Zachariah

Banned
From 1847-1878 CE, over 125,000 Chinese indentured laborers were brought to Cuba, an island of only about one million, through the 'Coolie Trade'. and at this stage, comprised almost an eighth of the Cuban population. However, most of these either died childless or intermarried, with their mixed-race children identifying as other ethnicities. So, here's your challenge-
Normal Level- keep Cuba's population at least 1/8th ethnically 'Chinese' up to the present day;
Hard Level- alter the ethnic composition of the Cuban population to be at least one quarter 'Chinese' by the present day;
Veteran Level- alter the ethnic composition of the Cuban population to be majority Chinese by the present day, with either Mandarin or Cantonese becoming an official language of Cuba.

Up for it?
 
What the fuck?

It's not as insane as you may think - Indians make up large minorities and majorities in some cases throughout the Caribbean, as they were imported as indentured labourers.

Anyways, have the Indian Mutiny succeed in kicking out British authority from North India. It would't succeed in Bengal or South India, but neither were really significant sources of Indian labourers - most came from Uttar Pradesh. Without being able to import Indians, Spain will have to look to other minorities, like Malays and Chinese. I'm not too sure if Spain would choose to import Chinese over Malays, but it's possible.
 
I'm not too sure if Spain would choose to import Chinese over Malays, but it's possible.

If I recall, the British imported/encouraged Chinese immigration even in Malaya because of their perception that Malays were 'lazy' (they weren't: they were tied to the land due to the social-economic structure that the British agreed to keep in return for sovereignty over the Malayan sultans), so would there have been a specific reason why the Spanish would prefer Malays?

With some reference to the experiences of my great-grandfather (who worked on the Western railroads), potential reasons for Chinese not staying in the Americas was that most who went in the first place were young second-son types (i.e would not expect to get a share of already-tiny farm plots in Guangdong) who 1) returned to China after they earned enough to buy property back home and 2) desired to marry somebody from their hometown.

I suppose to have a large Chinese population in Cuba you would have to create a situation which would essentially be Japanese immigration to Brazil writ large: large-scale family-centric immigration from Guangdong (most likely) to Cuba, which would be a feature of the late 19th-early 20thC immigration rather than the early 19thC. Encouraging this sort of immigration would require lots of economic opportunity in Cuba, as well as quite a bit of state encouragement (as seen in Brazil and Malaya). I certainly don't see colonial Spain, with its unpleasant experiences of Chinese immigration in the Philippines (albeit with even worse consequences for the Chinese), allowing this in Cuba; I'm not sure if the attitude of the Cuban government would have been different.
 
If I recall, the British imported/encouraged Chinese immigration even in Malaya because of their perception that Malays were 'lazy' (they weren't: they were tied to the land due to the social-economic structure that the British agreed to keep in return for sovereignty over the Malayan sultans), so would there have been a specific reason why the Spanish would prefer Malays?

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I just assumed that, as Malays were already ruled by a colonial power, they'd be easy to import.
 

Wallet

Banned
The US could annex Cuba and enforce its strict Chinese discrimination laws that prevent marriage between Asians and whites
 
If I recall, the British imported/encouraged Chinese immigration even in Malaya because of their perception that Malays were 'lazy' (they weren't: they were tied to the land due to the social-economic structure that the British agreed to keep in return for sovereignty over the Malayan sultans), so would there have been a specific reason why the Spanish would prefer Malays?

With some reference to the experiences of my great-grandfather (who worked on the Western railroads), potential reasons for Chinese not staying in the Americas was that most who went in the first place were young second-son types (i.e would not expect to get a share of already-tiny farm plots in Guangdong) who 1) returned to China after they earned enough to buy property back home and 2) desired to marry somebody from their hometown.

I suppose to have a large Chinese population in Cuba you would have to create a situation which would essentially be Japanese immigration to Brazil writ large: large-scale family-centric immigration from Guangdong (most likely) to Cuba, which would be a feature of the late 19th-early 20thC immigration rather than the early 19thC. Encouraging this sort of immigration would require lots of economic opportunity in Cuba, as well as quite a bit of state encouragement (as seen in Brazil and Malaya). I certainly don't see colonial Spain, with its unpleasant experiences of Chinese immigration in the Philippines (albeit with even worse consequences for the Chinese), allowing this in Cuba; I'm not sure if the attitude of the Cuban government would have been different.

Ah, I wasn't aware of that. I just assumed that, as Malays were already ruled by a colonial power, they'd be easy to import.

For context, the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia is pretty huge, going back several centuries, though the decline of the living standards of the Qing dynasty led to a spike in Chinese emigrants seeking work elsewhere. It's not impossible for Cuban plantations to import Chinese labourers. Mainland South America has a pretty sizeable Chinese diaspora in itself. You just need to make it cost-effective in terms of transport and reduction of red tape.
 
The key hurdle is lack of women. The Chinese workers were all men. This was usually by design so that the Chinese would leave once they collected their pay. There was once a sizable Chinese population in Australia and the vast majority went home as it was Australian government policy to restrict entry of Chinese women.
 
Putting aside the how for a minute, how would putting Cuba on the road to having a Chinese majority/plurality/sizeabe minority likely affect the series of events that led to the Spanish-American War and the end of the Spanish colonial empire in the Caribbean? How would it affect the internal politics in Cuba, especially the movement for independence? Would the United States be more or less likely to annex the island?
 

Deleted member 67076

Not sure this is possible IMO. Latin American societies tend to be good at absorbing waves of migrants into the general population due to aggressively mixing with newcomers while coopting cultural practices of the migratory societies into the mainstream, in effect working to weaken social barriers between the two. Its also accepted, if not encouraged, for newcomers to marry into the elite for racial or pragmatic reasons (or both).

I mean even Peru is 4% Chinese with a Chinese Peruvian population of 1.5 million or so, and most of them have Spanish Last Names and are incredibly assimilated.
 
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