History Literature / OfRajahsAndHornbills

* ForeignRulingClass: Besides the obvious, colonial Southeast Asia is much more ruled by their respective colonial empires, receiving some immigration from settlers, traders, and missionaries from across Europe.

The timeline can be read [[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/of-rajahs-and-hornbills-a-timeline.311331/ here]]

* JungleWarfare: The Brooke family and Sarawak as a whole excelled in this, as did the Johoreans during a neighbor's succession crisis. [[spoiler: The Italian colonists at Sabah, not so much.]]
** The Acehnese weren't half-bad either in fighting against the Dutch.

* JungleWarfare: The Brooke family and Sarawak as a whole excelled in this, as did the Johoreans during a succession crisis. [[spoiler: The Italian colonists at Sabah, not so much.]]

* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Or rather, ''Kostantiniyye''. Some other places also got renamed, such as Kota Kinabalu = Bandar Charles.

* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Clayton Brooke, oh ''Clayton Brooke''. His proclivities for men was discovered by his elder twin brother and forced a rift between the two, just before the Great War. Then his father and brother dies during the conflict, making him the new Rajah but rendering the fraternal rift permanent. And now that his mother is planning for an arranged marriage, he briefly fantasises of running away with his partner, Usop. The latter talks him out of it, though not without sadness.]]
** GayngstInducedSuicide: [[spoiler: Imperial Germany got hit by this ''hard''. The empire went through a summer of homophobic hysteria during the first year of the Great War, resulting in many ''many'' soldiers, from conscripts to generals, regardless of sexuality, being outed, abused, and dragged through the mud. A fair number committed suicide as a result.]]

* JungleWarfare: The Brooke family excelled in this, as did the Johoreans during a succession crisis. [[spoiler: The Italian colonists at Sabah, not so much.]]

* {{Gayngst}}: [[spoiler: Clayton Brooke, oh ''Clayton Brooke''. His proclivities for men was discovered by his elder twin brother and forced a rift between the two, just before the Great War. Then his father and brother dies during the conflict, making him the new Rajah. And now that his mother is planning for an arranged marriage, he briefly fantasises of running away with his partner, Usop. The latter talks him out of it, though not without sadness.]]

* Gayngst: [[spoiler: Clayton Brooke, oh ''Clayton Brooke''. Secretly liking local men, his proclivities were discovered by his elder twin brother and forced a rift between the two just before the Great War. Then his father and brother dies during the fighting, making him the new Rajah. And now that his mother is planning for an arranged marriage, he briefly fantasises of running away with his partner, Usop.]]
** [[spoiler: Germany goes through a summer of homophobic hysteria during the first year of the Great War, resulting in many ''many'' soldiers, from conscripts to generals, regardless of sexuality, being outed, abused, and dragged through the mud. A fair number committed suicide as a result.]]

* Gayngst: [[spoiler: Clayton Brooke, oh ''Clayton Brooke''. Secretly liking local men, his proclivities were discovered by his elder twin brother and forced a rift between the two just before the Great War. Then his father and brother dies during the fighting, making him the new Rajah. And now that his mother is planning for an arranged marriage, he briefly fantasies of running away with his partner, Usop.]]

* Gayngst: [[spoiler: Clayton Brooke, oh ''Clayton Brooke''. Secretly liking local men, his proclivities were discovered by his elder twin brother and forced a rift between the two just before the Great War. Then his father and brother dies during the fighting, making him the new Rajah. And now that his mother is planning for an arranged marriage, he could no longer be with his love of his life, Usop.]]

* Gayangst: [[spoiler: Clayton Brooke, oh ''Clayton Brooke''. Secretly liking local men, his proclivities were discovered by his elder twin brother and forced a rift between the two just before the Great War. Then his father and brother dies during the fighting, making him the new Rajah. And now that his mother is planning for an arranged marriage, he could no longer be with his love of his life, Usop.]]
** [[spoiler: Germany goes through a summer of homophobic hysteria during the first year of the Great War, resulting in many ''many'' soldiers, from conscripts to generals, regardless of sexuality, being outed and dragged through the mud. A fair number committed suicide as a result.]]

* WhiteMansBurden: The Brooke family, especially the early Rajahs, saw their rule of Sarawak as this. Rajahs' James and Charles in particular saw themselves as 'civilizers' and 'protectors' of Sarawak and her myriad of peoples, especially from Western exploitation. [[spoiler: To what extent did they facilitate this, as well as local reactions to such actions, drive the evolution of the kingdom throughout the timeline.]]

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The Brooke family would give many 19th-century monarchs a run for their money, with the main Brooke men/monarchs leading war expeditions deep into the Bornean jungle to pacify the interior and expand Sarawakian power.

* MightyWhitey: Explored at length in regards to the ruling Brooke family. On one hand, they were complete foreigners to the land. On the other, they learned the local language and understood local cultures enough to the point that many Sarawakian Malays and Dayaks became supportive (or at least indifferent) to their rule.

Despite the royals' foreign nature, and with the land housing a majority population of Malays and indigenous Dayaks, the adventurer-state managed to actually run itself decently (albeit not peacefully) under the [[MightyWhitey 'White Rajahs']] for a while before eventually succumbing to stagnation, finally blowing itself out by the Japanese invasion of the Pacific in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

Of Rajahs and Hornbills is an AlternateHistory timeline on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom, written by forum member Al-numbers. Told in an [[ScrapbookStory epistolary fashion]], it deals with the real-life case of the Kingdom of Sarawak, a historical state on the northern portion of Borneo island that existed for around 100 years.

However, the kingdom's rulers were anything "but" local. For all its existence, Sarawak was governed by an eccentric, colorful, and definitely foreign dynasty: The Brooke family of Great Britain (though the main line was born in India).

Of Rajahs and Hornbills is an AlternateHistory timeline on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom, written by forum member Al-numbers. Told in an [[ScrapbookStory epistolary fashion]], it deals with the real-life case of the Kingdom of Sarawak, a historical state on the northern portion of Borneo island that was ruled the eccentric, and foreign, Brooke family for 100 years. With the land housing a majority population of Malays and indigenous Dayaks, the adventurer-state managed to actually run itself decently (albeit not peacefully) under the [[MightyWhitey 'White Rajahs']] for a while before succumbing to stagnation, eventually blowing itself out by the Japanese invasion of the Pacific in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* MightyWhitey: Explored at length in regards to the ruling Brooke family. On one hand, they were foreigners to the land with Rajahs' James and Charles regarding Sarawak as their own personal domain with themselves as near-absolute monarchs. On the other hand, they learned the local language and understood local cultures enough that many Sarawakian Malays and Dayaks were supportive (or at least indifferent) to their rule.

* MightyWhitey: Explored at length in regards to the ruling Brooke family. On one hand, they were foreigners to the land with Rajahs' James and Charles regarding Sarawak as their own personal domain with themselves as near-absolute monarchs. On the other hand, they learned the local language and understood local cultures enough that many Sarawakian Malays and Dayaks were supportive (or at least indifferent) to their rule. The fact that the Rajahs led war expeditions and led peace ceremonies add to this.

* Mighty Whitey: Explored at length in regards to the ruling Brooke family. On one hand, they were foreigners to the land with Rajahs' James and Charles regarding Sarawak as their own personal domain with themselves as near-absolute monarchs. On the other hand, they learned the local language and understood local cultures enough that many Sarawakian Malays and Dayaks were supportive (or at least indifferent) to their rule. The fact that the Rajahs led war expeditions add to this, harshly punishing dissenters and rebellious tribes, yet also instilling peace and unifying Sarawakians as a whole in creating a common identity.

[[quoteright:350:[[VisualPun https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e841f085_68f6_42cc_ab81_eb9643e4d70f_15c6116914e6d4d693e8c77df5bef485e.jpeg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Not quite a box, but whatever.]]

Of Rajahs and Hornbills is an AlternateHistory timeline written by Al-numbers on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom. Told in an epistolary fashion, it deals with the real-life case of the Kingdom of Sarawak, a historical state on the northern portion of Borneo island that was ruled the eccentric, and foreign, Brooke family for 100 years. With the land housing a majority population of Malays and indigenous Dayaks, the adventurer-state managed to actually run itself decently(albeit not peacefully) for a while before succumbing to stagnation, eventually blowing itself out by the Japanese invasion of the Pacific in WorldWarTwo.

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: The Brooke family would give many 19th-century monarchs a run for their money, with the main Brooke men leading war expeditions deep into the Bornean jungle to pacify the interior and expand Sarawakian power.

[[folder]]

[[/folder]]