Earlier European discovery of the Americas

Kaptin Kurk

Banned
You'd probably need a European empire to arise to replace the one that fell when Rome crumbled. Maybe Charlemagne's empire holds, and even expands. Either way, what I'm getting at is without the desire to find alternate routes to India, the only thing that could actually sustain colonization before the OTL period is religious motivation. And the only way the Church has enough resources to start "Christianizing the Pagans" or whatever, is if it has a large empire to support it. So, I'd expect a much slower process, initially, but a wealthy church might just think "This tale of a distant western land, with people who know not Christ and are free of the Mohammadian just might be worth looking into." Assuming contact is made via Greenland, and the European empire is centralized enough for news to filter to the center.
 
Elfwine said:
You'd need something where the existing options aren't profitable (enough?), and places like Venice find the situation of the Middle Ages favorable, so . . .
Yeah, that was pretty much my thinking. Knowing the future biases my view.:eek:
 
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