(I've made a new thread for my TL, so that people don't get confused by the name of
my previous thread, and think it's merely a What If?)
In the year of 1421, Chinese emperor Zhu Di dispatches a fleet of about 800 treasure ships and junks westward to return ambassadors who had witnessed the Forbidden City's inauguration to their home countries, and-- as a secondary goal-- to explore, map and bring back tribute from new lands.
when sailing up the west coast from South America, they notice a large city rising up on the shoreline. It is the Zapotec city of Guiengola. Wishing to bring back riches and tribute for their emperor, the sailors land a distance southeast of the city, and approach by foot, bringing with them silks, porcelain figurines of Buddha and weapons in case of an attack from these people. The Zapotecs are at first puzzled by the mystical men, and are suspicious, as they don't understand their speech, but they take the offerings gladlyand give them in return a jade statue of a jaguar, the rain god Cojico.They are especially curious about the men's weapons, made of iron and steel, materials unknown to them. They offer gold in exchange, which is taken gladly by the Chinese. The strangers are greeted by the priest at the temple, and after some sketching with sticks in the dirt, a form of communication is established.
At this point, one group of Chinese decide to head back to the ships, as night approaches and they still don't completely trust these odd people. They take the statue of Cojico and the gold with them. The rest of the sailors stay with the Zapotecs for the night. It is decided that these foreigners are to be sent to Zaachila, the capital city of the Zapotec Civilization. They take one of their junks, guided by a Zapotec tribesman, up the river to the west of Guiengola, that leads up into the heart of the civilization. As they went up the river, they passed by many cities, among them Mitla.
Mitla, being a city populated by both Zapotecs and Mixtecs, sent news to the Mixtec civilization, of new arrivals from the ocean. Much excitement was in Tilantongo and all throughout the Mixtec civilization. Ambassadors were sent to Zaachila, in peace, to seek meeting and trade with the Chinese. Soon, the treasure ships were full of maize, turquoise, squash, peppers, fine statuettes, mosaics and masks from the mesoamerican traders, who in return took gladly the rice, porcelain, iron, steel and paper from the sailors. When offered silver and jade from the Chinese, both the Mixtecs and the Zapotecs refused to take it. Puzzled by this-- after all, who in their right mind would refuse it-- the Chinese asked, through many complex drawings and gestures, why they didn't want the silver. The Zapotecs had vast silver mines nearby, and showed the sailors large amounts of the stuff, fashioned into jewellery, figurines and mosaics.
Happy with this tribute to bring back to the emperor, the Chinese returned once more to their junks, and continued up the shoreline, waving goodbye to the Zapotecs and Mixtecs.
The sailors continue up the coast, and soon they see a ramshackle collection of thatch-roofed houses.
They drop anchor this time near the city of Acapulco, and are greeted warmly by a group of fishermen, who had heard of strangers arriving in 'winged ships'. It was discovered as they were sailing that one of the men had come down with a sickness from the long journey, and so the Chinese ask for medical assistance. The man was taken at once to a doctor, who gave the man herbs and put him in a steam bath. All this was foreign to the Chinese, but the next day, the man was greatly healed. In repayment, they teach the Acapulcans the art of making ships, and soon make a junk-like vessel out of wood and a spare sail from the Chinese.
After some deliberation, the sailors decide that they will part from this New World, and continue westward to new lands. They fear that if they stay too long with the Aztecs, they will never be able to get back to China, and their expedition will have been useless. So, they set sail into the open sea.
Meanwhile, back in OTL Mexico, Zapotecs and those that have been in their cities start to come down with an unknown illness. The population dwindles, and conquest by neighboring tribes is facilitated. Soon, the Mixtecs have spread to the east, so that they now control all of the Oaxaca Valley and the Zapotec civilization, who are powerless to resist, weakened by this sickness. But now the illness arrives in Tilantongo and the whole civilization is weakened, due to being spread out too far and having most of the population fallen ill. They scrape by with a plummeting population by means of medicine and extermination of those that were found ill.
On the way westward, the explorers find many islands, among them OTL Hawai'i (which they name Dàxíng huǒshān dǎo), the Marshall Islands (Pí huá tǐng qúndǎo) and the Northern Marianas (Lái'ēn qúndǎo.) Eventually, they arrive in the island of Luzon, in the Philippines. They do not stay long, and wonder begins to grow: how could they have gotten to the Philipphines when they were travelling westward? Shocked by this revelation that they had returned to much the same place as they began, they decide that, if indeed they have come full circle, China would be just to their north.
Changing course, they head northward, and sure enough see the vaguely familiar island of Taiwan a few days later. Soon, they are back in port at Shanghai, and travelling to Beijing with their treasures.
Upon returning to Beijing, the explorers went straight to the emperor, who was intrigued and excited at the prospect of a new land. He sent out a second fleet, 1,000 ships strong, full of seeds, food, animals, soldiers , basic building materials and trade goods such as silver, porcelain, iron and ivory.
The fleet arrived back in Central America in June 1424, and set out in search for the Zapotec cities. When they arrived there, however, they sensed feeling of gloom in the city. Those there were sick, and the Chinese learned that a great sickness had come over that land, and that many had died. The Chinese are frightened at this illness, and decide that, contrary to their initial plans, they would be best settling farther away from the cities.
They sail a bit farther up the coast, back to Acapulco, where the previously ramshackle town is now flourishing. They notice many fishing boats in the water and sailing towards the town, each one the exact replica of the pseudo-junk they made the tribe on their last visit. The Acapulcans were hit as well by the plague, harder than most, and were agglomerated into the now-massive Mixtec Empire, and have since since re-established thanks to trade made easier by the ships and weaponry of the Chinese.They say that the Empire will doubtlessly begin spreading more and more, now that their major competitor, the Zapotecs, is weakened.
The Chinese finally drop anchor a few miles up the coast from Acapulco (unless someone has got a better, more Mixtec name for Acapulco), and set about building small huts, pens for the animals, granaries and settling down in their newly established settlement.
Within a year, they have begun a healthy trade system with the whole Mixtec Empire, from the great city of Coixtlahuacan (a city recently absorbed by the Mixtec armies) to Tlapanec (one of the first cities to be conquered during the plague), receiving chests full of silver and gold and knowledge of the surrounding lands, in exchange for their weapon technology, so that now the Empire was even further armed with iron weaponry, advanced projectiles and gunpowder. The Chinese settlement had been named Jìn Yuánzhùmín [附近原住民.])
Meanwhile, back in China, the emperor has died, leaving the throne to his eldest son, who (as IOTL) begins to reform the nation. The new emperor cuts down on his father's militaristic ways and restores civility to the government. He cancels frivolous maritime expeditions due to their cost, forgetting momentarily about the most important maritime expedition going on in America. Unfortunately, he dies within a few months, and the throne is passed once again to a new emperor, who prefers the older, more traditional methods of his grandfather, and encourages further maritime expeditions, remembering the importance of the New World. Zhu Zhanji (this most recent emperor) thinks it high time he receives news from the New World, so he sends a small fleet of messengers eastward to bring back news. They depart July 1425.
This new emperor realizes the harshness of the Pacific when his messengers return back to Beijing only a few months after they left, reporting heavy waves and storms and begging not to be sent out there again. The emperor is faced with a problem, keep contact with the settlers in America or keep his navy. He goes with the latter, and explains to his advisers and government that all links with America had been severed and they would not speak of it again.
Though confused, many of the emperor's confidants kept the secret and continued on with business, but word got out, somehow, of the New World, to European traders departing the city one day in 1426. They heard of a New World with silver and land, and brought the secrets back to Europe and spread the rumor around so that there was a new interest in this mysterious New World, all across Europe. The race was then on for the New World.
Back in Jìn Yuánzhùmín, some of the soldiers have married with the native women, and have moved progressively further away from Jìn Yuánzhùmín, to raise their families. Soon, there are Chinese and Chinese-Mixtec families as far north as OTL Manzanillo, punctuated by occasional native cities and major Mixed Race cities such as Jìn Yuánzhùmín, Bàntǔzhù (halfway between OTL Zihuatenejo and Acapulco) and Sān shì (near OTL Aquila.)
These cities employ a mix of Chinese and Native architecture styles, and follow a religion that is a mixture of Buddhism and Native customs. Temples are built, much like the Native Temples, but with Buddhist symbols adorning many surfaces and a large statue of Buddha as the centerpiece. Native gods are equally as important in this religion as Buddha, and all are worshiped equally.
Though the lack of communication with the empire went right over the heads of some of the more integrated Chinese, those that didn't particularly like the New World met one night in Jìn Yuánzhùmín and discussed what to do. They figured that China had forgotten them, and no more resources or forces were to come. They felt scared and slightly betrayed by their emperor and decided they would try to make the voyage back to Asia, even though the leader of the initial expedition had died recently due to a local illness. They took two junks and, in the dead of night, set out on the deadly voyage.
They never made it, of course, and their ships were sunk by the same weather that had afflicted the emperor's messengers earlier, and now Jìn Yuánzhùmín was short food supplies, for they had taken quite a lot of it.
1427
January:
- A group of Chinese and Mixtec soldiers begin to explore farther north, exploring the area north of Sān shì. They find OTL Lake Chapala, but turn back when they get to the desert lands just north of it.
- A trader arrives from the Mayas of the Yucatan Peninsula in the city of Guiengola, and brings back news of how much the Mixtecs have grown, and of the precious iron and steel and fine things there. An influx of Mayan-Mixtec trade results
March:
- The Northern Exploration group return to Sān shì bringing news of new jungles and fertile lands around the Lake.
April:
- A steady stream of trade is established between the Mayan and Mixtec Civilizations.
- Yucu Luucuta (Hill of Beautiful Water) is founded at the southern shore of Lake Chapala (on a hill), while Ñuukúká (Rich place/city/etc.) is founded on the northern shore. Many other small settlements and trade posts are clustered around the area of the lake.
July:
- As trade between the two civilizations has become so great, the Mixtecs found a city on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (called Ñujeeyukúantayga, Place for the Other People), and begin trading with the Mayans of the Yucatan peninsula by boat.
August:
- The Mayans develop their own junk-like vehicle, which somewhat resembles a miniaturized three-masted ship (à la OTL European Navy) and with seats and oars for rowers in case of a still breeze. (The ship is actually more similar to a Viking Ship, except for its three sails.) This design is found to be more effective at navigating the ocean than the Mixtecs' pseudo-junks.
December:
- A party of Tarascans from the southeast pop up for a visit around Yucu Luucuta, and are shocked to find others near the lake, and taken aback, but speak kindly with the Mixtecs, then return to Tzintzuntzan (their capital city.)
- The first successful city in the desert is founded: Ñumoku (place of death/the dead.) It relies on frequent importation of supplies, but masters artificial growth through the use of fertilizers (made from decaying plant matter) in box-gardens (a garden contained inside a perimeter of wood, irrigated from below.)
1428
January:
- The natives of the desert in which Ñumoku has been erected are less than welcoming to the Mixtecs. These men are Guachichils, nomads of the desert, who had been planning to set up camp where Ñumoku was. Most of their bodies were painted red, as was their custom, and they were a horrid site to the residents of Ñumoku. They didn't take their camp being stolen well, and trashed as much of the city as they could with what they had on them. They broke steps, box-gardens, buildings, smashed in walls and doors, fought anyone that stood in their way and stole whatever they could get their hands on, before being driven off or killed by the soldiers present in the city. Nevertheless, the damage was rather severe and reconstruction would take a long time.
February:
- Even while the reconstruction of the city continues, late in the month, the Guachichils return to Ñumoku, this time equipped with what weapons they'd managed to grab on their previous mission into the city, and some fellow nomads: the Caxcans and the Tecuexe. They are unorganized and run towards the city, screaming and flailing their weapons wildly. The soldiers manage to break their first line with their cannons and guns, which surprise the nomads, and they stand in dumb confusion for a while, before charging again. By this time, however, more soldiers are prepared, and they shoot at the confused mob with crossbows and catapults. The numbers of the nomads remains strong, however, and they finally reach the city. The soldiers engage them with swords, guns, crossbows, spears, axes, all superior technologically to the nomads' stone tools and fists, but the nomads appear to be winning. Then, a soldier has an idea. He fills a sack with gunpowder, closes it and lights a piece of grass on fire, which he puts in the sack. He throws the sack into the fighting crowd, and suddenly there is a violent explosion. The nomads huddle back in fear as the soldiers throw more proto-grenades into the mob. Frightened by these devilish explosions and their loud noise, the nomads run away, yelling even more than they had done before.
March:
- Further, smaller nomad attacks are beaten off easily, and eventually there are no sightings of wild men for a long time.
- Late in the month, the city rebuilding is complete, and life resumes as normal in Ñumoku.
April:
- The area around Ñumoku sees a rush of immigrants from the coastal cities dying for a change of scenery. Box-farms are made en masse and an artificial park (complete with trees and non-edible flowers) is planted by nostalgic citizens who long for the flora of the south.
1428
May:
- Ñumokan farmers, seeing the increase in the population, need to grow better crops that can withstand the dryness of the desert. Unknowingly, they enter a process of artificial selection, only replanting the seeds of those plants that grew quickly and most.
June:
- An aqueduct system is put in place between Ñumoku and Lake Chapala.
August:
- Tarascan immigrants from Tzintzuntzan arrive in Yucu Luucuta, come because they believe that the Mixtecs are better-equipped and fed. Talk about entering some Tarascan cities into the Empire begins.
1429
February:
- Aqueduct system completed from Lake Chapala to Ñumoku as artificial selection continues among the farmers.
April:
- Another, larger group of immigrants from around Lake Cuitzeo arrive in Yucu Luucuta, so that now over a fifth of the population of the city is Tarascan.
May:
- Ñumokan farmers have a breakthrough in botany. They have come up with a variety of maize and of rice that can grow in the desert conditions. Armed with these "blessed plants", other towns are set up further into the desert, although many of the less guarded ones are destroyed by Chichimeca raids.
December:
- The Tarascan state and the Mixtec empire continue exchanging technologies and citizens, so that the groups are so interconnected that the Tarascan state is seen by many Mixtecs to be merely an extension of the empire, however, the Tarascan leaders beg to differ and urge their citizens to keep their independence from the Mixtecs.
1430
February:
- The Buddhist-Mixtec religion abolishes sacrifice outright. True, not much of it had been happening until then, indeed sacrifice wasn't practiced regularly throughout the empire, but this new custom shocks the Mixtec empire.
In 1431, the Mixtec Empire had practically doubled in influence and size from seven years ago, and some of the political leaders were considering adopting a more organized social structure, as a change from the wildly different policies throughout the empire.
In the south, cities were more organized and structured, influenced strongly by the Chinese there, who encouraged order and development. The cities along the Pacific coast had a strong fishing industry, and fish was one of the staple foods in the empire. The houses along the coast were built with screen walls and doors facing towards the sea, and all the statues (of Buddha and the other native gods) faced the sea.
On the other coast, there was only one major city, Ñujeeyukúantayga, which was primarily a trade port, and whose population was made up 50% of Mayan, Totonac and Nahua immigrants, 40% of Mixtec fisherman, merchants and farmers, and 10% of Chinese living with their Mixtec wives and mixed-race children. The houses there had thatched roofs, and frequently adjoined expansive fields or gardens. Popular crops grown were maize, rice, squash, beans, chili peppers and pumpkins, which were then sold in the market or at the docks.
Up north of Sān shì, there was yet more distinctive areas of the Empire. There were the cities around Lake Chapala, and the Desert Cities, the largest of which was Ñumoku.
Lake Chapala was a popular cultural area, as the lake was frequently warm and was used in celebrations (fireworks set off on boats in the lake) or ceremonies (a common custom of newlyweds in Yucu Luucuta was to take a swim together, their first swim as a married couple.) Yucu Luucuta and Ñuukúká on the northern shore were popular locations for national (for lack of a better word) celebrations, and the Chinese population would often throw great parties for the Chinese New Year.
Ñumoku, in the desert, was a technological center of the Empire. It had been founded under the thought "how can we make this dead land habitable?" It has since seen the development of revolutionary farming techniques, aqueducts and new crops, specifically bred for the harsh conditions. Chichimec nomads are sometimes enslaved and forced to work in the box-farms. The houses there are built with low roofs to retain heat during the cold desert nights.
While there is no dissent among any of these regions, it is felt rather strongly by some political leaders in Mitla that more evident unification could be useful to reinforce the empire's semblance of power towards other cities and civilizations.
India - 1424:
While the seemingly endless stream of wars in the subcontinent continue, with the Vijayangar-Reddy alliance fighting against the northern Bahmani sultanate, the news of the Chinese discovery was hitting ports across the world. Tired of the endless and (to them) futile territorial struggles in the Indian subcontinent, a group of heavily religious Hinduists begin organizing an expedition to the New World, to get away from the useless wars. By December, they've amassed 100 ships ranging from fishing boats to AWOL war ships, containing farmers, fishermen, sailors, women, children, cows, soldiers, workers and slaves (who've run away from their masters and are told that they will be granted freedom in the New World.) In total, the number of people there is around 2,500.
A map of the voyage.
Of course, with a voyage going that far south, into uncharted waters, there were some difficulties. Many of the children on board, for example, came down with a cold, and ended up freezing to death. One fishing boat, mostly containing high-ranking soldiers and worried mothers with their children demanded to head back, and were lost among the waters.
Before arriving in South America, in the middle of the year 1425, they spot some land rising up north of them. They land and have a look around. Some believe that this isn't the land discovered by the Chinese, and prepare their boats to continue eastward. Even if it is the New World, they say, it's too dry and deserted for them, and the worst that could happen from them continuing east is that they might end up in Europe or Africa. Of the 100 ships that set out, 20 decide to stay in this land. It is, though they don't know it, Australia.
Those seafarers that stayed in Australia had landed at OTL Canberra, and began making shelters with what little supplies they had on their boats. This group of Indians was much less religious than the others, and they decided that if anything was going to be done here, they'd need some order. One of them was elected as leader, his name was Vineet Lochan Lokajit, and he had been a soldier before the voyage. Lokajit had become infatuated with a girl that was on his ship, and he soon married her. Her name was Thirunarayan Saanjh Hasna, and she had been a servant girl before they'd departed. Lokajit's first order as leader of the group was to find resources they could use to build. They had much wood on their ships, and tools for building, and soon they found some trees and hills which they managed to carve bricks from.
In October 1425, a group of cows is lost and runs into the desert.
In May 1426, Hasna has a baby, who is named Narbaupaghaa Lokajit Fateh (Narbaupaghaa being the name of their ramshackle settlement.) By December 1427, they've completed a wall of nearby granite rock dug out of a hillside.
They reached South America in August 1426, landing on the shores of OTL Northern Chile (ignore the map, I didn't show accurately where they landed.) At first, they land and unload the boats, gazing in wonder at the high mountains in the distance and strange surroundings, but soon got to setting up a shelter. They had soon erected a couple huts atop a nearby hill, and when night fell, there were enough to house a quarter of the people. The others slept on the ships.
In the morning, the religious among them prayed, while the workers and soldiers started construction of a wall around the hill on which their huts stood. They set down a foundation of wood and crates brought on the boats, and then split into two groups, the one to finish the habitations, the other to begin carving stone bricks out of the hills and cliffs around them. This work continued, and by the end of 1426, they'd finished one half of the wall surrounding their thatch-roofed huts.
It was in May of 1427, when they'd just finished the wall and were having a celebration in the middle of their ramshackle town that a small group of twenty or so men appeared in the distance. They didn't speak any recognizable language, and had a strange appearance, but it was clear that they were as shocked as the Indians to find there were people there. They confusedly exchanged gifts, seeds (of maize) from the Aymarans (for that's who they were) in exchange for a cow from the Indians. The Aymarans went away shocked while the Indians were shaken by the revelation of another group of people nearby.
June of 1427: a baby is born to an Indian woman. She dies in childbirth and the baby dies soon from undernourishment and an exotic disease.
By 1428, they'd engaged in communication with the Aymaran natives, who came from a city just up the coast from their settlement, and soon established a rudimentary form of communication. They had traded some more livestock for native plants and native animals, and had also given the Aymarans gunpowder weapons and iron blades, in exchange for help in building stone houses and another wall around the hill. With the Aymaran help (which was great, given the rush to see the newcomers from the civilization), the Indian hill-city was completed, with 50 houses, a mandir, and gates in both walls, was completed finally in January 1429.
By this time, not only had the Aymarans developed a healthy relationship with the Indians, several other groups including the Chimu, Chiribaya and some merchants from the Kingdom of Cuzco had come to visit and trade with them. Some Indians took wives of Aymaran or Chimu women, and they went and lived in the City.
Healthy trade and good relations continued among the Indians and the Natives for many years.