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First, a bit of background knowledge- IOTL, Maritime Southeast Asia appears to have been the only part of the Old World which was completely unaffected by the main Black Death epidemics. Unlike in Sub-Saharan Africa, where we now have a great deal of evidence that the Black Death swept across the continent at the same time that it swept across Europe, no evidence whatsoever has been found thus far to suggest that there were any contemporary outbreaks of the Black Death in the region whatsoever, and the plague only appears to have found its way to the region several centuries later, during the Third Plague Pandemic of the mid- to late-19th century.

This is extremely surprising, especially when one considers that the Majapahit empire was at its peak of its Golden Age, and was the most powerful and dominant thalassocratic power in the world at this time- it controlled the sea lanes in Southeast Asia and exploited the spice trade of the Spice Islands, as well as the maritime trade routes between India and China; the volume of trade which the Majapahit Empire had with the afflicted regions in the Arab World, China and India was far greater than that of the Republic of Genoa. IMHO, a TL in which Maritime Southeast Asia is also affected by the initial outbreak of the Black Death, in the mid-14th century, would actually be considerably more plausible than OTL, when it bizarrely managed to escape unscathed against all odds.

So, if there had been a Maritime South-East Asian outbreak of the Black Death, at roughly the same time as the initial European outbreak, then how massive could the potential repercussions have been? Clearly, South-East Asia (and probably Australia) would have suffered heavy death tolls, and would take a long time to recover from that- in all likelihood, the plague outbreaks would probably break up the Majapahit Empire a lot earlier, and increase the prevalence of naval conflicts and wars between competing kingdoms in the region (with gunpowder warfare and fortress building becoming more and more important, since traders had already introduced gunpowder, gonnes, muskets, blunderbusses, and cannons to the Javanese, Acehnese, and Batak prior to this).

But, in the long run, could this actually be a net positive? By spurring military, industrial and technological innovation and advancement in the region, could South-East Asia potentially stand a chance of out-competing the Europeans?
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