Wall of Skulls: An Austronesian Taiwan

[kasumigenx]

Many of the aboriginal tribes were matriarchal or at the very least gave women the same amount of power as the men. If Chinese men married into aboriginal communities, the culture would be better preserved. However, the majority of the earliest Chinese settlers were brought over by the Dutch as laborers and were predominately male. As the tribes also practiced exogamy, many of the Chinese men married aboriginal women. Since the Chinese lived near the Dutch forts in their own communities, their children grew up isolated from their mothers' cultures and became more Chinese.

In this timeline, because the local aboriginal population is larger and more peaceful than OTL, there is no need for the Dutch to bring over people from China. There will be some immigration from the mainland further on (as well as more immigration from Japan), but nowhere near the scale of OTL since the lowland regions are already fairly densely settled by aborigines.

Will the dutch retain Taiwan?

 

[jackalope]

Many of the aboriginal tribes were matriarchal or at the very least gave women the same amount of power as the men. If Chinese men married into aboriginal communities, the culture would be better preserved. .

Maybe. You have to remember that there is great prejudice with an advanced culture being forced to conform to a more primative one. It has been done to long term success, for example the more superior Cham culture being devoured
by the then inferior (in most ways, I have read) Vietnamese
one. But generally it is the other way around.

Females are more grounded and less revolutionary and
less mercantile in the trader sense across distance. It is
harder for obvious reasons like children/hazards to
travel. Rarely do they lead rebelions or join them when
treated well. Men often to the opposite.

I know Taiwan aboriginies pretty well and with Chinese
they are still often considered dirt. Twenty years ago they
still had to do forced labor in some parts of the island for
two weeks a year in service of the local police station. It
is not at all unusual for villages to be totally segregated,
and this includes in the most integrated mountain tribe
near Alishan, probably the richest tribe there is. Friends
and their families have told me this directly, as well as
the unfortunate 1992 western lead newspaper which tried
to document this material (and was raided by policemen
in Taipei).

While a different era, the situation was about the same
in 1500's, even with only a few Hakka beach outposts.

My guess is still for female headed households to have the
best viable chance for this scenario to work out.

 

[mosodake]

Will the dutch retain Taiwan?

As of now, yes, though they will be sharing the island with other nations.

Maybe. You have to remember that there is great prejudice with an advanced culture being forced to conform to a more primative one. It has been done to long term success, for example the more superior Cham culture being devoured
by the then inferior (in most ways, I have read) Vietnamese
one. But generally it is the other way around.

Females are more grounded and less revolutionary and
less mercantile in the trader sense across distance. It is
harder for obvious reasons like children/hazards to
travel. Rarely do they lead rebelions or join them when
treated well. Men often to the opposite.

These are people who were well accustomed to raids and battles with neighboring villages. Any foreign man marrying into the village would be expected to conform to the culture or risk losing his head to an enemy tribe. An aboriginal woman marrying into a Chinese community, on the other hand, would be protected from attack and have less reason to teach her children the traditional values. This is supported by the way things happened in our timeline: Chinese traders were present on Taiwan for a very long period, but since they were solitary, they would marry into a tribe. Once large numbers of immigrants came, they would take aboriginal wives and settle in their own communities. This coincided with the decline of the plains tribes.

I know Taiwan aboriginies pretty well and with Chinese
they are still often considered dirt. Twenty years ago they
still had to do forced labor in some parts of the island for
two weeks a year in service of the local police station. It
is not at all unusual for villages to be totally segregated,
and this includes in the most integrated mountain tribe
near Alishan, probably the richest tribe there is. Friends
and their families have told me this directly, as well as
the unfortunate 1992 western lead newspaper which tried
to document this material (and was raided by policemen
in Taipei).

While a different era, the situation was about the same
in 1500's, even with only a few Hakka beach outposts.

The situation is a bit better now, but the aborigines still face considerable challenges in Taiwanese society. In the 1500's though (and especially with my POD), the number of plains aborigines far outnumbered the Chinese. Since the Chinese were being brought over by the Dutch as workers, both the Dutch and the aborigines looked down on them, though in my timeline, there are fewer Chinese immigrating overall.

My guess is still for female headed households to have the
best viable chance for this scenario to work out.

The problem with this is that households with aboriginal females and Chinese males were the norm in our timeline, and aboriginal culture still declined.

 

[kasumigenx]

]One of the biggest mysteries of the plains aborigines is their low population density. Far below the capability of their agricultural techniques, the population density was also kept low through abortion and late marriage. Women may go through three or more abortions before being allowed by the shaman to carry the baby to term. Women often did not marry until well into their twenties, while men needed to prove themselves through hunting (animals and people) before being allowed to marry. [/SIZE]

That is why I think a chinese occupation of the Philippines will do more good than harm in the philippines, I think the filipinos will recover/double in population if the spanish and any europeans were kicked out I think a Malaysia like situation is possible or the population will be like in otl but with a chinese leaning elite.

As of now, yes, though they will be sharing the island with other nations.

But how?

 

[ramones1986]

Recently Subscribed and Bumping at the Same Time

An Austronesian-dominated Taiwan is very interesting. Nevertheless, I have some inquiries for the OP:

This is the map of Taiwan before the Chinese immigration, which encouraged by the Dutch East India Company. The white area is what is now Taoyuan; before the immigration, it was uninhabited. What will happen to this area in this TL? Will it be populated by Chinese and Japanese immigrants, as well as some mixed Sino-Austronesian/Japanese-Austronesian mestizos?

It is said that the Kingdom of Middag (in this TL) are multilingual, but I wonder what will be the lingua franca of the people in this TL?

And beside, I'll bump this TL... We need new updates