What if …

… Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse, had arrived at Botany Bay a few days before he did?

La Perouse with King Louis XV! (ngv.vic.gov.au)

Napoleon Buonaparte (ngv.vic.gov.au)

What if ….

Napoleon Buonaparte had been born a few years earlier?

The country we now know as Australia may have become L’Australie, and the Napoleonic Wars may never have happened.

***

On 26 January 1788, the day Captain Phillip arrived at Port Jackson and planted the British flag into the soil on behalf of His Majesty King George III of England, two French ships, commanded by Comte de La Pérouse, arrived at Botany Bay.

La Pérouse had been appointed by King Louis XVI in 1785 to explore the Pacific Ocean in order to look for new shipping routes and trading opportunities,  and check out what other Europeans might be up to in the region. One sixteen-year-old lad from Corsica asked to be taken on but was turned down because of his age. His name was Napoleon Buonaparte.

The French hung around Botany Bay for six weeks, and in mid March they sailed north on their way eventually back to France.

They never arrived. Years later the wrecks of their ships were discovered near the Solomon Islands.

Had Napoleon been on board …

Had La Pérouse and his fleet arrived just a week earlier …

***

What other ‘What ifs’ might there have been in history?