WI: Pacific Islanders introduce New World Crops to Old World

Once again, the Polynesians are not very likely to bring potatoes across. And the maize they would bring across would probably be gained from the tropical areas of the Americas, and so unsuited for growth in cold areas like New Zealand. I don't know how fast the Maori could create a new cold-tolerant cultivar, and it's possible that they wouldn't consider it worth the effort and would just go to growing sweet potatoes like in OTL.

I know it isn't plausible. I was just considering the effects
 
This also means that the hilly areas of the Malay Archipelago would be settled as well and more population density

Were you the guy who started that thread about population density in Indonesia?

Anyway the same problem applies. Potatoes just aren't well suited for the climate. IOTL potato cultivation in the Malayan highlands never became a big thing. It's still too hot and the terrain is just too rugged
 
Were you the guy who started that thread about population density in Indonesia?

Anyway the same problem applies. Potatoes just aren't well suited for the climate. IOTL potato cultivation in the Malayan highlands never became a big thing. It's still too hot and the terrain is just too rugged


No, I was just speculating, I just want to know the crop that can make the population of hilly tropical areas more dense than OTL since potatoes are not fit for the job.
 
No, I was just speculating, I just want to know the crop that can make the population of hilly tropical areas more dense than OTL since potatoes are not fit for the job.

In Malaya and Indonesia the problem isn't the crop (sweet potatoes and tapioca grow pretty well in tropical highlands) its the terrain. You're talking incredibly thick forests over very rugged hills. When I was in the Singaporean army we did jungle training in Brunei and that terrain is just a bastard. Thats Borneo but the same is true in the interiors of Malaya, the Celebes and a lot of the other indonesian and filipino islands. The forest is incredibly thick and when you cut it down you risk the thin topsoil just washing off. The Malays did try to adopt methods to overcome this like the rice terraces of Bali and the Philippines but at a certain point the terrain is just too nasty- no crop is going to change that.
 
Once again, the Polynesians are not very likely to bring potatoes across. And the maize they would bring across would probably be gained from the tropical areas of the Americas, and so unsuited for growth in cold areas like New Zealand. I don't know how fast the Maori could create a new cold-tolerant cultivar, and it's possible that they wouldn't consider it worth the effort and would just go to growing sweet potatoes like in OTL.

Agreed. The likely transmission route would be via the Pacific Island settlements, over generations. As opposed to a direct trade to NZ settlements. If it was that the latter somehow is practical, then yes, you might get appropriate potatoes for NZ, but it seems pretty unlikely
 
In Malaya and Indonesia the problem isn't the crop (sweet potatoes and tapioca grow pretty well in tropical highlands) its the terrain. You're talking incredibly thick forests over very rugged hills. When I was in the Singaporean army we did jungle training in Brunei and that terrain is just a bastard. Thats Borneo but the same is true in the interiors of Malaya, the Celebes and a lot of the other indonesian and filipino islands. The forest is incredibly thick and when you cut it down you risk the thin topsoil just washing off. The Malays did try to adopt methods to overcome this like the rice terraces of Bali and the Philippines but at a certain point the terrain is just too nasty- no crop is going to change that.
So basically what we need is a population increase in South East Asia in the modern era that happen in OTL happen earlier and to maximize the livable areas.
 
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