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Ming Dynasty Explorers Reached Australia

SenatorChickpea said:
Just to be clear, as I can’t quite parse your post, neither the article or the statue in any way shows that the Ming made it to Oz.

They might have, of course, but that statue by itself is not an indication that Gavin Menzies was right.
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However, if I had gone for a blander post title, no-one would have responded.

Yes, of course, but many AH stories are based on even far less evidence than this. Yes, it might have been concealed by someone in the 19th Century or as they say in the article, left by fishermen, perhaps wrecked on the shore. However, it seemed an interesting departure. How would European explorers have coped if faced with Aborigines with guns even if they were something simpler than 18th Century muskets?
 
Alexander Rooksmoor said:
However, if I had gone for a blander post title, no-one would have responded.

Yes, of course, but many AH stories are based on even far less evidence than this. Yes, it might have been concealed by someone in the 19th Century or as they say in the article, left by fishermen, perhaps wrecked on the shore. However, it seemed an interesting departure. How would European explorers have coped if faced with Aborigines with guns even if they were something simpler than 18th Century muskets?
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Well, that's not really a likely outcome of the scenario you laid out.

There is increasing evidence that Australia did have more connection to the trade routes of SE Asia than previously believed, but even that was relatively limited if we accept even the largest and wide-ranging of interpretations.

Why would the Ming Dynasty choose to have a long-standing and impactful presence in Australia, especially when they didn't do so in places closer and richer? And what would the impacts of that actually be? The answer is probably not Aboriginal Australians with muskets.
 
Nyvis said:
Honestly, considering their historical pattern of not doing that much with their exploration, would they even settle it? On the other hand even just some trade could significantly change the course of local development.
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I guess it depends on which groups are traded with, right? Like trade with the peoples living in the more fertile South East has more room for impact then the trade with say, people on the North Coast.
 
If folks found out that Southeast Australia's a nice place to settle down in, perhaps some Indonesians would make the trek down there.
 
Jackson Lennock said:
If folks found out that Southeast Australia's a nice place to settle down in, perhaps some Indonesians would make the trek down there.
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I'm now imagining city-states where Sydney and Melbourne are, syncretic between Indonesian and Aboriginal cultures and practicing varying combinations of Islam and various indigenous beliefs.

Very much the Indonesian polities down under.
 
Alexander Rooksmoor said:
Just one of those articles which prompts AH people to think about different scenarios. I did write a short story in which Conquistadors find the Aztec Empire a vassal of the Chinese state, but Australia with medieval Chinese colonists is not one I have seen explored.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/09/ming-dynasty-buddha-statue-found-on-western-australia-beach-wa-could-it-rewrite-history
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Steven H Silver did a short story exploring the idea of Chinese colonists in Australia, "The Prediscovered Country", which appeared in the Alternate Australias anthology.
 
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