AHC: Austronesians cross the Atlantic before 1492

By 1492, Austronesians had most likely already crossed two of the three north-south oceans of the world, the Indian and the Pacific.

Can speakers of Austronesian languages possibly beat Columbus and cross the Atlantic before 1492?

Bonus points if Austronesian languages are established on both sides of the Atlantic.
 
You probably would need very ancient POD. Probably something before Indo-European language arrive to Europe.
 

Zachariah

Banned
Hmm. Maybe, maybe. After all, researchers have found Polynesian DNA in the remains of the Native American Botocudo, a tribal group that originally lived in South-East Brazil, on the Atlantic coast, which was violent and independent, didn't come under the control of the Portuguese colonials, and got wiped out for that reason before the end of the 19th century. Even the researchers themselves are still at a loss to try and explain it without admitting that Polynesians could well have transversed the Andes and travelled across South America, or that they could have sailed around Tierra Del Fuego and into the Atlantic. So then, if you counted the Botocudo as an Austronesian group, and went with the Polynesian settler origin theory instead of the escaped Polynesian slaves origin theory, then you could simply have the Botocudo, or their original predecessors, retain their maritime tradition and venture across the Atlantic; with these Austronesian-descended settlers establishing settlements on the then-uninhabited islands of Cape Verde, the Canary Islands and the Azores. Would that work?

EDIT- or, alternately, you could have Malagasy Austronesians sail around the Cape of Good Hope and settle some of those islands, like Cape Verde and Sao Tome et Principe, themselves. But then, you wouldn't technically have them crossing the Atlantic to do so, would you? And sure, these settlers could then easily cross the Atlantic from those outposts, but fulfilling the challenge this way would require two stages of colonization and settlement, and require markedly more time (albeit with more time available, given the arrival of Austronesian settlers in Madagascar i.r.o 350BCE>550CE, perhaps a thousand years or more before the Polynesians could possibly have got to the Atlantic in the Americas- giving them far more time to push on into, and eventually across, the Atlantic from there).
 
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If the Malagasy had settled on the coast of Mozambique shortly after their colonization of Madagascar, and had continued moving down the coast of South Africa and around the Cape of Good Hope, it's possible they could then have attempted an Atlantic crossing. But at that point they would most likely be a heavily mixed Austronesian-Bantu-Khoisan population, and may no longer be recognizably "Austronesian" in language or culture. Still, it would be a really cool POD, with lots of implications for the post-1492 history of Southern Africa and the Atlantic.
 
what if you somehow have the polynesians develop a whaling culture similar to that of the northewest natives of north america. these whalers could start out from south island new zealand where they'd settle land too cold for the otl maori. from there they'd expand to the sub-antarctic islands. the circular nature of the subsntarctic currents and winds would lead them on long circumpolar expeditions stopping at tierra del fuego, madagascar, and south island new zealand crosding all three oceans in a single expedition.
 

Zachariah

Banned
what if you somehow have the polynesians develop a whaling culture similar to that of the northewest natives of north america. these whalers could start out from south island new zealand where they'd settle land too cold for the otl maori. from there they'd expand to the sub-antarctic islands. the circular nature of the subsntarctic currents and winds would lead them on long circumpolar expeditions stopping at tierra del fuego, madagascar, and south island new zealand crosding all three oceans in a single expedition.
Madagascar's nowhere near far south enough for that. Maybe the Prince Edward Islands?
 
Madagascar's nowhere near far south enough for that. Maybe the Prince Edward Islands?

your right. pronce edward islands would make a better stopping point and could allow for trade with the cape of africa and madagascar.

i think these hypothetical antartico-nesians would need a fairly active trade with people in warmer climates in order to sustain their lifestyle.

either that or they could raid land-based peoples who don't have sailing tech
 
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