New Batavia
| New Batavia | |
|---|---|
| Constituent Nation of New Batavia | |
| Nieuw Batavia | |
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 Location of New Batavia | |
| Government Type | Parliamentary democracy within a confederated constitutional monarchy |
| Languages |
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New Batavia (Dutch: Nieuw Batavia) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Oceania. With a population of roughly 2 million on an area of 1,237,236 km2, it encompasses the southern third of the divided continent of Australia. New Batavia borders Australie to the east, Georgia to the south and the sea of Arafura to the north.
History
Initial Dutch Exploration
In August 1642, the Council of the Indies, consisting of Antonie van Diemen, Cornelis van der Lijn, Joan Maetsuycker, Justus Schouten, Salomon Sweers, Cornelis Witsen, and Pieter Boreel in Batavia dispatched Tasman and Franchoijs Jacobszoon Visscher on a voyage of exploration to little-charted areas east of the Cape of Good Hope, west of Staten Land (near the Cape Horn of South America) and south of the Solomon Islands. One of the objectives was to obtain knowledge of "all the totally unknown" Terra Australis. During his expedition, Tasman became the first European to discover Van Diemensland, New Zealand, Aotearoa & the continent of Australia which Tasman (and later cartographers) famously named "New Holland". Throughout the rest of the 17th century the Dutch made no attempt to settle in Australia and Dutch sailors visited the region infrequently and mostly accidently or for the purpose of whaling. In 1756 & 1757, a series of VOC trade missions were conducted to Northern Australia for the purpose of determining whether the continent had any potential value in the spice trade. The VOC set up 11 trading posts, mostly trading alcohol & tobacco for feathers, tortoise shells and lumber with the native peoples of northern Australia but weren't able to make a significant profit in the endeavor. After 4 years years the VOC stopped manning their last trading post near present day Vijf-Rivieren but before leaving their trading posts, the Dutch VOC captain Jans Jackob Daendels claimed the entirely of Northern Australia for the Dutch Republic.
By 1800, the Dutch mostly forgotten about their claimed but unsettled territory of Northern Australia (which was still known internally as New Holland) but by 1830 both France & the British were starting to settle along the coast of the continent which led to the Dutch wanting to actualize their claims on the continent in fears that they would be sidelined for potential riches that could exist somewhere in the interior of the continent. Additionally the new Kingdom of the Netherlands felt the need to reinforce it's position in Northern Australia as a buffer between the profitable colonies of the East Indies and the Spanish New Guinea colony as tensions between the Spanish Empire & the Netherlands rose. In 1834 the Dutch founded their first major settlement in Australia at Noordstadt shipping in a dozen Javanese families and creating a small naval base and fort to protect the area. This colony was renamed as 'Dutch Australia' was administered under the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Throughout the 19th century Dutch Australia saw much less immigration than the French & British colonies on the continent with the local administration focusing foremost on building a series of naval forts with the goal of protecting the East Indies and projecting Dutch naval strength southwards and secondly on population & economic growth. By 1870 the region had a non native population of only 7,000 mostly centered nearby Dutch naval bases or close to Noordstadt, additionally of this population nearly 60% were ethnically Malay. This period saw a series of treaties signed between the Dutch and local tribes of the region, which the Dutch agreeing to not interfere in tribal affairs and not encroaching on their land in exchange for recognizing Dutch authority and allowing free access of traders and missionaries to native lands.
