Columbus was from Genoa and Cabot from Florence, they both didn’t find financiers in Italy so they were paid by Spain and England, but what if they found some investors in their homeland?
Columbus could’ve found some patrons in his native state and Cabot would propose a similar deal to Venice since the two republics were in constant competition, at the time Genoa was already expanding its influence in Scandinavia so it would make sense for them to sponsor Columbus’ expedition, the only difference would’ve been that he would’ve landed in the Northernmost part of America since he would’ve used the Far Oer or even Iceland and maybe even Greenland as checkpoints like he did in our timeline with the Canary Islands, Genoa had a strong bond with the Scandinavian kingdoms so they could’ve used the tale of Eric the Red as a reference points, as for the Venetians, Cabot would’ve used some older maps of some merchants from Venice who actually reached the coasts of Northern America around 1390, they were the Zen brothers and they landed in presumably Connecticut, so Cabot would arrive around New England.
At least this is my opinion, the two merchant republics would probably split their territory of influence allowing France to colonize the Louisiana, Venice to colonize the Thirteen colonies, Genoa to colonize the Caribbean and Spain taking Florida and Cuba, I’m not sure about the rest of Latin America tho, but in this timeline we would see two significantly stronger merchant republics, Genoa wouldn’t join the HRE and probably influence NorthWestern Italy, creating a strong bond with France and annexing Sardinia while Venice would easily beat the Austrians and Milan, forming a centralised NorthEastern Italian Confederation and allying with the Hungarians and Polish to defeat the Ottomans, annexing vital regions like Dalmatia, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, the Levant and southern Turkey, Venice would eventually unify Italy under the banner of the Republic of St.Mark, demolishing the weak kingdom of the two Sicilies, reaching a compromise with the pope and beating Genoa and France with the help of an earlier Germany (since Austria is a lot weaker they can’t influence South Germany). This would all lead to an Italian SuperPower by the end of the 1800s, possibly allied with an Italian USA and Canada and maybe with African holdings as well.
Columbus could’ve found some patrons in his native state and Cabot would propose a similar deal to Venice since the two republics were in constant competition, at the time Genoa was already expanding its influence in Scandinavia so it would make sense for them to sponsor Columbus’ expedition, the only difference would’ve been that he would’ve landed in the Northernmost part of America since he would’ve used the Far Oer or even Iceland and maybe even Greenland as checkpoints like he did in our timeline with the Canary Islands, Genoa had a strong bond with the Scandinavian kingdoms so they could’ve used the tale of Eric the Red as a reference points, as for the Venetians, Cabot would’ve used some older maps of some merchants from Venice who actually reached the coasts of Northern America around 1390, they were the Zen brothers and they landed in presumably Connecticut, so Cabot would arrive around New England.
At least this is my opinion, the two merchant republics would probably split their territory of influence allowing France to colonize the Louisiana, Venice to colonize the Thirteen colonies, Genoa to colonize the Caribbean and Spain taking Florida and Cuba, I’m not sure about the rest of Latin America tho, but in this timeline we would see two significantly stronger merchant republics, Genoa wouldn’t join the HRE and probably influence NorthWestern Italy, creating a strong bond with France and annexing Sardinia while Venice would easily beat the Austrians and Milan, forming a centralised NorthEastern Italian Confederation and allying with the Hungarians and Polish to defeat the Ottomans, annexing vital regions like Dalmatia, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, the Levant and southern Turkey, Venice would eventually unify Italy under the banner of the Republic of St.Mark, demolishing the weak kingdom of the two Sicilies, reaching a compromise with the pope and beating Genoa and France with the help of an earlier Germany (since Austria is a lot weaker they can’t influence South Germany). This would all lead to an Italian SuperPower by the end of the 1800s, possibly allied with an Italian USA and Canada and maybe with African holdings as well.
