The Basques 'discover' America

How would North American history be altered if the Basques discovered Newfoundland circa 1470? Let's assume that if fishermen were fishin around that area before, the existence of Newfoundland is made public.
 
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If it is around 1490 not that much. Portuguese and Spanish expedititions will still lead to the Caribbean since "Canada" isn't ideal for Iberian colonization. Newfoundland might become a minor Basque settler colony, resulting in it becoming either a Spanish or French dependency. So overall with the exception of this oddball of history there won't be much of a notable difference (excluding butterflies, obviously).
 
Maybe they would set up a few small outposts on the coast to help resupply their fishing fleets, but apart from that, it doesn't seem as if there are many pull factors to justify large scale settlement of Newfoundland.
 
Agreed. You would need to have them discover it earlier.

However, there is evidence that it already had been. Basque, English, and Icelandic fishermen had actually been in the area for quite some time.
 
Agreed. You would need to have them discover it earlier.

However, there is evidence that it already had been. Basque, English, and Icelandic fishermen had actually been in the area for quite some time.

This ^^^ Fishermen in Bristol, England, in the mid-1400s began returning from long voyages with their holds full of giant codfish. They refused to tell local officials where they had been fishing, but one of the few logical answers was the Grand Banks. There is speculation that Columbus heard about the land to the west from those fishermen during a visit to Bristol as a teenager. Basque and English fishermen reportedly set up pre-1492 drying stations on some offshore islands in Maine, including Matinicus and Damariscove. Matinicus had the first paved street in America, a cobblestone road from the shore to the top of a nearby hill where fish-drying racks were built, according to a local historian's report in the 1970s, that was already in existence when the first European explorers came through the area in the early 1500s. The cobblestones had been brought by English or Basque fishermen as ballast.
 
What would happen if not long after the establishment if the Basque colony, a civil war or invasion within the Basque Country causes a major migration of Basques to the New World? Could they remain culturally independent and politically at least quasi-independent?
 
Well, Basques fisherman actually really discovered banks of Terre-Neuve and really built temporary habitation to winterize.

Maybe if technology made it able this sort of travel one century before, you could have a basque coast in Newfoundland. But nothing much.

The consequence would be quite tiny, maybe an earlier French/English expedition to North America.

For Spain, i doubt it, they didn't have a great harbour on the north coast. Maybe a little expedition about taking the Banks before the French or English do this, from Santiago, tough.
 
I honestly don't think this would lead anywhere. There's not going to be, however cool it may seem, a Basque Newfoundland.
 
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