WI Mongols conquer Java

In 1292 a large invasion fleet was sent to Java with over 20,000-30,000 soldiers by Kublai Khan. It did not work to well, being deceived by the Majapahit army. It was also their last chance to catch the monsoon winds home; otherwise, they would have had to wait for another six months on a hostile island. Yuan army lost more than 3,000 of their best soldiers.

What if they had not entered Majapahit territory, instead focusing on taking it by force? What effects would to conquest of Java have on Mongol policy in South East Asia?
 
Jumping about 5 steps ahead, exactly how desert is Australia? What I'm getting at is, could we have a "Khanate of the Southern Continent?" where Mongols continue to ride horses and live in yurts until discovered by Europeans...
 
I can't see the Mongol Empire, based in the steppes and the horse, holding onto an island for very long.

They took Southern China and Mesopotamia, historically.

They didn't hold them, but even a short term capture would be significant. For one thing, you get lots of Han settling there.
 
I can't see the Mongol Empire, based in the steppes and the horse, holding onto an island for very long.

The Mongols adapted. They took China using siege warfare, something that one also doesn't associate with horse-riding nomads. They adapted to the needs of the situation.

Java being conquered probably wouldn't butterfly for a while, but if there is a concerted settlement effort by the Yuan (and I think there would be) this could really mess with European expansion into the region, once that starts. I think that Chinese Java would probably be harder to deal with than the native regimes that the Portugese and Dutch knocked over OTL.
 

mojojojo

Gone Fishin'
Jumping about 5 steps ahead, exactly how desert is Australia? What I'm getting at is, could we have a "Khanate of the Southern Continent?" where Mongols continue to ride horses and live in yurts until discovered by Europeans...
Sounds interesting, what sayeth the group?
 
Jumping about 5 steps ahead, exactly how desert is Australia? What I'm getting at is, could we have a "Khanate of the Southern Continent?" where Mongols continue to ride horses and live in yurts until discovered by Europeans...

There's a myriad of reasons why this is completely and utterly implausible.

The main reasons are that;

1) horses - and particularly the Mongolian horses, which were adapted to the relatively cold dry climate of Mongolia - wouldn't thrive in the hot dry deserts and hot humid rainforests of Australia.

In OTL, the Mongols already had quite a bit of trouble adapting to places southern Syria and southern Persia, and Australia is much, MUCH worse than, say, Kerman or the environs of Damascus.

And in fact, the Australian climate isn't very suitable for the whole traditional Mongol lifestyle - even the Australian savannahs are simply too dry for the horses, sheep and cattle that the Mongols depended on.

Even today, cattle raising is only possible in inland Australia because of the many Artesian wells that have been made since the late 19th century.

2) there are no economically interesting empires, kingdoms, petty states, city states, villages or settlements anywhere in Australia, so any attempts to conquer or colonize Australia would only cost a lot of money while the Mongols wouldn't gain *anything* of value.

3) even if the Yuan would discover and colonize Australia, then the settlers would be Chinese, along with perhaps some Koreans, Malays and Javanese. There's very little chance that any substantial numbers of non-sinified ethnic Mongols would come along, especially since, as I mentioned before, the Australian climate isn't exactly suitable for the traditional Mongolian lifestyle.
 
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