What If There Was A Continent In the Pacific?

The Pacific is big. So big you could just fit another land-mass in it. Some people once believed there was a landmass in it that sank beneath the waves. There wasn't, but it'd be fun to imagine if there was. What if the lost continent of Mu was actually real and was simply another landmass. Let's theorize.

Chapters:
00:00-Intro
01:08-What Is Mu
04:23-Imagining the Geography
08:07-Populating the Place
13:23-Figuring Out the History
17:28-How Mu Changes Everything
19:19- Mu and Empire

[Boo_]

I think the Polynesians, Incas, and Aztecs having potential access to horses, cows, steel, gunpower, artillery, and arquebuses through trade with East Asia would change colonization quite drastically. Plus the expaded trade could lead to the Ming dynasty maintaining their trade fleet and not isolating themselves.

[Lashbade]

"Water levels will rise and change everything!" If we can add a continent, we can remove an equal volume of water. I think that's an allowable handwave for this scenario.
EDIT: The whole evolution of life on Earth would change so no humans would exist. There, discussion finished.

[ThatLeaf]

Somewhere in the Mu Continent universe, Cody is making a video that asks "What if Mu never existed and there were only islands in the Pacific?"

[JAlucard]

There is a sub continent under New Zealand that they recently discovered. Apparently, the mountains of New Zealand are the highest point of the continent.

[valritz]

I can see Mu being a serious contender on the world stage, because being on that trade route would make them UNIMAGINABLY wealthy. Since the climate is so consistent, societies would have an easier time spreading over large distances, so you've got the potential for centralization and empire. The real juice to inject would be a couple fictional invasions by an Indian or Chinese power to spread the good word of our lord and savior The Horse to Mu, and things snowball from there.

With the large central plains of the continent to really thrive in, horses would make linking up West and East overland truly feasible. It'd take a while to actually take off, sure, but after hanging out and chilling and hunting megasloths for a thousand years, suddenly the plains nomads have horses--and maybe more importantly, the places just bordering the plains nomads now have horses. All it takes is one Cyrus from a plains-adjacent backwater city-state to sweep in toward that wealthy west coast with horse archers and light cavalry, conquer that peninsula and get the supercharge from the triangular trade, and you've got a real son of a bitch of an empire on your hands.

By the Common Era, I could see the friction in that region creating a second Mediterranean pressure cooker environment out there, and then all bets are off. You've got Chinese dynasties in Mu, Munese dynasties in China, religious wars between the blend of weird Hindu-Inca syncretized East and a newly converted Muslim West, shit's wild.

[lawjef]

Instead of mu rising sea levels, why not assume there is less water? I mean you are assuming a lot more land, why does it displace water rather than replace water? Both are reasonable assumptions since, you know, they are totally made up. Would be interesting video. And easier to conceive the consequences of MU

[ChessedGamon]

whenever I hear more about pseudo-archeologists and their worldbuilding theories they remind me more and more of an evil version of JRR Tolkien

[rainbsnd]

When I was a child, around 12-14, I used to imagine these kinds of things, I've written a few books/stories throughout my childhood and one of them was about a civilization in a massive island between Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Obviously I didn't have enough knowledge and study to imagine a realistic climate, fauna, flora and more, like you did, but it was a really fun project.

[TheCommunistColin]

It's actually really interesting to think about the idea of two Polynesian civilizations, one maybe Chinese-inspired and one Inca-inspired, having vastly different religious and cultural ideals and clashing over them, while still speaking a somewhat mutually intelligible language and sharing lots of basic culture with each other. Imagine what those wars would look like. This is fascinating to think about even if the dude who invented Mu was bonkers.

[Goodbyestrangerfood]

A great follow up idea to this is: the Americans vs the Japanese in the deserts of Mu, happening simultaneously with the North African campaign.

[yeeyee]

Now imagine if all the hypothetical landmasses were real? Mu, Atlantis, Lemuria, Zealandia, and all the obscure ones as well.

[yourfriendlyneighborhoodsc]

meanwhile in an alternate universe, we're all sitting here watching "what if Mu never existed"

[thewalking]

Hearing Cody call a theory "batshit stupid" made my day for some unexplainable reason.

[conserva-chan]

I would love a video on if the Sino-Soviet split never happened or was patched up in the 70s. It would be a wacky and awesome scenario.

[CJ_Espinoza]

I’d argue MU would have more likely been settled by the ancestors of Native Australians rather than the Polynesians. The ancestors of indigenous Australians arrived there when sea levels were low and nearly connected Asia to Australia. Depending on Mu’s geography it may have also been connected and allowed for human migration tens of thousands of years ago

[anguskeenan]

Just goes to show you, crazy has been around a lot longer than twitter, it’s just easier to find now

[supernovel]

Meta Pyshical Archeology is a term I never expected to hear but I imagine even flat earthers and ancient alien scientists would think they're crazy

[mstticr]

I disagree with the ending statements that Mu would eventually be cut up by European Powers. It’s underestimating just how much Mu would positively impact oceanic cultures, and overestimating the power of European nations.

A main reason why Oceanic / Native American cultures couldn’t really defend against European conquest was almost exclusively because they simply didn’t have enough resources and communication / organization. They were stuck in tiny, habitation-poor islands with thousands of miles of ocean between each other. Colonial powers could easily island hop, conquering one small island after the other.

With Mu existence though, these Oceanic cultures suddenly have complete access to a massive continent, fit for large scale habitation and civilization. And with their connection to Asia, they would likely be right behind the two other continents in technology and industry.

At worst, I could easily see civilizations on Mu being capable of resisting widespread European colonialism in a similar way to Asia; where although marked by colonialism, the continent still retains it’s cultural independence and becomes a large power at the turn of the century.

At best, Mu could probably be an active and viable threat to Europe, being a peer to peer rival.

[drevas]

I'm just wondering why the people on Mu would have been relatively weak enough for the Spanish to basically bully land out of them, with their own continent and traving with Asia, they would likely have the metals and technology to keep a good hold on their land

[joshuabautch]

Y'know, the climate zones, and therefore biomes of Mu would IMO be an AMAZING Idea for a hybrid between alternate evolution and seeded world project