Indigenous Estlanders[]
50 MYA: The Zealandia Plateau doesn't sink into the Pacific. Neither does the Kegurelene Plateau, and several islands in the Atlantic stay above the surface.
25,000 years ago: The first catamarans crossed the Tasman Strait from Westland (what we would know as Australia) to Estland.
16,000 years ago: With the influence of Zealandia/Estland, Australia is much wetter than OTL, with the rain forest more widespread, the continent cooler, and more savanna. The aboriginal population is about 4.5 million in Australia due to the wetter climate.
2500 BCE: Plants that never evolved in OTL are exploited by humans; agriculture invented.
900 CE: Buyu (great forest) People begin living in small towns.
950: The Dhi (Mountain) people begin building stone towns in the mountains.
1000: The Gupa (River) people begin building towns, including one near Cooksboro.
1050: The Walmanharay (sunrise) people begin building towns in the East of the continent.
1245: The population of the Estland reaches five million.
The Coming of the Maori[]
1250: The Maori begin colonizing Estland
1275: Diseases brought by the Maori reach every part of the island.
1280 the population, which had peaked at five million, crashed to a level of about 250,000. The city states of the Buyu, Dhi, Gupa, and Malmanharay collapse and are abandoned.
Island Hopping[]
1427: Gonçalo Velho discoveres Great Azores
1433: Portuguese start to colonize the Great Azores.
1460: Fisherman Vasco Ruiz discovers the Sargasso Islands.
1492: Christopher Columbus leads his expedition, discovering Great Bermudas and the Bahamas.
1493-1631: History changes very little, although the Sargasso Pirate Republic terrorized the western Atlantic for a 30 years.
New Lands Found[]
1631: A group of English and Irish Catholics settle in New Bristol Harbor, in the Cod Islands.
1642: Abel Tasman maps the West coast of Estland.
1649-52: A flood of Irish and English catholics come to the Cod Islands.
1711: The Cod Islands are reorganized as the colony of New Bristol
1769: James Cook thoroughly maps the coast of Estland
1772: Kereuelen island discovered.
1774: New Bristol is among the colonies represented at the First Continental congress. They immediately propose independence.
1775: The New Bristolers again propose independence at the Second Continental Congress.
1776: The New Bristolers finally get their chance as first John Adams (repeatedly) and the then Richard Henry Lee propose independence. Lee's resolution is seconded by the New Bristol delegation before Lee is done speaking
1786: The first fleet landed in New Cornwall, founding the settlement of Cooksboro.
1791: New Bristol abolishes slavery whithin the mostly maritome state's boundaries.
1799: Dutch whalers set up an outpost on Keregulene island.
1807: French settlers set up the settlement of Boneparte on the North End of the Island.
12, March, 1813: New Bristol City is shelled by a British fleet; a Nor'easter blows the fleet away before they can begin landing.
1817: British convicts set up the settlement of Hannover and South Kent.
1822: French colonists set up the town of Bourbon in Tasmania
Settlement[]
1832: The HMS Beagle lands in the Estland. Charles Darwin is nearly eaten by a terror bird, but manages to scramble up a tree, fumble with his rifle, and shoot it.
1837: Britain and France Settle on a border between their colonies along the little-known Southern Alps.
1841: The town of Victoria is founded in the colony of the same name.
1845: The City of Cooksboro's population exceeds 50,000
1851: American Entrepeneur Lloyd Robert Stevenson launches his Interior Expedition.
1853: Upon returning to Cooksboro, Lloyd Robert Stevenson announces that there is gold in the foothills of the "Taroaroatupari" (Later Stevenson) Plateau.
1859: All ten Estland colonies and the Colony of New South Wales are given control over internal affairs.
1860: While planning an expedition to the Westland, Lloyd Robert Stevenson dies in San Francisco at the age of 55.
1862: Far Left radicals rebel in the Estland. Cooksboro is occupied for seven months, then burned to the ground by the fleeing rebels.
Development[]
1864: The Dutch colonies on Kerguelen island are sold to Denmark for the price of 100,000 Krone
Early 1870: The population of Estland exceeds five million.
Fall, 1870: The Cooksboro Congress is held. All colonies unite into Estland; colony granted Dominion status.
1871: France loses Franco-Prussian war, cedes all of Estland east of the Uriuriawa River to Prussia.
1871: The Stevenson memorial is completed, including a five meter statue made of bronze in Cooksboro.
1872: The population of Cooksboro exceeds 200,000
1874: The Constitution of the Dominion of Estland is written.
1875: The Railway Worker's Union is founded, first major labor union in Estland.
The Eastern Island of Australia after the end of the Franco-Prussian War
1876: The Liberal Party of Estland is founded.
1877: The Conservative Party of Estland is founded.
1881: The first amendment to the constitution of the dominion of Estland is approved by the Legislative Assembly, the Dominion Congress, and by the Governor General. It states that No person's right's as a citizen shall be abridged or removed based on race, religion, place of birth, or gender. The rights of citizen included freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom or religion, the right to vote, and freedom to proper trial by jury. This groundbreaking amendment also allows women to vote.
1886: The World's Fair is held in Cooksboro.
1890: The borders of the various colonies in the Westland are established at the Swansea Conference.
1896: The population of Cooksboro exceeds 400,000, and the population of Estland exceeds 7.5 million.
Australia after the Swansea Conference, 1890
25, April, 1898: The US declares war on Spain.
12, June, 1898: The Railway Worker's Union goes on strike on the Estland Railway Company Dominionwide, first major strike in Dominion's history.
21, June, 1898: ERC accedes to Union demands.
12, August, 1898: Spain cedes the Philippines, Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Spanish Torres Strait to the US.
The Turn of the Century[]
12, May, 1900: The Great Cooksboro Earthquake and Fire happens. The 7.8 magnitude earthquake lasts 45 seconds. Seven fires are started across the city.
13, May: the Seven fires have merged into three. The front street fire moves toward the Southern Cross Hotel.
14, May: The Great Fire moves toward the Waterfront District, destroying the Customs and Excise Building, along with six of the eight impoundment warehouses. Many of the apartment buildings in the Waterfront district are destroyed.
15, May: The Great fire ends when it starts to rain torrentially. The Earthquake and Fire killed 3,000 people, left 225,000 people homeless, destroyed 28,000 buildings, and did $370,000,000 in damage, the equivalent of 9.5 billion today.
The North Atlantic, 1900
30, June, 1900: In response to their perceived failure to deal with the Cooksboro Fire/Earthquake, the Estland Conservative party loses the majority in the Legislative Assembly and the Dominion Congress. Sir Robert Barclay's Conservative government is ousted by 78 seats in the legislative assembly and 13 seats in the Dominion Congress
12, October, 1906: Sara Langeley-Morgan, granddaughter of Lloyd Robert Stevenson, launches the Dhi Ruin Expedition, the first real scholarly study of the ruins of the Dhi Civilization.
29, November, 1906: Stephen Morgan, Langeley-Morgan's husband, finds evidence that the City of Mt. Tuaratautara, the largest of the known cities, could have housed 10,000 people, and was at least 600 years old. Some parts of the City, in fact, seem to predate the native Maori by almost 300 years, suggesting that they belonged to a branch of the little-understood Inamatatautagata people.
30, December, 1906: Fist evidence of large-scale road systems in the Mountains is discovered.
24, January, 1906: The Southern Trunk Road, as the road system was called, is followed to the edge of the plateau. After that, the Dhi Ruin expedition follows the Uriuriawa River north to Bismarck, then goes along the Neu Preussen Kuste Scheinschasse back towards the city of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
7, June, 1908: The Labour Coalition is merged into the Labour Party.
Eastboro Avenue, King George Island District, Cooksboro, after the 1912 blizzard.
14-20, August, 1912: The Blizzard of 1912 hits. Cooksboro sees 65 inches feet of snow, Moawhakawatinga sees 53 inches, Victoria sees 45 inches, Georgetown sees 40 inches, and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sees 30 inches of snow. Drifts averaged 20-30 feet, with the largest drift, at 57 feet, in Islandsburgh, New Cornwall, near Cooksboro. Winds averaged at 40 miles per hour, with gusts at 65 mph. The highest winds were recorded at Whānuipuke, also in New Cornwall, with a gust of 80 mph.
Australia (Westland) after the end of the Spanish-American War.
The Great War: 1914-1918[]
28, July, 1914: The Great War begins.
14, August, 1914: Estland Prime Minister Stewart Montcalm (L, Sussex) gives speech against involvement in the War, referring to it as a "war that Emperors start and workers fight". Though applauded by the predominently Labour Party crowd, the newspapers crucified him for it, with him even losing support of some of the previously staunchly Labour papers, such as the Cooksboro Herald
The Eastern island of Australia on the eve of the Great War
September: The Spring Campaign of Estland begins.*
21, September: The Siege of Königsberg begins.
19, October: Königsberg falls.
November: The Neupreussian Spring Offensive against France begins. German forces approach Vert Foret.
2, December: The Second Battle at Königsberg begins.
5, December: Königsberg is recaptured by German forces.
21, February, 1915: The Battle of the Oneukuākau River begins.
April, 1915 German West-Central Australia is invaded by the french.
15, May, 1915: Lusitania sunken en route from New York to Ireland.
19, May: Battle of the Oneukuākau ends.
2, June: Fighting on the outskirts of Vert Foret occurs.
9, June: German troops are thrown out of Vert Foret.
30, June: With the "war" in Estland going badly, and with his unpopular speech against it, Stewart Montcalm's Labour government is narrowly ousted by the Conservative Party, the Dominion congress being 53 C to 47 L, and the Legislative Assembly being 210 C to 204 L. Sir Lewis McKenna is the new Conservative Prime Minister.
12, September: Hohenzollern falls, German West-Central Australia under French occupation.
3, January, 1916: Noveau Provencial Summer Offensive is launched.
12, January: The Siege of Bismarck begins.
27, January: Bismarck falls. The Neupreussian Governor flees to Wilhelmstadt.
14, March: The British Fall Campaign is launched.
13, June: The Winter (or Third) Battle of Königsberg begins
17, June: Königsberg falls.
29, July: Brandenburg captured by Estlanders.
1, October: Wilhelmstadt falls. Governor flees to Fredrickhafen
12, January, 1917: Fredrickhafen Falls, Neupreussen is occupied by Franco-British (mostly Noveau Provencio-Estlander) occupation.
11, November, 1918: The Great War ends. Portions of the Treaty of Versaille that pertain to the areas covered in this timeline are: Neupreussen and German West-Central Australia are ceded to France. Kerguelen Island is ceded to Britain.
- Note: The limited resources and small military garrisons made it so that these "campaigns" were not particularly large or expansive. Fatalities were low, and the war in the Estland and Westland is something that nobody besides the people in that area care about. Australia (both halves) were considered dead-end assignments for career officers.
The Roaring Twenties.[]
20, June, 1919: Sir Lewis McKenna's Conservative government passes the Loan and Contribution act, lending money to Great Britain and France to help pay for the cost of the war. The unpopular measure, combined with the resulting rise in taxes in addition to the already high taxation, has little support.
27, June: In response to the outcry over L&C, Sir Lewis McKenna gave his disastrous "Dependent now and forever more" speech, saying that "The ten colonies of Estland have always turned our eyes toward the mother country. This storied nation has always been a colony. We have always been dependent. We have always been Englishmen. We are dependent. Gloriously so. We were dependent in the past, we are dependent now, and by God's grace, we will be dependent forever more." Needless to say, dissatisfaction with the Conservative government reached a new high, with it's approval rating now down to 37%.
12, May, 1920:The Left-Leaning newspaper The People's Voice, vehemently protested the unfair labor conditions in the mines, railroads, and factories throughout the dominion.
2, January, 1921: The Great Workers Union is founded. This labor union attempts to get fair conditions and fair wages and hours for all workers, rather than workers in just one sector.
14, November: A general strike is called among the Great Workers Union, with strikes in all sectors. The workers were demanding better conditions, higher wages, and more enforcement of safety regulations.
17, November, 1921: The Labour Party Parliamentary Group issues a declaration of support for the strikers. Deputy Labour Caucus Leader Frederick Aston resigns in protest.
28, November: after two weeks of strikes, Prime Minister McKenna announces the breaking of the strike, as thousands of strikebreakers (or scabs, as the strikers called them) crossed picket lines to work in the strikers' place, often with violent confrontations breaking out as a result. In one such incident, at the Python Mine, the resulting riot killed 400 people and caused as much as $650,000 in damage, eight million in today's money.
2, December: Prime Minister McKenna agreed to negotiate with the strikers, agreeing on such demands as a eight-hour workday, a 110% minimum overtime pay, greater regulation of factory and mine conditions, and a requirement providing for a fifteen minute lunch period for every four hours worked.
4, January, 1922: As is their prerogative, the Legislative Assembly called for a no-confidence vote against Prime Minister McKenna. the motion passes 213 yea, 201 nea.
7, January, 1922: Sir Lewis McKenna resigns as Prime Minister.
21, January, 1922: 78-year-old Labour Party leader Thomas Barclay dies of a stroke at the age of 78, further complicating This makes any potential victory for Labour, as now they lack both a Parliamentary Group Leader and a Deputy Leader.
28, February, 1922: As was the process following a no-confidence vote, a new General Election was called. The new division in the in the Leg-As* was 287 L, 118 C . However, nine seats were now occupied by a farther left-leaning Workers Party. In the Dom-Con**, the division was 62 L, 37 C, and 1W.
19, March, 1922: after over a month of negotiations, finally a new PM is selected by the Labour caucus in parliament. The socialist contingent of the party walked out on the proceedings, wanting to select Horace Ellis as PM. In the end, after almost a month of wrangling, Morris O'Donell was chosen as PM, and Stephen Forrestall was chosen as Deputy Prime Minister.
- Popular shorthand for Legislative Assembly
- Popular shorthand for the Dominion Congress.