If the Ancient Puebloan (derogatorily called Anasazi) count, well then I would include also the Tellem people who were pushed out/genocided out of the great escarpment (though looking at Bangime, most likely assimilated).
It's too many butterflies for me to want to deal with honestly, I think it'd be critical that the expulsion of Jews and Muslims not occur and Al Andalus remain for this to be viable but the cost of this also is the open trade relationships of Iberians in West Africa as a whole.
At any case if the new world hadn't been "discovered" for another century or two and mass enslavement to other continent's did not occur I could see a afro-eurasian trade develop that would solidify chieftains and kingdoms throughout the West African littoral.
You'd have to butterfly away say the population explosions around manioc, corn, peanuts, etc.. but you could get kingdoms on par technologically as well as a number of other things.
By the time of "Discovery" after about 300 years of intense interaction and exchange you could even see the formation of African powers colonizing the new world.
I could go more into it later, it's late but it'd be an interesting ATL if it's viable.
Maybe Portugal gets united with Castile instead of Castile with Aragon? That would remove Castile as a patron for people like Columbus and possibly delay the "discovery" of the New World? There's still France, England, and the HRE though and I would think that the Portuguese crossing of the Cape would motivate them to send Western expeditions...
Perhaps stopping African exploration in general is the answer? IIRC, Portuguese exploration in the first place was mainly motivated by the desire to find the source of African gold and other products after capturing Ceuta. By keeping Al-Andalus ensconced in southern Spain, the peninsula could be kept too weak and divided for any state to safely patronize African exploration. The "orientation" of portugal was already towards the lower Atlantic due to geography. Would a northwest kingdom of Leon be the same? Not sure-I'm not very familiar with this period of history.
What do you see happening if the two things you mention were stalled like you say?
It's too many butterflies for me to want to deal with honestly, I think it'd be critical that the expulsion of Jews and Muslims not occur and Al Andalus remain for this to be viable but the cost of this also is the open trade relationships of Iberians in West Africa as a whole.
At any case if the new world hadn't been "discovered" for another century or two and mass enslavement to other continent's did not occur I could see a afro-eurasian trade develop that would solidify chieftains and kingdoms throughout the West African littoral.
You'd have to butterfly away say the population explosions around manioc, corn, peanuts, etc.. but you could get kingdoms on par technologically as well as a number of other things.
By the time of "Discovery" after about 300 years of intense interaction and exchange you could even see the formation of African powers colonizing the new world.
I could go more into it later, it's late but it'd be an interesting ATL if it's viable.
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