Northwest Passage WI

Alright, this one is going to take some pretty open-minded thinking, so please don't immediately call "ASB" and dismiss the discussion.

What would be the impacts upon colonial efforts/trade/politics c.1500~ if there were in fact a navigable year-round Northwest Passage?
 
Alright, this one is going to take some pretty open-minded thinking, so please don't immediately call "ASB" and dismiss the discussion.

What would be the impacts upon colonial efforts/trade/politics c.1500~ if there were in fact a navigable year-round Northwest Passage?

You'd have to have a significantly different planet for that to work.

I'm not sure if one where its navigable year-round and one like enough to Earth for this not to be an alien world, possibly inhospitable to humans, are compatible.

But ignoring that for discussion's sake: I'm not sure it would matter very much. Is it really quicker than around Africa or South America, all things considered?
 
But ignoring that for discussion's sake: I'm not sure it would matter very much. Is it really quicker than around Africa or South America, all things considered?

As well ignoring geographical/climatic butterflies: the way to India is likely still around Africa, but China and Japan might actually be closer through the passage.

Nevertheless, I think the major differecne would be that the northern Pacific comes into the European colonization sphere much earlier - including the Pacific coast of the US. I find it quite likely that parts of Siberia, Sachalin and the Kuriles end up as European colonies, yet not necessarily Russian.
 
You'd have to have a significantly different planet for that to work.

I'm not sure if one where its navigable year-round and one like enough to Earth for this not to be an alien world, possibly inhospitable to humans, are compatible.

But ignoring that for discussion's sake: I'm not sure it would matter very much. Is it really quicker than around Africa or South America, all things considered?

Provided it was actually safe, it would be considerably quicker and healthier. (look at it on a globe, not a map) The Cape Hoorn route tended to be avoided by commercial shhipping well into the nineteenth century for its dangers, and the Cape Route was used faute de mieux. Of course the climatic differences could potentially be huge,m unless we postulate a geologically unlikely, but convenient canal through Canada.

Immediately, it would make no great difference to trade patterns. Most European trade was with India and Africa, c. 1500, and the American possessions were easily accessed through the Caribbean. But in the longer run, this would have huge consequences. For one thing, Spain would concentrate much more on North America, leading to a very different patternmm of colonisation. And once the China trade opens up in earnest, the Northwest Passage will be one of the world's busier shipping lanes. China was so profitable, Russians brought caravans of Chinese goods across Siberia to Mangaseya for sale to British merchants in the 1620s. If it's worth that expense, it's worth crossing the north Pacific.
 
I believe there is a water route somewhere across all of the North American Continent? It's just barely large enough for canoes... (???)

Either way, without some sort of mega-project building on what I believe is already there, this looks unlikely to happen before 1900 without major ASB intervention.
 
Well, it's hard. On the one hand, if it was navigatable we'd want people taking that route instead of other long routes. But you can't simply hand waive it away for AH's sake (at least not on the forum), so... unfortunately, you're either going to have to explain a very significant PoD that makes this possible or you're gonna have to hand-waive it in the ASB section =\
 
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