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Doing a bit more research on the Makassar empire, which dominated eastern Indonesia in the 17th century. A few interesting facts:
  • Its capital, Makassar, had around 120,000 people by the mid-17th century. This would have made it the equal of some of the 10 largest European cities, like Rome or Moscow.
  • Its sphere of influence stretched from Borneo to the Moluccas, and from the southern Philippines to Timor.
  • It could raise an army of 36,000 troops almost instantly, and given enough time could supposedly raise an army of 160,000 from all its vassals.
  • Although a Muslim sultanate, it was very religiously tolerant. There were at least four Catholic churches in the city and many Makassar nobles liked to visit Catholic churches, especially during Christmas and Easter. One Makassar chancellor "was so well informed on all points of [the Catholic] religion that he often argued them against heretics [Protestants] and routed them completely."
  • One of the kingdom's chancellors, Pattingalloang, had a library of European books, knew a great deal of European history, and owned a world map, globes, and Galilean telescopes. Makassar was the only Indonesian empire to translate European books of technology in full.
  • It was one of only two Indonesian countries to mint its own coins, which remained stable for most of its existence.
However, the empire was destroyed in the Makassar War (1666-1669) by the Dutch East India Company, which hated Makassar. This was mainly because the Dutch allied with the powerful kingdom of Bone and its allies, who provided most of the troops in the war. Bone hated Makassar because the latter had abolished the monarchy of Bone and deported the entire nobility to Makassar. Nevertheless the war against Makassar was the most expensive and hard-fought war the Dutch Company had ever fought.

But Bone and Soppeng's monarchies were not destroyed until the 1640s. In 1630 there was supposed to be a marriage between a Bone princess and a Makassar prince, which failed to happen because the princess unexpectedly died. If she hadn't, the dynasties of Bone and Makassar would have merged, so the Dutch could never have conquered Makassar.

What if Makassar had survived?
  • The Dutch would never have gained a total monopoly on spices from the Moluccas. This would have weakened the Dutch East India Company significantly.
  • Makassar's adoption of European science and technology would have continued. Since the Makassar nobility was apparently well-aware of European history, maybe they would have realized the importance of the Americas to European domination and started their own 'voyages of exploration' into Australia and the Pacific?
  • Makassar might have started adopting Chinese technology, since the Qing opening of their ports in 1684 made sure there would be a lot of Chinese everywhere in Indonesia. What might this be? Printing? Civil service examinations?
Thoughts?

P.S. I will probably bump this over and over again.
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