New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

To add useful details to my last post, the real world continent of Australia exists in our world and has the same climate and geography. Terra Australis is a much newer continent whose soils are rich. The coastal waters of Terra Australis, like Europe or North America, are rich in fish and for the same reasons.

The discovery of good tasting cod-like fish brought fishermen who quickly established fish drying camps. This led first to the discovery of seals with fine fur and that there were other fur-bearing animals on the continent. The fishers brought the hunters and the hunters brought the farmers. The experience of North America aided in a swift start.

As in contemporary (1706) North America there are islands of settlement with few roads for overland connection. It is possible to have two large towns only about fifty miles apart and no land connections between them.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The local year is 1706. Large colonies have set up in Terra Australis by France, Sweden, England, and Holland.

I'm wondering why they colonise Terra Australis earlier than Australia was colonised in OTL.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I'm wondering why they colonise Terra Australis earlier than Australia was colonised in OTL.

I thought I explained that in the second post. First the fishing resources and then the furs.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The discovery of good tasting cod-like fish brought fishermen who quickly established fish drying camps. This led first to the discovery of seals with fine fur and that there were other fur-bearing animals on the continent. The fishers brought the hunters and the hunters brought the farmers. The experience of North America aided in a swift start.

Though a lot of the reason North American fisheries could be profitable is they are close to Europe. You are looking at something like 4 months shipping from Tasmania, vs. 1 month from New England.

Keep in mind that Terra Australis will be pretty cold. Tasmania is relatively far south, and unlike stuff that far north on the Atlantic side there's no warm current. The warmest climate it is going get is something like Oregon or Hokkaido. Most of it will resemble Canada, which isn't uninhabitable, but there's a reason it didn't draw huge waves of immigration until fairly late an all the population still clusters in a narrow band. "Large amounts of good farmland" seems unlikely - though I suppose they don't need to be all that enormous to qualify as "large" by *European* standards.

Sure European empires may eventually claim it (though historically it isn't until the mid-19th century or so that they started to feel they needed to claim *everything*) but it's hard to see them fighting over it very hard. Notice how these empires didn't exactly rush to fight over Australia (which has areas of good farmland on at least the same scale) and didn't hesitate to sell, or swap for single spice islands, large stretches of North America, especially if they were less accessible than the east coast.

Edit: I also think that if it is all that attractive, you may need some handwaving for why it isn't more heavily settled before hand. Asian colonization efforts stop around the Wallis line more because there wasn't anything obviously worthwhile beyond that (Northern Australia is a tough coast to approach and doesn't seem to offer much), than for any technological reasons. If even a trickle of valuable stuff were coming up from south of Australia in ancient times, somebody might have gone looking. This may be especially true if you want to decide it disrupts the West Wind Drift enough to add some of those warm currents to improve the climate, since they'll also carry boats along.

[PTTG]

The altered geography might include sea structure changes which create an equivalent warming current

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I thought I explained that in the second post. First the fishing resources and then the furs.

I guess I'm looking for the step before that to be filled in, where any number of people decide to go there in the first place. In OTL, no one followed up Tasman's discovery of Tasmania.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I guess I'm looking for the step before that to be filled in, where any number of people decide to go there in the first place. In OTL, no one followed up Tasman's discovery of Tasmania.

Tasmania was small and certainly lacked the fish resources. Terra Australis is much larger, warm for its latitude near the coasts, and it has vast bays and rivers. It was an obvious prize.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by PTTG

The altered geography might include sea structure changes which create an equivalent warming current

Yes. And I should have said that.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Yes. And I should have said that.

Though it is the kind of thing that is hard to just drop in and leave history anything close to intact.

For example I think if you admit dropping a continent south of Tasmania changes the currents, the big change you have to deal with is disrupting the circulation around Antarctica. You end up diverting it with a cold current running up the west coast of Terra Australis, along western Australia and into the Indian Ocean. Temperatures and humidity in India go down and history is already starting to look different even before you start worrying about the south Asian monsoon collapsing or whether the climate of East Africa changes enough to disrupt the evolution of hominids.

[PTTG]

There is a lot of precident for apparently obvious consequences being ignored. My money is on the new continent being a reality quaked-in change.