Revised trade node suggestion

[nyetflix]

A while ago I posted this thread, suggesting a whole lot of new trade nodes. I received some very helpful feedback and constructive criticism, and have since revised my suggestion to include less new nodes and better justification for them, and to include proposed trade flows (and to keep borders within areas).

Spoiler: Current trade map

Spoiler: My suggestions

First things first, this uses the pre-Emperor map, though that’s not really relevant. This suggestion deals mainly with the southern half of the globe and not with Europe at all. Europe’s trade is already pretty well represented, and any changes that do deserve to be made will have already been suggested many times. On the other hand, this doesn’t take into account the map changes in the upcoming Southeast Asian content. Perhaps when that’s finalized and released, I’ll update this again, but for the moment, we can assume that everything will pretty much stay as it’s shown here, with lots of infill provinces.

Side note, I definitely support BalticM’s proposals for East Asia, they’re very well thought out and researched. I’ve left those changes out of my map.

Ok, onto the actual suggestions. There are 8 new trade nodes here (although the Patagonia node is gone, so a net change of 7), 4 new connections between existing nodes (), 9 new connections for the new nodes, and 3 existing connections that have had their directions reversed (Mexico/Panama, Katsina/Ethiopia, Great Lakes/Kongo). Many areas have been transferred to different nodes for various reasons.

• Dark red node north of California is Columbia River. This is here because California is one of the largest nodes in the game and frankly covers too much area. California was a Spanish borderland, noted for its mineral wealth, while the Columbia River was later home to British and Russian traders drawn by fur. Columbia River node is a start node that feeds into Girin (or Okhotsk, in BalticM’s proposal) and California.
• The purple node to the east of that is Great Plains. This is also because Mississippi River is a bit large, and in addition this region never really fell under colonial domination until the United States finally subdued in the later half of the 1800s. This is in part because the land is not particular valuable for farming, but also because it was home to several powerful Indian peoples who managed to repulse invaders. The French stuck to the more fertile core areas around the Mississippi. I added a flow into the Hudson Bay node to make that node a bit more powerful - it was the site of major trading operations, and the trade did reach into the northern plains.
• The yellow node in South America is Bogota/Cartagena (I could really go either way on the name). This one is here for several reasons. Currently, the bulk of Colombia is included in the Panama node, whereas Venezuela is included in the Caribbean node. The former is bad because there were two trade routes during the Spanish period from Peru to the Caribbean, a maritime one through Panama, and an overland one north through Colombia to Cartagena. In addition, there was very little direct connection between Colombia and Panama, because the border region was dense jungle and largely remained uncontrollable for the Spanish. Venezuela did have many connections with the Carribean, but let’s remember that so did Central America and coastal Colombia and the Guianas, perhaps even stronger connections. Dominating the Caribbean trade should absolutely not require conquering the Llanos. The northern coast of Venezuela could perhaps be left in the Caribbean, but there was also a strong trade route from the Llanos to cities like Caracas. I added a flow from Amazonas into this node to reflect the expansion of Colombia and Venezuela into the forest.
• The Panama node has thus been expanded to encompass the whole of Central America, which saw trade routes to the north both in the pre-Columbian and colonial periods. This also nicely cuts down on the large Mexico node.
• The purple node in South America is Altiplano. The current Cuiaba node is problematic, because it lumps together two extremes: the Altiplano, a largely self-contained high-altitude region renowned for its vast mineral reserves, and the lowlands of Bolivia and Paraguay, home to the southern bits of the Amazon, the sparsely-populated Chaco plains, and the northern Rio de la Plata basin. Both the Incas and the Spanish were able to control the former but not the latter, and both placed special importance upon the Altiplano for its mining potential. And the Incas were able to trade with the lowland peoples of the Cuiaba node, while the Spanish established two routes for extracting the silver of the Altiplano, one to the north towards Peru proper, and another to the south around Argentina.
• Cuiaba has also been shifted to include much of the interior of Brazil, which was an area that was only colonized much later.
• The Patagonia node has been split between Altiplano and Rio de la Plata, because it is too small and also makes no sense. There was almost no contact between Patagonia and Chile before the late 1800s, they are divided by the Andes.
• Moving to Africa, I have given the Kongo node a coastline. This cuts down on the large Ivory Coast node (which should be renamed to Gulf of Guinea), but also reflects that Congolese kingdoms managed their own contact with Europeans - this area was economically integrated and separate from West Africa. In addition, this is a very crucial change because it adds opportunities for connections. I chose to add a flow from Kongo to Brazil (reflecting the massive slave trade that took place directly between the two), as well as from the Cape to Kongo. These changes give better potential to Congolese or Brazilian states at tapping into the global trade network. For colonial powers, it introduces the possibility of competition in Africa and alternatives to controlling the entire coast.
• Ethiopia now flows into Katsina instead of the other way around. Northern Nigeria was richer in this period, whereas Ethiopia and Sudan were at low points. This also allows for one more node’s worth of flow across Africa, and gives potential to West African empires.
• Katsina includes Waddai and Darfur. The Ethiopia node is another very large node, and these areas are just a bit too far from its nexus to make sense. Waddai and Darfur are also home to nomadic horse-based cultures.
• I’ve given the Niger-Benue confluence area and the Yoruba heartland to the Guinea/Ivory Coast node, to reflect the stronger trade connections. Southern Nigeria is very much a tropical forested place, dissimilar from the arid north, and massive amounts of people were kidnapped from here to be enslaved and shipped from ports.
• Partially because of the Kongo change, I also introduced an Upemba node, colored purple and situated to the east of Kongo. This area was home to several powerful empires during this period, based on controlling the local copper, and acted as a interval between the east and west coasts of Africa. It also allows for something to flow into the Great Lakes node, whose large and rich population is not well reflected at present. Upemba was a populous area that served as the capital of the Luba Empire, the most powerful state. Katanga could also work as a name, but I prefer Upemba, as the name Katanga is pretty recent.
• The Zanzibar node has been shifted north. It includes the southern Somali coast, but not the Sofala area, which has been given to Zambezi. The former area is too far away from the Red Sea trade and very close to the Swahili coast, while the latter was sort of a colony to the cities of Tanzania and latter became part of the core area of Portuguese plantations along the Zambezi. Zanzibar also receives a direct flow from South India, which should allow for an easier time stringing trade across the Indian Ocean for colonizing powers.
• The green node in South India is Malabar. Coromandel actually only designates the eastern coast of south India and Sri Lanka, which is its new distribution, and European powers had different trade companies for Malabar and Coromandel. Malabar was a massive hotspot for the spice trade and was frequently directly linked to Indonesia. As you may be able to guess, the two coasts had connections to different regions. I had Coromandel flow into Malabar mainly because the latter includes Vijayanagar, but I’m open to suggestions there.
• The pale purple node in Central India is Gondwana. This is supposed to be a poor node. This region is the most isolated part of India, known for its many hills, forests, and tribal peoples, which prevented much direct contact with other regions. It’s also included in order to make the surrounding nodes a bit richer, and because it should not be a requirement to dominate the Bengal node, as Bengal was a juggernaut in trade by itself.
• The Myanmar coast has been given to Burma, because it was never controlled by Bengal and is contiguous with the interior. Taking away land from the Bengal node makes it easier to dominate from the core region, reflecting history.
• Assam has been given to Bengal to compensate the previously mentioned losses, but Burma retains Manipur to encourage Burmese expansion into Northeast India. Assam has been the target of Bengali expansion and irredentism, as well as Mughal expansion, and is very contiguous with northern Bengal but not at all with Myanmar.
• Finally, the red node in Indonesia is Java. This is, in my opinion, probably the single most important change. Java is the absolute hub of Indonesia, far overshadowing everywhere else in the region in terms of population and wealth. To group it in with the Moluccas, an underpopulated region valued for its spice output, is very hard to understand. I have included Java’s immediate sphere of influence in with the node (southern Sumatra and southern Kalimantan, along with the Lesser Sunda Islands). Java also flows to both Malacca and the Cape. Like the Kongo change, this serves to create a great opportunity for competition over the spice trade. This happened historically, as the British and Dutch vied to control the same region, the British based out of Malaysia and the Dutch out of Java, and the Dutch eventually taking the lion’s share.

That’s my suggestion. I may also soon post a suggestion for centers of trade. Please critiques and ask questions if anything is unclear.