What could be harvested, exactly?
Octopi, shellfish, seaweed
What could be harvested, exactly?
All of them (I mentioned bistort a bit ago), but the challenge is making them crops (they're more vegetables than any potential staple, which the Ainu already had). Kamchatkans used all of them extensively, but there's no real pressure to actually turn them into anything since they got what they needed out of them. Domesticated bistort or sweetvetch (which would produce more but realistically wouldn't be the staples LoIaM portrays them as) would be nice additions, but that's all they are--additions. It wasn't like Norway or Estonia needed much in the way of new domesticates to move from sets of sparsely populated chiefdoms to more complex and populated societies.Could any of the LoIaM crops function in the Ainu lands?
Ainu with better seafaring skills--maybe they go for whaling and such and these skills develop from there--could be crucial for the history of Pacific Northwest Indians if they ever go that far. Maybe a very early fur trade? Or increased demand for walrus/narwhal ivory? Still, they were metalworkers IIRC, and if they can help spread the knowledge of how to smelt, say, copper (commonly used by Athabaskans and the Tlingit in its native form), perhaps those people would be smelting gold and silver soon, hence give even more reason to visit there.
They have many river-valleys, if I remember correctly what I read from Alexandra David-Neel's book. Not sure if they are used as agricultural centers or not thou
Why does Sakhalin have such a small population today? It’s the same size and on the same latitude as Ireland but has not even one tenth the population. By contrast Hokkaido has the same size and population as Ireland.
If Hokkaido and Sakhalin was one country and it had the population density as Hokkaido it would have a total population comparable to Sweden or Greece.
Ireland has the Gulf Stream. Sakhalin... doesn't.Why does Sakhalin have such a small population today? It’s the same size and on the same latitude as Ireland but has not even one tenth the population. By contrast Hokkaido has the same size and population as Ireland.
If Hokkaido and Sakhalin was one country and it had the population density as Hokkaido it would have a total population comparable to Sweden or Greece.
It's significantly colder, even Hokkaido is.
Ireland has the Gulf Stream. Sakhalin... doesn't.
Most of its population was deported by the Soviets after WWII. If Japan still owned their half of the island (or the whole thing) then while it wouldn't have Hokkaido levels of population density, it would have a few hundred thousand more people easily.Why does Sakhalin have such a small population today? It’s the same size and on the same latitude as Ireland but has not even one tenth the population. By contrast Hokkaido has the same size and population as Ireland.
If Hokkaido and Sakhalin was one country and it had the population density as Hokkaido it would have a total population comparable to Sweden or Greece.