11. Red Shore (27 BS – ca. 100 AS)
The emperors of Chu were not satisfied. Each tribe annexed in the south left others available for conquest. With aquaculture having replaced agriculture as the main source of food, the bulk of the population was concentrated on the southern highlands, and the lands of Southeast Asia were torn between Hindi and Chinese influence. The Vedic religion had already largely replaced the aboriginal cults, and Daoism was appearing in the coastal communities. Merchants and envoys vied for the attention of local lords.
At that time, the Chu campaign around 27 BS [160 BC] had annexed the region of Lungbin [Hanoi] [1], then the last surviving Nanyue kingdom. The Chinese writing system and Mohist administration were quickly introduced, and immigration of ethnic Chinese to this new province was encouraged. Aquaculture was extensively practiced on the Red River, and the local harbors were used for maritime trade with the Spice Islands and India.
The Nanda Empire, growing out of the powerful Magadha kingdom near the mouth of the Ganges, had unified most of the Indian subcontinent by half of the 3rd century BS, and established extensive relations with Persia. [2] Its culture kept spreading eastward, especially in the coastal cities of Annam and in the Khmer kingdom of Funan, where the great port of O Keo [3] had been built on the Mekong delta. Two hundred years after its foundation, though, corruption was eroding the structure of the empire. In order to feed their lifestyle, the ministers pushed for increasingly aggressive trade and vassalization of the eastern lands.
The kingdom of Cham was the first to suffer the consequences. The region of Cham had been staunchly Hindu for centuries, and its iron mines made it an important trade partner for the Indian cultural sphere, including Sumatra, Jawa and Funan. The largest coastal city, Indrapura, was an important center of the cult of Shiva, worshipped in the form of phallic lingam. However, it now saw a large influx of Yue emigrates and Chinese merchants, following the routes between O Keo and Samtsan [Shenzhen]. It was now set on the fault line between two expanding cultures.
The ruling Nanda emperor, Chakravartin Dharmavarman, was reportedly deeply jealous of his prestige in the east, and sent envoys to pressure the Cham king Purishvara into tightening the access from the north. Each year, only so many Chinese ships would be admitted in the harbor, and foreigners were forbidden from venturing inland. Dharmavarman even tried to ban altogether the sale of iron to Chu, although Purishvara refused.
In 11 BS [144 BC], a Chinese spice merchant was arrested in a market of Indrapura for allegedly killing a man over a dishonest sale. The Chu emissary demanded the merchant to be delivered to him to be punished according to Chinese law, which the authorities of Indrapura refused. There was a quarrel as they tried to recover the prisoner, which escalated into a full riot. The merchant, however, was executed by the local authorities. Perhaps emboldened by the recent conquest of Qi in the far north, the Emperor Jiao accused them of murdering one of his subjects, and demanded vast reparations to be paid.
Short before the end of the year, a vast Chu war fleet had been deployed in front of the Cham shore. Many commercial vessels were attacked and their cargo confiscated, far exceeding the value of the reparations. Chinese crossbows were formidably powerful, and capable of attacking the shore from a safe distance. Plunder went on with little opposition until the Nanda ships rounded Melaka [Malacca] and came to aid their vassal.
The loss of life among civilians was rather modest, except for the many raided commercial ships, as the land was mostly spared; but the toll on armies was vast. The battle that occurred off Panduranga was by far the largest naval battle ever seen until then, involving over 400 ships between both sides. The 11th century Tamil poem Civappu Katarkarai (“red shore”) vividly describes the aftermath from the vantage point of a fisherman who finds the sea choked by floating corpses.
The Melakan War is often considered the earliest modern hegemonic war, in which both participants fought to control a region of the world without wanting to annex it (the Nanda Empire wasn't willing to build the necessary infrastructure, and Chu couldn't control the jungles and mountains so far from its center of power). China did eventually retain some territory on the northern coast of Annam and Cham, but not any inland, and in fact it didn't even have much control on the land between the cities, instead sticking to sea travel for commerce, tribute-taking and enforcement. Nevertheless, it gained all but complete control on sea routes in what became known as the Yue Sea [South China Sea].
The war was interrupted by troubles in the far north. In Goryeo, Gojoseon had fractured into warring kingdoms much like the Zhou before them: the largest ones were Goguryeo, highly centralized and militarized, in the north and the elective confederation of Mahan in the southwest. [4] Now the situation was turning in favor of Mahan since the fall of Qi had deprived Goguryeo of a staunch ally, leaving it vulnerable to encroaching from Yan. In 5 AS [129 AS], with Yan support, Mahan seized Pyeongyang and pushed north, deep in Goguryeo territory. As frequent Mahan raids threatened Qi coasts, the Chu Empire had to withdraw ships from the Yue Sea and redeploy them in the north.
In 7 AS [127 BC] the Melakan War ended. China managed to secure a better access to the harbors and coastal town in Annam and northern Cham, and greater privileges in local commerce; however, Chinese settlement in the surrounding areas would be severely limited. Purishvara kept most of his kingdom, but he would have to swear loyalty to the emperor Jiao rather than to the chakravartin. The Nanda Empire had lost some of its control over Vedic Asia, though it retained many vassals in the area, chiefly Funan.
The war had left both parties weakened. By the end of the 1st century AS, China had lost all territory north of the Yellow River to Yan; but the Nanda empire would be the most unfortunate, as it found itself impoverished and undermanned – and with the already precarious trust in its leadership further damaged – just when a new enemy was coming for it from the opposite side of the world.
[1] Lóngbiān in Mandarin, Rồngbiên in Vietnamese, literally “dragon edge”; OTL, its name was changed to Hanoi (“river within”) in 1831.
[2] With no Macedonian Empire, the life of Chandragupta Maurya unfolds differently and he never gets to overthrow the Nanda dynasty, which lasts for over 200 years rather than 20.
[3] Today Óc Eo, in southern Vietnam.
[4] Approximately as OTL (Proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea).
In the next installment: a man from West Africa changes the world.
The emperors of Chu were not satisfied. Each tribe annexed in the south left others available for conquest. With aquaculture having replaced agriculture as the main source of food, the bulk of the population was concentrated on the southern highlands, and the lands of Southeast Asia were torn between Hindi and Chinese influence. The Vedic religion had already largely replaced the aboriginal cults, and Daoism was appearing in the coastal communities. Merchants and envoys vied for the attention of local lords.
At that time, the Chu campaign around 27 BS [160 BC] had annexed the region of Lungbin [Hanoi] [1], then the last surviving Nanyue kingdom. The Chinese writing system and Mohist administration were quickly introduced, and immigration of ethnic Chinese to this new province was encouraged. Aquaculture was extensively practiced on the Red River, and the local harbors were used for maritime trade with the Spice Islands and India.
The Nanda Empire, growing out of the powerful Magadha kingdom near the mouth of the Ganges, had unified most of the Indian subcontinent by half of the 3rd century BS, and established extensive relations with Persia. [2] Its culture kept spreading eastward, especially in the coastal cities of Annam and in the Khmer kingdom of Funan, where the great port of O Keo [3] had been built on the Mekong delta. Two hundred years after its foundation, though, corruption was eroding the structure of the empire. In order to feed their lifestyle, the ministers pushed for increasingly aggressive trade and vassalization of the eastern lands.
The kingdom of Cham was the first to suffer the consequences. The region of Cham had been staunchly Hindu for centuries, and its iron mines made it an important trade partner for the Indian cultural sphere, including Sumatra, Jawa and Funan. The largest coastal city, Indrapura, was an important center of the cult of Shiva, worshipped in the form of phallic lingam. However, it now saw a large influx of Yue emigrates and Chinese merchants, following the routes between O Keo and Samtsan [Shenzhen]. It was now set on the fault line between two expanding cultures.
The ruling Nanda emperor, Chakravartin Dharmavarman, was reportedly deeply jealous of his prestige in the east, and sent envoys to pressure the Cham king Purishvara into tightening the access from the north. Each year, only so many Chinese ships would be admitted in the harbor, and foreigners were forbidden from venturing inland. Dharmavarman even tried to ban altogether the sale of iron to Chu, although Purishvara refused.
In 11 BS [144 BC], a Chinese spice merchant was arrested in a market of Indrapura for allegedly killing a man over a dishonest sale. The Chu emissary demanded the merchant to be delivered to him to be punished according to Chinese law, which the authorities of Indrapura refused. There was a quarrel as they tried to recover the prisoner, which escalated into a full riot. The merchant, however, was executed by the local authorities. Perhaps emboldened by the recent conquest of Qi in the far north, the Emperor Jiao accused them of murdering one of his subjects, and demanded vast reparations to be paid.
Short before the end of the year, a vast Chu war fleet had been deployed in front of the Cham shore. Many commercial vessels were attacked and their cargo confiscated, far exceeding the value of the reparations. Chinese crossbows were formidably powerful, and capable of attacking the shore from a safe distance. Plunder went on with little opposition until the Nanda ships rounded Melaka [Malacca] and came to aid their vassal.
The loss of life among civilians was rather modest, except for the many raided commercial ships, as the land was mostly spared; but the toll on armies was vast. The battle that occurred off Panduranga was by far the largest naval battle ever seen until then, involving over 400 ships between both sides. The 11th century Tamil poem Civappu Katarkarai (“red shore”) vividly describes the aftermath from the vantage point of a fisherman who finds the sea choked by floating corpses.
The Melakan War is often considered the earliest modern hegemonic war, in which both participants fought to control a region of the world without wanting to annex it (the Nanda Empire wasn't willing to build the necessary infrastructure, and Chu couldn't control the jungles and mountains so far from its center of power). China did eventually retain some territory on the northern coast of Annam and Cham, but not any inland, and in fact it didn't even have much control on the land between the cities, instead sticking to sea travel for commerce, tribute-taking and enforcement. Nevertheless, it gained all but complete control on sea routes in what became known as the Yue Sea [South China Sea].
The war was interrupted by troubles in the far north. In Goryeo, Gojoseon had fractured into warring kingdoms much like the Zhou before them: the largest ones were Goguryeo, highly centralized and militarized, in the north and the elective confederation of Mahan in the southwest. [4] Now the situation was turning in favor of Mahan since the fall of Qi had deprived Goguryeo of a staunch ally, leaving it vulnerable to encroaching from Yan. In 5 AS [129 AS], with Yan support, Mahan seized Pyeongyang and pushed north, deep in Goguryeo territory. As frequent Mahan raids threatened Qi coasts, the Chu Empire had to withdraw ships from the Yue Sea and redeploy them in the north.
In 7 AS [127 BC] the Melakan War ended. China managed to secure a better access to the harbors and coastal town in Annam and northern Cham, and greater privileges in local commerce; however, Chinese settlement in the surrounding areas would be severely limited. Purishvara kept most of his kingdom, but he would have to swear loyalty to the emperor Jiao rather than to the chakravartin. The Nanda Empire had lost some of its control over Vedic Asia, though it retained many vassals in the area, chiefly Funan.
The war had left both parties weakened. By the end of the 1st century AS, China had lost all territory north of the Yellow River to Yan; but the Nanda empire would be the most unfortunate, as it found itself impoverished and undermanned – and with the already precarious trust in its leadership further damaged – just when a new enemy was coming for it from the opposite side of the world.
[1] Lóngbiān in Mandarin, Rồngbiên in Vietnamese, literally “dragon edge”; OTL, its name was changed to Hanoi (“river within”) in 1831.
[2] With no Macedonian Empire, the life of Chandragupta Maurya unfolds differently and he never gets to overthrow the Nanda dynasty, which lasts for over 200 years rather than 20.
[3] Today Óc Eo, in southern Vietnam.
[4] Approximately as OTL (Proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea).
In the next installment: a man from West Africa changes the world.
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