Alternate America, 1600 AD

Tom Veil

The basic POD: the Norse are able to hold onto their American possessions due to a slightly improved climate in the 1000s-1100s. This has plenty of ripple effects, the most obvious being that the playing field in America is radically equalized, with more Western nations getting into the act (such as the Moorish and African Caliphates) and with Native nations having a better chance to recover from the initial waves of plague, adopt Western technology, and resist encroachment (at least for now!).
Enjoy, and feel free to "play along" by filling in the history that lead to this result!
(Note: I intentionally kept some of the names similar to OTL, rather than letting the butterflies carry them away, to make it easier to tell who owns what)

This Brand New Colony.png
 

Count Dearborn

They could have learned how to survive from the native tribes also. Appearently, in OTL, they didn't take to eating fish, as the natives did.
 

tinfoil

I would have thought that the 1st european group would have wound up with much of the choicest land near the east coast - yet you have the Norse holding on to the relatively unattractive labrador area rather than coastal Nova Scotia and New England.

Did they lose some sort of war?
 

Tom Veil

I really should get around to writing up a full history ... but here's the story of Africa and of the Norse.

1000: A butterfly flaps its wings, keeping the Norse colonies at Iceland-Greenland-Vinland just warm enough that they don't die out. As in OTL, though, they are estranged from Scandinavia by cold weather and weak governments
1066: "1066 and All That" still happens, but Britain has better harvests during this period because of the warm currents
1100-1400:
  • The warm-weather climate otherwise arrives on schedule.
  • The Vinland colony that had been barely holding on to north Vinland starts to expand into OTL Labrador and some arctic islands. As in OTL, these are marginal colonies, but their century of interaction with the Eschimau, Algonchen, and other native tribes means that they are more prepared to handle the marginal arctic life.
  • Irish and Euskaran (Basque/Navarese) fishing vessels begin showing up. Because of their extremely limited navigational technology, few dare to explore the more fertile lands to the south. Those that do report back horrifying stories about how the natives would suffer great plagues within a week of their arrival
  • France loses the 100 Years' War to a stronger Britain.
1400s
  • As a result, the Navarese stay independent, and there's just not enough power to expel the Muslims from Iberia. Portugal and Grenada remain part of the Moorish Caliphate, and "Spain" is much smaller.
  • The Maghreb Caliphate, known to Europeans as the African Caliphate because they occupy the former Roman provinces of Africa and Mauritania, finally puts 2 and 2 together and concludes that those fabled islands, where white fisherman mix with beautiful brown savages, must be true. They send a sophisticated expedition to see if there is land to the south -- and discover the Carribean and Mexico.
  • Spain, Africa, and the Moors race to occupy the "best" land, in the tropics. Like in OTL, they quickly fade, but for a different reason -- their technology is not quite powerful enugh to totally vanquish the natives, the natives have developed basic immunities to some diseases, and they are not as organized or ruthless as Pizarro and Cortes were
1500s:
  • The Kingdom of Ireland officially claims the Irish fisher colonies as their own, and sends another expedition to settle New Cork (Williamsburg, VA). This touches off the third wave of colonization. With much more sophisticated technology than the first two waves, they are able to drive natives out of the coastland, although they have more trouble as they drive inland
  • By the time the Norse get backing from Scandinavian governments in the late 1500s, almost all the good land is taken.
 

Nicole

As a result, the Navarese stay independent, and there's just not enough power to expel the Muslims from Iberia. Portugal and Grenada remain part of the Moorish Caliphate, and "Spain" is much smaller.
Click to expand...
Wouldn't you have to go to pre-1000 for Portugal?
 

Fabilius

Well, while it was probably the cold that killed of the Greenland settlements. (That and the plague), the settlements in America don´t need warmer weather to work. Warmer weather means a more habitable Iceland, which means there is less incentive to move. The only attempt on settling Vinland was made by Thorfinn Karlsefni, which gave up because the natives turned hostile.
As the relationship with the natives was at first very friendly and according to the sagas an accident caused the feud between the Vikings and Skraelings, we just need to avoid that incident. If Thorfinn Karlsefni is succesful, more will come.
 

Tom Veil

Fabilius said:
Well, while it was probably the cold that killed of the Greenland settlements. (That and the plague), the settlements in America don´t need warmer weather to work. Warmer weather means a more habitable Iceland, which means there is less incentive to move. The only attempt on settling Vinland was made by Thorfinn Karlsefni, which gave up because the natives turned hostile.
As the relationship with the natives was at first very friendly and according to the sagas an accident caused the feud between the Vikings and Skraelings, we just need to avoid that incident. If Thorfinn Karlsefni is succesful, more will come.
Click to expand...
Well, he's much more likely to be successful -- and if not, it's much more likely that others will try -- if warm weather allows the Greenland settlement to survive and allows Iceland to have a population surplus.
 
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