| Free Republic of Van Diemen's Land Vrije Republiek Van Diemens Land
Nara Milaythina Pakana Lutruwita Timeline: Differently
OTL equivalent: Tasmania | ||||||
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| Anthem: "Long Live Van Diemen's Land" |
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| Capital (and largest city) | Hobart | |||||
| Official languages | Dutch, Palawa Kani | |||||
| Other languages | Paredarerme, Tyerrernotepanner, Lairmairrener, Nuenonne, Pyemairrener, Peerapper, Tommeginne, Toogee | |||||
| Ethnic groups (2011) | 37.8% Aboriginal 30.6% African Tasmanian 16.3% White 10.2% Asian 3.8% Mixed 1.3% other |
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| Religion | 83.4% Christianity -46.2% Roman Catholicism -17.6% Protestant -16.3% Orthodox -3.3% other Christian 6.1% Aboriginal Spirituality 5.2% Buddhism 2.5% Confucianism 2.8% other/none |
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| Demonym(s) | Tasmanian | |||||
| Government | Unitary semi-presidential republic | |||||
| - | President | Peter Underwood | ||||
| - | Vice President | Jeremy Rockliff | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Eline Katers | ||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Independence from the Dutch Empire | April 17th, 1865 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 90,758 km2 35,042 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | Estimate | 2,652,000 (2020) (137th) | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | estimate | |||||
| - | Total |  12,772,032,000$ |
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| - | Per capita | 4,816$ |
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| Gini (2021) | 41.7 (Medium) | |||||
| Drives on the | right | |||||
Van Diemen's Land, officially the Free Republic of Van Diemen's Land (also known as Tasmania or Palawa), is a Dutch-speaking island country located off the southeastern coast of Australia. It shares maritime borders with Jamesland to the north and New Zealand to the east. With a surface area of 90,758 square kilometers, it is Oceania's ninth-largest country, ranking 105th globally. Its population of 2.6 million inhabitants makes it the tenth most populous country in Oceania and the 137th-most populous country worldwide.
Settled by the Dutch in the early 1600s, Van Diemen's Land became a slave colony, with the Dutch East India Company being heavily involved in the Indian Ocean Slave Trade. Enslaved people were crucial to working the resource-rich mines of the island. Van Diemen's Land officially declared independence in 1865, following the abolition of slavery in the Dutch colonies. Inspired by the Confederate war of independence, the slave-owning class on the island drove New Holland's independence. Despite independence being driven as a desire to preserve slavery, the British Empire began cracking down on the Indian Ocean Slave trade in the late 1860s, resulting in the abolition of slavery in Van Diemen's Land on March 6th 1878.
Following the abolition of slavery in 1878, Van Diemen's Land attempted to reduce their mining industry's labor shortages by hiring many former enslaved people and loosening their immigration laws, allowing for an influx of immigrants from Europe and Asia. This gave the country the nickname of the "melting pot of Australia", an identity which the nation would embrace in the early 21st century.
History[]
Pre-colonial and indigenous history[]
Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the 1600s, the indigenous people of what would become Van Diemen's Land were known as the Palawa or the Pakana. The Palawa arrived on the island, then a peninsula of Australia, around 40,000 years ago. Around 6000 BC, the Palawa were cut off from the other Aboriginals of mainland Australia. They remained isolated from the rest of humanity until the arrival of the Europeans in the early 1600s.
Initial Byzantine exploration and Dutch arrival[]
The Byzantines established some minor towns in the south-west and north-east part of the island. Some settlers came to these towns from 1603 to 1615, bringing in animals from mainland Byzantine Empire like Donkeys, Cows, Pigs, Chickens and Horses. Today the these regions still have a significant Eastern and Oriental Orthodox population (which mostly made up of Aboriginals and African settlers from Ethiopia). In 1625 the Dutch would come to the island and establish the city of Emmen (modern day Hobart).
Spanish arrival[]
The Spanish arrived in VDL in 1646, heating up the conflict in the region. Many towns were established under the control of Spanish Empire, most of were renamed to Dutch, English or Palawa Kani. Most of towns that kept their name are in the north western corner of the island (which were under the control of Bahian Empire later).
The governor of Spanish Tasmania, Mateo Mara, realized that he can't compete with the Dutch and the Byzantines in terms of military, so he decided to gain Aboriginal support religiously. Catholic missionaries started in 1708 and by 1757 Catholicism became the biggest religion in Tasmania (and has been ever since then). This still didn't help as the Spanish lost complete control over the island in 1787.
Colony of New Holland[]
With the battle for Saint Helens (1784-1786) the Dutch established the full control over the island. What followed was a legacy of a slave colony. Dutch started importing slaves from West South Africa as early as the 17th century with the proportion of Slaves reaching it's peak in the mid 19th century.
During the conflict between the European nations for the control of Tasmania Aboriginals were afraid of losing their language and identity. Kikatapula Muis, an Aboriginal poet, made it his life goal to create a lingua franca for Aboriginals to preserve their tradition and culture. This lingua franca would later become known as Palawa Kani. Kikatapula started in 1737 visiting villages all over Tasmania, collecting poems, songs from all of the Aboriginal Tasmanian languages. In this period many Aboriginals also started attending education and adopting surnames. Most Aboriginals adopted Palawa Kani words for animals, places, objects etc. Some also adopted Dutch, Greek, Spanish and African surnames. Muis finally finished creating Palawa Kani in 1755, with the Dutch Empire declaring the official language of Van Diemen's Land in 1813 (alongside Dutch).
As Palawa Kani gained more influence it started to damage other Aboriginal languages in the area. There were attempts to preserve the original languages, but they failed mostly due to rise of the belief that Aboriginals should stay united if they want to achieve independence. Eventually these languages were assimilated by Palawa Kani and became dialects of it.
Independence[]
Dutch Empire finally banned slavery in 1863, which angered many of White Tasmanians, who were now preparing for the uprising against the Government. These White Tasmanians were led by Liam Heuvel. The other smaller, but still significant, group of White Tasmanians wanted a federation with Africans and Aboriginals, but with the head of the State being White, this group was led by Bram Faber.
The Aboriginal idea was simple, create an Aboriginal republic led by Aboriginals with Palawa Kani. The biggest and most important organization with these ideals was the Palawa Independence Movement, who already organized multiple uprisings against the government. The leader of the oranization prior to the independence war was Piway Milaythina.
The Africans, now free, were looking to create a new Republic in the northern part of the Island. They were led by Hendrik Abbingh.
All these leaders held a secret meeting in Koude Haven where they agreed to stay united until the Dutch Empire is out of Tasmania.
The fighting started in the August of 1864 and ended as early as the April of 1865. A peace treaty was signed in Emmen (now renamed to Hobart), where the Dutch Empire recognized the independence of Van Diemen's Land but still didn't recognize it's claims over the Bass islands (a conflict that hasn't been resolved until this day).
Politics[]
Demographics[]
Age pyramid of Van Diemen's Land in 2020
General[]
In 2023 the population of Tasmania was 2,867,195. The median age was 20.8 years old. The age structure was:
- 0-14 - 37.3%
- 15-65 - 59.1%
- Over 65 - 3.6%
The fertility rate was 3.38, the birth rate was 26.4 and death rate was 8.3.
Languages[]
Both the Dutch and Palawa Kani are the official languages of Tasmania. They are used in education, administration and politics.
As a direct result of Dutch colonisation today over 90% of the population is fluent in Dutch, however only 51% of the population speak it as first language (mostly White and African Tasmanians).
Around 35-38% of the population use Palawa Kani as the first language (Aboriginals). Palawa Kani was created as a mix of Tasmanian Aboriginal languages in the mid 18th century in order to unify the Aboriginal tribes and avoid Dutch and British assimilation. As the years went on most of the Aboriginal languages in Tasmania were assimilated as dialects of Plawa Kani (except for some mountainous regions in the center of the country).
Ethnic Groups[]
Aboriginals[]
First arriving in Tasmania (then a peninsula of Australia) around 40,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Aboriginal Tasmanians were cut off from the Australian mainland by rising sea levels c. 6000 BC. They were entirely isolated from the outside world for 8,000 years until European contact.
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