Dorozhand
Banned
What if North America were still devoid of horses when Europeans arrived?
We know that the North American horse originally disappeared long ago, but mysteriously seems to have reappeared some time during the High Middle Ages, the reigning theory being that a Song Chinese exploration ship with a cargo of horses somehow ended up in California, though there is considerable debate raging still about the question.
However it happened though, it seems to have been a fluke. So how would things have turned out for America if, for example, the fearsome cavalry and horse-archer culture of the Plains Indians never had the time to come into being? Imagine a world where, say, the Zapotec Empire which ruled Mesoamerica for hundreds of years had never collapsed in the face of the Shoshone Invasions? Perhaps the Portuguese could have been frustrated further if sedentary civilizations could have continued to dominate their own affairs, or maybe they could have more easily conquered these civilizations of Mexica if they did not have to face what may have been the most effective cavalry armies in the world at the time. Or maybe without the introduction of the horse plough-based agriculture might not have spread as far and hunter-gatherer cultures might have been the rule?
Who knows?
We know that the North American horse originally disappeared long ago, but mysteriously seems to have reappeared some time during the High Middle Ages, the reigning theory being that a Song Chinese exploration ship with a cargo of horses somehow ended up in California, though there is considerable debate raging still about the question.
However it happened though, it seems to have been a fluke. So how would things have turned out for America if, for example, the fearsome cavalry and horse-archer culture of the Plains Indians never had the time to come into being? Imagine a world where, say, the Zapotec Empire which ruled Mesoamerica for hundreds of years had never collapsed in the face of the Shoshone Invasions? Perhaps the Portuguese could have been frustrated further if sedentary civilizations could have continued to dominate their own affairs, or maybe they could have more easily conquered these civilizations of Mexica if they did not have to face what may have been the most effective cavalry armies in the world at the time. Or maybe without the introduction of the horse plough-based agriculture might not have spread as far and hunter-gatherer cultures might have been the rule?
Who knows?