I was reading the replies to this thread:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/italian-colonization-of-the-americas.469036/
And I got to thinking. The Catholic Monarchs really had no reason to fund Columbus, either. It seems plausible that they might have turned him down flat. He'd already tried Portugal, Genoa, Venice, and even England. If Spain turned Columbus down, is there anyone else who might have taken a chance on his voyage? Would he have kept on petitioning the people he'd already tried? And if no one funded him, would he have just kind of given up? Is there a chance he could have drummed up some kind of lower-level funding (maybe tried to interest some rich merchants or nobles or something like that?).
And, if he never gets his funding, who eventually discovers the New World? The English? The Portuguese? Does it take a long time - another century or more? It seems unlikely that it would never be (re-) discovered by Europeans.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/italian-colonization-of-the-americas.469036/
And I got to thinking. The Catholic Monarchs really had no reason to fund Columbus, either. It seems plausible that they might have turned him down flat. He'd already tried Portugal, Genoa, Venice, and even England. If Spain turned Columbus down, is there anyone else who might have taken a chance on his voyage? Would he have kept on petitioning the people he'd already tried? And if no one funded him, would he have just kind of given up? Is there a chance he could have drummed up some kind of lower-level funding (maybe tried to interest some rich merchants or nobles or something like that?).
And, if he never gets his funding, who eventually discovers the New World? The English? The Portuguese? Does it take a long time - another century or more? It seems unlikely that it would never be (re-) discovered by Europeans.