When would a Mega-Empire colonise America?

[this is part of a much bigger alternate history project, so please concentrate on the question, not the validity or probablility of the context]

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This project started from about the year 1070, and it is only realistic until about 1200. The next story is mostly a work of fiction and imagination (and you have't seen anything yet. Not only that this story is overly-simplified, it is also unfinished, as I plan to keep imagining the continuation based on the answers I receive here) . I only need the answer because I don't want to stray too much from realism (more than I already did).
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It is the year 1300. A british-ish empire spans over all of western Europe except a small independent Papal State (basically, if it's west from Warsaw, it's in the Empire), North Africa, Arabia and even colonies in India. the whole territory is divided in duchies and counties, pretty much like a feudal kingdom, but much bigger and with a nobility class that also acts as bureaucrats. The Balkans and Northern Middle-East are part of a much weaker, but incedibly imperialistic Byzantine Empire (who call themselves the New Roman Empire, no longer considering themselves a continuation of the SPQR, but a separate, greek reimagination of it), rival to the British Empire.

The British Empire is quite culturally united. The British Isles (even including Scotland!), France and Spain are authentically english, while the rest of the empire is very diverse, but peaceful. There are even ruling dukes inside the empire who are ethnically arab or indian (but culturally european). The whole empire is catholic, but because the whole catholic world is under the Empire's rule, the Papacy is weak and its powers are purely symbolic, the Empire giving priority to economy, military, wellness and only then religion.
Yet, even with the Empire's tolerant and inclusive attitude, everything outside of the empire is seen as space in need of civilisation and colonisation. Due to Imperial and Byzantine conquests, The whole middle-east is christian, and islam is (except for parts of West and East Africa) gone.

The technology of the empire is 150 year ahead (1450's level by 1300), and the world, in this timeline, due to recovery of Ancient Greek knowledge by the Byzantines, is known to be spherical, and having more continents (the approximate measurements of the Globe and of Eurasia and Africa are known, and the Greeks and British simply do not believe that the rest can be an empty ocean).

Now, given these informations (sorry for the wall of text), when would the Europeans discover the Americas (and which part of it exactly) and what would happen afterwards?

Also, what chances would the Byzantines have to get their own colonial empire (not necessarily in America) afterwards, given that they are blocked on all sides by the Empire?

The map of the World is attached.
Blue is The Empire
Red, the Byzantines
Yellow, least important, is a Zoroastrian Persia, allied to the Empire, because the Empire wants someone else to take care of the Byzantines (long story, would also be interested of seeing its chances of having an empire)
The rest of the world is just the way it was in 1300.

map.png
 
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Well this seems highly unlikely and "the rest of the world is just the way it was in 1300" is outright impossible.

But to answer your question, I'd posit sometime in the late 14th century near Newfoundland (as fishermen sail there) or perhaps in the 15th century or even later, around Brazil. Unless you count Greenland.
 
Well this seems highly unlikely and "the rest of the world is just the way it was in 1300" is outright impossible.

But to answer your question, I'd posit sometime in the late 14th century near Newfoundland (as fishermen sail there) or perhaps in the 15th century or even later, around Brazil. Unless you count Greenland.

I have the same question - how this happens is almost completely impossible, never mind how the empire is culturally united.

But to answer your question, I'd say that maybe while British ships are traveling to India, they might stumble across Brazil.
 
Forgot to mention, All contact between the European part and the Arabian-Indian part of the Empire is made through Sinai (there is very little trade, though) Also, this is the reason why it is stable. Do not think of it as a nation, because it is not, it is just a bunch of westernised nobles ruling over their own lands while keeping in touch with the others (barely) and paying a tax to London.

Edit: made a mistake when said that it is culturally united. I actually meant that the nobles are all westernised, not the people (except for France and Spain which are english in culture, mostly)
Also, when I said rest of the world I meant the mongol hordes which couldn't have changed that much... especially since the divide in history that brought this empire happens in 1100, so there wasn't so much time to change the world.
Told you the context should not be givn much thought :))) thank you for your responses btw!
 
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With a PoD in 1100 I don't see this as being anything other than ASB especially considering "English" culture would be a baby in a cradle (really still Anglo-Saxon until Normandy) and to have enough time to develop into a "British" culture within 200 years seems positively impossible. Also what do you even mean the nobles are more Westernized? At this point in time the Arabic world is still technologically ahead or on par with Europe.

So what is the POD?

If the empire is so technologically advanced and also faces next to no threats then I think they may have discovered the Americas already at this point, after all they conquered the rest of the land of the Vikings, why not just send a ship or two out onward from Iceland perhaps after hearing rumours of Vinland and Greenland from the natives.

Why anyone would leave in a tolerant society would be a similar reason to why the puritans left, so they can set up intolerant societies in peace.
 
I think that by putting 'a British-ish empire' akin to Queen Victoria's into 1300's Europe and giving it the 1500's technology, you already made such a big change from history that frankly everything is possible.

First, I note that your map doesn't include Greenland, which at that time still had a much warmer climate then today. Is that deliberate? A well-inhabited Greenland with 1450's technology would certainly know about the Newfoundland region, possibly already have settlements there. So did you deliberately have Greenland fail by the year 1000? never even been colonized? (I see you included Iceland though...)

Also if the same butterfly logic that gave 1300's Europe a 1450's technology also changed the Americas, who knows what the explorers might stumble onto? An Aztec empire on the height of its glory that would throw the first invasion force back into the sea in a heartbeat? or no Aztecs at all? A florishing and well-defended New-England culture instead? or even a consolidated Inuit confederacy on the brink of invading Greenland? (They are on a mission from God as their war mages keep on telling them that 'Winter is coming"...) And in how far would a Victorian-style English superstate be willing to launch a conquistador style landgrab in the first place? Would they just be content to rule it like OTL India or Sumatra?
 
There are many problems with this proposal. I'll just address thst it was well known the world was round pretty much ever sin e it was first figured out. Just because he a erage person didn't know in tje dark ages didn't matter. The actually people invokved in sailing did.
 
Thank you again for the replies! To answer some questions:
1 Indeed, it is nowhere near modern english culture (but it developed to 1200s english culture normally) and I never said it had "british culture" I just sometimes say British Empire because the story of how it became such an empire is complicated and I wanted to emphasise it began on the british isles. (and plant in your subconscious that this empire is very expansion-oriented) The empire itself is IN NO WAY like Victoria's (although what an awesome piece of fiction that would be! It even has trade connections that could secure some tea supplies! :) )
2 The POD is that at one point (edit: one point = 1096, if I remember well, it's been a long time since I wrote the beginning on my laptop), due to a family connection in the Norman dynasty, English norman nobles and French nobles suddenly became VERY interested in fighting muslims in Iberia, and it became a competition, more of a co-op battle against a common enemy. From then on, it's still a LONG story involving a siege of Constantinople, a love adventure with the house of Hohenzollern and an empire in Africa. Even the beginning is simplified. This is why I wanted to skip all explanations and just give a context and a question :) :) :)
3 Greenland was not colonised on the map because I wanted to give NO info about america, and just ask how many (if any) colonies would be, and where.

Thank you again!
I will also post another map
Dark green is an archaic russian kingdom (allied to the Empire)
Grey are different hordes and tribes
Orange are Indian Kingdoms
Light green are African Tribes
Maroon is a rather big, but weak kingdom in Africa

map.png
 
yeah,this is really better to be posted in ASB.

Also,as others have pointed out,such an empire with super tech schould have already have found america,especially if they already suspect something there.
 
Those details actually make things less plausible, I'm sorry to say.

Yeah, I have to agree. Why does India control Tibet?

At this point in history, it's hard for China to control Tibet, much less an Indian power.

And I still don't understand - if this mega empire only trades with Arabia and southern India through Sinai, that means they don't have a navy in that area (because there is no Suez Canal, you have to transport your ships all around the Cape, increasing the chance that you discover Brazil).

Then how the heck did they get Arabia and southern India?

Finally, I just have to say that not everything will be part of one empire. Not being centralized doesn't make a difference. Africa should not have such a big empire. It's just not possible because of geography right now. India should not have that little part that juts out into 'British India'. Britain should not have Arabia or India if they don't have a navy there. Russia does not have to be united at this point in time (though it could be).
 
2 The POD is that at one point (edit: one point = 1096, if I remember well, it's been a long time since I wrote the beginning on my laptop), due to a family connection in the Norman dynasty, English norman nobles and French nobles suddenly became VERY interested in fighting muslims in Iberia, and it became a competition, more of a co-op battle against a common enemy. From then on, it's still a LONG story involving a siege of Constantinople, a love adventure with the house of Hohenzollern and an empire in Africa. Even the beginning is simplified. This is why I wanted to skip all explanations and just give a context and a question :) :) :)

I still have quite a few issues with this.

1. How does a family connection lead to a competition to fight Muslims? Sorry, that just doesn't make sense. It'd make more sense to call for a crusade, but then that wouldn't be just the English and French.

2. The Hohenzollern aren't in power at this time.

3. I'd love to hear this story. Is Constantinople sieged by the English?

4. An empire in Africa... gross oversimplification.

The map just doesn't make sense, and that's why we're asking so many questions. Skipping the explanation doesn't work.
 
Ok, to respond:

Do not imagine Russia as a modern kingdom (read the part about the empire in africa, it also applies to Russia)

One of William the Conqueror's sons came to have a hatred for the muslims, so tried to carve a realm for himself in Iberia, with the help of his brother, now the King of England. He doesn't succeed, but tales of the riches he found (he didn't find anything spectacular, but that's what the rumours say) convince other nobles (especially french) to try and seize land from said muslims. This in turn, makes English nobles do that too... this is just the beggining and I really don't want to tell the whole story.

Yes, they are (if by power you mean very small, unimportant nobles in southern HRE), Freidrich of Hohenzollern was a small baron in 1070-ish

No, but (this is REALLY going to make it seem a bad story) the english take it in the end (as I said, I don't wanna tell the whole althist. it is looooong and unfinished. I made this thread because I came to a point where I was not sure how it would evolve)

Did I say african empire? because if I did, I was really not paying enough attention to my own words. It's mostly a bunch of tribes "united" by a warlord. The kind of "kingdoms" that kept appearing in the middle-ages, but disappearing when said warlord died.

And for the India has Tibet question: the actual map is on paper, the one I made there was made on the spot to give some more info to those interested. India is not united and no lord has control over anything beyond the mountains, let alone Tibet.

Thank you again for the responses! (I really feel like I don't thank enough)

Also, I edited the first post, because I need to clarify something about this story.
 
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Really now, I wish my post was just "Imagine a VERY big empire in europe around 1300. When would it colonise America?" :) :) I ended up giving away a lot of info trying to answer questions, only making people ask more. I am so sorry, guys :( :( . Yet, I am happy that you keep answering to it and giving your opinions!
 
Demography-wise it makes infinitely more sense for the dominant culture in the population be either French, Occitan or Germanic than anything else. If you take OTL population values, France (which we'll consider to be half-occitan) has 20 Mhab. There are large portions in the western HRE that are occitan or Frankish (Provence, Rhodania, Lorraine, Hainaut...) and most of the Kingdom of Aragon is catalonian, therefore occitan, in culture.
In comparison, England has 6 Mhab, including the Welsh.
 
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