Trans-Atlantic contact in 720 AD

The origins of El Dorado and the name of the Antilles Islands stem from a legend that an Iberian bishop sailed west with a large group of people and made landfall where they built 7 cities on an island vaguely reminiscent of Hispanola. Suppose they do well enough that they send a ship back which actually manages to make it to northern Spain or southern France? What are the consequences?
 
The origins of El Dorado and the name of the Antilles Islands stem from a legend that an Iberian bishop sailed west with a large group of people and made landfall where they built 7 cities on an island vaguely reminiscent of Hispanola. Suppose they do well enough that they send a ship back which actually manages to make it to northern Spain or southern France? What are the consequences?
My question is how do a couple ships with Europeans create magnificent splendor and urbanity in the Caribbean without the wealth and vast forced migrations of the Trans-atlantic slave trade/Black Atlantic that was required in plantations? Not only that but thrive and come back before the age of imperialism when most Europeans land?

Can basically castaways make vast civilizations when pre-existing hierarchical polities would most likely just enslave them without falling into the common "they were pale and magical and preordained by our sages to lead us as their God's" myth spainards cobbled up post conquest in Aztec territory?

Could the Europeans even have the technology to land in the tropical americas from I'm guessing Azores (because looking at the currents it's have to be there) to even successfully mount such a highly dangerous sojourn at that time?
 
My question is how do a couple ships with Europeans create magnificent splendor and urbanity in the Caribbean without the wealth and vast forced migrations of the Trans-atlantic slave trade/Black Atlantic that was required in plantations? Not only that but thrive and come back before the age of imperialism when most Europeans land?

Can basically castaways make vast civilizations when pre-existing hierarchical polities would most likely just enslave them without falling into the common "they were pale and magical and preordained by our sages to lead us as their God's" myth spainards cobbled up post conquest in Aztec territory?

Could the Europeans even have the technology to land in the tropical americas from I'm guessing Azores (because looking at the currents it's have to be there) to even successfully mount such a highly dangerous sojourn at that time?

The original story suggested that they were fleeing the Islamic conquest and that the cities were not so opulent as later legends portend. The opportunity to settle new lands away from the Muslim conquerors itself may be a draw for some. As for the technological capacity it would be tricky but plausible to do.
 
The original story suggested that they were fleeing the Islamic conquest and that the cities were not so opulent as later legends portend. The opportunity to settle new lands away from the Muslim conquerors itself may be a draw for some. As for the technological capacity it would be tricky but plausible to do.

It's a draw, assuming you want to brave the open sea for months and when you arrive in the new land, get killed by locals who eventually get tired of you.

Not to mention, how would you sail all this way that many times without running into Madeira or the Azores, which don't require a massive sea journey?
 
Boat Technology at the time wasn't good enough for such a journey, unless we're talking about the Vikings. See Vinland for what a Viking contact might look like.

- BNC
 

Ak-84

Banned
The original story suggested that they were fleeing the Islamic conquest and that the cities were not so opulent as later legends portend. The opportunity to settle new lands away from the Muslim conquerors itself may be a draw for some. As for the technological capacity it would be tricky but plausible to do.
Said conquerors are gong to find out about said lands. Now, technology to cross the Atlantic and conduct long far ocean voyages has existed for over a thousand years by 720AD......in the East, specifically in the Indian Ocean. In OTL, neither the Arabs nor the Romans before them had any reason to transfer such ships west, ITTL, they do.
 
Top