WI America was discovered by wayward Crusaders?

bard32

Banned
I was working on this back in the early '90s. WI America was discovered by
wayward Crusaders who were shipwrecked on the coast of New England?
How would they survive cut off from Europe? What would their descendants
think of a new wave of colonists who'd arrive in the three hundred year period
between 1492 and 1792?
 
I was working on this back in the early '90s. WI America was discovered by
wayward Crusaders who were shipwrecked on the coast of New England?
How would they survive cut off from Europe? What would their descendants
think of a new wave of colonists who'd arrive in the three hundred year period
between 1492 and 1792?

How would they get there?

Richard: Head for the Sun!

John: The Sun's setting in the west. Palestine is southeast of England.

Richard: Don't bother me with mere trivialities.
 
that would not be too unrealistic

maybe it would not be something so obvious, but they could easily go of course for something equally banal, or just sail into a storm and get trown of course
 

HueyLong

Banned
Longer crusading spirit, knowledge of China, misguided self-proclaimed "prophet" leads a hodgepodge fleet west to march on pagan Cathay
 
How would they get there?

Richard: Head for the Sun!

John: The Sun's setting in the west. Palestine is southeast of England.

Richard: Don't bother me with mere trivialities.

Actually, replace the Palestine thing with something about China being pretty far away, and you've got Columbus' reasoning.

Columbus: It's really not that far to China! Really, put down the knives and swords, we'll be in sight of land any day now...
 
Actually, replace the Palestine thing with something about China being pretty far away, and you've got Columbus' reasoning.

Columbus: It's really not that far to China! Really, put down the knives and swords, we'll be in sight of land any day now...


Brilliant!:D
 

bard32

Banned
How would they get there?

Richard: Head for the Sun!

John: The Sun's setting in the west. Palestine is southeast of England.

Richard: Don't bother me with mere trivialities.

A ship carrying a band of Crusaders is blown off course beyond the Pillars of
Hercules.
 
Well, nevermind the fact that you can argue that the initial Iberian explorers who reached the Americas were way-ward crusaders- having just finished the Reconquista.
 

bard32

Banned
that would not be too unrealistic

maybe it would not be something so obvious, but they could easily go of course for something equally banal, or just sail into a storm and get trown of course

That was somewhat the plot of the story. I had three survivors, an Englishman, a Frenchman, and someone else of another nationality.
 

bard32

Banned
You still haven't answered the main questions, Codae. How would they survive
cut off from Europe? and how would colonists who'd arrive later, react?
 
I've heard this idea before, the argument was they were Swedish and/or Norwegian. They sailed home after the Crusade (can't remember which one) , there are reports of them passing the Pillars of Hercules but the person who came up with the idea said he couldn't find any record of them returning home so said they must have got to the Americas instead.

I'll not pass comment on the idea. I suppose the question is do they reach the mainland or one of the carribean islands?
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
You still haven't answered the main questions, Codae. How would they survive
cut off from Europe? and how would colonists who'd arrive later, react?

1) They wouldn't, not in the long term. A decent example is what happened to the Norse colonization attempts, as is the early English efforts in Virginia. This would be even worse as these wouldn't be colonists, but shipwreck victims. They would have neither crops seeds or supplies and they would be ill prepared to even provide for self defense against a substantial local force (the tech gap is so small that it may as well not exist). There would be no hope of resupply or other help from Europe. Game over.

2) Potentially, given the pestholes that Crusader vessels were, the colonists find a fully populated Hemisphere, not one that has been wiped out by recent plauges, as the population would have time to reconstitute. That presents huge troubles in establishing any serious colonization prior to 1700, perhaps as late as 1800, given the far great opposition by current residents. The technology gap wouldn't be sufficient to overcome that for several centuries.

The problem is where the Crusader ship would come from. Very few crusaders went by ship prior to getting to the Med, even then the preferred path was overland. Ship tech wasn't up to long seaborne voyages. You also have the difficulty of supply, as those few Crusader vessels that did travel did it within sight of the shore.
 
A ship carrying a band of Crusaders is blown off course beyond the Pillars of
Hercules.

I can believe that. However, it was fairly rare for ships to stray to far from shore, for precisly this reason. They will simply head for home rather then wander off into the unknown.

That was somewhat the plot of the story. I had three survivors, an Englishman, a Frenchman, and someone else of another nationality.

Honestly, that sounds like a joke more then anything else.

You still haven't answered the main questions, Codae. How would they survive
cut off from Europe? and how would colonists who'd arrive later, react?

I doubt that such a small population, assuming it manages to arrive, which should be impossible for them unless they are conciously trying to get to a land they do not know exists (the usual terms for this are suicide and insanity), can viably survive for more then a few generations at most. By the time settlers arrive, they will have died out or been absorbed into a nearby tribe of native americans, leaving only a few metal tools, some random stories of mysterious pale-faced strangers, and an increased native north american resistence to european diseases (although not enough to seriously change the balance of power, given how the european versions will mutate over the centuries and the limited native exposure).
 
We'll the crusaders aren't establishing any states in the Americas if thats what your looking for.

Because they are an army they won't exactly have any crusader chicas with them either. I see random intermarriage with locals and maybe some sort of crazy English Mestizo population on the immediate east coast when the later colonists arrive with a technology edge over their rival indians.

The Indians would also have some disease immunities but it wouldn't across the entire continent and wouldn't prevent the mass die off.
 

HueyLong

Banned
We'll the crusaders aren't establishing any states in the Americas if thats what your looking for.

Because they are an army they won't exactly have any crusader chicas with them either. I see random intermarriage with locals and maybe some sort of crazy English Mestizo population on the immediate east coast when the later colonists arrive with a technology edge over their rival indians.

The Indians would also have some disease immunities but it wouldn't across the entire continent and wouldn't prevent the mass die off.

Crusader armies had a lot of camp followers. One of the early Crusade orders practically mandated it, actually.
 
We'll the crusaders aren't establishing any states in the Americas if thats what your looking for.

Because they are an army they won't exactly have any crusader chicas with them either. I see random intermarriage with locals and maybe some sort of crazy English Mestizo population on the immediate east coast when the later colonists arrive with a technology edge over their rival indians.

The Indians would also have some disease immunities but it wouldn't across the entire continent and wouldn't prevent the mass die off.
Depends which crusaders they were;)
 
Hmm...perhaps the Crusaders intermarry with a particular tribe and teach them metalworking, so that tribe has the ascendancy for awhile.

I wonder how far metalworking will diffuse?
 
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