alternatehistory.com

My last chapter on the 13th century is to cover the North American continent (1). Being roughly twice the size of Europe, North America offers a vast variety of natural habitats, going from the Arctic tundra inhabited by various Inuit cultures, through the swampy taiga forests of the Subarctic, inhabited by various Athabascan and northern Algonquian peoples, who depended on hunting and gathering as their livelihood.
View attachment 535689
Languages of North America
Moving southwards into more temperate climates we have a larger variety of environments. True enough, along the Pacific coast we can meet a variety of tribes relying on fishing, such as the Haida and the Salish. As for California and the Great Basin, these are inhabited by numerous tribes – Califronia is a place of great linguistic diversity; the Great Basin, a very arid environment is largely inhabited by Uto-Aztecan speakers. These areas are however too far southwest and are outside of major concern of this update.

What we are to focus more upon is the great watershed of the Mississippi River and the Atlantic Seaboard, being the areas which have come into interaction with the Vinland settlers.
View attachment 535691
A Cahokian priest
The Mississippi watershed is the largest navigable watershed in the continent , in terms of land area, rivalling perhaps to that of the Amazon. The western parts of the drainage basin are more arid, being home to vast prairies, where Sioux and related tribes hunt the bison.

With the help of the river system, communication and trade routes were facilitated, allowing the development of large cities, around impressive mounds, fed by the growing maize as their stale food source.
View attachment 535694
Artist´s reconjstruction of a fortified settlement on the Middle Mississippi

The peoples of the Mississippian civilization are of varied origins: the Caddo people west of the lower Mississippi speak a unique language unlike most of their neighbours. Then we have the Appalachee people of Muscogeean settled in West Florida; and Taensa and Natchez peoples of the Lower Mississippi; the Ioway of Oneota in the Upper Mississippi and Cahokia at the Missouri-Upper Mississippi confluence. We can witness an advanced civilization and Cahokia appears to have had a larger population than London at the time.

It is known that these peoples have developed highly organized chiefdoms and were in contact with the Mesoamerican polities, and there is evidence of the Mesoamerican ball game reaching these areas.
View attachment 535690
Cahokian jewellery
The peoples in the Mississippian Valley have already been experienced in copper smelting; by the mid 13th century iron-smelting arrives into the Mississippi Valley through the Cánuáca (2), and allows the unification process of groups such as the Haudenosaunee or the Huron.

As for our small European settlements, the Lúmanar, descendants of Irish intermarried with local Innu hunter-gatherers of Nithasin dwindle in numbers as the winters get harsher; some of the more adventurous of them continue up stream of the Cánuáca river, trading with native Iroquian tribes and intermarrying with them (3), bringing with them some iron-working skills into the region; in fact linguistic analysis has shown that native Iroquian words for iron and related vocabulary have descended from the Irish terms.

As for Vinlanders, their population in 1200 AD was roughly 70 000; na dit continued to grow as more and more people have been arriving from Greenland and Iceland and the Faroes; by the 1250s it has tripled to around 220 000. Overpopulation of the island of Vinland was becoming an issue and as the climate is getting harsher, Vinlandic explorers, still formidable navigators, continue to explore the coastal regions.

One of the localities which they view as most formidable is the estuary of the Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk (4) River, as it was named by the native Mahican people. This name was slightly changed by the Vinlanders to Møkentik, and they establish one of their trading posts at Manhattan. However, soon the Vinlanders found out that the local peoples, of Algonquian origin – the Mahican, the Mohawk and the Lenape were being attacked by the more powerful Iroquians further upstream. Thus Karl Hjarlson an experienced merchant and adventurer senses the opportunity. With three ships fully loaded with warriors, iron weapons and horses, he sails to Manhattan, from where he unites the quarrelling Algonquian chiefs and leads them in battle against the Iroquis.
View attachment 535688
A political map of North America
Winning the battle, he is proclaimed as king of the Lenape, and his kingdom of Lenapehoking is one of the early North American kingdoms established under Vinlander patronage. Lenapehoking saw the arrival of some 40 000 Vinlanders, who intermarried with the native Lenape

This success inspired another captain to enter the estuary of the Connecticut River to establish his own principality as well – the kingdom of Mattabesic.

As for the Mikmaq, they are recovering slowly from the blow caused by the diseases, with their numbers at roughly 75 000 as of 1300 AD. Smaller chiefdoms in the northeast continue to arise, and time will show who will unite the Wabanaki people. Will it be the Mikmaq, the Penobscott, or the Pennacook?

With the arrival of iron, it appears that there shall be some significant changes in the society, bringing about the rise of new ideas, and new religious thought....​