How could the discovery of the Americas be delayed for as long as possible?
Unless, of course, there's some total disaster that sets Europe back a couple of centuries some time before.It's going to be hard to delay it further than the mid-XVIth century at latest : you had european ships wandering the Altantic in constantly greater numbers, especially in southern Atlantic Ocean bordering Africa, where Portuguese and Castillan ships traded and explored the coasts (but as well in Northern Atlantic, with French, English and Hanseatic seafare).
You'd need a significant luck, or lack thereof, to prevent sighting of American coast, or ignoring the favourable winds and streams.
Quite. That's a good point, and why I put 'discovery' in quotes, since the Americas had been actually discovered some 12+kya.Delay the last ice age and the formation of the Bering land bridge. Anything after about 40,000 BCE is too late.
- Keep Byzantine around much longer, perhaps even better if not Islam.
Unless you're positing a Byzantium-wank, whereby all of Western Europe is ruled from Constantinople, then I've never found this a compelling way to discourage Atlantic maritime activities. Who cares if the guys sitting on all the trade routes are Muslim or Christian, if your motivation is that they're sitting on those trade routes and you want to get around them?
True, but most of the explorers come from, or were descended from inhabitants of, Italy. With it Italy under Byzantium, it no longer has tonnes of independent traders who emigrate to other countries. This could put off the discovery qite abit.Precisely. When the first Portuguese explorers came back from India, the King of Portugal crowed about getting one over Venice, not the Ottomans or Mamelukes.
Did anyone remember the Danish Tir nan Og/ Vinland/ by the 1410s or was it simply a legend by this point?
I would look into something that reduced the amount of trees that could give lumber for ships in western Europe. If people are worried about running out of wood then cost of ships would be higher and people would not be as willing to take chances on exploring the unknown.
True, but most of the explorers come from, or were descended from inhabitants of, Italy. With it Italy under Byzantium, it no longer has tonnes of independent traders who emigrate to other countries. This could put off the discovery qite abit.
Didn't the King of Portugal, Dinis I, plant a large forest for shipbuilding? Not to mention, you can't physically run out of wood for ships in Europe, since you'd just drive up the price of wood and make the Scandinavian countries stronger (and they definitely aren't going to be running out of wood). I'd argue this could strengthen the need for exploration--can you use rainforest wood in West Africa for ships? And more trade with West Africa by sea equals Brazil will be discovered, and eventually the rest of the New World.
And that includes the Grand Banks area, where the lack of cod from there because of expensive ships will drive up the price of cod. And it's evident that the land by the Grand Banks contains an insane amount of trees which can be used for shipbuilding.