What if there was an Eigth Continent about the size of Australia whose north-east coast is in line with where the Hawaiian Island Chain is now and whose southern most coast is right on the equator. This continent is about the size of the lower 48 states of the United States, the northern most part is at the island of Midway. All the other continents and land features are the same.
Now assuming a similar history to the OTU, when does this continent get discovered by Europeans?
Who discovers it?
Who colonizes is?
What sort of natives is this continent likely to have?
How would the existance of an eigth continent affect history post discovery?
Well, the history is going to depend on the size and contour of the continent. Lots of peninsulas gets a watery tropical place. Mountain ranges make for rain forest and jungles, river deltas and swamps. Large empty inlands make for deserts. You could get something which is climactically not too different from Australia. Or possibly an inverted wet Mediteranean.
As to who discovers and colonizes it. That's easy. The Polynesians. Polynesians discover and occupy the Hawaii Continent sometime between 300 and 1000 CE. They arrive with a neolithic technology, that includes textiles, sail making, boat building, megalithic works, basic astronomy, navigation and warfare and a tropical agricultural package, that includes dogs, pigs, the polynesian rat, taro, coconut and eventually the sweet potato.
First stage colonization is massive population expansion, establishment and cultivation of coastal settlements, hunting and fishing. As population expands, second stage colonisation involves moving inland, founding settlements, hunting out of game, some deforestation.
Third stage would include the formation of polities and local empires, and the likelihood that the Europeans would find themselves encountering societies as developed as the Aztec, Inca and Maya. Or more developed.
There might be some interesting variables. A large polynesian population with access to resources might actually maintain more contact with other areas. There might be ongoing trade contact and trade routes with Indonesia and Asia. In which case, we can expect three things. First a more immunologically robust population than the Americas had. Second, possibly more local tropical diseases to make things difficult for Europeans. Third, a more technologically and politically sophisticated culture able to repel European influence.
Remember that Hawaii actually was a set of independent warring polities at the time of European contact, and with European weapons, the local king managed to unify it into a single state that resisted European encroachment until America took over.
Expect the Hawaiian continent to do better. We might see something that manages to hold off colonialism, somewhat like Ethiopia, Persia, China, Japan or Siam.
