1492 New World ISOT

[pa_dutch]

The New World of 1492 AD, excluding Columbus, is ISOT'd back to 1 AD. The Aztecs and the Incas exist alongside ancient Rome and Han China. Assuming history plays out the same in the Old World for the time being, how will the New World develop without Europe to bother it? Which side will be the first to cross the Atlantic, and around what time will this happen? If the Norse reach Greenland and Vinland, will they find more than they did in OTL, and leave a more permanent impact? Perhaps the Incas will come into contact with Polynesia and attempt to cross the Pacific?

[Tetsu]

So, essentially, the next Columbus will be making the trip circa 2984 A.D.? That's a loooong time... I suspect that some of the North American tribes will have formed much larger states by that time.

This is a hard one. I'll get back to it when I have some more time.

[Max Sinister]

Maybe until then we'd see the two big civilizations (Aztecs and Inca) link up, exchanging crops (potatos for maize/corn) and technology (Aztecs had a kind of wheel, Incas had the only beast of burden [llamas]), as Jared Diamond suggested. Maybe they also dig up the discoveries of the Maya...

[pa_dutch]

Well, whether Columbus shows up depends on if the Norse visit to Vinland plays out differently (perhaps they will find more advanced societies than the "Skraelings" they warred with) or if the Native Americans, at least some of whom will probably be equal with the Europeans, are the first to make trans-Atlantic contact.

I don't see the Aztecs lasting long. I see a civil war in Mesoamerica, in which the Tarascans end up as the dominant civilization, absorping elements of Aztec culture while spreading their own, more centralized system of government. The Tarascans are more similar to the Inca than the Aztecs in their society, I believe, so they will get along well. Shortly after we will probably see an Iron Age since the Tarascans and the Inca both had primitive metallurgy.

I think I remember reading that the Plains people were on the verge of establishing a settled agricultural society before horses were introduced, so spread of crops and the turkey from Mesoamerica would benefit them. There's a lot I'd like to see through cultural exchange across the Americas... Spread of seafaring technology from the Pacific tribes or the Polynesians to Mesoamerica or South America, and introduction of written language north of Mexico would be interesting. Maybe if the Incas spread llamas to the mountainous regions of North America, too.