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(Sorry if I misspelled the guy's name)

The WI: Columbus sailed for England? thread reminded me of an old WI I had forgotten to post: WI Columbus used an accurate estimate of the Earth's diameter? OTL, the E-dude came up with an excellent estimate over a thousand years prior to his voyage, and it will clearly kill his idea of sailing west to go east (Earth's too big for him to carry enough supplies). What happens?

My guess is, quite a lot, yet not all that much. The discovery of the Americas will be delayed not very much--there are reports that fishermen were exploring the Grand Banks around the same time, and that Portugal was running into Brazil. However, the entire political situation will be very different. Spain is less likely to carve out a major empire, and perhaps the first developed areas will be the East Coast of the US and Brazil, rather than Brazil and the Caribbean/Mexico.
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