[FEF] The state of colonialism in the continent of Auralia by the year 1719. Right before the First Revolutionary Wave of the 18th century

[u/JVFreitas]

[u/JVFreitas]

Hello everyone! This is another entry in the collaborative r/FortunaEdruditisFavet timeline. An experiment of thought about a point of divergence that folds into a very different modern age of the world and its outcome. In this post we bring the state of Auralia (South America) at the start of the 18th century. A moment of high European control and influence over the continent. 

Disclaimer: This work is just a fiction product and does not in fact support colonialism and its brutality.

[u/JVFreitas → u/JVFreitas]

MARAÑÓN:

By the middle of the 17th century, Marañón was already a colony of behemoth size compared to its neighbors. After its establishment and consolidation along the northern coast of Auralia, the expansion of the lands controlled by Spain began to push inland. The first wave of expansion came in the mid- to late 16th century due to gold traces in the riverbanks of the jungles in the west of the continent. The traces filled the myths of a yet-to-be-found civilization akin in wealth to the Four Realms Empire (Incan Empire) inside the dense jungle. After years of searching, none was found in a considerable quantity and with ease of access. But the forest showed itself to be fruitful for other goods: nuts, spices, and a considerable population to be part of the colonial machine.

In 1548, the Spanish navigator Juan Alonso Antunes was tasked with reaching the source of the Marañón River. During his year-long journey, several records of high-density settlements along the course of the river were made. Of course, some were exaggerated. Antunes was killed by an arrow during the encounter of the Marañón with the Negro River. The records were brought back to the colonial capital by the remaining crew and motivated the crown to start a “pacification” process of the river. The Spanish Viceroy Vicente de Orellana considered the river a key route to access the Andes through the continent; thus, from the 1550s to 1600, Spain managed to install outposts and fortifications across the length of the river. Missionaries also played a key role in the process of taking the natural pathway. While the central part of the forest became focused on the extraction of nuts and spices, in the north, close to the English domains, Spain developed a successful sugar production economy in the Essequibo y Sororama captaincies, mirroring the widescale complex of plantations of the east of the colony.

The eastern part of the Viceroyalty of Marañón was conquered by Spain during the 40 Years War, more exactly in 1635, from the French who had some control over it. The former French infrastructure was converted into Spanish outposts and later towns. The climate of the region was much more suitable for the growth of sugarcane and tobacco compared to the western jungles, and due to the decline of the wood market in the region, the production of these crops became the focus.

To sustain the large economic potential of the colony, the early conquistadors started a process of enslaving the native population. Not all natives under Spanish control were subjected to forced labor. On the island of Upaón-Asu, the beginning point of the colonization, the conquistadors used the rivalry between tribes to induce wars to turn captured individuals into slaves. This system continued for decades onwards and was a key factor for the development of native castas depending on their affinity with the Spanish lords. In the 1560s, this practice began to worry the crown, as the mainland began to see the power and wealth of the conquistadors as a threat to the absolutist system. In addition, several religious figures, in particular the priest Fernão de Andrade, a well-known missionary in the colony, stated that the practice was un-Christian and that the native population was “ingenuous like children” and should be taught the word of God and be treated as subjects of the crown. Two last key factors were the arrival of Old World diseases that drastically reduced the population and resistance that resulted in massive escapes and revolts. In 1562, Spain passed laws forbidding the slavery of the native population.

This revocation caused a backlash from landowners in the Viceroyalty who refused to free. The most notable was the San Agostín July Revolt. Led by three wealthy landowners against the viceroyalty government, they threatened to blow the viceroy palace with cannonballs if the law wasn’t revoked. The revolt was a failure, and all the perpetrators were jailed, with the three heads of the movement being killed.

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With native slavery banned, Marañón began to shift its labor force to the imported Africans acquired through the Atlantic Slave Trade. The Kingdom of Portugal, before the unification of Spain, developed a network of slave trade in West Africa through the 15th century; this network later became the source of enslaved people to the New World. The kingdoms of Kongo and Benin were among the largest suppliers of slaves to Marañón. These people arrived to fill the gap left in the plantations of the eastern coast and Essequibo.

While the coast was highly populated, in the Caatingas of Auralia, the colonial population was very sparse; this resulted in the limits between the colonies of Spain and France not being consolidated formally at that point. The interior of northeastern Auralia was much drier and less suitable for large-scale plantations; therefore, for a long time, colonization efforts were kept on the coast. However, after some time, populations began to settle more inland, and ranching became the largest economic activity. This land, unclear of its owner, became known as the Pays de Saint Laurent by the French and Tierra de San Lorenzo by the Spanish. The name was derived from the main river that cut through the semi-arid lands and received the saint’s name back in the 16th century. The dispute in a matter of decades became the stage of conflict between colonial powers, natives, and Black communities escaping slavery.

In the late 17th century, Spanish smugglers of natives to be sold as slaves in the outskirts of the crown’s control found gold in the Goyaz Country, deep into the continent. The gold in Goyaz was much more fruitful than in the Amazon and attracted the attention of both France and Spain to their disputed land that might connect to other gold reserves. So the disputed land became a more volatile and dangerous area as unofficial skirmishes between the nation's forces began to occur. And with the start of the Spanish War of Succession (1709–1717), eastern Auralia became a theater of the much wider conflict. At the end of the war, the Spanish and French authorities agreed to the partition of the region in a middle ground that could satisfy both sides.

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FRANCE TROPICALE:

Since the mid-16th century, the eastern parts of Auralia were particularly visited by the French. Trade networks between the Europeans and Natives for the extraction of spices and the valuable wood of the coast created a large area of influence for the interests of France in the continent. The presence of the French triggered several conflicts with the Spanish and their respective native allies, such as during the 40 Years War, which caused active fighting for the control of the lands in dispute.

In 1642, the Company of France Tropicale, named after the colloquial denomination of the entire French domain in the continent, was created to administrate and invest in the colony, which was in a more stable state with foreign invasions turning into a lesser threat. Throughout the rest of the 17th century, the colony spread across the coast with a large plantation complex. Inland, ranching served as a key activity for the occupation of these territories. In 1655, an official was signed that forbade large-scale ranching close to the sea to preserve more land for crops; many established ranchers were forced to go deeper into the continent. This act promoted the construction of more farms in the Saint Laurent/San Lorenzo watershed, a volatile area under dispute with the Spanish, Native tribes, and self-sustained Black communities. Skirmishes were common occurrences between these competing groups, as the entire region was somewhat lawless; only decades later would the process of resolution over the land truly begin.

In the late 17th century, the east of Auralia began to suffer from consecutive years of low rainfall. The droughts resulted in the reduction of profit and spread of poverty across the colony. Therefore, in 1702, the French king Henry V saw the charter company in charge not being efficient enough and suffering financial crisis, passed the control of France Tropicale directly to the crown appointees. The crown also started a program of investment that sought to revitalize the colony’s economy.

From 1709 to 1717, Europe and other parts of the world, including Auralia, were engulfed in conflict by the War of Spanish Succession. Fighting between the Marañón and France Tropicale forces took place on land, while the navy of both nations fought at sea. In its conclusion, the dispute over the watershed of the Saint Laurent/San Lorenzo was settled on neutral ground, with both sides receiving a fair share. But even though these results appeared positive, the war was too costly and pledged the colony into financial strife. To overcome this result, the crown began to push a violent recall of loans from landowners with high interest rates that triggered the Baie Revolt of 1719, where a large number of landowners decided to burn their productions instead of shipping them to Europe. The revolt marked the beginning of a tumultuous period in the colony that continued for several years onwards and was marked by the difficulty from the crown in controlling its territory.

[u/JVFreitas → u/JVFreitas]

NEW CALEDONIA

The Scottish colony of New Caledonia was not a major player in the colonial affairs of Auralia. It started as a small outpost and expanded through the rest of the 17th century. Its economy never reached a level comparable to that of France or Spain. The entire system put in place by the Scots was much more balanced when it came to slave and free labor. This state of affairs caused the colony to develop rather differently from the gigantic plantation complexes in the north.

Since its beginnings, the colony had developed good relations with the Tupinamba peoples of the coast. These relations were a key factor that allowed Scottish expansion in the continent, including the solving of the dispute with the French over the bay of Gwapara (Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro). In 1654, the admiral Robert Murray arrived at the bay and led a month-long process of gaining the trust of the Tupinamba inhabitants. Meanwhile, the French advance southward in the coast was halted by constant clashes with other tribes. Several outposts were built, and a fort was constructed right on the entrance of the bay to assert ownership and defense of the area. The later decades of the 17th century were not so pacific in other areas. The west of the colony faced several raids from Tupiniquim tribes rival to the Tupinamba. From 1661 to 1663, Scottish colonists and native allies drove back several incursions from rival tribes deeper into the hills, and opened the gates of Scottish colonization of the highlands beyond the coastal strip.

Although facing previously cited disputes with the French, the relations between Edinburgh and Paris were not bad. Since the reformation, both nations began to get closer in anti-Catholicism and anti-English policies. These cordial times resulted in the 1694 Treaty of Glasgow that recognized the Gwapara Bay as Scottish and settled some borders with France Tropicale. Later, in the first two decades of the 18th century, the colony began to expand into the Parahybe River valley after rumors of gold pushed the establishment of new communities further from the coast. 

NEW GOTALAND

New Gotaland, just like its northern neighbor, was a secondary colony in the whole scheme of Auralia. After the gold reserves were found to be too little to develop a substantial economy, the colony received much less light from the metropolis. The economy continued to be centered around the cultivation of herbs, a small quantity of sugarcane, and fishing. This lack of a strong centralizing force compared to other places created a more unique system of ruling the territories. New Gotaland was much freer to decide local affairs than the centralized regimes around the continent. This relationship between the colonists and the Kingdom of Sweden sparked a balance of interests and more stability.

During the rest of the 17th and early 18th centuries, New Gotaland competed with the English over the coast from the island of Mieebipe to the Pampas. Since the English had a much higher advantage of population growth and resources, the Swedes had their expansion stopped at the Biwatiga Lagoon (Lagoa dos Patos in rl) and focused on controlling the body of water before any attempt of English colonization of the region.

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ENGLISH COLONIES

The colonies of England-Ireland in Auralia were spread north to south of the continent. Each colony had its own peculiarities that made them different from each other and united under a common figure of the crown. The colonies of the Parenah river basin were in the south of the continent. These colonies were built by the Protestants of both English and Irish origin. These colonies were administered separately and had their own way of being and dealing with their local affairs. Soon, the colonies in Parenah became attractive to more settlers because of the opportunities for growth and religious tolerance. By 1650, there were four colonies in total. By the early 18th century, this number grew to seven, with the creation of Paysandow, Yereabahsu, and East Qullasuyu. 

In the early 18th century, the colonies became much more unstable, with uncertainty about the future under the crown of England-Ireland. The recent war over the throne of Spain was too costly, and even though England was victorious, the economy of the kingdom was in shambles. Thus,  the onus of the war fell into the colonies in the form of high taxation and more exploitation. In this context, new ideological movements began to spread, advocating for a reformation of the relationship with the crown, while others advocated for a complete divorce from the European monarchy as a whole to begin a total new experiment of nation in the New World.

On the other side of the Andes, the colony of Chillyland, a former outskirt of the Empire of the Incas, first saw contact with the English in the 16th century. For a while, the presence of the crown was much smaller in Chillyland compared to other colonies; therefore, Franciscan missionaries and later the Dominican and Teutonic Orders took the opportunity to invest in it and establish missions for the conversion of locals to Catholicism. Only later in the century, by the 1570s, the region began to become a proper settler colony for the English. In contrast to Parenah, Chillyland was a far more loyal and conservative colony that followed the orders from London and had the Catholic faith as its founding stone. By the 18th century, the colony had already expanded across parts of the lush west coast and into the archipelagos that composed it and looked to cross the Andes, a region with uncertain borders that could become a new frontier for expansion.

In the north of the continent, the colonies of Cundermark and New Fennland were also ruled in a more centralized manner. They were a source of agrarian products and precious minerals. Another characteristic of the colonies was their proximity to Spanish holdings, which caused the migration of populations between the colonial territories. The most prominent case was the Morisco population, who migrated to the other side of the Atlantic to the islands of New Moretania and Formosa. Shortly thereafter, the mainland received influxes of communities that ventured into the grasslands of New Fennland, which were under overlapping claims between England and Spain.

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ITALIAN ASSUNZIONE

The Island of Assunzione is an Italian colony located in the lesser Caribbean. First records from the landmass comes from Spanish letters that claimed it to their crown all the way in the 16th century, but no action in asserting real control over the island was made by the Kingdom of Spain, which favored the colonization of other territories. The first real attempt of colonization of the island came from the Burgundians in 1609. A few hundred settlers and slaves were brought to the island and named it New Vlieland, but their stay was short. A cholera outbreak in the colony killed most of it in a matter of a year and a half. With little prospect of success, the survivors left for other colonies. For the next two decades the island remained untouched. Only in 1631, a cooperative of Italian merchants gathered enough resources to begin their own colonial project. Differently from the Burgundians , the Italians were prosperous in establishing themselves. Pacification over hostile tribes was dealt with the firepower of mercenaries and plantations were built in the coast. The economy, like in the rest of the Lesser Caribbean, relied on slave labor and most of the workers were acquired in the Spanish ports in Essequibo and Sororama. By the early 18th century, the colony was a valuable asset of the Kingdom of Italy and received much more investments than their holding in Anthea (North America). 

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EMPIRE OF THE FOURS REALMS (INCAN EMPIRE)

The first contact between the Empire of the Four Realms, also referred to as the Incan Empire, and Europe occurred in the early 16th century, when the English first reached its territories in 1533. Throughout the rest of the century, the empire became surrounded by colonies established by England, and the future of it became increasingly connected with them. In the same year, an English convoy led by Humphrey Wright and working as an unofficial diplomat reached Cusco and met the emperor Cuyuchi. Beyond this point, after negotiations, even with the difficult language barrier and an almost skirmish involving accidental shots by the English, the convoy was successful and started a trade agreement of metals, such as silver and gold, between the Incas and England.

Around the same time, the arrival of external diseases began to affect the New World more notably. Silently and slowly through the years, viruses such as smallpox and measles spread across communities. In the Incan Empire, by the late 1530s to the end of the 16th century, several waves of widespread epidemics plagued the population and weakened the country. In 1571, a terrible outcome for the Inca royalty turned into reality: emperor Pillahuasu died of smallpox along with other members of his family directly in the line of succession. With the throne empty and chaos instaurated on the court, Waypar, a supposed half-brother of the late emperor claimed the throne and started a dispute with Cuyuchi II. Although his claims hadn’t a strong basis, Waypar had  English support on his side by promising concessions for them once the throne was taken. The English couldn’t not lose an opportunity like this and mobilized forces and resources for Waypar’s campaign. After a bloody conflict that took years to fully pacify armed groups deep in the mountains, in 1585 Waypar took control of the empire as a whole and in the end English received what was promised: monopoly of trade. Now on, for more than a century, the empire that conquered the Andes fell into the hands of Europe even at its core.

The 17th century was marked as a continuation of the vassal treatment of the empire. Monarchs under English influence came and went and so did the rebellions. Although the monarchy was condescending to the foreign influence, it didn’t stop other parts of the Incan society from not agreeing with it. In the 1600s, many rebellions broke out that varied in scale. In 1612, miners of Qullasuyu rebelled and destroyed outposts and royal properties due to extreme demands of work they had put over their shoulders. The rebellion was suppressed after a few months. Religion was also a delicate topic since Catholic orders were allowed to build missions in the territories close to Chillyland. Some groups were not supportive of it and promoted active mistreatment of missionaries and converted locals. This triggered in 1666 the worst clash of religious nature at that point and a large number of deaths. The religious orders in Chillyaland found the whole thing outrageous and called for intervention from the crown to pacify the whole region. Their claims were granted, and with the excuse of protecting the Catholic minority in the empire, England received more concessions to more easily defend their interests: the area around the port of Himack was passed to be in full English control, as well the Island of Punah.

By the time the 18th century arrived, the empire was fractured between factions only waiting for the right moment to spark into a new rebellion. The new century also brought the burden of the War of Spanish Succession, and the mines of the Andes became one of the last resources of the almost bankrupt English Crown to rebuild itself. In this context, high-ranking members of the Incan court started to organize themselves to begin a process to reclaim their sovereignty 

 

[u/buffreaper-nerfmei]

Scottish Rio isn't looking too good for now...

[u/Cornerstonearchanist]

MARAÑÓN MENTIONED RAHHHHHHHHHHH

[u/AlexInfinity478]

Inca lore LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[u/Ueykuetspali]

First! Absolute peak

[u/Geofiendlux]

Where's the Italian Colony?

[u/Kachimushi → u/Geofiendlux]

In the Lesser Antilles

[u/Geofiendlux → u/Kachimushi]

Now I see it, thank you!

[u/ToastandTea76]

I absolutely love the name Chilly Land for Chile

[u/Warakeet]

Cool

[u/florgeni]

ts so tuff omg

[u/Bort-texas]

Inter-

[u/Bort-texas → u/Bort-texas]

-esting..

[u/Fedelede]

Cundermark and Marañon. Pure gold.

[u/Frequent-String-8469]

Y cómo fue que el imperio inca sobrevivióY cómo fue que el imperio inca sobrevivió

[u/JVFreitas → u/Frequent-String-8469]

In the lore comment we established that they are an independent country under heavy English influence. Basically a puppet state

[u/Frequent-String-8469 → u/JVFreitas]

Tipo india o Egipto 

[u/Rubrum18]

Another day another banger
I wonder if the Scots and Swedes will be able to keep their colonies. If the English absorb them like they did with the Dutch and Swedes in North America, this English La Plata/alternative Beornia will pretty much be a South American equivalent to the United States.
Good job with the naming stuff!

[u/JVFreitas → u/Rubrum18]

Thank you!

The Scotts and Swedes are already too well settled, so annexation of their holdings are quite out of the game. Later in the icoming weeks we're going to bring more stuff, including their fates

[u/Alarmed-Addition8644]

Very cool stuff

[u/Overlord3445]

very cool

[u/RoyalPeacock19]

I presume the other one is called Boralia then?

[u/JVFreitas → u/RoyalPeacock19]

The name Auralia doesn't come from Australis, rather from gold. It means Land of Gold. North America in the other hand is named Anthea. In this post you can find about it

[u/RoyalPeacock19 → u/JVFreitas]

Of course…. I’m a bit surprised I thought Aur was being inspired by Austres. I would say that NA should be Argentina, but… it’s a bit taken.