created by Secure_Ad_6203 on 06/02/2025 at 17:52 UTC
8 upvotes, 9 top-level comments (showing 9)
In this TL,Colombus doesn't even reach the america,because a storm sink his boat,killing him and his whole crew.What happen with a delayed discovery of the americas ?
Comment by Kiyohara at 06/02/2025 at 18:11 UTC
19 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Sadly, this is a boring part of history. At the time the Basque peoples were already fishing off the coast of North America and may even have had some landings to dry fish before returning home for the season.
The Portuguese were sailing ever closer to South America and in a few years would notice fresh water in the Atlantic (which indicates a truly fucking massive river near by) and land based water fowl flying to the West. It's literally a matter of time before one of them decides to follow the birds or water source to see what's going on and if it has trade value.
And even then a lot of scientists have figured out the Earth's size and are postulating that there *might* be something over by America, even if they weren't sure what it is (be it a small few islands, a bunch of islands, or something bigger). Granted their theories on *why* something had to be there were kind of silly (like it counterbalanced the Earth's spin), but it was also a matter of time before someone decided to give it a shot.
And to further belabor the point, sailing technology was just going wild. New designs were coming out, each more and more sea worthy than the last. Everyone was trying to get around Africa and into India/Spice Islands just as much as they were trying to crank out a fleet to compete with Spain and Portugal and Venice. The technology was getting to the point where a boat that was very capable of making the attempt was more or less fully understood by all the nations, so again eventually someone would build a boat designed for long distance exploration and turn it West rather than South.
So...
Sadly, the "Discovery" of the New World was more or less inevitable, and would have happened much sooner than later. I'd personally argue it would have happened in the next twenty years after Columbus fails and possibly even ten years afterwards. If he never even tries it might actually happen *sooner* since experts wouldn't be pointing out how his calculation on earth's size were drastically incorrect.
Comment by saxonjf at 06/02/2025 at 18:50 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The truth of the matter is that the Americas would have been discovered in some fashion or another. The trade winds off the coast of the canaries would have pushed someone to the west far enough to hit the Caribbean Sea or South America, or sailors in Greenland would have been told about legends of Vinland to the west, and *someone* would have investigated. John Cabot's 1497 voyage was headed, regardless of Columbus' own expedition. Instead of celebrating Columbus Day in October, we'd be celebrating Cabot Day in July.
Comment by Lazzen at 06/02/2025 at 18:19 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
America would probably be found by Portuguese expeditions going up and down, starting from Brazil.
This delay of atleast another 10 years has great ramifications:
-Portugal centers in the lucrative atlantic coast trade among Brazil-West Africa and slowly moves to the Caribbean
Comment by Inside-External-8649 at 06/02/2025 at 22:05 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Anglo-America and probably Brazil would’ve been much bigger. If I were to guess, Aztecs falls to the English aristocracy while Inca Empire remains.
Comment by kmannkoopa at 07/02/2025 at 06:04 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I love Patrick Wyman's thesis that Columbus had the least Wins Above Replacement (WAR). WAR is a sports term representing how good that player is relative to an average player of any historical figure.
He is utterly replaceable and had a negative WAR. As others point out, it was simply a matter of time at this point in history. Remember, the Portuguese were starting to take to the open water off the east coast of Africa into the Indian Ocean around this time as well.
My favorite Columbus fact is that he was considered racist - not by today's standards, but by the standards of his time. That's pretty bad.
Comment by Ok_Brick_793 at 07/02/2025 at 12:27 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
He did fail miserably. He was looking for Asia.
Comment by ScorpionGold7 at 07/02/2025 at 01:54 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The Natives of America would’ve probably had a good few more years of no Smallpox before someone inspired by Columbus would try and follow in his footsteps and continue his legacy. Maybe not from Spain though I’m not sure they would finance a second voyage if the first was so disastrous. Maybe another country would try to one up Spain in a d*ck measuring contest and try it out themselves to shove it in their face if they make it. Who knows maybe we would’ve gotten British South America or French South America?
Comment by WhataKrok at 06/02/2025 at 19:51 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It did. He was looking for East Indies, if I remember correctly.
Comment by TwinFrogs at 07/02/2025 at 05:03 UTC
-1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The world would be a better place. That guy was a murderer and a genocidal asswipe.