Could Byzantium discover America?

The before 1492 discovery of America thread got me thinking. Could a (slightly) more prosperous and powerful Byzantium have discovered America, or is the geography all wrong? How good was Byzantine sailing technology anyway? And would they stand a better chance of getting along with the natives?
 
Byzantia survived until just before the discovery of America by Columbus and almost five hundred years after the discovery of America by the Eric the Red. So, yeah. Perhaps they have a galley blown off course, find Madeira, then a generation later the Azores, then Bermuda while looking for more islands, and then America. Smaller steps.
Why not a Greek speaking North and South America?
 
Byzantia survived until just before the discovery of America by Columbus and almost five hundred years after the discovery of America by the Eric the Red. So, yeah. Perhaps they have a galley blown off course, find Madeira, then a generation later the Azores, then Bermuda while looking for more islands, and then America. Smaller steps.
Why not a Greek speaking North and South America?
Why would Byzantine ships be sailing on the Atlantic at this point? The empire is having way too many internal and external issues at home at this point to be exploring the distant Atlantic.
 
OTOH, Why didn't the Ottomans Attempt to Colonize the new world or Sub-Saharan Africa? They had the naval tech to do so.
 
OTOH, Why didn't the Ottomans Attempt to Colonize the new world or Sub-Saharan Africa? They had the naval tech to do so.

Actually I've been kinda wondering until know that maybe they didn't because 1) they lost the Battle of Lepanto, 2) they failed to drive the Portuguese out of Indian Ocean.
 
Actually I've been kinda wondering until know that maybe they didn't because 1) they lost the Battle of Lepanto, 2) they failed to drive the Portuguese out of Indian Ocean.

Indeed.

And then there's the fact that, in order to get from the Mediterranean to the Americas, the Ottomans need to get past Spain and Morocco.

And the fact that both of those nations were hostile to the Ottomans doesn't exactly help either.
 
Indeed.

And then there's the fact that, in order to get from the Mediterranean to the Americas, the Ottomans need to get past Spain and Morocco.

And the fact that both of those nations were hostile to the Ottomans doesn't exactly help either.

But they had ports on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean
 
But they had ports on the Red Sea and Indian Ocean

Which doesn't help you much with America. The Ottomasns fought for the Western Indian Ocean and lost, and decided not to come back, presumably because they considered iut less important than the Eastern Mediterranean, which they won.

You would need a very different histpory to Byzantium to get them to explore the Americas. If they hold on to Spain or North Africa, though, why not?
 
If Byzantium were considerably more powerful then they might have but even slightly more powerful isn't going to cut it.
 

ninebucks

Banned
A more successful Byzantium is a Byzantium that is more successful in the East. They wouldn't have the same motivation to head West.
 
Indeed.

And then there's the fact that, in order to get from the Mediterranean to the Americas, the Ottomans need to get past Spain and Morocco.

And the fact that both of those nations were hostile to the Ottomans doesn't exactly help either.

Exactly.

Hence why the victory over Battle of Lepanto is absolutely necessary.
 
I remember a Byzantine discovered the new world in Thermo's first timeline, but by then the empire was gone.


The problems are: in order for a stronger Byzantines at this point, you would need a victory at Manzikert, or the Seljuks don't even come at all. If the Byzzies manage to survive everything else for 400 years (including Mongols, Bulgarians, Arabs) then they would probably dominate the Indian trade routes, and have no reason to search for new routes to the same place.
 
so a expedition under the flag of the bizantium empire discovers the continets bejond the atlantic ocean
and?
they name a few places, maybe the whole thing gets named after some orthodox saint
the expedition comes back with a description of a wast land full of people of redish complection, and fruits as are not found within known lands, warious kinds of animals and so forth
then the emperor reads the report, if it ewen reaches him, amongst a number of other papers he has to read or have read to him before mass, and spends the rest of the day concentrating on warious defence plans, and internal political issues

the report ider becomes a secret locked up untill someone decides to transcribe it into arabic, or it becomes a known fackt that ower the ocean theres a huge land full of resources to pilage and slaves to capture, at wich point its a freeforall

bizant gets none of it
 
Geography is way wrong. There is no percentage to establishing a circumafrican route to the Indies starting at the Bosphorus, let alone Colombus' lunacy, when buying off whoever is running Egypt is far cheaper.

It is conceivable that, if the Rhomaioi were in better shape, they could get a few Sugar Islands in the Antillies (if Courland managed it, why not?), but large-scale coloniztion requires a pre Yarmuk PoD.

HTG
 
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