Pre-colonial civilized Oceanian states?

Would it be possible for Oceania to hold some organized governments before foreign intervention? Like maybe after the 1000s?

I was thinking of some of some possibilities:
-Yap could have created a stronger nation
-Saudeleur Dynasty maybe conquer neighboring island tribes and form a sort of confederation
 
You need to define "civilized" here. Tonga and Hawaii had pretty unified states, and eventually Hawaii was unified under one of these states. Sure, they had outside contact by this time, but that isn't much different than Europeans selling cannons in Vietnam. A lot of smaller Polynesian islands had local states as well.

One thing which would help is having the Polynesians keep sailing east instead of stopping for a many centuries. If Hawaii, etc. are settled earlier then there's perhaps more chance for complexity.

For a real interesting choice, get the Bonin Islands (geologically Oceania) to remain inhabited by the Micronesians who once lived there, and get them in contact with Japan to get a small (few thousand people max) East Asian cultured Micronesian state, although like Ryukyu they'll be heavily Japonicised and eventually conquered. Galapagos, also geologically part of Oceania, adopting elements of Andean culture if the Polynesians settle it, would be cool too.

Red and gold timeline

There's other ways too. New Guinean civilization would spread into Australia inevitably, while perhaps you could do something with the Torres Strait Islanders. The islands of Roti and Savu, right north of Australia, might somehow be able to spread themselves or their culture to the Northern Territory or Kimberley. Finally, early settlement of New Zealand, especially if the Maori bring pigs or chickens, could result in some bigger Maori states. New Zealand with more contact with the outside world would be good too, although the best potential Maori New Zealand would be one where instead of kumara, they can get potatoes instead from South America.
 
Any islands have access to metal that could be exploited? Doesn't even have to be an island live in all year.
 
I reckon the best place to look would be OTL New Guinea, and having it form a united polity. An "Empire of Paradise" or something similar. It developed agriculture seperately to anyone else, and surely it has the materials to be a naval player, even after unification.

Its also the largest island in Oceania - and if it can unify (enough) to have 2-5 states, then you've got something pretty robust there, which can certainly be influenced by other civilisations such as China.

If unified? Its easily the best placed to take over Oceania and Australia and settle smaller islands.
 
You do realise that there was at one stage a tongan empire which has resulted in a russia-poland level hatred between them and samoa to this day?
 

Kaze

Banned
How about Easter Island or the ruins of Nan Madol? They had a great civilization that built many mysterious monuments, but they petered out. They could have built a sea-born empire much like the British.
 
Top