Alternate history: what if instead of the Americas being discovered in 1492, they were discovered across the Pacific?? Then you get a sort of Columbian exchange, possibly exploitation and/or alliance, but it’s ‘Asia meets America’ and not ‘Europe meets America’.
That’s the core concept.
I mentioned this briefly once before but never really thought it through.
Yes, ships reached America various times before Columbus but (I am about to get in trouble with hexbear for defending the standard and liberal narrative.) what Columbus did was nevertheless unique and pivotal and historic because he created a replicable path for getting to America consistently. It’s not like he went there once, he led the Old World to the New World. Nothing has been the same since.
Hypothetically what if that had happened from the other side?
There very likely were a few boats that crossed the Pacific (otherwise how do you explain DNA findings and other evidence… sure how do you explain the fact that the Americas have human beings?) but I’m talking about a consistent route being opened.
It has to be the Chinese
Considering peoples who could have crossed the Pacific and discovered America, the Japanese didn’t have the seafaring technology, the Australians didn’t either. The Indians are too far away.
The Chinese might have discovered America in 1161
In 1161 the thousand-li ship was used. Here is a replica of one at the Macau Maritime Museum:
Shudder in awe of the 11 paddle-wheels along the side of it, plus 11 on the other side, each with a man walking inside like a hamster. Into an age of sail comes a non-sail way of powering a boat… wow that could have been transformative. (Off-topic but this PDF mentions on Page 2 a similar ship design by an “anonymous Roman author of the late fourth century”.)
The Chinese might have discovered America 1405-1433
You might remember Gavin Menzies causing a stir with a fringe-theory in a book titled ‘1421: The Year China Discovered The World’, claiming that they actually did discover America in 1421, 71 years before Columbus.
What did definitely happen in that year was the Chinese built 70-100 metre ships, in huge fleets like 63 huge ships and 317 total ships of all kinds, with over 27,000 crew and sailed around a bit… but historians who aren’t named Menzies think not to America…
This is by far the likeliest place to nudge the timeline for an interesting alternate history.
Moreover, if you make it 1402-1433, then the Chinese contact the Inca and the Aztec, which is very interesting. Whereas in 1161, they would encounter less interesting polities.
One of the worst decisions in history
In 1436, just after the huge treasure-fleets, the Ming Dynasty banned oceangoing vessels. I don’t know why. Maybe they’re stupid. One of the worst – and possibly most impactful – decisions in political history.
So in the alternate history, this would obviously be undone. You could either say one of the existing voyages in 1405-33 reached America, or they continued past 1436.
Forget what I said about ‘only the Chinese could do it’
The guy above said “It has to be the Chinese” but he’s an ugly idiot and nobody likes him. Polynesian navigators with catamarans and stars were au fait with the Polynesian triangle. But not familiar with sailing to the left and to the right of that. Apologies if my map of the Polynesian Triangle is a little off, but it is good enough for the purpose –
The Chinese traded with the Philippines all the time, and received tribute. I think Pacific Columbus would have to be a 15th century Chinese sailor with a huge fleet who –
- Gets from the Philippines to Irian Jaya (either via Sulawesi or not)
- Gets from there to New Britain / New Ireland
- Gets from there to the Solomon Islands
- Gets from there to Vanuatu
- Penetrates the Polynesia Triangle and MAKES FRIENDS
Polynesian-Chinese buddy story
When Chinese sailors who have mighty ships team up with Polynesian navigators, that automatically gets them as far east as Hawai’i and Rapa Nui; they just have to ask their new friends the way. Now the trick is getting from there to the American mainland, but they have ships the like of which the Polynesian navigators have never seen.
They reach America together, probably in the 1430s.
What is on the Pacific coast of America in the 1430s? The Inca Empire near its height, and the Aztec Empire near its height.
Effects
There’s a hundred different ways you could write the Chinese political interactions with the Americans: colonisation, genocide, exploitation, anti-Euro alliance (the last will be most appealing to hexbears)
You could say Asia exploits America for resources, kills them with viruses, and so primitive accumulation accumulates to China instead of Europe, changing the Industrial Revolution etc.
With contact, The Americas get:
- iron (swords)
- primitive guns
- crossbows
- horses
- the wheel
- writing/printing press/papermaking
- diseases
You could write the alternate history as the Chinese coming INSTEAD OF Columbus, but why even bother making the 2nd change?
Keep Columbus the same, except now when the conquistadores come to the Aztecs and Incas, they run up against steel and gunpowder.
The south of the Polynesian triangle u mentioned gets into the Roaring Forties (eastward wind).
You can ride that all the way to America: “Hacia 1837, un grupo de ingleses, sin conocimientos de navegación, escaparon en una pequeña goleta del asentamiento penal de Sarah Island, en Tasmania. La corriente y los vientos los llevaron hasta Chiloé, y luego subieron hasta Valdivia.” – Chiloé and Valdivia are south of the Inca Empire, in Mapuche territory.
I think it’s defensible to say: “Chinese treasure junks + Polynesian knowledge of sailing near NZ = riding the Roaring Forties to America”
The Mapuche and the Inca were just prior to fighting a war at that time, so Chinese contact would doubtless affect that somehow.
PS: Once they hit that, it’s a handy ride to the Inca Empire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt_Current
My Marxist instinct is to think of the shape of the relationship based on the prevalent mode of production of the “discovering” country. What did commerce look like for 14th century China? What pressures would’ve brought Chinese leadership to seek sailing east?
For the Spanish those pressures took the shape of the death throes of feudal systems, the black death, urbanization and early forms of capitalism, the decline of the Byzantine empire and the rise of the Ottomans, which led to Portugal’s monopoly on the overseas spice trade from South Asia. All of those things, along with more intra-european pressures, we’re what lead the Spanish to finance Columbus’ trip, and why they saw dollar signs when they realized this a wholly new land to extract from.
Think about China in the era you’re mentioning, and think about what the application of a Chinese mode of production to the Americas would’ve looked like, and I think it’ll take shape much easier!
The smallest change would be simply not dismantling the treasure fleet after the seventh voyage. But that “simplest change” gets into a whole complicated palace intrigue between the various factions of the Ming court.
I tend to agree.
Technically equally simple to change the routes of the existing voyages, but the decision in 1436 feels like such a decision, and therefore a crossroads-moment.
i would do it probably like Kim Stanley Robinson did in Years of Rice and Salt.
