The consequences of no Polynesians

reddie

Whatever forces drove the ancestors of the Polynesians into the Pacific do not occur, leaving the Pacific beyond the Solomon Islands virtually unpopulated as of say, 100 A.D.

Who picks up the slack?

My pick is the seemingly highly mobile Hindu civilization of Indonesia, creating a vast swath of small states stretching from northern Australia to New Zealand and eastwards to the Hawaiian Islands. When Sumatra and Java convert to Islam, the Pacific realms, like Bali, do not follow suit. Is this a particularly plausible choice?
 

pa_dutch

My bet is some kind of Native American people, perhaps the Chumash of California or some South American culture.
 

reddie

Okay...

Smaug said:
Why not? Run with it....
Click to expand...

Let's begin:

1045--Deciding to completely quit eastern Java after his kingdom's defeat by the Srijavija (sp?), King Airlangga (sp?) and one of his sons take to the seas with approximately one thousand followers, looking for a new land to re-establish their kingdom. Skirting past the "savage islands" of the east (Borneo and New Guinea) they eventually make their first landing on the north Queensland Peninsula, only to be driven away within months by the poor soils of the area and the unfriendly "savages." Eventually they sail southwards, settling around OTL's location of Cairns, Queensland...

Naturally, contact with a more advanced culture--and one with strange germs--was a disaster for the indigenous Australians, although it would lead, in some ways, to the greatest diaspora of their kind in forty thousand years...


2007--The cheerful chieftain Billilong Kern of the Wauthoong people makes his way to Recife, Pernambuco, to accept from Governor Yaap van Oort the fossil skull of a probable distant ancestor, "Lucia," found near Sao Paulo in Portuguese Brazil. The Brazilian President is also present on this special occasion. After accepting his honors as a representative of the Americas' oldest race, Mr. Kern returns to Baja California, there interring Lucia's skull in a traditional ceremony among the sea-side caves.
Representatives from Manitouba naturally protest, but have very little influence over such a far-away matter.


(now I've got to fill out the inbetween part!)
 
Last edited:

Rockingham

Banned
possible that most are completely unpopulated until europeans come along?
would they be more valued, as land for colonies?
 

David S Poepoe

Banned
reddie said:
Whatever forces drove the ancestors of the Polynesians into the Pacific do not occur, leaving the Pacific beyond the Solomon Islands virtually unpopulated as of say, 100 A.D.

Who picks up the slack?

My pick is the seemingly highly mobile Hindu civilization of Indonesia, creating a vast swath of small states stretching from northern Australia to New Zealand and eastwards to the Hawaiian Islands. When Sumatra and Java convert to Islam, the Pacific realms, like Bali, do not follow suit. Is this a particularly plausible choice?
Click to expand...

And where exactly will we get the phrase 'Big Kahuna' from if not from the Polynesians?

Well, I can't see why anyone expanding from Sumatra or Java wouldn't eventually settle Australia. I think getting to Hawaii and Tahiti would be harder and one would have to look at the prevailing currents to see if settlement from North and South America is possible.
 

Max Sinister

Banned
Problem: The northern coast of Australia is very close to Java and Sumatra, but it's not very inviting too. The South-East is a different story, but it's not exactly on the way. How hard is it to plant rice in North Australia with medieval methods? Did they have sheep in Indonesia?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top