Point of Divergence ... In 1492, Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean and landed on what is known today as San Salvador Island. He met on the island the Lucayan tribe and he described them as "A sweet and gentle people." After meeting the Lucayans, he spent a span of days searching the islands he had landed in for gold. Then upon his return to Spain, he kidnapped and forcibly brought several Lucayans back with him on his ships. The resulting kidnapping and removal of the Lucayans from the Bahamas left the islands severely depleted, and by 1520 the islands only had eleven Lucayans. Once they were removed, the Bahamas remained uninhabited for 130 years.
What if a change in the weather or navigation had directed Columbus to land on the shores of New England, say roughly in the same area as the Pilgrims would 200 years later? If he had landed there, based on tribal maps, he would have encountered the Massachuset tribe. Would Columbus have been able to enslave the native population there as well, or would the Massachuset fight back? And if Columbus had been successful, how would that have effected North America today?