postpone the European discovery of the americas

Easy, Columbus doesn't get back - his ships all sink on the coral reef off OTL Turks and Caicos forcing him to make land fall. Europe never hears from him again but perhaps a few survivors kick off the spread of diseases into the Western Hemisphere. Over the next 30-40 years native cultures are decimated, but it might give the larger ones a chance to reorganize in time for Europeans to encounter more significant resistance...say, 50-100 later than OTL...
 
Easy, Columbus doesn't get back - his ships all sink on the coral reef off OTL Turks and Caicos forcing him to make land fall. Europe never hears from him again but perhaps a few survivors kick off the spread of diseases into the Western Hemisphere. Over the next 30-40 years native cultures are decimated, but it might give the larger ones a chance to reorganize in time for Europeans to encounter more significant resistance...say, 50-100 later than OTL...


That's a good one.

But the Portuguese discovered Brazil in 1500 because a ship headed for a trading post in Africa accidentally veered off course, so that could still happen.

I think we need Spain and Portugal to be disunited for it to work, both were focused on exploration, so without either there's a very small chance that the other powers will decide to go east or west.

Maybe Genoa of Venice or someone like that
 
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