Who would such a later date of contact effect things for the Native Americans?Successful Crusades leaves the Holy Land and more importantly the Suez penninsula in Christian hands. The Catholic church decrees them a papal zone so no one European nation-power has control of the contentious area. Benign neglect leaves the trade route over the Suez (caravan route between Med and Red) with little tax impedance, blossoming it as a mercantile corridor to the Indian Ocean and the riches beyond. Therefore there is no need to circumvent first Africa and then the world to find a route to Asia that avoids Muslim control.
Without the need for long blue-water voyages (Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean traffic can hug the coasts) the development of bigger and sturdier ships is delayed. The Americas may well be 'discovered' by (fishing vessles from) Europe during the 300 year delay you're asking for, but by accident and not extensively. The dangers of trans-Atlantic voyage in the Med-appropriate galleys that still dominate naval technology makes the venture too risky to be attempted, especially with an unknown pay-off.
ITTL the devlopment of larger vessles occurs in the Indian Ocean to circumvent Indian traders on the passage from Suez to the Spice Islands. The technology is late in getting to the Atlantic because there is no need for it (as far as they know). In the late 1700's explorers of Africa's West Coast eventually make the crossing to South America, discovering in earnest for the first time the size and breadth of teh New World. the European powers, stagnating and looking for new markets/nationalist glory rush to lay claims in the Western Continents...
Is it possible for European contact with the Americas, or at the very least significant European colonization of the Americas, to be delayed until the 19th century, during the big thrust European colonialism in other parts of the world?
I'd have thought you couldn't really delay the DISCOVERY of the Americas much beyond the Great Age of Exploration (maximum 100 years later than OTL) but you could certainly delay any attempt to conquer it
There would no doubt be trading posts, but in OTL these on W Africa were only small bases until the mid 19th century.
What this WOULD do to the benefit of the natives would be to give them exposure to European diseases, and the chance to work up a natural synthesis between their own immune systems and the white man's pox
In the interior, stronger nations would have a chance to develop, based on trade with the Europeans - horses and guns and metal implements etc.
Best Regards
Grey Wolf
Successful Crusades leaves the Holy Land and more importantly the Suez penninsula in Christian hands. The Catholic church decrees them a papal zone so no one European nation-power has control of the contentious area. Benign neglect leaves the trade route over the Suez (caravan route between Med and Red) with little tax impedance, blossoming it as a mercantile corridor to the Indian Ocean and the riches beyond. Therefore there is no need to circumvent first Africa and then the world to find a route to Asia that avoids Muslim control.
Without the need for long blue-water voyages (Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean traffic can hug the coasts) the development of bigger and sturdier ships is delayed. The Americas may well be 'discovered' by (fishing vessles from) Europe during the 300 year delay you're asking for, but by accident and not extensively. The dangers of trans-Atlantic voyage in the Med-appropriate galleys that still dominate naval technology makes the venture too risky to be attempted, especially with an unknown pay-off.
ITTL the devlopment of larger vessles occurs in the Indian Ocean to circumvent Indian traders on the passage from Suez to the Spice Islands. The technology is late in getting to the Atlantic because there is no need for it (as far as they know). In the late 1700's explorers of Africa's West Coast eventually make the crossing to South America, discovering in earnest for the first time the size and breadth of teh New World. the European powers, stagnating and looking for new markets/nationalist glory rush to lay claims in the Western Continents...
Good point, I hadn't thought of that... That could bring England back in from the periphery of Europe, making it relevant again.If we assume that something like OTL's Protestant Reformation takes place, then it is highly likely that the Catholic Church will make it more difficult for Protestant countries from using the Suez trade routes. This could provide a stimulus for such countries (e.g. England or the Netherlands) to try alternative routes around Africa or across the Atlantic. So we could get an English or Dutch discovery of the Americas in the late seventeenth/early eighteenth century.
Cheers,
Nigel.
Good point, I hadn't thought of that... That could bring England back in from the periphery of Europe, making it relevant again.
just to be devil's advocate, I could argue that papal control of the Sinai would give the Church even more wealth (I don't think NO taxes on trade is likely, but low...) would allow the Church to successfully campaign against the Reformation, or that it would be more cosmopolitan being in close contact with other cultures (Mid Eastern, South Asian, Far Eastern) that would allow the RCC to be more tolerant towards Protestants demands...