Tsetse flies in South East Asia? What happens?

[Canaan Osborne]

Tsetse flies are often blamed (perhaps justifiably) for hurting efforts to build large empires and cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Now of course cities and empires were built but it is poignant that the greatest empires such as Mali and Ethiopia were built in areas without tsetse flies. So somehow Tsetse flies make it to Eouth East Asia: is civilization crippled or at least delayed? Does European imperialism get delayed? Is there a lighter population?

 

[twovultures]

In Southeast Asia, civilization is not crippled; a large part of Southeast Asia is maritime, and as long as there are people building boats and sailing, civilization survives. The location of the centers of civilization will be different, however, especially on the mainland; instead of capital locations like Burma's Pagan, which were built in or near prime horse breeding territory, harbor cities will become more prominent early on. On land, elephants will become even more important militarily than OTL, as there will not be a reliable cavalry in the region due to the diseases spread by tsetse flies. China will also suffer without southeast Asia's horse breeding to supply their imperial cavalry during times when relations with the steppe nomads go south, so China will probably be more regularly overrun by invaders from the north ITTL.

The diseases spread by tsetse flies are, IIRC, not as dangerous to donkeys so it is possible that ITTL European powers will have more luck introducing the practice of breeding donkeys with horses and creating mules than they did IOTL.

This article has some interesting information on horses, donkeys and mules in southeast Asia.

 

[Canaan Osborne]

In Southeast Asia, civilization is not crippled; a large part of Southeast Asia is maritime, and as long as there are people building boats and sailing, civilization survives. The location of the centers of civilization will be different, however, especially on the mainland; instead of capital locations like Burma's Pagan, which were built in or near prime horse breeding territory, harbor cities will become more prominent early on. On land, elephants will become even more important militarily than OTL, as there will not be a reliable cavalry in the region due to the diseases spread by tsetse flies. China will also suffer without southeast Asia's horse breeding to supply their imperial cavalry during times when relations with the steppe nomads go south, so China will probably be more regularly overrun by invaders from the north ITTL.

The diseases spread by tsetse flies are, IIRC, not as dangerous to donkeys so it is possible that ITTL European powers will have more luck introducing the practice of breeding donkeys with horses and creating mules than they did IOTL.

This article has some interesting information on horses, donkeys and mules in southeast Asia.

Maybe there will be more extensive efforts to truly domesticate elephants for more placid, intelligent, smaller, and fast-breeding varieties?

 

[twovultures]

Maybe there will be more extensive efforts to truly domesticate elephants for more placid, intelligent, smaller, and fast-breeding varieties?

There will definitely be an attempt, but I don't know if it is possible to select for faster breeding, without which full domestication is not feasible. Hyraxes are only distantly related to elephants but are also slow breeders, so the long gestation period seems to be ingrained in the elephant family tree. That said, with less land-based civilization, there's more wild land for elephants so it may not be necessary.