America Discovered by Eruopeans Through Bering Strait

[Tordenskjold]

This thread propose two questions:

1. How might knowledge the Siberian-Alaskan connection between the Eurasian and American continents be wide spread in Europe before 1492?

2. How would European exploration using this connection as primary route unfold?

Any and all feedback appreciated. If works exploring this scenario already exists I would be much obliged for any and all titles, links etc.

 

[Byzantion]

This thread propose two questions:

1. How might knowledge the Siberian-Alaskan connection between the Eurasian and American continents be wide spread in Europe before 1492?

2. How would European exploration using this connection as primary route unfold?

Any and all feedback appreciated. If works exploring this scenario already exists I would be much obliged for any and all titles, links etc.

We need somebody somebody pulls a Jermak before 1492 and conquers Sibiria. Maybe the Mongols push as far as the edge of Sibiria and are curious about the other side ? The rumors are spread over all Asia and eventually reach Europe the Priester Johannes(John) style.

 

[Kohlticus Euraleth]

1) Probably not very at all - Europeans had limited contact with Asia beyond the Urals, and then East Asians themselves had little contact (could be wrong) with anything north or east of Southern Siberia.

2) It wouldn't be a primary route. It's faster, cheaper, and even safer to sail there.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

No.
1) even if you can get it before 1492, you can't get it before 1000, so it's not 'earlier'
2) Mongols or whatever (that are actually somewhere in the area) aren't European
3) even if Iceland vanished under a sheet of lava before Greenland was settled, Europeans are still not going to access the New World through Siberia. From e.g. Japan or the Philippines across the Pacific? Wildly unlikely, but possible. Through Siberia and Alaska? Nope.

 

[altwere]

Ah thank you Dathi, You have just come up with a new push to settle Vinland, the evacuation of Iceland during a massive volcanic episode.

 

[Arkenfolm]

It makes no sense, unless you shift the entirety of the Americas to somewhere in the mid-Pacific.

1. Discovery? I don't know. China or Japan are the only options. Someone swept off course and returning (not dying/vanishing into North America like those castaways tended to), and the story surviving as a legend that makes its way into European lore/mapmaking that gets confirmed at some point. Even if the Asians don't know/tend to ignore what they've inadvertently discovered, the story could spread in Europe and be taken as fact by many like some medieval legends, but unlike some other stories, this one proven as true. Marco Polo or similar figure could be good to transmit the story. So that means Europe already "knows" of the New World by the late medieval period.

2. The Russians are in the best position to make use of it, if they could gain and keep Outer Manchuria before the 19th century. Since their harbours on the Okhotsk coast before then were pretty terrible. Other Europeans can't and have no reason to. China and Japan do, since the northern route is the quickest (albeit with very bad sea conditions) to the New World. But for Europeans?

We need somebody somebody pulls a Jermak before 1492 and conquers Sibiria. Maybe the Mongols push as far as the edge of Sibiria and are curious about the other side ? The rumors are spread over all Asia and eventually reach Europe the Priester Johannes(John) style.

There's nothing there but rather fierce reindeer herdsmen like the Chukchi. The Mongols don't need that many random steppe tribes paying tribute. And even then, there's nothing there in Alaska besides hunter-gatherers who are even poorer than the reindeer herdsmen.

Ah thank you Dathi, You have just come up with a new push to settle Vinland, the evacuation of Iceland during a massive volcanic episode.

If Laki didn't do it, then what would? They'd probably just go to the Faroes/Norway anyway.

 

[chornedsnorkack]

It makes no sense, unless you shift the entirety of the Americas to somewhere in the mid-Pacific.

1. Discovery? I don't know. China or Japan are the only options. Someone swept off course and returning (not dying/vanishing into North America like those castaways tended to),

How about Japanese simply islandhopping? First sailing to northern Honshu, trading, returning safely. Then Hokkaido - setting up small trading posts/castles. Then Kuriles, Kamchatka, Chukotka - on to Alaska. And at some point discovering the shortcut along Aleutians?

 

[Behemoth]

How about Japanese simply islandhopping? First sailing to northern Honshu, trading, returning safely. Then Hokkaido - setting up small trading posts/castles. Then Kuriles, Kamchatka, Chukotka - on to Alaska. And at some point discovering the shortcut along Aleutians?

Besides setting up fishing villages, possibly seal and whale hunting, what would entice the Japanese to go to the Aleutians? More opportunities could be found by going south, in my opinion.

 

[Arkenfolm]

How about Japanese simply islandhopping? First sailing to northern Honshu, trading, returning safely. Then Hokkaido - setting up small trading posts/castles. Then Kuriles, Kamchatka, Chukotka - on to Alaska. And at some point discovering the shortcut along Aleutians?

Honshu was already there's by the end of the Emishi wars. Hokkaido, the key issue is encouraging the Japanese settlement of the region. They took minimal interest until the Meiji era, although their presence was clearly there. Beyond Hokkaido, they had minimal, at best, and the Russians were equal competitors there. The currents would be discovered in a similar way to the way the Portuguese discovered the Atlantic currents.

But overall, you need a way to get the Japanese interested in the north they never were OTL until very late. They're still more likely than any other Asian power to discover the New World based on geography and ocean currents, but the key point is making anything of that. And that would still count as non-European discovery for the purpose of this thread.

Now are there any other trans-Pacific routes aside from the Manila Galleon route (California to Mexico) or the North Pacific Gyre (seems to be from British Columbia to Oregon mostly but also Alaska and California).

 

[Behemoth]

Sub polar gyre and South Pacific gyre are the only other ones that I recall. But at this point I digress from what the OP is asking...

 

[EmperorOfTheNorthSea]

How about Japanese simply islandhopping? First sailing to northern Honshu, trading, returning safely. Then Hokkaido - setting up small trading posts/castles. Then Kuriles, Kamchatka, Chukotka - on to Alaska. And at some point discovering the shortcut along Aleutians?

I actually had a similar Idea that where in an ASB Beringia survives and leads to a warmer North Pacific Ocean allowing better sailing conditions which leads to Glorious Nippon dominating the West coast.

Also Mammoths and Mastodons stick around