WI/ACH: Christian Indonesia

Given the conversion to Islam occurred in the 1200-1600s, a time when Islam was resurgent in the Mid East and placing a bloc of Islamic states between Europe and Asia, I think that is the time to start. If the Crusader States and Byzantium were more successful in the 1100s then perhaps the Islamic states would be focused on saving their own skins and have less resources to engage South East Asia with, leaving more of a blank slate for the Western Europeans to play with in the 1500s.

But the ultimate case was the strength of the Islamic states in India and elsewhere, where the crusader states couldn't possibly interfere. That probably means an Islam-screw in India to keep strong Hinduism/Buddhism/native religion (all three were basically fused).
 
But the ultimate case was the strength of the Islamic states in India and elsewhere, where the crusader states couldn't possibly interfere. That probably means an Islam-screw in India to keep strong Hinduism/Buddhism/native religion (all three were basically fused).

Yeah, it's a long bow to draw with no neat things like decisive battles to direct events. I was vaguely thinking perhaps successful Crusades of 1101 and 2nd give Byz more territory and KoJ etc more immigrants giving Christians more power and influence in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean at the expense of Islamic power and influence: the more powerful/stable KoJ has direct sea contact with Ethiopia and indirect sea contact with south India.

Long bow to draw, but I can't see the Portuguese reversing Islam in Indonesia from the early 1500s so have to look elsewhere.
 
But the ultimate case was the strength of the Islamic states in India

Was it? I thought it had more to do with Arab merchants, as well as the great decline of empires like Srivijaya and the Chola.

So, if you have Christian traders instead of Arab Muslim traders (the traders could still be Arab), you could get Christianity in Indonesia.
 
Conversion of Indonesia happened where it happened (which wasn't everywhere, see Bali) because the 'hindu' and 'buddhist' Kingdoms were mostly animist pagans ruled by a hindu/buddhist elite. The lack of a majority buddhist population meant religious change was possible in a way it wasn't in say sri lanka or cambodia.

The conversion of the elites was a slow progress from the 13th century to the 17th and was in many ways hastened by European hostility to Islam which lent anti colonial prestige to the newly muslim leaders. And then popular conversion came even slower as a result of a muslim elite.

So from that you might thing simply by reversing the ottoman/portugla situation with the ottomans attacking indonesian kingdoms and the portuguese aiding them you could reverse conversion.

But the fly in the works is that the indonesian and malay merchants who traded spices in china, india and arabia were mostly already muslim by the time the elites converted. In 1514 portugal said of Brunei that '"the king is a pagan; the merchants are Moors."

So the way conversion worked was merchants first and then the elites and then the population.

So you simply need to make the spice trade primarily with non muslim countries. So the malay and indonesian merchants don't have the incentive to convert. Which is probably a pre 8th century POD.
 
Top