Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-24577079-20141203031648/@comment-4206034-20141204123235

The main killer in the New Continent was not guns, but actually smallpox. If America is colonised from all 4 sides, then the smallpox epidemic is going to be much worse. However, depending on the attitutes toward the locals, they might actually enjoy life better than they did in OTL. Depends on how things turn out really.

Indians states have resisted East Asian influence many times. Having the same number of people would help. This time would be no different. I'm not sure about guns - but China invented gunpowder and trading with the Chinese would give the Indians and Japanese this. All three had cannons in the era, which the Europeans did not have as good versions of.

As for Malaysia and Indonesia - Buddhism is pretty much an offshoot of Hinduism - count on those regions being Hindu - especially if Sri Vijaya exists. India may be divided into two powers (one land based and one naval based), but I am not sure what the relations between these states may be. Or it may just be one country with colonies.