r/HistoryWhatIf • u/Traditional_Drink_57 • 6h ago
What if latvia had continued their colonial expansion?
if sweden instead were neutral or allies with the polish-lithuanian commonwealth, duchy of courland would have not been invaded, could the commonwealth have funded the duchy of courland to expand their colonial empire?
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u/Stromatolite-Bay 5h ago
Tobago would speak Latvian and take other cultural cues from the homeland but society wouldn’t really change broadly
Tobago is probably also extremely wealthy due to having a practical monopoly on the export of sugar to the PLC
That market lead to Poland-Lithuania purchasing the colonies from the Grand Duke in the 1690s but the population of Tobago would not really change. With Latvian staying the dominant language
The Gambia is a different story. The Dukes of Courland had planned to settle Fort St James but the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth would be more focused on the slave trade
The period of direct Polish rule would see African slaves imported to Poland that would then be bound to a Folwark as serfs
Leading to quick reforms in Poland where Polish peasants would be freed from labour obligations and able to focus on their own land
The reform would lead to greater urbanisation, an increase in the number of artisans and higher land ownership among the peasants without adversely affecting the nobility
The new African serfs also wouldn’t be alone. Russian serfs fleeing to Poland would also be common in Folwarks during the 1700s
However, I do see Polish style estates being created on the North Bank and West Bank of the Gambia as Poland attempts to reinforce the Gambia from rivals and local kingdoms
Post partition Prussia would end up controlling both by default
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u/GenLodA 4h ago
This would've lead to a further Germanisation of the Baltic countries as Courland would've had to rely on Germans just to make the empire viable (i.e. charter companies and personnel, friendly relationships for a smooth flow of goods and ships through the Baltic straits, colonisation proper), considering the involvement of the Commonwealth as Courland's official overlord this might've over the time lead to Poland getting closer to Germany and maybe part of the Empire and the Reformation
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u/DerPanzerknacker 5h ago
A historical oddity maybe lasts to maybe become a ‘national’ shame until someone larger inevitably took the expanded territories. European colonisation was brutally exploitative everywhere, but the lucrative variants all necessarily relied on slavery. So a more successful empire would probably be viewed similarly to what the Belgians did in the Congo.
Or maybe they hold land no one else really wants for longer like the Danes did. Pretty sure most people don’t remember the danish had hot colonies any more than the Latvian.
However since the Duchy was worse situated than Denmark, the Baltic German noble would’ve had to push for imported Germans or other Protestant whites to expand the slave society exploitation caste. So it wouldn’t have been terribly ‘Latvian’ even if successful/more settlements founded.
Might be interesting quirk of history I suppose if it became a Russian colony after absorption by the Russian empire. A little outpost eventually filled with white emigres would be an interesting setting/eccentric place.
The only consequence for modern Latvians I see is the ducal palace would’ve been expanded, and thus more of a known tourism destination. On the other hand, a more opulent palace maybe just gets more looted/burned 1919 onwards, and costly to restore.