What if knowledge of the lands were spread throughout Europe maybe akin to Marco Polo and his voyages into China? What would the kingdoms of Europe in the middle-ages 11th-14th century done with that knowledge? Would there have been much earlier attempts to colonize or at least explore those lands?
Well, the question is, knew what exactly about these lands?
Europe knew about Vinland through the middle ages, but thought Vinland to be some islands a bit like Ireland but with hostile natives and no resources you couldn't get much easier from Russia. Narwal horn excepted, but the Norse were producing quite a bit of that until the Ivory trade took over the market.
Europes interest in faraway lands and the notion that they equated to profit actually originated with Colombus.
Colombus had a unique combination of luck, drive and geographical ineptitude. And he promised the Monarchs who ran the literal Spanish Inquisition that he would find a lot of precious metals for them. So when he landed in the Caribbean, and found very little, he absolutely expected the Spanish Inquisition. Expected them excruciatingly.
So he lied. Brazenly, utterly and mightily. There were island that abounded in countless amounts of gold he said, vast gold mines, spices, most rivers contained gold, etc. Lied his head off. He probably wasn't expecting the letter to go viral, didn't even have a word for that. But it did. It really captured the medieval imagination, like a tulipomania or childrens crusade. A fantastic number of copies were made and sent off to every corner of Europe. Lots of copies are still in existence.
Only Colombus freakish run of luck continued, and the Spanish actually did find the vast amounts of precious metals he described. Enough to utterly ruin the Spanish Economy. And that combination, the viral description of all the riches, and the actual riches, spot-welded the notion; that faraway lands = easy money into the European culture.
Before Colombus... well there were plenty of faraway lands. Russia. Siberia. Vinland. Africa. Unless there was a known resource of great value there such as spices, silk or sugar, there wasn't actually any interest beyond the occasional missionary/martyr multiclass individual.
11th century... a massive ringing "meh" I think. Until the silver and gold was discovered, and even then the means to reliably get there was lacking.
However, as the centuries roll on, the Grand Banks would have become an issue the Hansa, whose power was built on the stockfish trade, absolutely had to deal with or co-opt. Power is a drive as strong as greed. What I could see is Hansa factories, then cities spreading from Newfoundland. A contact model more like the Phoenician than the OTL European. They would find the Mesoamerican gold.
It would not have gone what you'd call well for the natives, but it would have been better than OTL, which was basically God kicking them over and over shouting "YOU THINK YOU'VE HAD BAD LUCK!? IT GETS WORSE!!"
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