Plausibility check: a thalassocratic empire based in the Maldives

I was recently looking at my globe, and I realised that the Maldives seem to be in a good position for an Indian Ocean thalassocracy.

An obvious expansion would be the Chagos Islands, apparently Maldivian sailors used to get lost there from time to time. If the Maldivians settled the Chagos before the French did, their rule could be unchallenged.

This state could also expand into coastal areas of Sri Lanka and India, though I'm not an expert on Indian or Sri Lankan history. Lakshadweep seems like a pretty obvious addition to the empire.

The Seychelles could be another obvious expansion, they were uninhabited before the Europeans came along, and they are pretty close the Maldive and the Chagos Islands.

From the Seychelle they could settle the Masacarenes, they too were uninhabited before European colonisation. With all of the land in the Mascarenes, they might even be able to eclipse the Maldives in such an empire.

Other possible expansions I could see are the Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, the Comoros, parts of Madagascar, Zanzibar, the Andamans, and maybe even some coastal areas of East Africa.

The problem is that I don't know how such a civilisation would be started. An expanded Maldivian population could be helpful, maybe with the excess population settling the Chagos Islands or the Seychelles. However, I have no idea how this could happen, my only knowledge of Maldivian history comes from wikipedia.
 
I was going to post more the other day but I was short on time, so I'll expand my thoughts. Basically, the Maldives were a very important source of cowrie shells, which were hugely important in the Indian Ocean region (and inland in that area too) from Bengal to East Africa, and a key stopover point for merchants, in part because of coconut plantations making coir fiber for ships. The Maldives needs to exploit this advantage to succeed.

An obvious expansion would be the Chagos Islands, apparently Maldivian sailors used to get lost there from time to time. If the Maldivians settled the Chagos before the French did, their rule could be unchallenged.

There isn't a ton of land in the Chagos (Folhavahi in Maldivian), even compared to the Maldives. My idea with the Chagos is that you'd first need the incipient Maldivian thalassocracy to emerge before they're settled. So perhaps you'd start with Maldivians throwing around their economic influence in Kerala combined with some innovations in administration and technology. Specifically, the Maldives needs to be able to physically support more people, so maybe increase land reclamation (first for salt production, then for simple farming/coconut plantations) and increased use of fog collectors and other simple desalination available to pre-modern powers. After this initial period, you could have the rulers decide to project influence in the Chagos and order the settlement of those islands to further increase their power and revenue. Control over the settlers of those islands will depend on a strong Maldivian Navy, so such a thing needs to exist. This could establish a settler mentality in the Maldivians, which is key to their success.

This state could also expand into coastal areas of Sri Lanka and India, though I'm not an expert on Indian or Sri Lankan history. Lakshadweep seems like a pretty obvious addition to the empire.

Kerala was very feudalistic in the early second millennium and due to geography divided into several small coastal kingdoms which could occasionally dominate others. Sometimes outsiders like the Cholas dominated them. From what I can tell, there could be a situation where the Maldives can insert themselves into the politics of the region and shave off Lakshadweep. Maliku in Lakshadweep already speaks Dhivehi, so it's possible (and preferable for this scenario) that the entire island chain ends up speaking Dhivehi.

In Sri Lanka they could have a lot of influence (historically it was the other way around, since they were influenced by Sri Lankan Buddhism and Sinhala immigrants which is why their language is very close to Sinhala), but I think the local states are too populous to be dominated, and not to mention the Cholas/Pandyas on the mainland who had an interest there. The Maldivians will always be secondary to the major powers in Tamil Nadu, the Bay of Bengal, and Indonesia, but they should have a presence in that area to further their economic strength. Ideally they'd grab the Cocos Islands and Christmas Island which would make good stopover points for their ships, albeit ones which may fall under the rule of powerful Javanese states.

Interestingly, I think this mindset the Maldivians would establish could lead to exploration of Australia. Perhaps it would only be for trepang or whatever they could harvest offshore, but if the Maldivians were to discover the sandalwood of Western Australia, then they'd certainly be rather interested in the area. It's about 1,600 km to Australia from Christmas Island, but I imagine the ideal merchants and explorers of our "Maldivian Empire" as being adventurous and willing to take risks to compete on the world stage against much greater powers. Islam could play a key role too--imagine a Sufi order or some other group spreading throughout the Maldivian territories wanting to convert locals. Australia could be a good place to spread the faith. As for impacts on the Aboriginals, I don't think you'd get much more than a lot of cultural influence (like OTL Aboriginals who traded with Makassar), maybe regional epidemics, and trade in tools. However, were the Maldivians to import horses to Australia, or maybe camels (it is a desert, and the Maldivians know Arab traders), you'd soon enough end up with huge changes. That's no doubt the biggest impact Maldivians could have on the history of the world. Australia is too dry and poor to warrant much more than a few trading posts, although if we really want a wank we could have the Maldivians go even further south to the Perth area and find bloodroot, a spice enjoyed by the Nyungar (and disliked by the initial European explorers) to add to Australia's value. A trading post there, so isolated from even the Maldivian trade posts in the Pilbara and Kimberley, could actually be self-sufficient in food, and considering native Nyungar land use (they had pretty intensive harvest of local yam species, not quite LoRaG-tier of course, but still), could potentially be assimilated into Nyungar culture and create a true agricultural people in Australia.

The Seychelles could be another obvious expansion, they were uninhabited before the Europeans came along, and they are pretty close the Maldive and the Chagos Islands.

From the Seychelle they could settle the Masacarenes, they too were uninhabited before European colonisation. With all of the land in the Mascarenes, they might even be able to eclipse the Maldives in such an empire.

Definitely, this area is fertile ground for expansion and with our Maldivian culture the way we've set it up, would warrant being settled unlike how the Arabs mostly ignored the islands. But I'd give it only a few decades before these settlements wind up independent. Mauritius and Reunion are interesting, since they could potentially form a single empire which would be huge for the development of Madagascar and East Africa (and in turn potentially dominate the Maldives). As a side note, I wonder if the dodo bird would become an export of the islands--it could be like peacocks and preferred by the wealthy.

Other possible expansions I could see are the Cocos Islands, Christmas Island, the Comoros, parts of Madagascar, Zanzibar, the Andamans, and maybe even some coastal areas of East Africa.

Economically, yes, but the Maldives are too small to directly rule such islands (although the Andamans could work as a Maldivian settler colony, assuming they're willing to tie down their forces in containing the locals). Their military--which should be entirely naval using innovative ship designs combined with plenty of foreign mercenaries (including perhaps slave soldiers from East Africa) hired using those cowrie shells--should be there to protect their trade. I think it would mostly have it's hands full with Kerala, which needs to kept weak and divided. The Maldives will never be dominant in this region, but they can punch way above their weight if needed.

One interesting effect may be the increased development/connection with Madagascar. Maybe not an early unification, but perhaps supplementing the Arab influence you have Maldivian influence, and instead of Arabic the Malagasy end up using a writing system derived from the Old Maldivian Script, which is a relative of Malayali, Tamil, and Sinhala (perhaps even a larger spread of Islam, which may or may not convert the entire island). While I think it's inevitable that this "Maldivian Empire" has no more than 100-150 years to thrive (and a some point will implode in a dramatic fashion with European colonialists dealing the finishing blow), their legacy will be far and wide. If this is what spurs Madagascar to "pull a Meiji" (realistically given this PoD they'd be more like Ethiopia or Thailand), then we'd have a very interesting regional power on the world stage. Same goes with the Maldivian Mascarene states--they'd be interesting local players too, which could resist colonisation for a few centuries.
 
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