VOC was involved. Not massively, mostly because, IIRC, on the very few things all Vietnamese factions agreed about was keeping strangers' presence in their affairs limited.
I am also under the impression that Vietnam was more or less able to satisfy the local demand for guns with internal production, but I may be grossly wrong on this point.
The French had some involvement in the area IOTL too, as it is obvious.
Ah, thanks for the information.
So, in short, whatever gun-running or interference the VOC (or CDO, or Nuttana) come up with ITTL will not be hugely profitable, nor will it lead to any meaningful influence over *Vietnam?
Here's a PDF link to a archaelogical article that really helped me grasp it (considering the Spanish chroniclers made far too much of a comparison to European ideas of nobility, while later archaeologists had a series racial bias, and tried to describe them in terms of more hunter/gather tribes). The latst translation of the Kaqchikel Chronicles, done by the University of Texas also does an excellent of job of explaining the subject.
Thanks for this, it's very interesting. Particularly to see how there are also comparisons made to various Polynesian societies.
In terms of what this means for post-HW Māori, while I need to think that through in more detail, there's some obvious parallels in terms of the development of shared leadership and lineages which may show up. With the new proto-states trying to integrate different lineages (iwi) together, and establishing new, fixed social units (whānau or chinamit?). That could feed into the depiction of the later Māori.