asb wi: The Years of Rice and Turnip

Better title welcome.

I'm sure most of you have read the years of rice and salt- a big disease comes along and wipes out all the white people. Oh deer.
Now....WI the exact same thing happens but in reverse...
That is- a big disease comes along in the late 14th century and wipes out (almost) all the orientals. China, Indo-China, the Phillipines, Indonesia, Korea and Japan are cleansed of practically everyone. We can assume Mongolia and the like would survive largely intact due to being so sparsely inhabited.

Obviously this opens a lot of space and the Indians are the ones immediately next door...The Steppe people being small in number. Does Islam come to dominate through this? Or does it stregthen the hindus? Effects of the trade with the east being majorly damaged?
 
India will mostly colonize Southeast Asia. They already had extensive trade contacts throughout the region after all. Given the major naval states were in southern India, they'd probably colonize Indonesia first, and then slowly migrate upward. A more seafaring Arab power like Oman might try to get in on it as well.

The second major route to open will be the tried and true silk road. It will be largely useless for trade, of course, but a flow of settlers could easily travel through it. What happens here largely depends upon where the death ends. If Central Asia survives, people in this area will get a head start on recolonizing China. If not, Persia will probably move into the void in good time, although it will probably take a few hundred years for population pressures to build up suitably.

Then, the westward expansion of Russia falls into the picture. Given most of the initial resistance they felt was from pastoral steppe tribes, there would probably be minimal change at first. However, once they were established up through their OTL territory, they'd undoubtedly colonize Manchuria, Korea, parts of northern China, and possibly even Japan. As a knock off, they'll probably not bother with Alaska ITTL.

Then comes Western Europe. I expect (next to Asia) they'll be the biggest losers IITL. The distance is just too damn far - in OTL European settlement in the Pacific rim didn't start until the 19th century after all. Indeed, once knowledge of the great death spreads to Europe, what's the point of exploration? The powers didn't start out looking for virgin lands - they wanted Asian trade goods, and India alone is a very diminished market. Europe may put off discovering America a few centuries as a result.

China will be a very, very divided and unusual area by the time the Europeans discover it. Muslims in the center, Indians along the southern coastline, Russians in the North, Mongols on the Chinese steppe, and probably some surviving indigenous groups in the mountains of Yunnan.
 
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