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  1. The Good Berry: A Wild Rice Domestication TL

    I like that the manual focuses on supplies. I do wonder how different the question of supplies is when you have red deer as your traction animal, as opposed to oxen or mules.

  2. Spanish conquest of the Pampas

    Maybe in a scenario where the conquest of Mexico and Peru fails? Then we have would-be conquistadors potentially settling this region instead, and as a land-rich and slave-poor colony, the Pampas would see agricultural and ranching development from the initial conquistadors that draw in more...

  3. Californie- French California

    'Gould eel' in the French pronunciation of the English words, maybe later turned into "Gouldille" in a fit of Francofication.

  4. Opium trade with no Qing Dynasty

    You don't even need to go as far as putting in a new dynasty-there were advocates for opium legalization in the Qing dynasty. There are alternative ways to deal with the trade imbalance than banning the opium trade. I couldn't find the source, but IIRC one official suggested that the Qing...

  5. What if the pilgrims weren't saved by Squanto and the Wampanoag tribe?

    I think New England is indeed butterflied away. Without the accidental success of the Plymouth colony, there isn't much in that region to have the English come back. There's probably still demand for a 'Puritan' colony in the New World that's removed from the immoral degenerates (from the...

  6. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    Looking at the case in the '80's where a group of llamas were stranded outside of Aruba (the link is in my OP), it is possible to stabilize their numbers for over a month in a tropical climate as long as they are not being made to work as pack animals or otherwise exerted beyond reaching food...

  7. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    That's a temperate rainforest, so not quite comparable heatwise-though the fact that llamas are running feral in that region does show that they are adaptable to habitats outside of their Andean homeland, and can tolerate humid climates when the temperatures are low enough.

  8. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    Llamas could conceivably spread into the northern Andes. Their use as pack animals to carry trade goods and supplies for military expeditions over the highest peaks could contribute to greater political centralization in the area. The Guatemalan highlands IOTL saw the development of some of...

  9. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    This is a well thought out reply. Sadly, I do think that a coastal tropical breed as you are describing isn't biologically possible with the llama we know and love IOTL. I think there's maybe some disconnect on what I and other posters talk about when we talk about "tropical coastal" llamas...

  10. The Good Berry: A Wild Rice Domestication TL

    I get your frustration with AI art, I really do-the heavily bearded Native Americans in the media for this timeline, among other things, throw me off. But, I think you need to keep in mind the only realistic budget alternative-randomly googling images that may or may not be linkable within a...

  11. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    Interestingly enough, you can have a trade in tin without smelting it for bronze-cassiterite (tin ore) is a lovely dark gem. But as I wrote, jade is a big one-Guatemala has deposits of jade, and IIRC it wasn't available in the Andes so that's a big one. Vanilla is also limited in range to...

  12. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    I do think this sets the llama in this scenario apart from the failed European attempts to import them IOTL, and overcomes the objection of "the Chinese emperors didn't breed giraffes". There is a niche that it fills. We saw this in Native American cultures IOTL with sheep, that were adopted...

  13. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    Tin IMO is a big one. This will create trade routes that draw traders right into some of the most llama friendly land in Mesoamerica. A situation where bronze working is more common in the Andes, and the equivalent of OTL's *Tiwanaku polity controls the best tin mining areas of the Andes will...

  14. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    Jungles kill camels dead. 19th century exporters suffered horrendous casualties in the camelid herds when transporting them via rail cattle cars through Panama, actually driving a herd on foot through the isthmus will destroy it. In an ASB scenario with a new ice age, maybe that works, but it...

  15. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    It doesn't have to be civilizational collapse level of bad. A civil war that goes badly for one side, people fleeing a conquest, a bad El Niño year could all displace people while leaving existing trade contacts in place. Looking in the Old World, there are some potential parallels with the...

  16. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    Essentially yes. That tropical barrier is very hard for camelids to cross. Humans can bring them across it, but it requires motivation.

  17. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    I’m inclined to agree with your pessimism, frankly-it’s entirely possible for pre-Columbian Mexico and Peru to keep a long term contact for centuries without transferring llamas. Which is why I wanted to examine the scenarios under which it could happen.

  18. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    That does jive with other suggestions in the thread. I will say that while llamas as a species are common in Peru at this time, there is the possibility of certain breeds being considered rare and valuable. Pre-Columbian llamas had a greater variety of breeds, some with well-developed wool coats...

  19. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    A conqueror is a really cool idea, but the logistics-even if we have more advanced metallurgy and shipbuilding ITTL-is very difficult. A Mesoamerican conqueror who has access to the Mexican highlands were llamas would be able to thrive is liable to not be very interested in taking to sea, while...

  20. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    I think turkeys would have done fine in Peru, at least from the coast to the mid-slope of the Andes, and guinea pigs would have done fine in Mexico. They're not transformative domesticates, but they are very good at converting what would otherwise be agricultural waste into delicious protein for...
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