ThePest179
Banned
As it says in the title, what is the latest possible date that the Europeans could discover the American continents?
Depends how far back the PoD can be.
(The extreme case of this is to have the emergence of civilization in Eurasia happen thousands of years later, so the Americas discover Europe...)
PoD can't be later than the early 11th century, as Vikings discovered Newfoundland (and maybe traveled much further south depending on what you take from certain artifacts uncovered at their camp there).
But disaccounting them, probably not much futher unless you nuke Islam as there wouldn't have been (as much of) an interest in exploring in that direction if trade could still flow freely through Mesopotamia and the Red Sea into the Mediterranian.
A wankish 4th crusade not detouring via Constantinoble but grabbing and holding Egypt would probably delay it the most, but i still wouldn't hold my breath for it stalling for longer than to somewhere around 1550-1600, due to technological advancements in naval shipbuilding making long travels across open waters viable, and the great banks being explored by specially Basque and English fishers, which sooner or later would let it leak that theres something interesting out there.
3. Worse Black Death which stagnates Europe very long time.
I can think of a totally-ASB-but-still-fun way to have that happen:With a multiplicity of PODs (basically, almost ASB) : when space travel is invented.
... European cities levelled by various invasions of steppe hordes, you could put it back centuries, ....