Anyone have anything interesting about rare or obscure colonial possessions throughout history?
My favorite is the Courland Empire, which was actually able to have islands in The Gambia and in Trinidad even thought is was located in Latvia
Another good one is the Belgian Possession in Tianjin, its so rare, there are basically no pictures or maps of it
maps of Tianjin concessions, the Belgians sold all of their Chinese lands for pretty much nothing
Remember that time Scotland colonized Panama, and bungled it so badly it led to the Act of Union? The Eternal Anglo remembers.
>>1033192
I would say the most peculiar was the concession of Charles V to the Welser of Augsburg.
>The Holy Roman Emperor owed money to the Welser bank
>As (also) King of Spain, had control of their domains
>One in particular demanded colonization
>Would pay the debt securitizing the territory to the Bank, which was responsible for colonizing it
>Welser fulfilled the agreement - as far as possible. Venezuela (Klein-Venedig) becomes a colony of the Bank receiving new cities and settlers. In contrast, hostile tribes, harsh environment and malaria delayed the colonization schedule;
>Spain decides to revert to the colony; in the end, their appointed governor eliminates the local administration, and in 1546, the concession is revoked by Charles V
>And Welser embitter the loss of a deadbet Emperor
There is also the question of the relationship between the Ottomans, Aceh and other satellites
in the Malay Archipelago and Africa, although not exactly in a colonial context.
>>1033192
sweden and prussia had small colonies in west africa.
danish owned the virgin islands and had slaves till they abolished slavery in 1848 in the wake of a slave revolt. the economy tanked there and they tried to sell it off but were only able to do so in 1917. pretty sure the danish also had a small outpost/colony in india.
the grand duchy of tuscany (florence) nearly purchased a colony in west africa in the early 17th century.
the grand master of livonia (the crusading order that ruled the area of the baltic states and which formed the rump state of Courland in the OP), who knew his order was in decline and couldn't hold off the russians, offered his lands as a possession of the holy roman empire but negotiations came to nothing.
>tfw latvia colonized quicker than germany
>>1033192
One could say that while the Chinese Empire did not practice overseas colonialism, the Chinese people did.
In Southeast Asia, when borders were fluid as fuck and lots of empty spaces existed in the map, Merchant Chinese families were eager to gain a foot in the door of trading in certain areas. So what they would do is send a bunch of their people in Southeast Asia, establish a trading post (or broke deals with local kings to establish a trading post) that services traders from their clan/village/locale back in China, and leave a few people behind to maintain these posts.
Over time these grew into towns, especially when the Chinese men left behind married local women. Which was often the case in Island Southeast Asia.
In Island Southeast Asia, these posts often doubled as shelters for ships to ride out stormy seasons. Chinese ships -usually crewed by a family unit- would tie down for months on end in these posts, living as temporary citizens of the town.
Officially, the Ming, and later on Qing governments looked down on such acts since they believed these posts were hotbeds of anti-government activities and piracy (and they were right, some posts in the Philippines doubled as pirate bases). But they tolerated the practice as they served as middlemen to Southeast Asian polities and later on, middlemen to colonizing Europeans.
Due to their merchantile nature, the merchant colonies did not care when they were absobed by various European colonizers in Southeast Asia. Initially suspicious, Dutch and Spanish were wary of these people - and some massacres even happened- but when no big Chinese invasion fleet came for their asses, they soon learned that these people were simply traders and the overseas Chinese merchant became a valued member of colonial communities due to being middlemen between Chinese/European trade.
>>1033514
contd.
In fact, in the Philippines, Chinese settlers and Native-Chinese halfbreeds were called "Sangley," by the Spanish, due to a misunderstanding when the Spanish asked in grammatically incorrect Chinese "Who are you" (what they mean: what race are you?) and the Settlers- thinking that the Spanish asked for their jobs- said "Sengli" (Traders, in Hokkien.)
In addition, in Island Southeast Asia, Chinese settlers were valued by both local kings and European colonial rulers for the skills that they had but tribal southeast asians didn't. Papermaking, painting, calligraphy, advanced metalworking, gunpowder production, and firearms production to name but a few.
For example, the picture I posted was from a Spanish encyclopedia of all the races that live in Southeast Asia and the Chinese Empire. It was written in Spanish by a Spanish monk for the perusal of the King of Spain, but the paper is typical Chinese paper, and the illustrator hired was a Chinese settler in the Philippines trained in both European (see: flowery page borders) and Chinese art of illustration (see: figures).
>>1033554
some of them set up independent states near where i live, cool stuff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanfang_Republic
>>1033581
>1777-1884
Wow that's actually pretty long.
>>1033554
If you want to look more into private colonialism, look at pre-unification German settlers fleeing the shittiness of 1600's Germany to live in the Americas as independent communities.
Or the Hansa's trading posts in Africa and South America.
>>1033511
Courland isn't Latvia, it was a multi-ethnic state
>>1033581
>1777
Interesting coincidence. I find it funny how the Republic part of the nation came about because Luo was to afraid of being killed by the Chinese expats living there if he declared himself king.
>>1033532
Very interesting. We tend to look at the history of the peoples as the history of the states.
