Extra 100 years and 500 years for native American cultures to develop?

South Asia also has a pattern of peninsulas, islands and surrounding seas. No one did establish an unified government over Thailand/Ayutthaya, Malacca, Majapahit, Burma, Sri Lanka, sundry coasts of Hindustan etc... to shut down seafaring by central fiat.

Yet neither the Malays nor the Arabs did discover the passage around Cape of Good Hope. Even when the Portuguese showed them it was possible, none of them sailed back to Atlantic... not on their own ships, and not even copies of Portuguese ships.
Because they already had the spices whose acquisition was a significant part of the Portuguese drive east? Because they didn't have the same drive to spread their religion (by force, if necessary)? Because they had more obvious trade-routes, using the monsoon winds? Because the coastal waters of western Europe (outside the Mediterranean) were rougher on average than those of south-eastern Asia, leading to the construction of sturdier ships than those other cultures used?
 

Krall

Banned
Precisely what is implausible about thwarting the development of long distance sailing? China gave up in 15th century... why not Europe?

China could source pretty much every resource it wanted from within its own borders, whereas Europe was broken up into many countries which individually could not source all the resources they needed or wanted. Thus European countries developed long distance sailing in order to trade for the resources they wanted. If Europe was somehow unified and developed to the point where they didn't need to look outside the continent to get the resources they wanted, then they would probably give up on long-distance sailing pretty quickly, especially if they can fulfill the need for luxuries via the overland Silk Road.
 
It seems to be a startlingly common impression that Native-Americans had no history and did nothing but wait for a bunch of foreigners to land on their shores.

Read this if you really believe that.


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