I know sailing played a huge part in indo-chinese history, and indochina played a big part in sailing. They invented the lanteen sail, the rudder, and probably others. But an extensive search on google reveals little into their seafaring history.
Does any one know what kind of ships/warships the country's of this region used? With all the piracy and emphasis on trade inthe region in ancient an medieval times, I'd think they'd habve something at least worth a unique unit in civ3.
Could any post some information?

Didn't China invent the rudder? Correct me if i'm wrong..

Actaully, yes it would appear so. I've also seen some sites saying the chinese invented the triangular type sail too, but most creditable sources seem to say it was of indo-china influence. Maybe they both were developed in along the far south china coast? Most of the pages I read that credit china with both of these invention don't seem to make the distinction between these two parts of the orient.

It was my history proffessor that told me indochina was the creator of both these innovations... Perhaps he's wrong.

I know sailing played a huge part in indo-chinese history, and indochina played a big part in sailing. They invented the lanteen sail, the rudder, and probably others. But an extensive search on google reveals little into their seafaring history.
Does any one know what kind of ships/warships the country's of this region used? With all the piracy and emphasis on trade inthe region in ancient an medieval times, I'd think they'd habve something at least worth a unique unit in civ3.
Could any post some information?

actually, it was the Byzantine empire that invented lanteen sails first, and ti was then progressed by the arabs, where it diffused to the rest of the old world from arabic use.

Oh, well, in light of this, should an indo-china civ like Siam or Khmer even be a seafaring civ at all? I assume theres no boat that'd make a good UU for them, then.

When you said Indo-China, do you mean Indo-China (as in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) or do you mean the whole of SE Asia?

The Malays were formidable sailors - as the Malay settling in Madagascar shows... They carried most of the intl trade thru SE Asia, up until when the Chinese muscled in IIRC.

The Malays were formidable sailors - as the Malay settling in Madagascar shows...

The dayak war proa's had brass cannon and the pirates were protected by chain mail--a suprise for the early portuguese and dutch. The oldest confirmed rudder is from a chinese tomb-picture on a piece of pottery--1st century a.d.

The dayak war proa's had brass cannon and the pirates were protected by chain mail--a suprise for the early portuguese and dutch.

This proa, it is a type of ship? What period is this? 16th century?

When you said Indo-China, do you mean Indo-China (as in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) or do you mean the whole of SE Asia?
I suppose I'd be most interested in Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. But the Malays are pretty close. I'm going to go out on a limb here without doing any research, but I assume they came from the Thailand peninsula.

The Malays came fr S China 2500 years ago IIRC. There was a stretch of them fr there to SE Asia. There're still certain Malay tribes in Taiwan (aboriginal mayhaps, rather than Malay), in Vietnam (fr the old Champa kingdom) to the modern Malay areas.

This thread's been dozing off. Before I let it rest for good though, do any of you (XIII, Xen, pawpaw) have reason to beleive the Siamese should be a "Seafaring" civ?

Didn't China invent the rudder? Correct me if i'm wrong..
actually, it was the Byzantine empire that invented lanteen sails first, and ti was then progressed by the arabs, where it diffused to the rest of the old world from arabic use.
The Malays were formidable sailors - as the Malay settling in Madagascar shows... They carried most of the intl trade thru SE Asia, up until when the Chinese muscled in IIRC.
:lol: Everyone's trying to claim that their people were the best sailors :lol: But you're ALL wrong, it was in fact the Bantunese who invented ironclads in 200BC

That's a joke, right? Otherwise I'm ****ed on my history final tomorrow...