In another 1492 where Columbus never sails the ocean blue, what would we call the two western continents? For the sake of simplicity lets say that Vespucci has no involvement here either and that no voyages like Colombus's happen. Simply put, North America is discovered via New England around the late 1400s or early 1500s by English/Breton/Danish/Basque sailors or fishermen. Meanwhile, Atlantic currents blow Portuguse or Spanish vessels off course into somewhere in Brazil. So what would people end up calling the continents, assuming its not after any explorer?
Alternate Names for the Western Hemisphere
- Thread starter legumes
- Start date
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/moonlight-in-a-jar-an-al-andalus-timeline.396342/ Use Al-Aqsa/Algraves(ie the further west in arabic-mozarabic respectly) and was Converted to english as Alaska.
Umm Maybe Atlantis?
Some novel or another used "the Sunset Lands" which is a touch poetic.
Given that medieval Europe and North Africa saw the Atlantic Ocean as "the Sea of Darkness" (Mare Tenebrarum, Mare Tenebrosum or Bahr al-Zulumat) I suppose you could base some sort of name off of that.
Maybe someone thinks they've found some mythical place and names the continent after that?
Given that medieval Europe and North Africa saw the Atlantic Ocean as "the Sea of Darkness" (Mare Tenebrarum, Mare Tenebrosum or Bahr al-Zulumat) I suppose you could base some sort of name off of that.
Maybe someone thinks they've found some mythical place and names the continent after that?
The Dark Continent. Umm Nyx?
IIRC House of Lamps used it too, the Magrhib/Magreb, ie the sunset land.
This is not a peaceful land at all.(and only the north have videogames)
I fully believe it will seem like a paradise to the first explorers if they happen onto a less warlike tribe (especially if they are Vikings, remember that the Norse posts lasted quite some time being friendly with the local skraelings, only later getting wiped by some other tribe). There were numerous occasions where the locals were friendly to the first Europeans (why, the original Thanksgiving for instance)
