Earliest Circumnavigation

When is the earliest plausible circumnavigation of the earth? ... attempts by Greeks/Phonicians in the late BC's (after the greek philosophers argeed on a spherical earth ~500bc)? Or maybe Indian explorers after the Greaco-Indian Kingdoms transferred knowledge (or maybe after Aryabhata calculated the same things that the Greeks did)?

Anyone have a good guess on when it could have been done, and prehaps more interesting, what it could result in historically?
 
I'm not sure, but I suspect not much earlier than the twelfth century. And it would require considerable preparation, like discovering and settling America. Circumnavigating the globe is an extremely demanding task. You need ships that can not only reliably handle a Pacific crossing, but are in good enough shape afterwards to round Cape Hoorn (assuming you start from the Sinosphere, which is the likeliest for an early voyage).

Edit: Doing it in stages would be feasible earlier, though here, too, you would have to create transatlantic contact first.
 
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I'm not sure, but I suspect not much earlier than the twelfth century. And it would require considerable preparation, like discovering and settling America. Circumnavigating the globe is an extremely demanding task. You need ships that can not only reliably handle a Pacific crossing, but are in good enough shape afterwards to round Cape Hoorn (assuming you start from the Sinosphere, which is the likeliest for an early voyage).

Edit: Doing it in stages would be feasible earlier, though here, too, you would have to create transatlantic contact first.

Straits of magellan are really nasty, and the width of the pacific really daunting. Im not sure it could actually be done much earlier than otl.
 
you think of crossing the pacific, but a less daunting way would be follow the westcoast of the americas all the way from the south to the Aleutian islands in the north, and follow the coast from there.

So the question would be whats the earliest time this coast hugging circumnavigation is possible.

So from a european point of view a route like this:
Portugal - Canary islands- Brazil - point of south america - aleutians - china - india - Aden - following africa to the cape - then all the way back up to europe.

or from china:
china - india - Aden - following africa to the cape - west africa - brazil - point of south america - aleutians
(or reverse route: aleutians - cape H.- brazil - caribean - us east coast - iceland - uk/ europe - down africa etc, different route is result of the gulfstream)

or variations on this

in the case of of the chinese they could have discovered the americas early, but they lacked the political will for it.

I agree with the others that Cape Hoorn/Magellan straits are the biggest obstacle, if someone ends up landing (or a colony) somewhere in latin america, i could imagine a landcrossing there and continue the seatravel on the other side


Edit: An early circumnavigation would likely not be the roundtrips from otl, but think more of an epic 10 year odyssey.
What would be the chances of an early round the world triP? so not just being naval, maybe take a caravan overland in eurasia, bit like marco polo squared/ early version of around the world in 80 days(10 years in this version)
 
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you think of crossing the pacific, but a less daunting way would be follow the westcoast of the americas all the way from the south to the Aleutian islands in the north, and follow the coast from there.

So the question would be whats the earliest time this coast hugging circumnavigation is possible.

So from a european point of view a route like this:
Portugal - Canary islands- Brazil - point of south america - aleutians - china - india - Aden - following africa to the cape - then all the way back up to europe.

or from china:
china - india - Aden - following africa to the cape - west africa - brazil - point of south america - aleutians
(or reverse route: aleutians - cape H.- brazil - caribean - us east coast - iceland - uk/ europe - down africa etc, different route is result of the gulfstream)

or variations on this

in the case of of the chinese they could have discovered the americas early, but they lacked the political will for it.

I agree with the others that Cape Hoorn/Magellan straits are the biggest obstacle, if someone ends up landing (or a colony) somewhere in latin america, i could imagine a landcrossing there and continue the seatravel on the other side


Edit: An early circumnavigation would likely not be the roundtrips from otl, but think more of an epic 10 year odyssey.
What would be the chances of an early round the world triP? so not just being naval, maybe take a caravan overland in eurasia, bit like marco polo squared/ early version of around the world in 80 days(10 years in this version)

The problem I see with this, is that there is really little in the way incentive for setting out such convoluted odyssey in a one-trip way, aside from exploration/prestige/knowledge. Magellan was looking for a route to the Spice Islands, what would the aim of such a travel be? If it is about exploration/prestige/knowledge, in all likelyhood it would an enterprise supported and funded by some empire with universalistic claims and a huge surplus to support a large expedition with no immediate prospect of economic return.
Ideologically, China (even under Mongol rule), the Caliphate and possibly the HRE/Papacy :D are the least unlikely candidates. (Byzantium has no easy ocean access).
Earlier on, if the alleged Phoenician circumnavigation of Africa are repated, that could kickstart interest in Carthage or the Ellenistic world, building up a wider tradition of exploration and oceanfaring, with the slow piling of tech and knowledge (compass needs to be invented I guess) that the Romans could pick up. I could see an equivalent of either Augustus deciding to launch such a mission for ideological reasons.
 
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