Columbus on Bermuda

What would have happened if on Columbus' voyage in 1492 he landed on the island of Bermuda (I don't care about the reason, but no emergencies.) How would things of played out differently, there is no land for hundreds of miles in any direction? Would it be a disappointment? Would colonization be delayed? What would happen?
 
What would have happened if on Columbus' voyage in 1492 he landed on the island of Bermuda (I don't care about the reason, but no emergencies.) How would things of played out differently, there is no land for hundreds of miles in any direction? Would it be a disappointment? Would colonization be delayed? What would happen?

My guess is that the crew would mutiny, kill Columbus and return to Spain.
 

Zek Sora

Donor
Multiple possibilities:
1. Columbus tries to find more islands, and succeeds. Essentially how it happened OTL, just taking a little longer.
2. Columbus gives up, goes home, somebody else finds the Americas.
3. Same as 1, but crew mutinies and goes home.
 
If he was that much further north of where he ended up OTL then he could possibly end up in the Carolinas.
 
If he was that much further north of where he ended up OTL then he could possibly end up in the Carolinas.

That brings up another interesting question. If he doesn't find gold, or anything of value, would the dual monarchy of Castille and Aragon pay for future expeditions?
 
Well the Portuguese are well on their way to discovering Brazil and John II and Manuel I are going to keep on looking for new lands.
 
That brings up another interesting question. If he doesn't find gold, or anything of value, would the dual monarchy of Castille and Aragon pay for future expeditions?

Good question, Columbus would probably insist that he is sure there is gold or some magical lost city or something just over the next mountain range and that they must fund another expedition so he can find it. Don't know if he'll convince them though.
 
Good question, Columbus would probably insist that he is sure there is gold or some magical lost city or something just over the next mountain range and that they must fund another expedition so he can find it. Don't know if he'll convince them though.

Or that he just landed way north of China. It's possible he thought Vinland was on the northeastern coast of Asia and that was what made him cook his books like he did. By that I mean he refused to accept the standard overland distance from Venice to Khanbaliq, which I think was around 8000 miles at the time. That, of course, would have made between 12000 and 16000 miles going west, depending on where in Europe you started and how many islands stood east of China.

I can't think of any other reason he threw out numbers in his equations so arbitrarily unless he already knew a land mass was out there.
 
Good question, Columbus would probably insist that he is sure there is gold or some magical lost city or something just over the next mountain range and that they must fund another expedition so he can find it. Don't know if he'll convince them though.
so, he will finally settling NorthAmerica, so, spaniards won't find any valuable in that land; just small indian tibes
 
That brings up another interesting question. If he doesn't find gold, or anything of value, would the dual monarchy of Castille and Aragon pay for future expeditions?

Isn't there (or rather, was there) gold in central North Carolina?
 
Isn't there (or rather, was there) gold in central North Carolina?

I think some was found out west in that State or northern Georgia but not until the 1800s. The real gold there would be the green sort, and then the white sort... or is sugar white gold? Then what's cotton?
 
Or that he just landed way north of China. It's possible he thought Vinland was on the northeastern coast of Asia and that was what made him cook his books like he did. By that I mean he refused to accept the standard overland distance from Venice to Khanbaliq, which I think was around 8000 miles at the time. That, of course, would have made between 12000 and 16000 miles going west, depending on where in Europe you started and how many islands stood east of China.

I can't think of any other reason he threw out numbers in his equations so arbitrarily unless he already knew a land mass was out there.

I thought the Columbus through bad calculations thought the world was about the half the size that it is and therefore he thought that a westward voyage to Asia was viable.

I also need to find my source but I read somewhere that he gained knowledge of English fishing ships in the 1480s returning home brimming with Cod but the ships from this company were never seen in the standard fishing waters in the North Sea or off Iceland. The speculation is that they were obviously fishing somewhere and it was probably the Grand Banks so they may have sighted land to the west but didn't advertise the fact because they had literally found a goldmine of their own (in this case the gold was Cod).

I've also heard that he had knowledge of Norse discoveries to the west but that was years ago and I won't be able to find a source for that one.
 
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