I was reading some alt-hist scenarios where the English successfully set up colonies in California after Francis Drake, and was thinking back to my own timelines where the Spanish are not able to conquer the Americas due to the Native Americans having cavalry and nasty germs, and I had a thought.
Both of these scenarios create a strong impetus to regularly use the Strait of Magellan (or the Drake Passage/Mar de Hoces south of that) as a major shipping route, either to avoid rival European colonists or hostile Native American polities. However, I got to wondering how useful this passage actually is to trade in the Pacific-specifically if in this alt-history scenario, merchants want to use this passage to get to trade with Asia during the 16th and 17th centuries.
IOTL, most trade to Asia in that period seems to have gone past Africa in the Cape of Good Hope. The alternative was the Manila Galleon route where ships left the Americas far, far north of the Strait of Magellan, using the trade winds of the Pacific north of the equator to get to Asia and back, and then had their goods ported across Central America to reach Europe rather than sailing around South America. IOTL, European colonists did not seriously begin to contest the Strait of Magellan until the 18th century, and the 19th century seems to be when shipping really began to go through it.
In a scenario where trade must go through the Strait of Magellan to avoid the Spanish or alt-Aztecs, would the distances involved make trade with Asia through that route unfeasible? Are there advances in sailing that need to happen before the voyage starts being made?
Both of these scenarios create a strong impetus to regularly use the Strait of Magellan (or the Drake Passage/Mar de Hoces south of that) as a major shipping route, either to avoid rival European colonists or hostile Native American polities. However, I got to wondering how useful this passage actually is to trade in the Pacific-specifically if in this alt-history scenario, merchants want to use this passage to get to trade with Asia during the 16th and 17th centuries.
IOTL, most trade to Asia in that period seems to have gone past Africa in the Cape of Good Hope. The alternative was the Manila Galleon route where ships left the Americas far, far north of the Strait of Magellan, using the trade winds of the Pacific north of the equator to get to Asia and back, and then had their goods ported across Central America to reach Europe rather than sailing around South America. IOTL, European colonists did not seriously begin to contest the Strait of Magellan until the 18th century, and the 19th century seems to be when shipping really began to go through it.
In a scenario where trade must go through the Strait of Magellan to avoid the Spanish or alt-Aztecs, would the distances involved make trade with Asia through that route unfeasible? Are there advances in sailing that need to happen before the voyage starts being made?