I'm curious to see if others here have considered writing about other frontiers besides the American one. Let's leave aside the American frontier east of the Mississippi for a minute and the question of whether or not stories set there can be Westerns. The "Northern" featuring Mounties, traders, Indians, etc is a staple sub-genre of the Western.
What I'm talking about are stories set on other locales where Victorian-era settlers were pushing into new lands and coming into conflict with the natives (and other settlers). For instance, the Australian gold rushes began in the 1850s and lasted to the 1890s. Stockmen set up sheep & cattle stations, Aboriginals fought back, and bushrangers plundered banks & gold shipments. Australia has a fantastic "Western" in The Proposition. New Zealand had a similarly amazing film in Utu, detailing a native Maori in conflict with the paramilitary police & white settlers.
South Africa saw many gold & diamond rushes in the 19the century. Instead of the Mexican War, there were many Boer Wars. Instead of Custer's Last Stand they had Isandlwana. Settlers from Imperial Russia were moving into the Caucasus, Central Asia, & Siberia in the 1800s. Siberia saw gold rushes & lots of desperadoes were dumped there as European Russia deported its criminals. The Russian cavalry fought hard battles with Chechens, Kazakhs, & other tribes. Instead of cowboys, they had Cossacks.
Argentina, Uruguay & Brazil have a flourishing cowboy culture among the gauchos. Brazil also had a startling sub-culture of cowboys & badmen in the vaqueiros & cangaceiros of the North East.
Has anybody around here considered looking into these elements to spice up their frontier tales?
What I'm talking about are stories set on other locales where Victorian-era settlers were pushing into new lands and coming into conflict with the natives (and other settlers). For instance, the Australian gold rushes began in the 1850s and lasted to the 1890s. Stockmen set up sheep & cattle stations, Aboriginals fought back, and bushrangers plundered banks & gold shipments. Australia has a fantastic "Western" in The Proposition. New Zealand had a similarly amazing film in Utu, detailing a native Maori in conflict with the paramilitary police & white settlers.
South Africa saw many gold & diamond rushes in the 19the century. Instead of the Mexican War, there were many Boer Wars. Instead of Custer's Last Stand they had Isandlwana. Settlers from Imperial Russia were moving into the Caucasus, Central Asia, & Siberia in the 1800s. Siberia saw gold rushes & lots of desperadoes were dumped there as European Russia deported its criminals. The Russian cavalry fought hard battles with Chechens, Kazakhs, & other tribes. Instead of cowboys, they had Cossacks.
Argentina, Uruguay & Brazil have a flourishing cowboy culture among the gauchos. Brazil also had a startling sub-culture of cowboys & badmen in the vaqueiros & cangaceiros of the North East.
Has anybody around here considered looking into these elements to spice up their frontier tales?