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Pop culture aside, it was well known is Christopher Columbus' time that the world was round. One merely had to measure the curve of the Earth's shadow upon the moon to make that realization AND know roughly how large the Earth was. And such knowledge would also tell you what a terrible idea Christopher's plan was- without an American continent to get in the way, crossing the ocean would have ended in starvation and death for the sailors well before their ships could have made landfall.

Say Spain is ruled by a monarch who makes decisions based more on pragmatism and less on idealism (if he is meant to succeed, god will find a way for him to succeed!). Columbus finds no one to fund his expedition. America remains unknown and undiscovered at the close of the 15th century.

1. Technology will clearly catch up to make the voyage around the world possible. Who do you imagine will be first to find the landmass, and when? Assume for the sake of argument we have no heroes willing to volunteer for a suicide mission and that the earliest discoverers will be when sailing technology makes the voyage feasible, though perhaps still dangerous. In addition, the question of which empire makes first contact is immensely important- depending on who and where the strategy might lean more towards trade and away from conquest.

2. Delaying American colonization surely has major consequences for European history. What happens to Spain without Mexican gold? In lieu of having vast new territories to colonize do the Europeans make a grab for Africa centuries earlier? War over land in Europe? The Middle East? Asia?

3. A generation or two longer before their numbers are decimated by Old World disease obviously does not leave much opportunity for the course of Mesoamerica history to change. But it is something to consider. The Incas were the new up and comers of the New World. What does a century (or two?) let them accomplish?

While I'm on this subject, let me ask a question that's bugged me for awhile. Why was the diseases of the old world so horrifically destructive to the native american population? I get that they were not immune. What I don't get is why this was (from what I can tell) a one way street. You don't hear about millions dying in Europe because of New World contact. Why is that? Our immunities won't be any better prepared than theirs will be, after all.
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