A Pan-Pacific Polynesian TL Idea

Are you suggesting that Aotearoa jade could be a commodity in China? Well imo that wouldn't work. The Chinese like jade more than most of the world but it was never important in the economy. Until the Qing even the jade mines of Burma were rarely tapped (during the Ming rubies and sapphires from Burma were valued more than Burmese jade), and Burma isn't very far from the core of Chinese civilization.

It could become popular or at least somewhat valued in the Lapita region or South America, if jade doesn't often come from the north there.
 
Lapita Goods and State: True, obsidian and shells probably won't cut it as a major trade goods. But what about other readily available trade goods, such as pearls and coral? If you're not looking for luxury trade goods, then crops could easily cut it as well. And another possibility, ITTL, you could alter Lapita cuisine to make spicier food more popular- as such, they could easily start cultivating and trading nutmeg and mace within a few hundred years of their arrival, using the Myristica argentea species exclusively native to PNG and the Bismarck archipelago instead of the Myristica fragrans variety exclusive to the Banda Islands, pipping the Banda Islanders to the post by several hundred years, and securing their status as 'the Spice Islands' of TTL instead. And if you do, then there are your trade links with China, India and the rest of the world, completely secured until you reach the era of European plantations.

Galapagos settlers- it'd be a lot more plausible for the Rapa Nui, since they'd be going with the current instead of fighting it all the way- for the Hawaiians to have stood a chance of getting there, they'd have had to follow the currents down past Rapa Nui and make their way back up from the south anyway.

Religion- Maybe. If you went with the alternate Spice Islands option, then you would certainly have missionaries and the like coming along with those traders and merchants. But unlike the Banda Islands, its location's far more favorable for the East Asians than the Arabs, so you'd be far less likely to have Lapita Sultanates. Of course, the question is, which East Asian religions would have been proselytizing enough? And what sort of competition would they be going up against- what would the indigenous religion, or religions, of the Lapita peoples look like by then?

I like those ideas. The spice trade could start small, with some wild plants coming home on a boat and prompting cultivation in a few areas, which could retain trade contact in the west and bring in valuable goods as a result, potentially propelling those islands to statehood. Would conquest or annexations be likely from these? Maybe some southerners, closer to the source of the spices, could develop states while the northerners will start being marginalized and raid or trade with them. Voyages east could be organized by the states or by desperate northerners trying to escape their wrath/influence, leading to discovery. Colonies could retain trade links and send back whatever they may have--food for the growing states? Eventually the voyagers reach north and east to South America and Hawaii, leading to a slow flow of ideas, goods, and people across the ocean in both directions.
 
Spices don't work. They were apparently not a commodity that greatly influenced Maluku (the Spice Islands) until the 1300s or so, since, for example, the only clove-producing islands were uninhabited until that time. Demand for fine spices was never very significant in China, so there's that.
 

Zachariah

Banned
Spices don't work. They were apparently not a commodity that greatly influenced Maluku (the Spice Islands) until the 1300s or so, since, for example, the only clove-producing islands were uninhabited until that time. Demand for fine spices was never very significant in China, so there's that.
Ahem. As early as the 1st Century, they were already a established trade commodity for both the Romans and Indians, as evidenced in writings by Pliny and in Indian Vedic writings, where it's recommended for headaches, fever, and bad breath. And as for the Chinese, they'd starting importing nutmeg, mace and cloves as a valued trade commodities long before the 3rd century BC, when anecdotal evidence suggests that Chinese courtiers carried cloves in their mouths, to sweeten their breath when addressing the emperor. Nutmeg, aka 'Rou Dou Kou', is one of the earliest and most important plants in Chinese medicine, used to promote the circulation of qi and stimulate the mind, as well as as an aphrodisiac (due to its high myristicin content, offering a mild drug-induced high similar to that of ecstasy, and it can be snorted or smoked in the same way as ecstasy). The Chinese also used nutmeg to remedy diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, nausea and vomiting, as well as as an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial agent. Because it had all of these properties, and because of its fragrances, Nutmeg was a critical ingredient in some of the earliest Chinese toothpastes and dental creams, prior to the birth of Christ. So the demand was definitely there.
 

Zachariah

Banned
So why did it make virtually no discernable impact on the people living in the actual sources of clove and nutmeg until the 1300s?
Because it did. The 1300s was just when the Sultanate of Ternate (then the Kingdom of Gapi, until the conversion to Islam in the late 15th century) was established. The rival of Ternate, the Kingdom of Tidore, was established at the dawn of the 12th century, in 1109. And the earliest settlements on Gapi island, now known as Ternate, were founded by an early exodus of settlers from Halmahera, the largest of the Maluku islands by area, which formerly hosted most of the population centers and was the focal point of the spice trade prior to the discovery of cloves, which weren't native to Halmahera, but were only found on the Ternate, Tidore and the Bacan Islands to the south-west. Prior to that, there aren't too many records in existence, but we do have foreign metal currency dating back to the 5th century BC on the islands. It did make a discernable impact- the whole pattern of settlement in the islands was defined by the abundance of the spices available.
 
The rival of Ternate, the Kingdom of Tidore, was established at the dawn of the 12th century, in 1109.
Tidore was never oriented towards foreign influence compared to Ternate (e.g. Its later Islamization), and this is a tenet of Malukan cosmology; Tidore is the eastern state connected to Malukan tradition, Ternate is the commercial maritime state. So the founding of Ternate is much more significant than Tidore.

In any case the only sources I can find that gives such an early date for the founding of Tidore is very unreliable (WP and guidebooks). My main source for this is Leonard Andaya's The World of Maluku.

was the focal point of the spice trade prior to the discovery of cloves
Nope. Even when Ternate was settled, Malukan oral history is insistent that the main settlements of early Ternate were inland, i.e. not commercial. Cloves did not lead to the settlement of Ternate, rather, the settlement of Ternate led to the wider exploitation of cloves.

There is also no fine spice species indigenous to Halmahera, so...

Prior to that, there aren't too many records in existence
Malukan oral history as collected by the Portuguese recall that the Chinese were the first foreign traders in Maluku, and we know that the Chinese were not a major presence in Southeast Asian waters until the Song.

we do have foreign metal currency dating back to the 5th century BC on the islands.
That in itself means little, or otherwise we'd have to say that there was significant Roman commerce in the South China Sea, which clearly is not the case.
 

Zachariah

Banned
Well, the cloves, nutmeg and mace were coming from somewhere back in the 3rd century BCE at the very least, when envoys from Java brought cloves to the Han Dynasty court of China, with Emperor Gaozu insisting that anyone addressing him from then on would have to chew cloves to sweeten their breath during audiences with him. All you'd have to do would be to extend the trade routes a bit further, or have them going the other way. Java's trade with the spice islands mostly consisting of them obtaining the spices in return for regular food, particularly rice, which they had a major surplus of. And if the Lapita settled as far as the north-east coast of New Guinea, around the Sepik coast and up the Sepik river valley, then they'd have potentially had access to an similar food surplus to build up its own population, to trade for other surrounding islands' valuable goods, and to build up its own Majapahit style trade empire. Exploit the full potential of Psophocarpus tetragonolobus (which are effectively wild potatoes, soybeans and spinach combined into a single plant, with higher yields of edible tubers, beans and leaves per hectare as well as a higher protein content than any of these crops, and with the ability to fix nitrogen from the air and increase the fertility of farming land to put the icing on the cake), and you won't need to bother waiting around for the potatoes for your population boost (until you get down into the temperate zone at any rate)- you'd have an even better alternative already in your back yard.
 
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Thank you, Zachariah and IS and Dane for your detailed responses and suggestions. If there aren't any objections, this will be the framework of the TL:

The *Lapita people arrive in the Bismarck Sea and things are normal for a while, but the POD occurs when a southern Lapita town begins trading a new plant, winged beans, and a few valuables for spices with the Papuans, which they soon grow themselves. As their wealth grows, they find that others want their spices and begin trading, with the network expanding west by ~1200 BCE. The food surpluses from the beans lead to the formation of a proper state in the region, likely encompassing a good portion of the south of the cultural zone, on the Papuan coast, and taking a leading role in trade, perhaps sending expeditions east to find more potential wealth. Another source of migration comes from marginalized northerners, shut out from the trade, who take to the sea after some aggression from the states. After some time, settlers reach Rapa Nui and from there the *Galápagos. People from either of those places reach South America, and a flow of goods begins back across the ocean, eventually bringing people to China and prompting an expedition.

Keep in mind that this is broad-strokes outline based on suggestions made in this thread. More suggestions are welcome if any more major problems are present.
 
I believe I also noted the Juan Fernandez Islands as a potentially good trading base, though precolonial Chile was nowhere rich as the societies to the north.

I also mentioned Cocos Island, which might be settled early enough (maybe late 14th/early 15th century) that Central American peoples and soon Mesoamerica can be brought into this system. But considering that the Cocos Island Polynesians would be a fringe settlement, and Central America was on the fringe of Mesoamerica, I don't know how much interchange can occur, at least with Mesoamerica.
 
Thank you everyone! I hope to get the first real post up relatively soon (though should it be here or another thread?) and will primarily use a textbook or archaeological report format in the first part, "On Wings of Beans." The TL itself will be called "How Far We'll Go."
 
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