AHC: Rapa Nui Wank

The biggest PoD is the carving of moai. Stop that and use trees for boats and the Rapa Nui have a chance of contact with the outside world even if it is the occasional canoe.

On the other hand cutting down the trees clears land for growing crops, which has to be a "good thing" because that means more food.

The fact is that colonising Easter Island is a short term win, you have a new island to live on instead of sailing on in your canoes, and a disaster for your descendants when they run out of trees, and they will.

I'm reading that Easter Island was just too cold for breadfruit. Today the main crop on the island is maize, so just getting that from South America would be a real boon for the Rapa Nui.
Eating maize might improve the diet of the Rapa Nui but at 5 tonnes per hectare against 6 for taro and 13 for sweet potato that is less food for families that grow it. (Figures are from wikipedia and I am more than happy to accept revisions to them if it helps the Rapa Nui :))
 
Maybe that's your actual POD.

Look at it this way. It's not like the colonists of Rapa Nui, sitting around on the Marquessas, said to themselves "hey, screw pigs and dogs and breadfruit, we're just not going to bother with those - for us, it's chickens all the way."

What was probably actually happening was that every Polynesian sailing expedition would probably load up with the cultural maximum - all the plant crops, seeds, tools, pigs, chickens, etc. etc.

But a long voyage, crap happens. Stores get eaten up, or ships get swamped, seawaters causes spoilage, some of the animals don't make it.

Maybe all it would have taken, is a little better prepared expedition. Or maybe something as simple as the fact that a sow that got taken along was pregnant.

Maybe a slightly, or somewhat better or more ambitious colonizing package would have resulted in a greater diversity of domesticated animals and plants making it to Rapa Nui.

The Rapa Nui people, with more animal and plant resources had a larger population growing faster, there was more diversity of activities, more openness to further and more ambitious exploration.

Maybe one of the butterflies was when the good trees were dying off or going, and there were fewer and fewer deep sea boats left, a slightly more ambitious and populated Rapa Nui culture, with the crunch coming slightly earlier when the navigation and deep sea skills were more formidible would go 'well, not much trees around here, but there's some Islands where we could get really good trees.... lets go..."

Does this help you at all?

Going off of what Richard V said, I think the problem was more that Easter Island couldn't support the crops and animals, not that they weren't transported there.

Plus, now that I'm thinking about it, Easter Island is tiny. Even if the Rapa Nui did reach South America with pigs, well, that would be a great POD for the Americas, but the number of Rapa Nui settlers would be so small that they would inevitably get absorbed, not the other way around. Even if the whole population left they would still only be a few thousand in number, and most of South America was very populous.
 

SinghKing

Banned
A little more clarification on the OP- we're talking about wanking the Rapa Nui people, not the people on the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It doesn't have to be one and the same, any more than a Hispanic-wank has to be a Spain-wank, or a Mongol-wank has to be a Mongolia-wank.
 
A little more clarification on the OP- we're talking about wanking the Rapa Nui people, not the people on the island of Rapa Nui (Easter Island). It doesn't have to be one and the same, any more than a Hispanic-wank has to be a Spain-wank, or a Mongol-wank has to be a Mongolia-wank.

I understand that. Where could they go, though?
 
Going off of what Richard V said, I think the problem was more that Easter Island couldn't support the crops and animals, not that they weren't transported there.

I don't think that follows. The Island is indeed small, 163 square kilometers, but you could still support a more diverse suite of domesticates in that territory.

Plus, now that I'm thinking about it, Easter Island is tiny. Even if the Rapa Nui did reach South America with pigs, well, that would be a great POD for the Americas, but the number of Rapa Nui settlers would be so small that they would inevitably get absorbed, not the other way around. Even if the whole population left they would still only be a few thousand in number, and most of South America was very populous.

Of course that's correct, but maybe you need to think about it differently.

There isn't going to be a Rapa Nui Empire. But Rapa Nui which retained an active sailing tradition and a more robust sailing culture over a longer period could be transformative for the South American coastal cultures and for the Polynesians.

In OTL the Sweet Potato was introduced to Polynesia. Consider the butterflies from the widespread incorporation of Polynesian boatbuilding, sailing and navigation, the introduction of pigs and chickens, loan words, new mythologies. Would this mean stronger contact between the Andean and Meso-Americans, new cultural developments...
 
The biggest PoD is the carving of moai. Stop that and use trees for boats and the Rapa Nui have a chance of contact with the outside world even if it is the occasional canoe.

TBH I disagree with this. The Maori and the Hawaiians cut down a LOT of trees when building their canoes-not just to build the canoes, but to create the rollers necessary to move them from where the trees were cut to the beaches. But those islands were more climatically stable, so they had more trees which grew back faster.

A Rapa Nui people who don't cut down trees for moai will delay the inevitable, but will not stop it. And that's assuming that it was the Rapa Nui people and not Polynesian rats that destroyed the forests, as has been proposed.


Eating maize might improve the diet of the Rapa Nui but at 5 tonnes per hectare against 6 for taro and 13 for sweet potato that is less food for families that grow it. (Figures are from wikipedia and I am more than happy to accept revisions to them if it helps the Rapa Nui :))

A better crop package is squash, beans, and maize together. These provide all the amino acids you need to form protein. And considering that crops like taro are very protein poor, it would at least do wonders for the people's health to have this agricultural trinity available. This means they can keep more land for growing food and less land for raising animals, which is inherently a less efficient use of land. They may still keep livestock on, say, the tops of the 3 mountains or on the edges of the beaches which may be less hospitable for crops though.

Of course, you need ash to treat maize so that it doesn't cause pellagra, and with an absence of trees that's a problem. This was actually a major factor in the extinction of the Rapa Nui people in my timeline.
 
I want to add, Harold Siggurdson II's suggestion that the Rapa Nui start using kon-tiki style rafts is intriguing. Thor Heyerdahl already wrote a fascinating alternate history of Polynesia where those rafts were used to colonize the Pacific, why not use some of his ideas?
 
TBH A better crop package is squash, beans, and maize together. These provide all the amino acids you need to form protein. And considering that crops like taro are very protein poor, it would at least do wonders for the people's health to have this agricultural trinity available. This means they can keep more land for growing food and less land for raising animals, which is inherently a less efficient use of land. They may still keep livestock on, say, the tops of the 3 mountains or on the edges of the beaches which may be less hospitable for crops though.

Of course, you need ash to treat maize so that it doesn't cause pellagra, and with an absence of trees that's a problem. This was actually a major factor in the extinction of the Rapa Nui people in my timeline.
Thanks for this. Whilst I could get a comparison between maize and some other foodstuff I could not get a very good break down for taro. Given the minor differences yield per hectacre I would agree with a swap, especially as taro does not sound very appertising. I would keep the sweet potatoes though in the mix for their high yield.

More healthier Rapa Nus though is not going solve the problem of eventual over population of the island.

A Rapa Nui people who don't cut down trees for moai will delay the inevitable, but will not stop it. And that's assuming that it was the Rapa Nui people and not Polynesian rats that destroyed the forests, as has been proposed.
Given that the rats spread to other Polynesian islands yet these were not deforested I guess that they must have had trees, the seeds of which rats did not eat.
 
Have a major apocalypse of some sort spread throughout the world (think the fatality rate of AIDS with the infectiousness of flu, with a 2 year incubation time). Oh, say 1800 or so.

Rapa Nui is spared by pure chance, and the fact that very few people show up there any given year.

After a couple of years, the rest of the world is almost totally depopulated, and Rapa Nui is the only organized culture left. They expand beyond their island and repopulate the world.
 

SinghKing

Banned
Have a major apocalypse of some sort spread throughout the world (think the fatality rate of AIDS with the infectiousness of flu, with a 2 year incubation time). Oh, say 1800 or so.

Rapa Nui is spared by pure chance, and the fact that very few people show up there any given year.

After a couple of years, the rest of the world is almost totally depopulated, and Rapa Nui is the only organized culture left. They expand beyond their island and repopulate the world.

No ASB Vlad Tepes candidates, thank you very much...
 
Considering that Easter Island's climate was not good for breadfruit, suppose that through trade they got some Andean crops like oca,mashua,yacon and ulluco along with guinea pigs. The guinea pigs alone would provide the necessary protein and are small enough to be easily fed and transported. As for their canoes, well there are two options available. Either make Kon Tiki rafts or learn how to make reed boats from the Chimu or an Andean people while teaching them about sails. Anyway with proper nutrition their population should grow enough to explore the local islands. And passing on their navigation skills should help the Pre-Columbians as well.
 
I seem to recall something along the lines of Heyrdahl's reed boats being slowly eaten by sea worms over the course of a voyage.
 
I seem to recall something along the lines of Heyrdahl's reed boats being slowly eaten by sea worms over the course of a voyage.

Balsa rafts have had the same problem when tested by archaeologists. You need harder wood rafts or catamarans for really long lasting ships if you want to sail along the mainland of South America.

Balsa wood does make for flexible masts, though, which can be useful in some situations. There's a lot of potential for oceangoing innovation with increased Polynesian/South American contact-Native Americans with ships that can sail against the wind, the Polynesians with new materials to build boats with.
 
Another issue was how deforested Easter Island was. If they manage to make it to Juan Fernandez Island which is heavily forested or learn early how to make reed boats, that's a big help right there.

The Rapa Nui people did have reed boats already, they used small reed bundles as floats when swimming out to rocky islets.

The strangest thing about Rapa Nui is that they gave up on eating sea food - the sea food taboo deprived them of a huge protein advantage. BTW Taro is bland (needs coconut cream for flavour) but it is a complete starch. Taro leaves are good too. Breadfruit is a wondercrop if it could be sustained.

Anyway ongoing outmigration is the best option for Rapa Nui, especially if it involves setting up South American colonies, introducing sail technology and sailing up and down the coast as traders (and consequently avoiding major issues with the Andean empires). They might even develop a Orang Laut type 'pirate' culture based on being traders and naval mercenaries
 
The strangest thing about Rapa Nui is that they gave up on eating sea food - the sea food taboo deprived them of a huge protein advantage. BTW Taro is bland (needs coconut cream for flavour) but it is a complete starch. Taro leaves are good too. Breadfruit is a wondercrop if it could be sustained.
Not strange at all. Easter Island has no coral reefs so few fish live close to the shore. To sail further out to fish or hunt dolphins requires canoes, which require trees.
 
Not strange at all. Easter Island has no coral reefs so few fish live close to the shore. To sail further out to fish or hunt dolphins requires canoes, which require trees.

On the tree thing, the deforestation what is the leading theory on that? I know the one about the people needing the trees to make the Moai Heads, but what's the others? Rats I saw before, any else?
 
A Rapa Nui colony ship gets blown off course and lands on Chiloé.

Chiloé has a perfect climate for agriculture, is an island so more resistant to attacks from neighboring tribes, and probably didn't have a huge indiginous population for the Rapa Nui to be assimilated into. It could fit a civilization of a million people or so.
Not sure what the best PoD is to make this work well.
 
On the tree thing, the deforestation what is the leading theory on that? I know the one about the people needing the trees to make the Moai Heads, but what's the others? Rats I saw before, any else?
Apparantly rats like eating palm nuts. In Collapse Jared Diamond reports that every palm nut they found in digs on Easter Island had been gnawed and thus would not grow into a tree.
 

SinghKing

Banned
A Rapa Nui colony ship gets blown off course and lands on Chiloé.

Chiloé has a perfect climate for agriculture, is an island so more resistant to attacks from neighboring tribes, and probably didn't have a huge indiginous population for the Rapa Nui to be assimilated into. It could fit a civilization of a million people or so.
Not sure what the best PoD is to make this work well.

Actually, reading into it, Chiloé did have a decent-sized indigenous population, and it's had one since antiquity (settled i.r.o 5000 BC). And the native people who inhabited the archipelago at the time seem to have been pretty skilled navigators and boat builders as well. Indeed, there's considerable speculation that many of the design aspects of the indigenous populations' boats, their Dalca canoes, were derived from the designs of Polynesian vessels. So who knows? Maybe it already happened, and the proposed population, knowledge and/or trade exchange with the Rapa Nui actually took place IOTL...
 
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