Straha
Banned
What would have happened had Ferdinand and Isabella not decided to employ Columbus?
1 My best guess is that Spain would still include southern Italy, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, and Corsica ( the old Aragonese Empire) plus Tunisia, coastal Algeria and much of northern Morocco plus Portugal. The Dutch wars would never happen - without the New World bullion Philip has no choice but to let the heretics go. Carib is settled by a mixed swarm of European adventurers. Cortez and Pizzaro ( or whoever fills in for them in this TL ) establish dynasties much like William the Conquorer did in the UK. Major settlement of the New World comes much sooner as there is no one Imperial power to bar the way and no treasure fleets for the pirates to plunder. The African slave trade is a minor footonote invloving a few hundreds of thousands of captives spread over a few centuries in small boat loads instead of the tidal wave it was. More Asian slaves than African in this TL as independent Peru and Mexico trade more across the Pacific than the Atlantic. More European and Middle Eastern slaves / indentured servants than both combined. More intermarriage in North and South America along the lines of French Canada and the metis.
2. Three ships, the Santa Maria, Nina, and the Pinta, are caught in a violent storm as they are sailing to what one Christopher COlumbus thinks is the West Indies. One or more of the ships is sunk, and Christopher Columbus goes down with his ship. Upon receiving this news (either from a survivor or from the lapse of time without a contact), Isabella and Ferdinand dismiss "silly old Columbus, who thought the world was round" from their heads.
3. Columbus survives and everything goes as in OTL, except for one thing: the new world is named after Columbus and not Amerigo Vespucci.
1 My best guess is that Spain would still include southern Italy, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia, and Corsica ( the old Aragonese Empire) plus Tunisia, coastal Algeria and much of northern Morocco plus Portugal. The Dutch wars would never happen - without the New World bullion Philip has no choice but to let the heretics go. Carib is settled by a mixed swarm of European adventurers. Cortez and Pizzaro ( or whoever fills in for them in this TL ) establish dynasties much like William the Conquorer did in the UK. Major settlement of the New World comes much sooner as there is no one Imperial power to bar the way and no treasure fleets for the pirates to plunder. The African slave trade is a minor footonote invloving a few hundreds of thousands of captives spread over a few centuries in small boat loads instead of the tidal wave it was. More Asian slaves than African in this TL as independent Peru and Mexico trade more across the Pacific than the Atlantic. More European and Middle Eastern slaves / indentured servants than both combined. More intermarriage in North and South America along the lines of French Canada and the metis.
2. Three ships, the Santa Maria, Nina, and the Pinta, are caught in a violent storm as they are sailing to what one Christopher COlumbus thinks is the West Indies. One or more of the ships is sunk, and Christopher Columbus goes down with his ship. Upon receiving this news (either from a survivor or from the lapse of time without a contact), Isabella and Ferdinand dismiss "silly old Columbus, who thought the world was round" from their heads.
3. Columbus survives and everything goes as in OTL, except for one thing: the new world is named after Columbus and not Amerigo Vespucci.