Beringia never sunk

Beringia was land bridge between Asia and North America during last ice age. If it would never have sunk, how would history have changed.

I think that there would have been no big influence at prehistoric time. E.g. American Indian cultures would have developed same way as in real history. Also I think that e.g. Chinese or Mongolians wouldn't have spread out to America.

At Modern era, if there's no changes in other history, do you think where would be English(Canadian)-Russian border born and would there have been many land wars in this border. Would the English have been able to e.g. conquer Kamcthacka, or the Russians more land from North America than present Alaska.




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Well, Beringia didn't really sink. Rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age resubmerged it. It should of "rose and fell" with each of the Ice Ages actually. Technically Beringia is a an area of steppe between Alaska and Eastern Siberia located on the North American Plate. Eastern Siberia is actually part of North America from a geological/plate boundry stand point
 

Stephen

Banned
One thing that hapens is that it severly stuffs up the ocean currents. Not sure what it would do exackly but some decades ago there was a soviet engineer who wanted to build a dam over the beringian straits. He thought it would prevent cold deep water from entering the artic basin. Thus melting the artic freeing it up for shiping and turning all the northern permafrosts into fertile farmland. But what does he know this POD could just as easily ensure that the last glacial period never ends.
 
Well, Beringia didn't really sink. Rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age resubmerged it. It should of "rose and fell" with each of the Ice Ages actually. Technically Beringia is a an area of steppe between Alaska and Eastern Siberia located on the North American Plate. Eastern Siberia is actually part of North America from a geological/plate boundry stand point

Indeed. So what the question is really asking is what if the glaciers never retreated - which would have MUCH more massive effects than just Beringia.
 
or, maybe we could just say that Beringia is geologically at a higher elevation, and thus, glaciers or no, it isn't submerged?
 
or, maybe we could just say that Beringia is geologically at a higher elevation, and thus, glaciers or no, it isn't submerged?

we would definitely see major changes in migratory patterns. Even with its brief "rise and fall" of OTL it managed to support enough migration into the Americas to populate them. If there was a permanent bridge there would definitely be more flux between the Americas and Asia. And not just people but animals as well. Horses would definitely have made it across at some point (they were actually a north American species that crossed to Asia in one of the "rises" and then went extinct in north America. Just having horses in this side would severely alter history.
 

Caspian

Banned
or, maybe we could just say that Beringia is geologically at a higher elevation, and thus, glaciers or no, it isn't submerged?

Could this have the effect of preventing human migration into North America? Or maybe just reducing the migration to much smaller levels, or even unsustainable levels? After all, the journey might be too harsh for large-scale migration if Beringia is higher.
 
I definitely suspect that there would be at least some sort of Mongol presence in Alaska/Yukon/BC/etc in this case. I mean, if you can ride a horse across it, the Mongols went there. Going south, they reached all the way through China. Going west, they made it to Germany before turning back because their leader died. They could easy have made it all the way through Portugal, otherwise. With no ocean to the east, I'm sure they would have gone that way as well (though possibly only once or twice.)

The moral: before you start making uber-Indians, remember that they will have been sacked by the Mongols!
 

Stephen

Banned
The human settlement of America will be delayed until the glacial period is over as there will be no ice free coridor if berigua is higher and more mountainous. Although there is also the fisherman theory. There is also a theory that human arival into America caused the last glacial period to end by the CO2 emited from forest burn offs. In this theory mesolithic CO2 production is also used to explain why this interglacial has been unusually long and stable.

Although not necesarily mongols, the kahns liked to conquer more wealthy targets. There will probably be some reindeer herders who migrate across. Not sure wether Beringua lies within the horse pastorialism zone or not. But as horses have made it across before it is posible some horse riders will make the journey back.

Having Huns on the praries will make their colonisation more dificult but the grassland areas quickly adopted horses in OTL anyway.
 
Could this have the effect of preventing human migration into North America? Or maybe just reducing the migration to much smaller levels, or even unsustainable levels? After all, the journey might be too harsh for large-scale migration if Beringia is higher.

probably just slow it down, if it did anything. For one thing, it's not 100% certain that most of the immigrants did come across on Beringia; the land bridge may have been a cold and dusty corridor with little game on it. And if they did, it's not certain that the 'ice free corridor' helped them any; that may have been a waterlogged swamp, more like a canal than a corridor. It's very likely that some of the first immigrants came over by boat, skirting the glaciers completely. If Beringia is impassible, then you'd have more 'boat people'....
 
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