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So in an arquebus would that mean they use papier-mache wadding? Sorry not hugely familiar with the workings of firearms

It wasn't actually pseudo Hinduism. It was full on Hindu-Buddhism. You basically had an underlying folk religion with Hinduism and Buddhism as the official religion (more Hindu or Buddhist depending on the monarchs own preferences). Remember- Hinduism isn't a unitary religion so SE Asian...

The Kala Pani taboo was by no means universal so that's the least of the problems.

That's fine- the period I'm thinking of wouldn't have anything better than matchlocks. They're aware of iron but simply because they're copper and tin rich they haven't had a reason to transition.

This is very interesting- thanks! How would stone shot work?

It's just a different sequence of events, with gunpowder being discovered pretty early on while iron while in use, is less widespread in this specific region due to the presence of plentiful tin and copper deposits. The mainland cultures beyond this archipelago do use iron.

Yes, although less heavily armoured than hoplites I suspect. Maybe padded leather breastplates with largely bare legs and arms (leather greaves?). The spears can be something like a Greek dory with the spearmen carrying large shields to screen the arbalests/arquebuses at the heart of the...

This is sort of what I was thinking

Seconded- thanks for the replies.

Oh bollocks- I thought I was being original :D It's a fantasy setting- there is a Sinosphere analogue but it has crashed into a dark age following a disaster of some sort. I like the idea of lacquered armour rather than bronze, though. Bronze weapons with lacquered armour, perhaps. And in any...

Yeah- The scenario involves a thallasocratic culture based on Preislamic Indonesia, but which has stuck to bronze due to rich deposits of tin, arsenic and copper ores around the archipelago. Land tactics tend toward crossbow and pike squares, slowly givin way to pike and shot. Armour is...

This is just a question for a world building project I'm working on. Could a civilisation which had never adopted widespread use of iron due to easily accessible copper and tin/zinc deposits in relative proximity develop the mettalurgical skill necessary to cast soohisticated bronze weapons and...

The House of Pahlavi actually postdates the House of Saud and never had as much legitimacy. I'm no saudi fan but Reza Shah Pahlavi was a parvenu as royals go.

Basically this. People have always latched on to various reasons for conflict. Even in modern times- is it right to say the Sinhalese massacres of Jaffna Tamils, or the Burmese massacres of Rohingya are holy wars? Yes and no- looking back at historical conflicts, the situation on the ground...

Don't dentists who take the requisite specialisation already do maxillo-facial surgery?

Well it went through an unstable period while they tried to figure out how to get the horses to roller skate.

Eh? There was a pretty much direct pipeline- South Indian spice ports > Arab ports > egypt and levantine roman ports

Yup- Britain came in in the aftermath of the collapse of the Mughals and the train of chaos that set off (e.g. through the rampant warlordism that allowed the Company to play factions off against each other so easily). Indian rulers (toward the end of the 18th Century) were beginning to get...

I still think calling India Soviet-aligned is a bit strong. India was certainly a Fabian Socialist state and sympathetic to the USSR but much of that was because first Pakistan was cozying up to the US and then China warmed up to the US after the Sino-Soviet Split. The relationship deteriorated...

See it's not as if it's a computer game where you get points for royal marriages or whatever. There's no common interest or tangible benefit.