A PLC that has a less dismal naval history (or perhaps one that just outright absorbs Courland) could have assembled a "colonial empire" similar to Courland or the Knights of St. John. By that I mean small, highly vulnerable to blockade, and likely going to be sold off if it does not quickly and consistently produce profit.Starting in 1400, is there a plausible way the Slavic pople of the Baltic Sea are (Poles and Baltics) could have had an Age of Exploration, such that their languages would be as widespread as English or Spanish OTL?
Starting in 1400, is there a plausible way the Slavic pople of the Baltic Sea are (Poles and Baltics) could have had an Age of Exploration, such that their languages would be as widespread as English or Spanish OTL?
Lithuanians and Latvians are NOT Slavic peoples at all. Not ever. In any context.Starting in 1400, is there a plausible way the Slavic pople of the Baltic Sea are (Poles and Baltics) could have had an Age of Exploration, such that their languages would be as widespread as English or Spanish OTL?
With a earlier POD, this could be possible if some Polabian Slavic state could've formed and Christianized early, along with conquering Hamburg. Of course control of the Danish straits would be great, too. But even in this case, Slavic exploration and colonization could have been somewhat like Germany (late colonizer, getting only the parts of the world no one is interested in).
There was something of a Russian age of exploration, it was just mostly river based. The conquest of Siberia had a lot of similarities with the conquests of the Americas, but on a smaller scale. Maybe if there's easily accessible gold in Siberia or some sort of crisis in western Russia you might be able to do a bigger focus on the exploration of the east, and then from Siberia across the ocean to Alaska and the Pacific Northwest?
Except that, to do that reliably, you need to control either the Sound or the Bosphorus, neither of which is terribly likely. So, not really, no.It's faster and easier to sail from a Baltic or Black Sea port to the West Coast of the Americas than it is to go from European Russia across Siberia to the Sea of Okhotsk where you hop on a ship there and sail to the West Coast. And Russia's ports on the Sea of Okhotsk were very poor before they conquered Outer Manchuria from China.
What about the Ruthenians fleeing the Mongols flee to Poland and Northern Germany en masse.
But if the Ukrainians and Belarusians settle in Northern Germany and Poland, they can at least assimilate to the Poles and the Wends right?While this would be an interesting idea for a timeline, it would result in large Russian minority communities in Poland and Germany, not much more.
Except that, to do that reliably, you need to control either the Sound or the Bosphorus, neither of which is terribly likely. So, not really, no.
And even if they DID control the exit to the Med, they'd still have to get OUT of the Med, so they'd have to (build and) control the Suez canal or have free passage through the Straits of Gibraltar, AND go all the way around Africa.
So, really, really, no.
If Sound Dues were the problem, you'd be right.But is it necessarily more expensive to pay the Sound Dues than it is to travel all the way across Siberia (granted, you do have the River Routes, but there's plenty of land portages to make) and then travel a few thousand kilometers on sea (with what ships?) to the Pacific Northwest? Not to mention that Denmark was frequently allied with Russia. I'll give you that Gibraltar is an issue thanks to the Barbary pirates.
In any case, it's really no wonder Russia's sole contribution to the colonisation of the Americas was trading posts.