WI: Chinese discovered Americas?

What would the consequences be of the Chinese discovering the Americas before the Europeans had? In the 1400s a Confucian Emperor came to power and stopped the Chinese maritime exploration. By 1500 it was a capital offence to build a ship with more than two masts. But what if he hadn't come to power or if he hadn't decided on this and China had ended up exploring the Americas in, say, the early to mid 1500s. How would their arrival there eventually clash with Europeans, who would also be exploring around the same time.
 
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It's been a while since I read it, but it brings up evidence and things for an OTL discovery of America. Not much to contribute, but I recommend reading it.
 
Discovery is one thing, wanting to actually bother to set up colonies is another. The Ming have issues at this time with both piracy, and Mongols at their borders, colonies would be the last thing on their minds, if it was even viable.

Edit: Okay maybe piracy was that much of a problem then, but still if we are talking discovery and not colonization, then it wouldn't change much.
 
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While certain products of the west coast might be useful for the Chinese, given the distances and the other issues the Chinese have regular visits and trading stations/colonization are unlikely. If the Chinese do contact the natives on the west coast, the odds of the nasty diseases that came to the new world from Europe may very well arrive from China.
 
What would the consequences be of the Chinese discovering the Americas before the Europeans had? In the 1400s a Confucian Emperor came to power and stopped the Chinese maritime exploration. By 1500 it was a capital offence to build a ship with more than two masts. But what if he hadn't come to power or if he hadn't decided on this and China had ended up exploring the Americas in, say, the early to mid 1500s. How would their arrival there eventually clash with Europeans, who would also be exploring around the same time.

China could have easily had a stronger oceangoing tradition with smarter Ming policy, but afaik the purpose of Zeng He's voyages had more to do with trade and establishing Chinese power, and less to do with discovering new lands. I suppose you could theoretically have another megalomaniacal emperor try and send expeditions to every corner of the earth, but even if China does discover the Americas they're unlikely to colonize as the Europeans did. The distances are much greater, and there are much better sources of wealth closer to home.
 
Chinese traders meet European traders in the Great Plains.
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It's been a while since I read it, but it brings up evidence and things for an OTL discovery of America. Not much to contribute, but I recommend reading it.

This must be up there with the Muhlenburg legend for "historical urban legends most believed by users on this site".
 
If the Chinese just go once it might be a fun historical footnote, they would have to find something to get them to want to go back for it to have any real impact. Do the Aztecs have anything to that they could trade with the Chinese?

The only other way I could see it having an effect is if someone is desperate enough to flee their. Maybe occasional trade is established between the Chinese and the Aztecs and it slowly becomes commonly known that there is some sort of land east of the sea. East Asian history remains close enough to otl that something like the war between Joseon Korea and Toyotomi Japan stills happens. However, in ttl knowledge of the Americas leads Joseon to consider a colony in the mysterious east. If you played with that right you could get a plausible-ish start to colonization of the Americas.
 
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hahahaha, no.

Sorry, but that is even less of a historical source than Ancient Aliens

I'm certainly not saying it's believable, a vast majority of what the book says could be easily something much more plausible. It just brings up a scenario for if that could have happened that I found interesting, not to interpret it as actual history.

Anyways, I think Chinese expeditions are going to be hard to do, considering they had everything they really needed nearby, I'd think that the farthest they would go is around the Spice Islands. If they discovered it, I would doubt they would engage in actual colonization, and instead use it as a point to trade for items overseas, for example, an earlier introduction of the potato.
 
I'm certainly not saying it's believable, a vast majority of what the book says could be easily something much more plausible. It just brings up a scenario for if that could have happened that I found interesting, not to interpret it as actual history.

Anyways, I think Chinese expeditions are going to be hard to do, considering they had everything they really needed nearby, I'd think that the farthest they would go is around the Spice Islands. If they discovered it, I would doubt they would engage in actual colonization, and instead use it as a point to trade for items overseas, for example, an earlier introduction of the potato.

I see your point, but the book is so vague on details and shoddy in methodology it's hard to take seriously even as a source of inspiration.
 
But the real thing isn't so much if China discovers the Americas--it has little apparent to offer they can't get elsewhere, and is full of random barbarians. But I think we all want China to colonise America, for the interesting effects of it.

I'm also interested in the effects on the American Indians. The French and English influence in Eastern North America in the early-mid 17th century created the Iroquois as a major force who triggered migrations of other people, and the creation of other very strong native groups. Combined with the Spanish pushing up from Mexico, they reshaped North America.

If China, following either the route around Japan and Alaska, or miraculously discovering the Manila Galleon route and returning to tell the tale, finds North America (this will require China colonsing Oceania first), what next? Why should Chinese go there? How can we get thousands of Chinese to go to the West Coast of North America and start settlements? Gold and silver is not a trade good initially, since the California Indians at least didn't know of it. Furs don't seem too important, since there's always North Asia to get them from. I guess if Chinese traditional medicine or others gives value to certain New World animals or plants, you could something valuable out of that. So it seems hard to get China to colonise the place. The Chinese would be more likely to settle in Mesoamerican civilizations or the Andes as merchants and amongst the most "civilized" people of the Americas, rather than striking it out in the wilderness of California or the Pacific Northwest.

Introducing horses into North America is one thing Eurasians are good for. China will be doing this. Meaning different groups of American Indians will get the horse through trading, and different groups of people will dominate the Great Plains. I could imagine the Chinese ending up giving Numic-speaking groups the horse, the same groups which become the Comanche, and then we still have the Comanche dominating on the Plains, although without the Spanish, their history will of course be different. Who else might benefit? Maybe the Cayuse, the Kootenai, other Shoshone, or some other group--it would be cool for some California native group to end up evolving into a dangerous Great Plains empire thanks to Chinese influence.

The Chinese would cluster around the harbours on the California coast. The Central Valley is very rich for agriculture, but is prone to disastrous floods, as in the 1860s. And there were worse floods in that region in the 2nd millennium, which is expected, since its basically a branch of the Pacific Ocean which dried out. An early Chinese colonisation would mean they might be exposed to be a terrible disaster.

And speaking of disasters, there's the 1700 Cascadia earthquake, if the Chinese go for the Pacific Northwest. California had many major earthquakes in the early 2nd millennium as well, and I find it disappointing there isn't a good list of prehistoric earthquakes (the info is scattered everywhere), although geologists can determine major events. There's also the whole decades long drought, which occurred in California as it did in the rest of North America

But if the Chinese stick it out, they'll find a productive, useful land, which will soon produce precious metals, as well as facilitate trade with Europeans on the Great Plains.
 
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