Newfoundlantis
From Alternative History
Contents |
[edit] 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 rainforest 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.
[edit] 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 5 million, crashed to a level of about 250,000. The city states of the Buyu, Dhi, Gupa, and Malmanharay collapse and are abandoned.
[edit] Island Hopping
1427: Gonçalo Velho discoveres Great Azores
1433: Portugese start to colonize the Great Azores.
1460: Fisherman Vasco Ruiz discovers the Sargasso Islands.
1492: Christopher Columbus leads his expidition, discovering Great Bermudas and the Bahamas
1493-1641: History changes very little, although the Sargasso Pirate Republic terrorized the western Atlantic for a 30 years.
[edit] New Lands Found
1642: Abel Tasman maps the West coast of Estland.
1769: James Cook thoroughly maps the coast of Estland
1772: Kereuelen island discovered.
1786: The first fleet landed in New Cornwall, founding the settlement of Cooksboro.
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.
1817: British convicts set up the settlement of Hannover and South Kent.
1822: French colonists set up the town of Bourbon in Tasmania
[edit] 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 Expidition.
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 expidition to the Westland, Lloyd Robert Stevenson dies in San Francisco at the age of 55.
1861: Cod Island Territory in the United States is transfered to Massachusetts.
1862: Far Left radicals rebel in the Estland. Cooksboro is occupied for seven months, then burned to the ground by the fleeing rebels.
[edit] Developement
1864: The Dutch colonies on Kereguelene 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.
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.
1876: The Liberal Party of Estland is founded.
1877: The Conservative Party of Estland is founded.
1881: The first ammendment to the constitution of the dominion of Estland is approved by the Legislative Asembly, the Dominion Congress, and by the Governor General. It states that No person's right's as a citizen shall be abriged 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 ammendment 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.
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 Phillipines, Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Spanish Torres Strait to the US.
[edit] 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 accross 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.
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 60,000 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 distovered.
24, January, 1906: The Southern Trunk Road, as the road system was called, is followed to the adge of the plateau. After that, the Dhi Ruin expidition 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.
[edit] The Great War: 1914-1918
28, July, 1914: The Great War begins.
