Taino stumble upon Old World.

The Taino didn't have sails, and also didn't discover Bermuda or even regularly sail (excuse me, row) anything wider than the 190-kilometer-wide Jamaica Channel. This seems impossible without a POD early enough that the Taino don't actually form as an ethnic group.
 
The Native Americans didn't have any incentive to get out of their homelands, unless some coastal tribe got really empire and began to subdue everyone around them.
 

Philip

Donor
Highly unlikely.

There is no way they are accidentally carrying enough supplies for a transatlantic journey. To reach the Azores by current, you take the Gulf Stream north to the Grand Banks and then branch off on the Azores Current. It's far more likely that they would end up on the North American coast or following the main branch of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Current. Even if you catch the Arozes branch, you're likely to end up in the Sargasso Sea.

The idea that can smallpox can be contained (rather than mitigated) by inoculation is laughable and completely ignores all of the other Afroeurasian diseases like measles and influenza. It is also impossible that the spread of any immunity provided by mixed populations could stay ahead of the spread of disease.

The trans-saharan trade was very lucrative, far more than the Atlantic trade would be.

Why do the Mali need contact with the Mayan to gain knowledge of paved roads and stone architecture? Isn't this knowledge available to their Arab trade partners?

How does the knowledge of the 'Americas' remain isolated to West Africa? Do not the stories spread? Do not the Taino expand their network to Europe?

The use of quinine is possibly believable, but its production at the industrial levels necessary are not possible in a pre-industrial world.
 
Highly unlikely.

There is no way they are accidentally carrying enough supplies for a transatlantic journey. To reach the Azores by current, you take the Gulf Stream north to the Grand Banks and then branch off on the Azores Current. It's far more likely that they would end up on the North American coast or following the main branch of the Gulf Stream/North Atlantic Current. Even if you catch the Arozes branch, you're likely to end up in the Sargasso Sea.

The idea that can smallpox can be contained (rather than mitigated) by inoculation is laughable and completely ignores all of the other Afroeurasian diseases like measles and influenza. It is also impossible that the spread of any immunity provided by mixed populations could stay ahead of the spread of disease.

The trans-saharan trade was very lucrative, far more than the Atlantic trade would be.

Why do the Mali need contact with the Mayan to gain knowledge of paved roads and stone architecture? Isn't this knowledge available to their Arab trade partners?

How does the knowledge of the 'Americas' remain isolated to West Africa? Do not the stories spread? Do not the Taino expand their network to Europe?

The use of quinine is possibly believable, but its production at the industrial levels necessary are not possible in a pre-industrial world.
  1. Yeah, the idea of them surviving a 3 week journey is a bit of a stretch( there's no fresh water at sea).
  2. Why laughable? Inoculation was done in that part of Africa. Other diseases will probably be a problem though...
  3. Yes that is true. Trans-Saharan trumps Trans-Atlantic probably because the former was more ofia chain of traders stretching across the routes while Trans-Atlantic would be the Azores middle men sailing across the sea in their ships.
  4. Yes they would need Mesoamericans to get that info. In OTL that transfer never occurred, so in TTL it would need to happen between Mesoamericans and Malians or not at all. I just remembered hearing about Tichit Walata, a stone settlement in West Africa that predates Arabic contact. Just putting it out there.
  5. For the sake of this working, that can't happen.
  6. Quinine for life!
 

Philip

Donor
Why laughable? Inoculation was done in that part of Africa. Other diseases will probably be a problem though...

Smallpox was only eradicated 40 years ago through the a major worldwide effort relying on modern medicine, production, and logistics. It is arguably one of the greatest accomplishments of humanity.

If inoculation (variolation) could stop (rather than lessen) the spread of smallpox none of that would have been necessary. Keep in mind that the last cases of smallpox were in the Horn of Africa. Again, if inoculation can stop smallpox, why are the last known cases in an area where the knowledge of inoculation was available for centuries?

The largest problem as I see it is that variolation requires an active virus. You take the active virus from an infected person and transfer it to another person. (It can be preserved briefly and unreliably.) That simply can not be contained with the technology of the day. At some point, the virus is going to be accidentally spread. Once it is loose in the Americas, it will spread uncontrollably.


For the sake of this working, that can't happen.

Which makes the scenario unlikely. It's fine for storytelling, but does not make believable AH.
 
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IMO, the only chance would be through metalinvader665's somewhat far-fetched idea of the Polynesians reaching America and their boat technology being adopted by the Taíno.
 
IMO, the only chance would be through metalinvader665's somewhat far-fetched idea of the Polynesians reaching America and their boat technology being adopted by the Taíno.

To clarify, IMO, the Polynesians reaching America is not far-fetched, and probably happened in our timeline, but the Taíno of the Caribbean somehow adopting their technology is far-fetched.
 
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To clarify, IMO, the Polynesians reaching America is not far-fetched, and probably happened in our timeline, but the Taíno of the Caribbean somehow adopting their technology is far-fetched.

If you're referring to the same thread I think you are, then I should make it clear that I said it wasn't just the Taino but a variety of Central American/circum-Caribbean peoples. It isn't too far off (aside from the question of how to get the Polynesian voyages to keep going past when they stopped for a few centuries) in that sense from how corn started as a Mesoamerican grass and ended up grown as far north as the Canadian prairies by the early 2nd millennium. Sails make sense to borrow from your neighbors if you live by the sea.
 
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