Entertaining an AH idea : Indonesian colonization of Australia

Given Majapahit's feudal nature, I'm not sure that they will build Australia. Maybe they'll just fund it, and corruption will run rampant in this colony.

Also, the whole of Australia is just difficult to defend. Even if Majapahit goes strong, it will probably end up like a second China.

Who says they'll go there any earlier then 1700s ?

I'm not sure it's any possible for Java to pull anything like Japanese or Chinese isolationism, meaning they'll be constantly exposed and informed of outside development. However they'll still be in more comfortable distance from Europeans compared to, say, the Ottomans. Perhaps it can be argued they'll end up the way Thailand did IOTL, or Zanzibar realm before being carved up into pieces, or on par with average South American countries of 19th century, but Japan was arguably rather close to turning into colony herself, and seeing the similarities between Javanese and pre-Meiji Japanese nature of statehood, and smaller size of area to build up upon, and proximity to much thicker money stream, it simply has better odds, and that is skipping the twice as long period to evolve before the dawn of European industrial imperialism.
 
I don't know about pig though, since Javanese will still convert to Islam here.

They didn't convert yet, though. Perhaps if they settle earlier Australia might become a Hindu/Buddhist holdout like Bali. I thought of pigs first because they're pretty adaptable to a lot of climates and eat anything, but if the Javanese have any other animals that would transplant well they'd probably use them too. You're probably more familiar with what kind of livestock they had before global trade than me...

Herding would also sync nicely with cash crops since it would allow them to use land they'd otherwise need to produce food for cash crops.
 
1) They didn't convert yet, though. Perhaps if they settle earlier Australia might become a Hindu/Buddhist holdout like Bali. I thought of pigs first because they're pretty adaptable to a lot of climates and eat anything, but if the Javanese have any other animals that would transplant well they'd probably use them too. You're probably more familiar with what kind of livestock they had before global trade than me...

2) Herding would also sync nicely with cash crops since it would allow them to use land they'd otherwise need to produce food for cash crops.

1) They sure won't start settling the continent before 1700s.

I frankly think that stockbreeding will be dominated by Madurans(the most overtly muslim of the lot). They'll be easily the cowboys/gauchos of the land. But they'll be big on Queensland, not New South Wales. Or will they necessarily be confined to the tropics ? They're pretty reckless, adventurous bunch.

2) And now, what cash crops do you think they'll be ?
 
Last edited:
I know next to nothing about this subject, but you've intrigued me enough that I think I'm going to follow and see where it goes. I'm subscribed.
 
What about early Austronesian settlement a la Madagascar?
The difference is Madagascar was uninhabited before the arrival of the Austronesian-speaking people, while Australia was already inhabited by the indigenous Australians.

In this case, traders from the Indonesian archipelago (especially Javanese, Balinese, Makassarese, Madurese...) will intermarry with indigenous women of the extended version of the "Top End" (from Western Australia's Kimberley region to Queensland's Cape York Peninsula OTL), and expect a flourishing Malay-based creole and a mixed indigenous-Indonesian culture.
 
Last edited:
In this case, traders from the Indonesian archipelago (especially Javanese, Balinese, Makassarese, Madurese...) will intermarry with indigenous women of the extended version of the "Top End" (northernmost part of Northern Territory and Queensland's Cape York Peninsula OTL), and expect a flourishing Malay-based creole and a mixed indigenous-Indonesian culture.
Which also sounds like an interesting departure from OTL :)
 
If a culture settles on the northern coast of Australia that is more integrated in the larger Indonesian economic world, might this region have fallen under the control of the Dutch when they moved into the area? If so, might Australia have been split between the Dutch and English?
 
If a culture settles on the northern coast of Australia that is more integrated in the larger Indonesian economic world, might this region have fallen under the control of the Dutch when they moved into the area? If so, might Australia have been split between the Dutch and English?
That's highly possible.
 
If a culture settles on the northern coast of Australia that is more integrated in the larger Indonesian economic world, might this region have fallen under the control of the Dutch when they moved into the area? If so, might Australia have been split between the Dutch and English?

So are we thinking a north/south split, rather than the far more common ATL Australia east/west split?

How would these butterflies change the English/Dutch colonial conflict?
 
So are we thinking a north/south split, rather than the far more common ATL Australia east/west split?

How would these butterflies change the English/Dutch colonial conflict?

I would say it would be more like a NW/SE split.

If we make the assumption that Indonesia colonization is limited to the Northwest coast, it means that settlement of the eastern part of the continent by the English will look much as it did in OTL.

The Dutch side, if we use their relations in Indonesia as a comparison, would be much more a case of an isolated imperialist elite ruling over masses of indigenous populations. Unless something is fundamentally different about NW Australia from Indonesia that would lead to Dutch settlers taking up residence there, there wouldn't ever be a sort of Australian equivalent to the Afrikaners.

I don't see Australia being valuable enough for a war to start between Britain and the Netherlands over it, so I think that as long as they don't go to war over something else, the two territories will coexist for the most part.
 
I would say it would be more like a NW/SE split.

If we make the assumption that Indonesia colonization is limited to the Northwest coast, it means that settlement of the eastern part of the continent by the English will look much as it did in OTL.

The Dutch side, if we use their relations in Indonesia as a comparison, would be much more a case of an isolated imperialist elite ruling over masses of indigenous populations. Unless something is fundamentally different about NW Australia from Indonesia that would lead to Dutch settlers taking up residence there, there wouldn't ever be a sort of Australian equivalent to the Afrikaners.

I don't see Australia being valuable enough for a war to start between Britain and the Netherlands over it, so I think that as long as they don't go to war over something else, the two territories will coexist for the most part.

So no expansion of/analogue to the Boer Wars, then.
 
First off, given the Madagascar analogy for (much closer) Australia, Majapahit could easily conquer/colonize ALL Australia: The Majapahit had overwhelmingly superior technology and a vastly more developed social structure (the state, even if feudal). Its not like it doesn't have gunpowder, a large navy of seaworthy ships, metallurgy, agriculture, writing - all things the Indigenous Australians completely lacked, not to mention Majapahit's immense population advantage over ANY Indigenous Australian nation, as well as the combined nations of the continent as a whole. Not to mention regular interaction with China and India.

I could see Majapahit having largely or fully completed its colonization of the Australian continent before the Europeans even set foot in the Americas Middle Ages, frankly. Given these advantages, it seems more likely that Majapahit would dominate the world rather than Europe colonizing Majapahit.
 
Top