I am aware that a failed Columbus expedition and its effects on the Americas has been done to death, but I'm not certain the immediate effects on Europe have been fully explored.
I ask because of a recent interest in a
map made by Mumby recently and a desire to explore a similar scenario. So, in the event that Columbus doesn't come back from the West Indies with tales of 'India', and the Americas are discovered instead by Giovanni Cabotto or a Portuguese reaching Brazil, what happens in Europe? I mean, the Americas were a huge source of bounty for Spain. It is likely they may still yet recieve this bounty, but for the sake of this scenario, let's suppose that the Portuguese, rather than bumping into Brazil a decade after the OTL reaching of the Americas, bump into the West Indies and encounter the Amerindians there themselves.
So if Portugal is recieving the wealth of gold and sugar from the Americas, how does this affect Spain, and Europe as a whole?
Forgive me, but I won't be able to revisit this thread until tomorrow, so if anyone has any questions about the plausibility of my idea, please bear with it and if anything is glaringly implausible, I ask that you might look past that and explore the butterflies (for instance, when one supposes how Sealion victory might have actually looked rather than whether Sealion could be victorious or not).