Alternate history
Mar. 4th, 2021 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
A few ideas I came up with too late for the fishbowl.
More pre-Columbian contacts between the New World and the old world. Enough that the New World peoples wouldn't be swept by epidemics when Europeans started to colonize the New World.
This would have made a *huge* difference because there'd be a lot more natives to object and fight back.
Another: The Ming Treasure Fleets under Admiral Zheng He kept going and sailed up the west coast of Africa. they'd either meet the Portuguese explores headed down the west coast, or they might make it all the way to Europe.
Since this would likely happen before Columbus was even *born*, it'd have major effects on how and when Europeans got to the Americas.
It'd also have a lot of major effects on both Europe and China.
This one involves slightly alternate geography. If the rift between Africa and Asia ran just a bit differently, there'd be a navigable strait between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
This would have affected interactions between Egypt and peoples on the other side of the strait. It'd also have made a sea route to India and beyond a viable alternative to the Silk Road.
More pre-Columbian contacts between the New World and the old world. Enough that the New World peoples wouldn't be swept by epidemics when Europeans started to colonize the New World.
This would have made a *huge* difference because there'd be a lot more natives to object and fight back.
Another: The Ming Treasure Fleets under Admiral Zheng He kept going and sailed up the west coast of Africa. they'd either meet the Portuguese explores headed down the west coast, or they might make it all the way to Europe.
Since this would likely happen before Columbus was even *born*, it'd have major effects on how and when Europeans got to the Americas.
It'd also have a lot of major effects on both Europe and China.
This one involves slightly alternate geography. If the rift between Africa and Asia ran just a bit differently, there'd be a navigable strait between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
This would have affected interactions between Egypt and peoples on the other side of the strait. It'd also have made a sea route to India and beyond a viable alternative to the Silk Road.