Hear me out, here. What I mean is that the Australian Continent, and perhaps New Zealand, were discovered by Austronesians and the Aborigines interacted with them, effectively putting them on the Old World Sea Trade Route. How would interaction with Southeast Asia affect the Australians? Would they get domesticable animals? Would they advance? Or get taken over?
What if Australia was a recognized part of the Old World
- Thread starter ExNovus
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Settlers from southeast Asia would have a limited amount of land in Australia that would be useful to them. According to @Jared as well as Jared Diamond, outside of the northeastern coast of Queensland there isn't really good growing land for southeast Asian crops. So the Aborigines would not be taken over, at least at that point, and most would remain hunter-gatherers even if their cultures do creole-ize. Some might adopt livestock like pigs and goats, but honestly it would probably make more sense to the Aborigines to adopt bows and arrows and hunt these animals after letting them go feral than change their lifestyle so drastically to become ranchers. New Guinea might see more Austronesian settlement (than OTL, anyway) but this would be concentrated in the western peninsula, with the highlanders and sago swamp people largely left alone.
Now I'm avoiding the how this happens because it's not in your question, but suffice to say this would require some pretty massive changes in trading networks in maritime Southeast Asia to happen.
Now I'm avoiding the how this happens because it's not in your question, but suffice to say this would require some pretty massive changes in trading networks in maritime Southeast Asia to happen.
One possible effect would be that Australia gets colonised sooner by Europeans. I'm not sure what effect that would have, though; probably depends on who does the colonising.
Would the continent advance further if Polynesians landed there? They were a particularly sophisticated seagoing culture. They couldn't exercise their advancement due to lack of large contiguous land. But if they landed on Australia, would that have improved the situation?
Or say, the Austronesians reach the Great Dividing Range or the Murray-Darling. Those were the most heavily populated areas the Aborigines lived in. Would the Austronesians improve on that, or would they give up by Queensland?
Eh, I don't know if I'd frame it as 'advancement' if the Aborigines adopted the monarchical system of some of the Polynesians, or if the Polynesians mess up the environment by releasing pigs and chickens into it. Nitpicking aside, I think that Polynesian (or Melanesian, for that matter) settlement in Australia is technically possible.
Just like the Austronesians, the Polynesians will not really do well outside of northeastern Queensland. If they settle in that region, many of their crops will thrive. I can see them intermarrying with Aboriginal groups like the Badjalang, and these Aboriginal groups could indeed adopt farming. Crops like bananas and sweet potatoes* would IMO be more easily taken up by hunter-gatherer groups since they require less intensive work to cultivate. This scenario happened in one of my timelines, but was preceded by an environmental disaster (feral Polynesian pigs) disrupting the Badjalang's traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Austronesian crops will not grow in the Murray-Darling. Maybe some varieties of rice could be re-adopted to the temperate weather, but I think the colony would fail in the length of time needed for that.
*whether the Polynesians would have sweet potatoes at the point they land in Australia is a different matter.
Just like the Austronesians, the Polynesians will not really do well outside of northeastern Queensland. If they settle in that region, many of their crops will thrive. I can see them intermarrying with Aboriginal groups like the Badjalang, and these Aboriginal groups could indeed adopt farming. Crops like bananas and sweet potatoes* would IMO be more easily taken up by hunter-gatherer groups since they require less intensive work to cultivate. This scenario happened in one of my timelines, but was preceded by an environmental disaster (feral Polynesian pigs) disrupting the Badjalang's traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle.
Austronesian crops will not grow in the Murray-Darling. Maybe some varieties of rice could be re-adopted to the temperate weather, but I think the colony would fail in the length of time needed for that.
*whether the Polynesians would have sweet potatoes at the point they land in Australia is a different matter.
Interesting. So many of the Aborigines can develop, they just need the push. And the resources. What kind of goods do you think the Austronesians receive in return?
Australia has quite a few metals, though I don't know if they had gold that was as easy to reach as the stuff in California. IOTL Malakkan traders got sea cucumbers from northern Aborigines, and traded tobacco to them in exchange for it. Lands of Red and Gold has a pretty major part of the TL involve Aboriginal spice trade, but I don't know if Austronesians would be interested in Australian spices.
I think Aborigines could easily tolerate limited settlements, but peaceful co-existence would require settlers to respect Aboriginal taboos on hunting and use of land.
I see. At the end of the day (last question, I promise
) would Australia be a respected cultural region like China or Indonesia, or will it just be a mysterious resources place in the back of everyone's mind until the Europeans show up?Even if there was regular trade between Southeast Asia and Australia, this trade would likely not be direct and Australia would be seen as remote. Stories of Australia might filter into the Indian Ocean trade, but beyond there any accurate information about Australia would be absorbed into myths and legends about generic distant lands (think like the 'Ind' of Tudor imagination).
When the Portuguese and Spanish arrive to the region (assuming OTL's history goes the same outside of the region) they will hear stories about Australia, but I think that getting contact with China and India will remain their top priority.
When the Portuguese and Spanish arrive to the region (assuming OTL's history goes the same outside of the region) they will hear stories about Australia, but I think that getting contact with China and India will remain their top priority.