The Americans found later

Non-existence of Columbus not affect very much. Foundation of Americas is avoidable event. You need much earlier POD that you can delay foundation of Americas even with few decades.
 
I never support the statement that a change in history wouldn't mean that much. Of course it would. It may be only minor differences at the moment, but they'd build up as time goes on (and all outcomes are random anyway). We just don't know enough to properly measure them. We can't, because our brains are limited to comprehending only a small area and scale, as well as the fact that we'd have to know everything.

Let's say it's only a year. That is one year where European politics and socio-cultural life exists without the knowledge of the Americas. That is one year where the natives that did interact with Columbus (and were screwed over by Columbus) continue life as normal. Let's say it's five years. Or ten years.

I don't know enough about European or New World history around the period to say much, but you should get the idea of the dynamic I'm talking about.
 
Anything up to a delay of 50 years probably wouldn't affect the development of OTL North America that much as it was colonised by North Europeans who had other things on their mind in the early 16th century. Central and South America perhaps more so although the Spanish could have found a more fractured Mexico as the Aztecs were not that popular and there had been uprisings against them. Similarly for the Incas. No European influence does NOT automatically mean that the Aztec and Incan Empires survive or that their successor states are at least as organised and able to offer more resistance to the Europeans!
 
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umm.. the portuguese were busy colonizing brazil without any columbus getting involved.
Things might have ended up differently when the slow creep westwards along the coast finally ends up finding the aztecs & incas.
 
delay the Reconquista

Or a counter-jihad.. :p

Say the andalusians decide to support the mamluk claim on the caliphate, and get 50.000 screaming jihadists to show up.. castille, leon etc is pushed back and almost destroyed. (better happen around 1350 latest..). Now the frenchies and english might decide to postpone their dynastic struggle since teh yeat l33t, sry 1337, and come help chritianity.
The resumptions of the holy wars close to home would see them continue until alteast all of the maghreb states have been destroyed. Meanwhile india, or sny such thing, is pretty much forgotten.


OTOH.. maybe irish monks, sick and tired of rising english taxes to pay for the crusades, head off with the fishermen (who had been fishing there in secret a long while already) to found a nation of god among the indians? Now that could be a fun divergence. The holy irish theocracy of st pocahontas, the first convert :D
 
Like what? Leif Ericsson?

We don't need so early POD. There is few possible ways to delay foundation of Americas:

1. Surviving Eastern Rome. With this Europeans have stable trade route to China and India and so they don't need so badly western route.

2. Mongols conquer Europe. Altough they can't keep Europe very long, they would damage badly enough European society.

3. Much worse Black Death.

But even with these options you can't delay foundation of Americas more than one century. Someone finds that sooner or latter.

With North America one century more not mean anything. In Mexico Aztec society collapses surely due of rebels. So probably Europeans has even easier to conquer Mexico. Inca Empire might has bit better survival changes but anything not be sure. And natives are still vulnerable with European diseases. And Europeans not be any more tolerant on early 17th century than on early 16th century. So natives are still doomed.
 
Columbus is hardly irreplaceable. Even if he dies and e.g. Cabot's expedition (funded by the Merchants of Bristol, as were several other late 15th century expeditions) doesn't happen, the Portuguese are still busily exploring away. OTL Cabral discovered Brazil in 1500 while en route to India, so America is likely to be found within a decade anyway. It may take longer for others to exploit it and find the Aztecs and Inca, but it will happen in not to long.

The big question for the Old World about a delayed discovery of America, is what happens to Spain? If Spain doesn't manage to stake a claim to the New World riches, then they are probably weaker, and certainly more focused on Europe, including Italy and the Low Countries.

A fun butterfly involves the Charles VIII's Italian War. OTL, the French Army, after seizing Naples in 1495, was devastated by an outbreak of syphilis, possibly brought back from the New World. If that's delayed, the French might do better, and end up retaining control of more of Naples. Or maybe not, but it's an example of how a few years of delay could change things.
 
umm.. the portuguese were busy colonizing brazil without any columbus getting involved.
Things might have ended up differently when the slow creep westwards along the coast finally ends up finding the aztecs & incas.

This. The Portuguese got to Brazil in 1500, 8 years after Colombus, and mostly independently. The French and British expeditions to the Grand Banks were similarly more or less unrelated to the Spanish exploration - John Cabot discovered Newfoundland in 1497 in the name of England.

Butterflying Colombus might lead to less misery and suffering in the West Indies (not to mention not calling them that), but it delays colonization of the New World a mere couple of decades, maximum. Spain, with its western placement and no more Moors to kill, will still be a dominant power, even if they miss the first shot.
 
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