Alternate History: Comming To America.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Christopher Columbus arrives in the Carribean to find the New World populated by Carthinagians, and Norse, who came to the contenant to get away from Rome and Christianity respectivly. What happens when Cortez is dispatched to bring the new world in line with Rome, and Spain?

[Tsyroc]

Unless he brings a lot more than he did in our history he's going to get stomped. It is unlikely that the Norse and Carthaginians would be as suseptable to illness as the Native Americans were in our reality.

I also think that one group or the other would be fairly quick to adopt firearms of their own if they didn't have them already.


Question: Are you assumeing that both groups, Norse and Carhaginians, haven't had any contact with Europe/Africa for quite some time?

[NecronLord]

Why haven't the Romans made a point of following the Carthaginians? They were pretty pissed at them you know..

[Baron Mordo]

I doubt the Norse would have made it to the Caribbean in that time. There weren't many of them, and even less after all the skirmishes they had with the skraelings. They would have had to intermarry with the skraelings to survive, and adapt their lifestyle to live alongside them. By the time Columbo found them, they'd probably be unrecognizable as Norsemen.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Yes, It's been a LONG time since the Carthinagens had contact with Africa, in this Senario, The Vikings set up trade settlements up and down the Atlantic seaboard, have intermarried, but have kept the viking style of construction, shipbuilding, and weapon construction.

[Sir Sirius]

By the time Columbo found them, they'd probably be unrecognizable as Norsemen.

I've always liked Peter Falk. The class eye makes him look cool.

[Warspite]

By the time Columbo found them, they'd probably be unrecognizable as Norsemen.

I've always liked Peter Falk. The class eye makes him look cool.

LMAO!!

This is another Columbo! This one has a big nose and a french accent... Oh, wait...

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Christopher Columbus arrives in the Carribean to find the New World populated by Carthinagians, and Norse, who came to the contenant to get away from Rome and Christianity respectivly. What happens when Cortez is dispatched to bring the new world in line with Rome, and Spain?

I seriously doubt that the Norse could have colonized more than the coastal islands in the north, even with a serious push. They did, after all, have a far superiour naval technology: It's not totally implausible to believe them being able to isolate and secure PEI, Newfoundland, and Ile D'Anticosti, along with maybe Nova Scotia and some little stuff and things further down. They also, of course, have iron, which gives them another advantage over the locals - So, in theory, they could get a foothold. But I don't see them in the Caribbean, or everywhere (The Indians would eventually get Ironworking, and much sooner, horses - and would be exposed to some European diseases through the Vikings, and have time to recover, through such extended contact, which would make later European arrivals more problematic, as well).

They do have one other reason in the continuing overpopulation of Scandinavia, but there was never a really big drive to colonize out beyond Greenland and I can't think of a reason for them to do so. If someone can, well.. Who knows?

As for earlier discovery of the New World, well... There's been lots of things attributed to the Phoenecians or the Carthaginians which I'm hesitant to put them up for. OTOH, theoretically from the Phoenecians on down you could reach the new world in such a ship. Really, it's more a matter of navigation.

How about the Romans inventing the compass? That would be interesting to say the least. Or the Greeks, a culture to whom innovation was not unfamiliar. There is also evidence that at least one Greek exploratory voyage did reach Iceland and proceed northwards until the sea froze - During their era of colonization they regularly traded with the British isles for tin, and such an expedition is supported in one account at any rate.