What if European colonization of the US never happened? That’s right no Christopher Columbus, Henry Hudson, Cartier, Bering, or Ponce de Leon. No founding of St. Augustine, Jamestown, Plymouth, or any other European outpost. How does this come to be?
Maybe the Vikings’ tales of hostile natives and poor farmland spread quickly through Europe. The news leads later generations to ignore the rumors of western lands. Perhaps Europeans with a better grasp of the Earth’s true size realize the quickest way to the orient is to go east. Instead of sailing west, they focus more on the southern route resulting in a stronger emphasis on Africa. Alternatively the Mediterranean and eastern powers develop better trade ties with the Ottoman and Persian empires.
While I’m sure there are better and more plausible scenarios, for our purposes all that matters is the inhabitants of the western hemisphere remain free of European colonization. Freed from the pressure of millions of European colonists what happens? How do their societies develop? Without the rapid population losses from old world diseases and warfare, do they create their own nation states? What would Europeans find if they arrived hundreds of years later?
William C. Sturtevant’s 1967 map, created for the Smithsonian Institute offers some insight. Each of the colors contains tribes with similar language groups. Within each colored region lines indicate the area controlled by specific tribes. While not the sole contributing factor, language played a major role in the formation of modern nation states. Would language drive the creation of nation states in a US free of European interference? If so, the area currently occupied by the US might look something like this:
Map of the United States without European Colonization
As always thanks for reading.
Armen
Note to pay the bills: If you’re interested in a James Bond-like thriller set in a high fantasy world, where a nations and cultures covertly compete with each other then, look into The Warders. You can find a summary of the series here or find links to purchase books here.
Always interesting. Interesting, too, would be to know what civilization would be like here. I’ll bet it would be pretty successful. By the way, my granddaughter has taken an interest in maps like these. I forwarded this to her.
There are a lot of variables in determining success for a civilization. Very few “native” cultures came out on the positive side of their initial encounter with Europeans, at least in the short run. Of course a lot depends on your definition of success. I’m hope your granddaughter enjoys this map. Thanks for taking the time to comment – and Happy New Year to you.
It would be interesting to see maps of Africa and Asia without European intrusion and colonization, as well.
Charles, I’ll do some research and see what I can find. Perhaps the March or April Map Monday features. As always, thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.
A map of Africa BEFORE European colonization would traumatize Donald Trump into schizophrenic fits. Armen, get one of those up here as soon as possible!
Alejandro, I’ve already got a different map for February. I was thinking about Africa for March. I’ve haven’t put it together yet, but if not March then soon thereafter. As for bothering politicians of either side, well that would just be a bonus. Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment.