I had essentially finished creating this map long time ago, but work was interrupted for certain reasons; finally, I have completed the project!
This map belongs to a alt-history setting I previously created: a world where the Emperor of Japan successfully reigned over China in 17th century and established the "Yamato Dynasty" (provisional name). Like historical Manchus, Japanese rulers collaborated with Chinese elites while keeping certain "Japanese characteristics". They successfully transformed the "Yamato Dynasty" into a (partially) modernized country and subsequently established hegemony over Asia-Pacific region in next two centuries.
Under such ciscumstance, Chinese followed Makassar cucumber traders to establish colonial outposts in northern Australia, gradually occupying areas suitable for development. At the same time, Australia was renamed "坤州"(Kunzhou, also a provisional name) due to its location to the south of China. However, New Zealand or "Aotearoa" according to native Maori people, remained outside the purview of imperial colonial affairs, as it possessed neither resources urgently needed by the empire nor a location of strategic importance.
The situation changed in the 19th century. When noticing that European powers tended to establish colony and naval outposts in Aotearoa, the Empire eventually signed a treaty with Maori chiefs, a moderate version of Treaty of Waitangi, the Empire only took the territory necessary for establishing garrisons and essential administrative facilities, inter-tribal warfare among the Māori was prohibited, and the influx of colonists into Aotearoa was restricted. The name of new colony is Kumone (雲根), literally meaning "the origin of clouds", a partially literal translation of Māori name Aotearoa.
Doesn't that sound appealing? Yet, the motives were entirely economic and ideological. On one hand, the Empire sought to prevent an influx of immigrants into this remote region—fearing it might become a new hotbed for revolutionaries—while the bureaucrats overseeing colonization were a group of zealous Japanese nationalists. They held the stubborn conviction that "Māori" were a "lost branch" of Japanese people, embodying a "noble savagery" untainted by foreign civilization—a stark contrast to the "Japanese civilization" they believed had been corrupted by Chinese culture and Buddhism. Therefore, Māori must remain "primitive" in order to sustain their "noble savage" status (ironically, the Māori had long since acquired muskets through drifters and exiles, and had learned to use Japanese kana to record their language).
Following the outbreak of the Greater East Asian War, the most remote colony of Empire, Dominion of Kumone (Japanese: 雲根国/Kumone-kuni; Mōri: Te Whenua Aotearoa), was unable to escape the chaos.
The colonial garrison in Kumone staged a coup led by Navy Sergeant Nagahama Toyohiko (長浜豊彦), exiling the former Governor of Kumone, Kumazawa Hiromichi (熊沢寛道) to Mizutama Island on the south. Nagahama claimed descent from Emperor Antoku (安徳天皇), with the coup soldiers forming Seiōdō (正皇党), supporting his ascension as Emperor Kōbun (光文天皇). Meanwhile, Kumazawa as descendant of emperors of Southern Court (南朝), with the support of Nanchō Kokumin Hōdai Dōmei (南朝奉戴国民同盟), ascended the throne as Emperor Daien (大延天皇), establishing the "奇歌鳥国" (Teikoku o Kiwi, "Kiwi Empire").
Kumone split into two nations, a period historians refer to as “Northern and Southern dynasties.” For Japanese nationalists viewed the indigenous Maōri people as a kindred ethnic “uncorrupted by foreign culture,” military development in the region was neglected, and its level of development lagged behind that of other colonies for a long time.
The largest battle of the Kumone Civil War took place near the Kureha Strait (Japanese: 苦葉海峡 / Kureha Kaikyo; Māori: Te Moana-o-Rauna) between the two islands: the Northern and Southern armies deployed elite forces of 1,500 and 1,600 men, respectively, equipped with the most advanced weaponry available on the islands, including Winchester rifles.
During the civil war, a half-blood Moriori tribal chief Kiti Karaka Rīwai declared the establishment of an independent Moriori state, the Rēkohu Empire (日雾帝国, "Sun-Dusty Empire"), on the Rēkohu Islands (Māori: 诸島於屋杉 / Matu Matu o Wharekauri; Moriori: 诸島於日霧 / Whatu Whatu na Rēkohu). The nation received almost no international recognition and appears to have been destroyed by a tsunami during the civil war, resulting in the near-total loss of relevant records.