Alternative History
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1557, English claimed the Brazilian coast down to OTL Recife. The area was called Braseal, after the Brazilwood. In 1565, another English expedition reached Cape Hoorn from the east. The area south of the equator stayed barely settled, though. 1572/73, yet another English expedition explored the area of the river Amazon, reaching Tawantinsuyu (the Inca empire) from the East.

English Flag   Colonial Empire of England (Chaos TL)   Chain
Colonies

Argentine | Braseal | Jamaica | Markland | New England


In 1628 however, the Triple Monarchy of England-Castille-Portugal fell apart, and their barely developed colonies in Braseal and Argentine got out of control. Now Sweden feared that France might grab Braseal, so they occupied it instead in 1633. But in 1657, after king Humphrey I had won the first English Civil War, Sweden agreed to give Braseal back to England, in exchange for an alliance. The country was in a very bad state; diseases and attacks of Atlantean tribes had decimated the population, many plantages had disappeared in the sprawling jungle, cities had shrunk to the size of villages. During the next 100 years, many new cities were founded and plantages for tobacco, sugar and later rubber created. In 1659, England founded Stafford City at the site of OTL Recife, (re-)starting the colonization of Braseal and Argentine. 1675, the City of Paradise was founded at the site of OTL Rio de Janeiro.

Since the French revolution, and especially after the fall of Spain, many French and Spaniards settled in the country, making up about one third of the free population in 1800. Their number further grew after Italy / New Rome gobbled up the formerly French and Spanish colonies in Atlantis, which lead to conflicts with the English elites and old settlers. The conquest of the Inca empire by New Rome brought another group of refugees, who mostly settled in the mountains of the South. And after the Canadian Revolutionary War, British loyalists from there fled to Braseal too.

Under New Rome[]

After the anti-British War, in 1836, the peace of Roma Nuova gave Braseal to the despised New Roman Empire, which governors held down the population with the help of Muslim, African and later also Indian troops. The New Roman administration was split however between those who wanted to cooperate with the population, thus profiting from the natural riches of Braseal, and those who used the country simply to push unwanted people from everywhere in the Empire (Italian republicans, French and Spanish monarchists and nationalists, Inca nobles, anti-Imperial Catholics and other Christian minorities, Arab and Berb resistors, ordinary criminals, separatists of all kinds, defeated Indians) to a place where they could be exploited without anyone watching. Without a clear objective, this policy lead to nowhere, and the growing uprisings made administration impossible. This was a reason why emperor Ludovico let the country simply go independent in 1870. The Italian administrators and the officers of the auxiliary troops were evacuated by ship, while the foot soldiers were left to their own demise.

Given the ethnic mix of Braseal (there were descendants of the original English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers; of French, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, Catalanians, Basques and Bretons; of Arabs and Berbs, both slaves and free people; of Mexicans, Quechua and other native Atlanteans; of exiled Indians; and of black slaves of many different West African people), nobody expected anything but chaos to develop out of it. Indeed, the country fell into civil war; in the cities, the various ethnics street- and housefought each other, while on the countryside, every latifundia owner became a little king, and many slaves fled into the jungle. For the first years after becoming independent, the cities of Braseal (now pronounced the French way: Bruh-SAY-uhl) went through what can only be called gang warfare, while on the countryside people flocked around the rich plantage owners. After those years however, in the later capital Novolondon (OTL Salvador) a supposed heir of the French and Spanish thrones named Lui Filip became accepted as king, gaining control first of the capital, then the surrounding province in 1880.

During the years 1881-84, he made "The Northern War" ("La Gera d'Nor"): In 1884, Stefor fell. 1885, New Rome and royal Braseal (now pronounced the French way: Bruh-SAY-uhl) made a contract about their common border after the end the War. 1886-88, "The Southern War" ("La Gera d'Su") took place, finally uniting the whole country. He proclaimed that "the kingdom means peace" and somehow brought a kind of stability to the country. He appointed new nobles, created a bureaucracy (ironically dominated by exiled Italian republicans), and had the various priests (Christians, Muslims and Hindus) accept and support the new order. By exporting raw materials, the country developed a higher standard of living; and after the Gold Rush of 1894, the many German immigrants brought the southern part of the country industrialization. A lot of people from Roman-controlled France and Iberia also fled to the country.

After Lui Filip[]

1897, Lui Filip died. Not having made a law of succession, people were disunited about who should become next monarch: His eldest child, princess Mari Isabel, or his eldest son Migel? As a consequence, the years 1897-1900 saw the Civil War in Braseal (more often called "Slavery War"). The Southern provinces under Princess Mari Isabel, more German-influenced and industrialized, fought for an end of slavery, the northern provinces under prince Migel for keeping it. (German newspapers used to depict prince Migel as a human monster, describing him as icecold-hearted and merciless.)

During the 1890s, New Roman linguists studied the development of Braseal French (which had influences from many different languages and was very simplified - many claimed that it could be called a distant variant of Occitan, Catalan, Italian or Spanish as well).

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