AHC/WI: Indochina becomes Muslim-majority, Maritime SEA remains Hindu-Buddhist

TheWitheredStriker

TheWitheredStriker

A while ago I made this thread: AHC: Muslim-majority Indochina. It gained quite some traction and interest before eventually dying off, which motivated to me to try something more unique. The objective of this AHC is once again to make Indochina a firmly Islamic region, but with a twist: Maritime Southeast Asia may not convert, and should remain Hindu-Buddhist. Essentially, we're switching the fates of the two parts of SEA around, as IOTL Maritime SEA Islamized and Indochina remained Hindu-Buddhist.

Some notes:
  • Malaya may convert, on the basis of being part of Mainland Southeast Asia, as long as Indonesia, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah don't. However, bonus points are awarded if the Malays do not convert to Islam (this'll make the AHC more challenging, too, as Malay traders faciliated the spread of Islam in Indonesia and were brought up in my previous thread as a way of converting Indochina as well).
  • Vietnam is part of Indochina, even if it's far less influenced by Hindu-Buddhism / India and instead leans more towards China. Hence, the conversion of Vietnam to Islam is necessary.
  • The Philippines may become Christianized by the arrival of the Spaniards, but avoiding this also nets you bonus points. The Muslim sultanates in the south (e.g. Sulu, Mindanao) may not be established.
  • Srivijaya or Majapahit may be saved, but you can also still make them collapse. As long as Maritime SEA feasibly remains Hindu-Buddhist, you can do whatever with these two.
  • I'm aware that Maritime SEA largely practiced Hindu-Buddhist-influenced animism, with the real deal mainly being for the elite (so no real need to bring up that Reddit post again, as helpful as it is). I'm sure you get the point of this thread, though. If you can make the common people of Maritime SEA practice Hinduism and / or Buddhism, though, you also get a bonus point.
 

Gopu

TheWitheredStriker said:
A while ago I made this thread: AHC: Muslim-majority Indochina. It gained quite some traction and interest before eventually dying off, which motivated to me to try something more unique. The objective of this AHC is once again to make Indochina a firmly Islamic region, but with a twist: Maritime Southeast Asia may not convert, and should remain Hindu-Buddhist. Essentially, we're switching the fates of the two parts of SEA around, as IOTL Maritime SEA Islamized and Indochina remained Hindu-Buddhist.

Some notes:
  • Malaya may convert, on the basis of being part of Mainland Southeast Asia, as long as Indonesia, Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah don't. However, bonus points are awarded if the Malays do not convert to Islam (this'll make the AHC more challenging, too, as Malay traders faciliated the spread of Islam in Indonesia and were brought up in my previous thread as a way of converting Indochina as well).
  • Vietnam is part of Indochina, even if it's far less influenced by Hindu-Buddhism / India and instead leans more towards China. Hence, the conversion of Vietnam to Islam is necessary.
  • The Philippines may become Christianized by the arrival of the Spaniards, but avoiding this also nets you bonus points. The Muslim sultanates in the south (e.g. Sulu, Mindanao) may not be established.
  • Srivijaya or Majapahit may be saved, but you can also still make them collapse. As long as Maritime SEA feasibly remains Hindu-Buddhist, you can do whatever with these two.
  • I'm aware that Maritime SEA largely practiced Hindu-Buddhist-influenced animism, with the real deal mainly being for the elite (so no real need to bring up that Reddit post again, as helpful as it is). I'm sure you get the point of this thread, though. If you can make the common people of Maritime SEA practice Hinduism and / or Buddhism, though, you also get a bonus point.
Click to expand...
The easiest way is for Srivijaya to defeat the chola invasion and remain a powerful maritime empire.
 
Superninja76

Superninja76

tex mex said:
Happened OTL:

Ramathipadi I - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
Click to expand...
It did but I think Khmer power was too far gone by that point. Hm.

Gopu said:
What about a Muslim Champa revival
Click to expand...
Perhaps not a revival, but.. ascendance? Po Binasuor came pretty close to breaking the power of Dai Viet and establishing a cham hegemony over the coastline of the South China Sea. If he succeeds in doing so, I could see him going after the khmer and imposing a puppet ruler or even one of his own dynasts; tie the growth of Islamic influence in Indochina to the establishment of Cham supremacy.
Hell, if you want to be fun and get some bonus points, you could have them build a bit of a maritime empire and, with Ottoman support, prevent Spanish colonisation of the Philippines.
 

Gopu

Superninja76 said:
It did but I think Khmer power was too far gone by that point. Hm.


Perhaps not a revival, but.. ascendance? Po Binasuor came pretty close to breaking the power of Dai Viet and establishing a cham hegemony over the coastline of the South China Sea. If he succeeds in doing so, I could see him going after the khmer and imposing a puppet ruler or even one of his own dynasts; tie the growth of Islamic influence in Indochina to the establishment of Cham supremacy.
Hell, if you want to be fun and get some bonus points, you could have them build a bit of a maritime empire and, with Ottoman support, prevent Spanish colonisation of the Philippines.
Click to expand...
So a Cham maritime empire dominating south-east Asia.
 
Superninja76

Superninja76

TheWitheredStriker said:
I do like the sound of that!

I think a surviving Bengal Sultanate could also help. Any idea on how we can achieve that?
Click to expand...
You'd have to prevent the establishment of one monolithic power in the Ganges. Mughal expansionism was the death of the sultanate more than anything else, and i suspect any other polity try that replaced it, whether surid or lodi, would similarly overwhelm bengal over time. Barring that, I suppose you could have a polity that simply can't extend itself that far east? Some kind of early version of the durranis, or a potent persianate empire that expands east into the industry river valley and perhaps a bit further.
Might be that the best option would be to have a tripartite split of India. Vijayanagar & friends, Delhi, a significantly stronger bengal, maybe some Rajputs.. idk. Something to ponder.
 
Ocean canine

Ocean canine

I think a good option would be the expansion of bengal sultanate eastwards into the indo china peninsula
It would be tough with many of them being tributaries of ming China but with careful planning we could see a successful migration of Rohingya muslims into the Arkanan kingdom which happened in OTL but this time with a more pronounced influx of religious Ghazi into the region
We could either see mamluks systems form in the region just like in india and the middle east with Muslim mercenaries hired to fight on and take part in the politics of the region
This would eventually inflate their influence and would end up seeing g several Emirates and sultanate pop up all over indo china
Ayyutthya sultanate
Lan xiang sultanate
Ming mao emirate
Arakan malikate
Champa will become a heavy contender from the south reaching along the coast east coast of Indo China conquering and scattering the mahayana buddhists into southern china creating a cataclysmic immigration crisis in the ming dynasty fertile southern border,
While champa's influence rises in maritime trade of south china sea
Champagne vessels are seen of the coast of mindinao and with the help of Somali and gujarati sailors and berber/turk corsair
The south china sea is under incredible contention with several factions vying for control on the region
Early collapse of ming
We could see expanik of champa into the southern tip of china
Early fall of ming could mean multiple things
Early rise of manchu
New dynasty that would rise from the ashes to dominate
Different nomadic invasion
Or a 3 kingdoms period (which would be dangerous since i don't know how they'd react to the russians on their borders
 
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TheWitheredStriker

TheWitheredStriker

Ocean canine said:
I think a good option would be the expansion of bengal sultanate eastwards into the indo china peninsula
It would be tough with many of them being tributaries of ming China but with careful planning we could see a successful migration of Rohingya muslims into the Arkanan kingdom which happened in OTL but this time with a more pronounced influx of religious Ghazi into the region
We could either see mamluks systems form in the region just like in india and the middle east with Muslim mercenaries hired to fight on and take part in the politics of the region
This would eventually inflate their influence and would end up seeing g several Emirates and sultanate pop up all over indo china
Ayyutthya sultanate
Lan xiang sultanate
Ming mao emirate
Arakan malikate
Champa will become a heavy contender from the south reaching along the coast east coast of Indo China conquering and scattering the mahayana buddhists into southern china creating a cataclysmic immigration crisis in the ming dynasty fertile southern border,
While champa's influence rises in maritime trade of south china sea
Champagne vessels are seen of the coast of mindinao and with the help of Somali and gujarati sailors and berber/turk corsair
The south china sea is under incredible contention with several factions vying for control on the region
Early collapse of ming
We could see expanik of champa into the southern tip of china
Early fall of ming could mean multiple things
Early rise of manchu
New dynasty that would rise from the ashes to dominate
Different nomadic invasion
Or a 3 kingdoms period (which would be dangerous since i don't know how they'd react to the russians on their borders
Click to expand...
I love this! Thank you for your reply!
 
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