Something I was curious about. Would it be possible to have the Shogunate have any territory in the Americas?
Something I was curious about. Would it be possible to have the Shogunate have any territory in the Americas?
America is too far away, I would think.
Also, I am not completely sure if Japan has the ability to craft boats that could cover the distance.
so the First things to solve is how will Japan get a ship capable of traveling that far, and why are they sailing eastward.
The Japanese could build boats which could cover the distance quite easily, at least in theoretical terms. There's at least some evidence that unlucky ships blown off course ended up there, but did not know how to get back.
There needs to be a compelling reason for the Japanese to be exploring east, before anything like this happens. Such a reason could exist.
Perhaps a more sea-oriented late-Ming or post-Ming China, perchance, who decide to keep the apron-strings on their southeast Asian vassals tight, and these westerner interlopers out, and if the Japanese won't vassalize they'll cut them off from Asian trade. Japan, too difficult to conquer or subdue but being blockaded, find that seclusion feels much worse when it's imposed by others rather than on oneself. Cut off from the Asian markets, it explores easterly in order to get more trade contacts, suffering from some of the same kind of delusions and misinformation about geography that Europeans suffered. A belief that all of the Americas are a thin strip of land between two oceans might lead to a colony or two in what we know as California. This could start to snowball.
America is too far away, I would think.
Also, I am not completely sure if Japan has the ability to craft boats that could cover the distance.
so the First things to solve is how will Japan get a ship capable of traveling that far, and why are they sailing eastward.
Japan DID. OTL.
2 ships.
"San Buena Ventura", built 1607 by William Adams, sailed to Mexico successfully in 1610 (confiscated there).
"Date Maru"/"San Juan Bautista", built in Ishinomaki in 1613. Sailed to Mexico 1613, returned in 1615, sailed again in 1616, returned to Philippines 1618.
So, could the Japanese transpacific fleet have been sustained?