Eparkhos
Well-known member
This is more of an outline than anything, intended to show the rough trajectory of the largest/most powerful lowlander state: the (first) Laetian Empire.
Around AD 300 or so, when highlanders from the Papua Peninsula first start expanding due to population increases, the eastern lowlands around Morobe would have been inhabited by the Zia people, known OTL for their sailing. Rather than fight the batshit crazy highland warriors, the Zia take to the seas, creating a diaspora of Zia and Zia-influenced cultures surrounding the western rim of the Solomon Sea.
Fast forward a few centuries, to the rough end of the Migration Era (c.300-700). The population of the highlands has increased and stability is increasing, leading to overall trade within and without. By this point, the Zia have faciliated a seaborn trading network, and these two trading networks eventually link together at Lae, which is a good port close to the easiest road into the highlands. Over the following centuries, Lae becomes increasingly wealthy and powerful, establishing tributaries further and further inland along the Markham River, increasing trade passing through it and its own population and economic production. The lifeblood of Lae's economy is the trade in sugar and areca, which are grown only in the lowlands and sold in the highlands in exchange for metals (gold, silver and copper) which are trucked down to the lowlands. From around 700 to 900, Lae has a near-monopoly on the export of precious metals to the Solomon/Bismarck Rim regions, making it fantastically wealthy and influential. As population grows, some of the tributaries are directly incorporated to secure farmlands, and Laetian power starts to creep inland, but it remains just a very wealthy, very influential city-state.
This situation changes in the early 10th century, when gold is discovered in the Tabar Islands, on the far side of New Ireland. Suddenly, Lae loses its complete monopoly on precious metals and thus prestige goods. The Laetians decided that their best option is to increase overall supply of gold to cement their influence, and to do so they need to increase production of sugar and areca. The Laetians launch a series of offensives into the Upper Markham/Ramu Valley, installing direct rule and converting the lowlands into a series of sugar and areca plantations worked by slaves sold by neighboring highland tribes which, due to economies of scale and the cost of overland transport, gives the Laetians a near-monopoly over the supply of both crops to the highlanders. This produces a flood of precious metals into Lae that makes the Laetians fantastically wealthy once more, but the maintenance of this empire of plantations and slavery requires the Laetians to become more and more involved with the Finisterre highlanders, hiring them as mercenaries and buying their support to maintain their inland empire. Across the seas, Lae's increasing wealth and power results in the Laetians pulling the other Zia statelets into their orbit, establishing a network of tributaries across the region. Because water transport is so much more efficient than land transport (for one, the winds in the Solomon Sea all blow towards Lae), the most cost-effective economy for the Laetians is to convert their own hinterland into plantations and support their population through agriculture from colonies and tributaries.
The flaws in this scheme are...obvious. Laetian power is dependent entirely on the continuation of the sugar/areca-for-metal trade, using the profits to pay the Finisterre and other highlander groups to keep them peaceful, and to pay for the mercenary armies that keep down their slave population and keep the colonies/tributaries in line, which allows them to continue producing sugar/areca and keep the influx of precious metals. Nonetheless, it is relatively functional and keeps the Laetian Empire in business for two and a half centuries, roughly 950 to 1200, until it explodes on itself.
Over time, the highlander tribes become complacent and begin raiding despite the Laetian's payments, which disrupts the economic cycle and forces the Laetians to hire more and more mercenaries to fend off raids, which requires increased agricultural output which requires more slaves. Coincidentally, many of these slaves are from the same tribes that the mercenaries come from. Meanwhile, the population of Lae itself continues to increase, forcing the Laetians to demand more and more from their colonies/tributaries and provoking resentment and (expensive) rebellion. Eventually the system breaks, with heavy rains in the highlands in the 1190s flooding out the passes and cutting off trade access for several years, burning through the Laetians' reserves and leaving them unable to pay their mercs. A slave revolt pops up and many mercenaries defect, which leads to the rapid collapse of the Laetian Empire as the other Zians break out the popcorn and refuse to help. Lae itself falls, its immense riches are pillaged and most of the Laetians slaughtered, the survivors taking to the waves and scattering across the Solomon Sea. The mercenaries and freedmen then turn on each other as the highlanders come down out of the mountains to raid and pillage as well, leading to complete chaos in the Markham/Ramu region throughout the following decades. The lowlands will never see such political organization again.
As the Markham/Ramu trade dries up, the main outlet for the sugar/areca-for-metal trade changes to the Purari River flowing into the Gulf of Papua, which dramatically alters the balance of power there as well, with the Motu coming to dominate the region....
Thoughts?
Around AD 300 or so, when highlanders from the Papua Peninsula first start expanding due to population increases, the eastern lowlands around Morobe would have been inhabited by the Zia people, known OTL for their sailing. Rather than fight the batshit crazy highland warriors, the Zia take to the seas, creating a diaspora of Zia and Zia-influenced cultures surrounding the western rim of the Solomon Sea.
Fast forward a few centuries, to the rough end of the Migration Era (c.300-700). The population of the highlands has increased and stability is increasing, leading to overall trade within and without. By this point, the Zia have faciliated a seaborn trading network, and these two trading networks eventually link together at Lae, which is a good port close to the easiest road into the highlands. Over the following centuries, Lae becomes increasingly wealthy and powerful, establishing tributaries further and further inland along the Markham River, increasing trade passing through it and its own population and economic production. The lifeblood of Lae's economy is the trade in sugar and areca, which are grown only in the lowlands and sold in the highlands in exchange for metals (gold, silver and copper) which are trucked down to the lowlands. From around 700 to 900, Lae has a near-monopoly on the export of precious metals to the Solomon/Bismarck Rim regions, making it fantastically wealthy and influential. As population grows, some of the tributaries are directly incorporated to secure farmlands, and Laetian power starts to creep inland, but it remains just a very wealthy, very influential city-state.
This situation changes in the early 10th century, when gold is discovered in the Tabar Islands, on the far side of New Ireland. Suddenly, Lae loses its complete monopoly on precious metals and thus prestige goods. The Laetians decided that their best option is to increase overall supply of gold to cement their influence, and to do so they need to increase production of sugar and areca. The Laetians launch a series of offensives into the Upper Markham/Ramu Valley, installing direct rule and converting the lowlands into a series of sugar and areca plantations worked by slaves sold by neighboring highland tribes which, due to economies of scale and the cost of overland transport, gives the Laetians a near-monopoly over the supply of both crops to the highlanders. This produces a flood of precious metals into Lae that makes the Laetians fantastically wealthy once more, but the maintenance of this empire of plantations and slavery requires the Laetians to become more and more involved with the Finisterre highlanders, hiring them as mercenaries and buying their support to maintain their inland empire. Across the seas, Lae's increasing wealth and power results in the Laetians pulling the other Zia statelets into their orbit, establishing a network of tributaries across the region. Because water transport is so much more efficient than land transport (for one, the winds in the Solomon Sea all blow towards Lae), the most cost-effective economy for the Laetians is to convert their own hinterland into plantations and support their population through agriculture from colonies and tributaries.
The flaws in this scheme are...obvious. Laetian power is dependent entirely on the continuation of the sugar/areca-for-metal trade, using the profits to pay the Finisterre and other highlander groups to keep them peaceful, and to pay for the mercenary armies that keep down their slave population and keep the colonies/tributaries in line, which allows them to continue producing sugar/areca and keep the influx of precious metals. Nonetheless, it is relatively functional and keeps the Laetian Empire in business for two and a half centuries, roughly 950 to 1200, until it explodes on itself.
Over time, the highlander tribes become complacent and begin raiding despite the Laetian's payments, which disrupts the economic cycle and forces the Laetians to hire more and more mercenaries to fend off raids, which requires increased agricultural output which requires more slaves. Coincidentally, many of these slaves are from the same tribes that the mercenaries come from. Meanwhile, the population of Lae itself continues to increase, forcing the Laetians to demand more and more from their colonies/tributaries and provoking resentment and (expensive) rebellion. Eventually the system breaks, with heavy rains in the highlands in the 1190s flooding out the passes and cutting off trade access for several years, burning through the Laetians' reserves and leaving them unable to pay their mercs. A slave revolt pops up and many mercenaries defect, which leads to the rapid collapse of the Laetian Empire as the other Zians break out the popcorn and refuse to help. Lae itself falls, its immense riches are pillaged and most of the Laetians slaughtered, the survivors taking to the waves and scattering across the Solomon Sea. The mercenaries and freedmen then turn on each other as the highlanders come down out of the mountains to raid and pillage as well, leading to complete chaos in the Markham/Ramu region throughout the following decades. The lowlands will never see such political organization again.
As the Markham/Ramu trade dries up, the main outlet for the sugar/areca-for-metal trade changes to the Purari River flowing into the Gulf of Papua, which dramatically alters the balance of power there as well, with the Motu coming to dominate the region....
Thoughts?