New Hegemony Everyday
* Image of Columbus' first voyage to the Americas, circa. 1492
DISCLAIMER: This is my first non-ASB, non-map only related TL. I've been developing it for almost a year now, and I am finally ready to write it out. This TL is not... exactly focused on one particular empire, nation, or state, or a particular time period. However, there are a few that will remain big players for quite sometime. I originally estimated the TL would end at around 1900, but if I like this TL... it could go far. Anyways, thanks for reading this paragraph, and hopefully the story! Good criticism and comments are always appreciated, although saying "HURR DURR ASB DERP" is just disruptive, the way I see it. I'm still trying to decide the narrative for the story, although I'd prefer to do it like a history book, but that may be boring for some people, so I'm open for suggestions. One last thing. The first couple of updates will, obviously, seem very close to, or basically are, OTL. The way they are written however, will help you guys understand both the POD and upcoming... suspense and whatnot. ANYWAYS, again, thanks for reading, and subscribe! (And grammatical corrections are appreciated!)
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Prelude: 1492, Isabella's Lucky Number
Accounts say that Columbus witnessed a bright light when he sailed to his island of Hispaniola for the first time, a sign from God that he was protected in what he thought was India. The Indians, apparently, greeted him with an awkward glare, with these men, lighter coloured men, coming off these massive naval transports, to which they've never seen. Little did they know, that for most of these people originally inhabiting the New World, that a lot of their kind would die from diseases, war, and poverty due to the contact they would have after that faithful day in 1492.
Columbus also explored Cuba, who he said was the most beautiful island ever. When sailing back to Castile, Columbus introduced the hammock to Her Majesty Isabella of Spain, something that the Taino used, natives of Cuba. Intrigued, Isabella gave Columbus and other men permission to sail and chart waters for the Spanish Kingdom.
A few years have passed, and they further map out Hispaniola and Cuba, as well as surrounding islands like Puerto Rico and Jamaica. In 1512, the Isthmus of Panama was discovered, and ultimately, the Pacific was open to Europeans for the first time. Spain, on an epic streak of discovery, eventually stumbled on central Mexico and the Yucatan coast in 1523. By this time, Cuba and Hispaniola, as well as Puerto Rico and Jamaica, were fully implemented and conquered.
With Portugal on the rise now, discovering lands south of Cuba (rumoured to be named Brazil), they have made a monopoly on a newly formed slave trade, with Portugal focusing on keeping a lot of African outposts intact, to make sure they sell slaves for affordable prices. The Portuguese had bought Spain's African colonies to optimize this new trade, which granted Portugal a slight economic boost. France also bought some slaves to transport to their colonies, which they were just discovering. Spain, however, needed slaves, and Portugal kept on raising the prices. It seemed like Spain was doomed to have slaveless colonies, unless their current slaves bred.
This turned out not as bad for Spain. Their Reconquista ended before Columbus' voyage, with the few Jews and Muslims in Iberia sighing with relief. However, they were still in the nation, and King Ferdinand II didn't like this. With Portugal raising prices on the slave trade, Ferdinand devised a plan; he planned to give all remaining Jews and Muslims in Spain an ultimatum: Either work in a slave camp in the New World (mainly Cuba), or go to the New World anyways, to die in the wilderness. Any person who was even suspected of being a non-Christian were asked this serious question. Hispaniola and the other island colonies had a good enough amount of Native American/African slaves, but Cuba was lacking; Spain's biggest colony at the time, and Cuba's natives had a horrible immune system. The Taino were going extinct, due to smallpox outbreaks everywhere.
As for the Jews and Muslims, the split was around 50/50, and approximately 1,200 people went to work as slaves all around the colonies, and 1,300 were dumped in an area where all the explores found were an empty jungle, full of hardly anything useful. They named this land Florida. The people, not knowing what to do, went into a pseudo-tribe like people, hoping the Spanish will take them back...
When the Yucatan was discovered, nevertheless, it was deemed just another area, until complex building structures were found, amazing the conquistadores-to-be, and while some towns had no villagers in it, it still amazed the Spanish, who were speechless. After reporting their finds back to the King of Spain, he issued further exploration of the region. What the explorers found were unbelievable, and one of the head explorers, Hernan Cortés, could not believe his eyes on the mystery and beauty of what he saw that day.
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Meh, that seemed brutal for me... How did I do for a first update? If I didn't have school tomorrow, I would have done a second update right now, and also add little details like extra pictures, and accented letters

but don't worry, those will all be fixed. Probably won't get back to you guys until 4:00 PM EST -ish tomorrow, so until then...
Also, if some names seem... out of context, like Florida, or Jamaica (eg. if that isn't what they were called back then/in that language), then it would be much obliged if someone mentioned this. Again again, thanks.