What if China had colonized?

So IF the Chinese had colonized, what would the effects on native americans be? I.E., horses, dieseases, crops, etc.? Would the Spanish had run into native americans that were not afraid of horses? Or would dieases had wiped out a huge chunk of Native Americans?
 

Hendryk

Banned
So IF the Chinese had colonized, what would the effects on native americans be? I.E., horses, dieseases, crops, etc.? Would the Spanish had run into native americans that were not afraid of horses? Or would dieases had wiped out a huge chunk of Native Americans?
I speculated on that in my aforementioned TL. If you'd like to have a look, here's the link.
 
Actually, the silver inflow began in the 16th (and, in smaller amounts, 15th) century. The sotuhern grain tax had been commuted, in part, to silver as early as the 15th century.

But taxation is not the point though. The Chinese economy was not heavily dependent on foreign trade until much later. In such an economic model, having more silver is not as attractive as it would be in a commerce based European sytle economy. That's like adding more printed money into the economy, it causes inflation not extra wealth.

I'm probably over stating my case as you said. Some foreign trade was happening. But I think precious metal by itself is not nearly as irresistible an incentive for China compared with Europe. Certainly it would be very attractive for private citizens, but there's not much reason for the state to fund such an endeavour. In early European voyages, the state was a partner with the private sector in the search for gold.
 
But taxation is not the point though. The Chinese economy was not heavily dependent on foreign trade until much later. In such an economic model, having more silver is not as attractive as it would be in a commerce based European sytle economy. That's like adding more printed money into the economy, it causes inflation not extra wealth.

First, this assumes that there was enough currency in China's economy as it is, which seems unlikely.

Second, it assumes that the state can't earn revenue from minting money, which also seems dubious.

Third, you know that more currency doesn't equal wealth. I know this. I am not convinced most people at the Ming court would realize it at first.

So, all iffy assumptions.
 
That made me look up the geographic distribution of sea otters, and as you can see, it's pretty obvious that following the sea otter trail would lead the Chinese to the American continent:

In another thread I made a post on the logistics of a Chinese colonization of the Pacific Northwest. What I mentioned was the Kelp Highway Theory. This involves a theory on how Native Americans arrived from Asia by sea along a stretch of kelp forest which is nearly continous from Japan to Mexico via Alaska.

The sea otter map you have shows the distribution of the kelp forrest. It is believed it provided for the food the NA consumed along the way. The kelp itself is edible, it is also a complete eco-system with fish, clams, birds, and of course sea otters. This would of course make the transportation of large numbers of people more realistic. Setting up sustainable colonies require cattle to do heavy work. Ships making long trans-Pacific voyages ladden with cattle could not carry much food for the crew. The kelp forest could suplement that need.

That's the logistic side of it. Unfortunatly the economics of a sea otter pelt based migration is not very likely. The reason being the Amur river region is already rich with sea otters. That's one of the reasons the Russians sold Alaska in 1867, they decided annexing the Amur region for sea otter fur was cheaper than sourcing from Alaska.
 
Last edited:
It seems like we're bringing up what we said in several other threads, does anyone have any links to the other threads discussing the possibilities?
 
That made me look up the geographic distribution of sea otters, and as you can see, it's pretty obvious that following the sea otter trail would lead the Chinese to the American continent:

Alas, the Ming were not known for their love of furs; this was more a Qing thing.
 
Top