Basque Civilization and Empire

The Basques, as we know, are a Paleo-European people who preceded the Indo-Europeans arrival. I want to know if the Basques had a good structure to start a Civilization and build it up, further, expanding into the Southern Iberia, North Africa and Italy, before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans and this affecting their migration and settlement patterns. What all could happen?
 
The basque are probably related to the Iberians and the other non Indo-European speaking groups living in the area. What they needed was to not have the Carthaginians followed by Rome.
 
The basque are probably related to the Iberians and the other non Indo-European speaking groups living in the area. What they needed was to not have the Carthaginians followed by Rome.
Could they start and expand earlier to avert the expansion of Pheonicians into Carthage? And of course, deflect the development pathways of Greece and Rome.
 
The Basques, as we know, are a Paleo-European people who preceded the Indo-Europeans arrival. I want to know if the Basques had a good structure to start a Civilization and build it up, further, expanding into the Southern Iberia, North Africa and Italy, before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans and this affecting their migration and settlement patterns. What all could happen?

The Basque had been whalers, pirates and sailors for centuries allegedly even discovered the New World early. What if the they set up pernament colonies ?
 
The Basque had been whalers, pirates and sailors for centuries allegedly even discovered the New World early. What if the they set up pernament colonies ?
Did they really discover the New World earlier? I need citations.

As for the second sentence, yes. That's what I'm talking about. What if they settled even further South into Iberia and then expanding into Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia region before gaining a good influence on the region, as an Empire. I would look for a POD when they would emerge stronger before the arrival of the Pheonicians. This would have a good amount of effects on the pathways of the Greek and the Roman World.
 

Deleted member 90949

Did they really discover the New World earlier? I need citations.

The argument that they discovered the New World comes from the fact that Basque fishermen were importing large amounts of cod, a type of fish from North Sea and the coast of New England. In order to preserve Cod, you must perform some sort of process that can only be done on land. Some historians argue that the quantities of Cod they were bringing in could not have been from the North Sea for some reason that I don't personally understand. So this means they must have been fishing off the coast of North America, and must have gone to land at some point to preserve the cod. While this theory is generally considered plausible, I understand that it is not generally accepted. There are entire books written on the topic though if you are interested.

It is known that the Basques were heavily involved in fishing off the coast of Newfoundland after John Cabot discovered the island.
 
I have read reports that Basque fishermen may have come across Newfoundland in the 15th century while exploiting the cod fisheries of the Grand Banks, but no proof.
 

GeographyDude

Gone Fishin'
in a flight of fancy, I would love for the Basques:

1) to be the biggest European empire which finds easy and causal co-existence between Christianity and Paganism, and

2) to be the colonizing empire NOT to commit genocide against the Guanche people of the Canary Islands.

* yes, most genocide is by disease, but not all of it
 
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