In the honor of having a holiday nearer, I decided to make a revival based on the first successful thread which was WI: Asian Slaves in 16th Century America. I didn't want to necro the thread because I feel it had already run its course.
The hypothetical timeline when Christian missionaries and traders arrive in West Africa during the early 1st century. The introduction of Christianity causes the rulers of West African kingdoms and chiefdoms to adopt Christianity and the society follows suit.
In the 16th century, the Valladolid debate (1550-1551) hosted by Bartolome de las Casas. The debate expands its protection rights to African slaves who were in the colonies of Spain.
The success of the debate causes an alternate New Laws, which extended the protection rights to Indians and Africans in the Spanish colonies. This bans the practice of enslaving Native Americans and Africans, as well restricting the power of the encomiendia system.
The alternate New Laws spreads to the Catholic countries of Europe, as well with Holland. The Iberian Union is formed to consolidate the dynastic powers of Spain and Portugal along with their holdings.
The earlier discovery and exploration of the Pacific Islands (Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia) named the Milislhas shortens the travel time and distance of going from Asia to America combined with the earlier Christianization of the Japanese elite by the Portuguese.
Meanwhile, in the Iberian colonies of America, the alternate New Laws causes a massive economic depression occurs as the colonists are forced to free slaves and causing a shortage of labour, thus slave-related industries grinds to a halt.
A loophole in the alternate New Laws which says Indians and Africans cannot be enslaved but Asians remain unsaid combined with the European presence in Asia - the colonists open up early syndicates for the sole purpose of trafficking and smuggling slaves from Asia to the Americas.
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Obtaining slaves from Asian sources:
In the ATL, Asian slaves, or Prendiza are obtained through many ways:
The hypothetical timeline when Christian missionaries and traders arrive in West Africa during the early 1st century. The introduction of Christianity causes the rulers of West African kingdoms and chiefdoms to adopt Christianity and the society follows suit.
In the 16th century, the Valladolid debate (1550-1551) hosted by Bartolome de las Casas. The debate expands its protection rights to African slaves who were in the colonies of Spain.
The success of the debate causes an alternate New Laws, which extended the protection rights to Indians and Africans in the Spanish colonies. This bans the practice of enslaving Native Americans and Africans, as well restricting the power of the encomiendia system.
The alternate New Laws spreads to the Catholic countries of Europe, as well with Holland. The Iberian Union is formed to consolidate the dynastic powers of Spain and Portugal along with their holdings.
The earlier discovery and exploration of the Pacific Islands (Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia) named the Milislhas shortens the travel time and distance of going from Asia to America combined with the earlier Christianization of the Japanese elite by the Portuguese.
Meanwhile, in the Iberian colonies of America, the alternate New Laws causes a massive economic depression occurs as the colonists are forced to free slaves and causing a shortage of labour, thus slave-related industries grinds to a halt.
A loophole in the alternate New Laws which says Indians and Africans cannot be enslaved but Asians remain unsaid combined with the European presence in Asia - the colonists open up early syndicates for the sole purpose of trafficking and smuggling slaves from Asia to the Americas.
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Obtaining slaves from Asian sources:
In the ATL, Asian slaves, or Prendiza are obtained through many ways:
- Indentured servitude: Many people, especially from areas like China or Malaya, often tricked into signing contracts where the passage is taken at risk with the promise of land but with a bigger labor pool and less chance what actually happens at the Americas. Often, the Asian servants are forced to stay in America for the rest of their lives.
- Slave raiding: A common practice by slave traders in Asia. For example, Muslim raiders from the Sumatra would enter the interior to capture large numbers of non-Muslim people or indigenous Sumatrans such as the Batak tribes.
- Purchasing prisoners of war: A way used by the Iberian colonists to obtain slaves. For example, in parts of India, Muslim or Hindu princedoms would sell prisoners of war of the opposite religion to Iberian merchants in exchange for flintlock rifles, sugar and textiles.