gulf of Carpentaria but withdrew even before their rations were expended on the basis there was nothing to trade....ironically it was a massive bauxite deposit. Please note one of my ancestors was second in charge on the ship that found the Gulf of Carpentaria and drew the charts of the area.
They were even more powerful during their years as The Australian Hungarian Empire.
@Atlice Very funny! 😝
Fighting their drunken rivals, the Blottomans.
preview.redd.it/gmm9qmlwosz71.png?auto=webp&s=f317315cc354cccf13a0af9eae44ef8c25354fe3
I am Australian and I never knew the Swedes were interested in Australia!
A marvelous video about a largely unknown subject.
Crikey! Gr8 vid m8!
The French wanted Australia but were just too late, La Perouse sailed into Botany Bay a few days after Governor Philip. He was going to plant the French flag. He sailed away and was not heard from again. The French did claim WA where Albany is now in the early 1800s but a contingent was sent from Sydney and that was that. We are all infinitely better off having been settled by the British, aboriginals and all, no matter what anyone says these days. The British had the biggest navy in the world and they used it to protect their Empire. Jeff
I doubt Aboriginals would feel the same.
@@downundabrotha It was going to be someone, thank goodness it was the British.
Population increase in Europe is not mentioned here. Britain and especially London experienced a massive boom in population at this time. The UK population doubled from 11 to 22 million in about 15 years. These pressures made overseas colonisation not just possible but necessary. France, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands didn't have the same ability or impetus to colonise, and the Dutch didn't colonise Asia at all. They just tried to take over administration and trade and money. Indonesia was not a Dutch colony, but an asset of the Dutch East India Company.
We literally touched on this in '60s English school..tbh I'd forgotten 😔, cheers
This is way better then school! School makes it go on for 9 weeks while you do it in 12 minutes!
It was closer than you think between the English and the French.
The English had sent a fleet to colonise Australia and was loading more supplies in South African when they heard of a French fleet also on the way to Australia.
The English immediately sent their 2 fastest ships ahead to Botony Bay near where Sydney is today.
6 days after they arrived the French arrived and seeing that the English had beaten them left to colonise New Caledonia.
So close, Australia was almost French!
i would kms if i was french
@@Slavicplayer251 Why limit yourself, who says you have to be French?
@@rorychivers8769 because i could almost be speaking french right now
@@Slavicplayer251you're already speaking French. 40% of English words comes from French.
I.e. Dinner, Chef, Beef, Pork. Nearly everything food related is French. Thank fuck otherwise youll be eating cows and pigs like peasants
Yes my country has made it 🤣 I remember learning about this in primary school. Another great video
Same lol
Thank you for the great presentation.
Good job, Master FoL. 😊👍
nearly 60 years I've been an Australian and this is the first time I've ever seen or heard of this history .There was Dirk Hartog but not much information about that either .
A consequence of the overly Anglocentric view of Australian history.
No mention of the Treaty of Tordesillas which had a bearing on the British claim and speculated on as the reason why the Portuguese kept any attempt to map the esat coast secret. Cook's claim to the eastern half of Australia was in deference to Portugal's theoretical claim as they were allied at the time.
I couldn't find anything from Cook or anyone involved explicitly stating that so I didn't mention that
@@Fireoflearning Yeah, no problem. I've seen a copy of primary source document where the CO mentioned it in Cook's instructions when I did Australian Studies at uni.
@@leighkendall3900 Interesting, I'll dig deeper. Thank you!
yay, my country Aussie, I had studied most of this year's ago, it's very interesting to know that there were about 27 different voyages to Aussie between 1606-1788, and James cook was the 2nd British to come down,
0:53 that painting is of Perth, Western Australia...the first tree being felled :)
I'd be very interested in an episode on the Chinese attempts to set up colonies in Australia, I know very little about it, just there are ruins of a small township in North QLD that is hundreds of years older than any of the English colonies. Unfortunately the documentary I watched about was on our free to air TV over 20 years ago and I've not found other details.
And in Broome WA
I just made a comment the other day about learning more about Australia 😂. Thank you for the video!!
Stay well out there everybody, and God be with you, friends. ✝️ :)
There is a national park in the South West named after a French admiral Bruni D'Entrecasteaux who mapped the area and another explorer also had a national park named after him in Shark Bay in the north west named Francois Peron national park.
Interesting video thank you. Why was Australia not settled by Europeans much earlier? The Dutch discovered the west coast, they encountered wallabies and kangaroos thinking they were gigantic rats, the miserable looking natives and called it the rottenest place in the world, (Rottnest Island). Terra Australis natives wore no gold or silver unlike middle and south American natives. The Spanish chased gold and silver.
Rottnest was called _'t Eylandt 't Rottenest_ by Willem de Vlamingh, literally "Rats' Nest Island", because he thought the native quokkas looked like giant rats. There's no connection to the word "rotten".
Vlamingh also described Rottnest as "pleasurable above all islands I have ever seen - a paradise on earth" (a description I challenge anyone who's visited to honestly disagree with), so perhaps he wasn't trying to be unflattering by calling the quokkas rats, but simply looking for a comparison other Europeans might understand.
The west coast lacks rivers and fertile valleys , very wind swept and harsh beyond belief with temperatures in the 50'celsius . Instant turnoff when used to the mild euro climate . The soil is red from iron deposits and the oldest rock formations in the worlds history
In Western Australia there is a region around teh town named Esperance that is named by predominantly French names. in fac tit is the mapping and naming of this area that influenced the british to found Perth, as a way to discourage other powers from claiming the West.
As a someone with British-Swedish family, I'd love to see an alternate world where Australia was divided by Britain and Sweden
Could have been the birthplace of epic heavy metal bands, a mix of those two, lol!
@@Skraeling1000 lol 😆
What? An Aussie Abba?
@@wolemai lmao 🤣
Get fucked. people already lived in Australia, maybe learn that history first.
It seems the French Revolution, had it not occurred, would have meant Maningrida would speak French while Milingimbi would speak English, and Darwin might well have been the French Capital. Incidentally, this is the first online history I have found to be accurate and insightful. Well done. I will return.
What is important to understand is that the concept of 'country' or 'state' was different in those days: it wasn't the Dutch Republic that colonized, but the Dutch East-India Company - a corporation the state had bought into but also had private shareholders. See it as if today an American conglomerate (Google, Apple, Amazon) decides to buy land to do all its activities from there. But the American Republic would be a shareholder, which is why the land would be treated as if it's 'American', but it isn't at least not in the political sense.
Just like any company now, investment (colonization) was only done if it was deemed profitable. This is -in part- a very big difference with Portugal, Spain, France and Britain, though the latter would eventually also follow a somewhat similar model. So, where the other countries (or their kings) colonized also for status and prestige ('look at the size of my land'), the Dutch were more nitpicky and treated the matter as objects of trade; probably also a reason why the moral objections against slavery were largely ignored, as they 'simply' followed it as accepted objects of trade.
1815-1850 was also the high point of British power relative to the others, the ‘workshop of the world’ period. With some exceptions, France’s policy from 1815 on was to be on friendly terms with Britain. The UK, France and the Netherlands formed a loose liberal bloc concerned to oppose the conservative monarchies of the Holy Alliance. Hence they were able to negotiate their differences.
Opposing the monarchies, Brexit…all Napoleon’s dreams came true eventually I guess 😂
I think there is quite a difference btwn 1850 & 1901...? The UK remained suspicious of France and wanted a "balance of power" in Europe where no one power was "too powerful".. It was Germany becoming the major European power... And worse... expanding its navy that led to the "entente cordial" and ultimately the UK & France as allies in WW1...?
@@pyellard3013 - The topic is competition to colonise Australia. By 1850 the British had used the high point of their relative power and diplomatic position to claim and colonise the entirety of Australia.
@@pyellard3013 - But on France, yes the British kept to their historic policy, but French governments after 1815 made a historic shift to cooperative relations with Britain. They were allied in the 1855 Crimean war against Russia, for example.
@@TenOrbital That's what happened.. But the Vid explains how it was a close thing as the French were definitely interested...
Fascinating viewing for me as an Australian. I have to think we’d have been worse off split between European powers. A unified nation & culture served us very well.
Shout out to the music too. That’s from EpicHistory TV’s Napoleonic series, specifically, the aftermath of his Russian campaign.
I think you have benefitted by opening up your country to more diverse immigration.. Pre 1945, I would regard it as rather backward and inward looking..
Remember the "Swill"? 🙄
@@pyellard3013 It was up for diverse immigration due to needing so much land to develop up not just europeans were allowed in even China,arabs and Russians,ect
@@basillah7650 Well, I would say that Austria is a better place so nve 1945 by opening up to a more diverse immigration.. Post war Greeks and East Europeans was the start. The ending of white only Australian immigration has brought in many beneficial Asian immigrants.. It's prudent for a nation to imigration to not "overwhelm" the established population as conflict inevitably arises.. Gradually merging (I won't say 'assimilation'as it' s a two way process) is best...
Ironically, the worst migrants are New Zealanders. @@pyellard3013
Very interesting Thank you
What the hell... I might as well add the missing bit of history, especially as it may be the last episode for many in the north...
What was overlooked in this video is that the Macassans (Indonesia) had up to 15,000 people in north Australia from 1710 until 1906. In 1975, backed by the US, Indonesia planned an invasion of the NT, regarding the north coast as "an integral part of Indonesia". The General in charge smelled a rat when he realised the US had failed to provide logistics data. He enquired with the Chinese, who said thay could not help, but the Russians said they had analysed similar logistics in terms of possible US invasions of Siberia and north Russia, by sea, and concluded that the logistic costs were beyond reach of the US economy. They suspected an invasion of north Australia would destroy the Indonesian economy. It was then the Indonesian General understood America's real intentions; to concomitantly test northern defences in real time and to weaken both nations simultaneously and thereby render them vulnerable to colonisation. Nevertheless, the US annexed the Northern Territory and now has a dozen military installations there, including Five Eyes, Pine gap, B52 nukes in Tindal, and a missile base in Arnhem Land, at Gulkula. This is where WWIII will enter Australia and the population will be anihilated. Former PM Malcolm Fraser predicted this in his book "Dangerous Allies", also hidden from Australians. Interestingly, if Russia and China defeat the US, this may save many thousands of Australian lives. Less than 1% of Australians have any idea of what is happening on their doorstep. TV football is more interesting.
Hey, why’d you have Germany taking a little bit of Australia in the thumbnail? You didn’t talk about German colonial ambitions in Australia at ALL, you just very very briefly mentioned Germany’s colony of New Guinea.
imo australia is just a great place there is alot to learn about it history, culture and geography but sadly most people over look it even tho it a great place and topic like this are one my most favourite some really unknown part of a country history is always interesting to learn about
plas it is a great alternate history i wish some some cover it lol
Well it's kind of USA 2.0 but really really far away
Im australian so i can agree on this
@@yohaneschristianp A little bit like USA 2.0. But with about 80% of it being literal untamable wilderness - deserts, tropical wetlands teeming with crocs, tropical rainforests, alpine, rural countryside, and all before you get to the bush where the crazy amounts of marsupials live. Truly a naturalists dream.
@@EchoBravo370 "A little bit like USA 2.0"... kind of the same, it can come alive again like its ancient past. if the bradfield scheme or variants of it are built to put water into western Queensland, it will green up qld right down the east and flow water to southern rivers.
@@yohaneschristianp more like britain 2.0, our systems are based of the UKs and many of us find americanisms disgusting
One thing is our satellite maps/ maps showing the continents biomes only show how it looks now after two centuries of the east coast being massively turned from forests to fields, which in turn would have spread the desert further east and lowered precipitation.
So the east coast quite possibly had much more potential for population and fertility but we messed up.
So maybe with multiple nations colonising the east coast the push to develop in a way more beneficial on a local level could have resulted in more densely populated yet more forested east coast
The Snowy Mountains, Wyangala dam, Burrendong dam and use of water from the Great Artesian basin extended arable land west.
Yes, it was a good video. Thanks for the info.
If SPAIN or PORTUGAL had conquered Australia, would Australia be a Catholic country, today?
Australia is a catholic country. 22% of Australians are Roman Catholic which makes it the single largest religion. The next closest is Anglican at just 13.3%. 1 in every 5 Australians also went to catholic school.
it would be a backward looking mess with autocratic structures in society, large landowners calling the shots, a history of military dictatorships and social injustice galore
No. They would follow the teachings of Zalmoxis...
And very poor..
All these activists in Australia whining about how the country was "invaded" -- colonisation was going to happen one way or another, which country would you prefer did it? Spain? France? Which of their colonies today would you like to live in? What about even the possibility of Japan invading in WW2, would that have been preferable? Personally, I think you got damn lucky that it was England.
Here's another tidbit about the Swedish interest: The King of Sweden (I forgot his name, but you can find all this on Wikipedia) wanted to set up a colony in the area of what is now Perth, southwestern Australia, but it never came to fruition. He was very interested in the southwestern parts of Australia, as you outlined in the video. This makes it more likely that the Swedish were indeed referring to Australia in their colonisation plans.
I like these ideas, pity about the complete lack of source material ( references ) I would dearly love to read them to better understand my Field of expertise ( Australian History ).
Ah, we could have been Swedish! Finally we could have had a World Championship winning Ice Hockey Team. Vi ar svenska medborgare allihopa!
The Swedish part of Australia is where I live, I'd be down with that! Meatballs, furniture, three point seatbelt!? That's a yes from me.
I'm pretty sure you have access to meatballs, furniture and three-point seatbelts anyway.
@@evanrudibaugh8772yes but all 3 in the same place requires a trip to Ikea.
@@jack6565 Put a car seat in your dining room and google a meatball recipe, job's a good un
Very intriguing, being that I live in Western Australia, as a kid I’d have lived in the French part of it (country WA) and as an adult moving to Fremantle and Perth I’d be living in a Swedish or Spanish part. The country would be so vastly different.
Would love to hear that separate story for another time about shipwreck survivors.
“The e-reading revolution may have reached our shores this year but it has yet to reckon with Australia's summer holidays. Intense sunlight plays havoc with screens and the sand invades every nook and cranny, will likely remain the beach format of choice for a few years yet.”
― Geordie Williamson
@The Philosoraptor sup
Spain claimed it for Austria & the holy spirit at one point, before Britain, and named it Austrialia.
Long Live Spain!
Long Live Austria!
haha, not quite. 'terra australis' just means 'southern land'. Terra Australis Ignota, Terra Australis Incognit' ("the unknown land of the south") or Terra Australis Nondum Cognita "the southern land not yet known". while 'Austria' is just a Latinisation of the German name for a region called by Bavarians the 'eastern march' in the 10th centrury. the name is seemingly comparable to Austrasia, the early middle age term for the "eastern lands" of Francia
As someone living in Perth with Norse heritage, that makes sense that Sweden was here…
i did Australian history in HS 40 years ago and don't remember being taught about sweden and its plans. After federation WA also wanted to go it alone and there was also a plan by QLD to be North Australia but the Monarchy would not allow it. Very interesting vid!!
I never knew that I could have been speaking Swedish.
The Muppets' Swedish Cook could have been an Aussie.
Hinga Dinga Durgen!
While seafarers from different countries had "discovered" Australia long before James Cook came across the south east corner of the country and mapped the east coast... there was no attempt by any of the other European countries to colonise or claim Australia as their own... so, while this video might provide an interesting discussion, it is still based in fantasy...
Of course.. But as the Vid said it could have been very different.. The French came very close and the revolution ultimately saved/prevented Australia from being at least partly French... Personally, a French Western Australia would be interesting... Better food for sure! 😋
check out Baudins Expedition . But we all like to think what if ?
West Aussie here, we don't say Albany like AL BORN knee we say it like Al Ban (ban like "you are banned") knee. Also, 'The Foundation of Perth 1829' painting seen at 10:21 literally depicts my 4th great-grandfather holding the British flag. My Nan (whom I've lived with all my life), used to come into school and tell all the kids about the settling of Perth and our family. It was interesting to know the Swedish were looking into WA too since from my Grandfather's side of the family we're Swedish. His Grandfather was Swedish. This video was super interesting as an Aussie because we were taught in school that we were first found by the Dutch and then colonised by the British. I didn't know the French or the Swedish were looking into us either. It's interesting knowing because Australia may have been very similar to Canada had the French colonised. I could have spoken English and French as native languages and possibly even Swedish or Dutch.
in a way it would have been nice if there were other countries in Australia. it's kinda redundant driving from one part to the other knowing everything is still the same culturally lol
No wonder Australians love ABBA so much, we love the Swedes.
The Spanish and Portuguese were the first setting foot in Australia. After all, the north of the Australia is named Strait of Torres for a reason (Torres means tower in both Spanish and Portuguese btw). Also Eastern Australia was on the Spanish side of the treat of Tordesilla, so they could legally have settled the territory.
Haha funny man
Lol no.
Fascinating!
Interesting thanks
Good documentary. The Republic had no more then 2 million inhabitants until 19th century and
couldn’t even manpower there ships let alone colonize on a large scale. As a Dutchmen I can say that it is best for Australia having only one language which fortunaly is also the wordlanguage. Think practically.
Spanish could have easily (and even might still ) been the world lanuguge... Chinese is the jokerv in the pact tho '.. It could possibly succeed English as the world language.. Specially in Asia even in English remains no 1 elsewhere...
No - the reason why the British didn't claim Western Australia at first is that they respected the potential claim of their very long term allies the Portuguese. Their alliance (the "Luso-English Alliance") is the oldest alliance based on known history in the world that is still in force by politics, dating from 1386. Then in 1493 Pope Alexander IV with the Treaty of Tordesillas divided the new world into Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence. The Western Australian border is the antipode of the line of the 1493 line of demarcation and therefore dates from this time, long before Australia was discovered. Captain Cook claimed Eastern Australia, which remained in the Spanish half of the world, and the current border between the states of Western Australia on the one hand, and those of South Australia and the Northern Territory on the other hand (originally the western border of New South Wales, 1788) is still based on the Tordesillas line rather than on Australian Aboriginal tribal boundaries.
Not what Cook wrote
Interesting 🤔
@@Fireoflearning Cook was instructed by the colonial office. He had secret instructions that were opened only after certain conditions were met.
I learned something; I thought Captain Cook was the first European explorer on Australia. Thanks!
Bogan vikings is a terrifying idea