The continents haven't always looked the way they are.
Hopefully, this isn't a new fact for you.
Over the vast lifespan,
Earth has mashed its land masses together.
In fact over 300 million years ago,
all the Earth's continents were connected into one large supercontinent
called Pangea.
Surrounded by one superocean
called Panthalassa.
For over a 100 million years,
the Earth had only one continent
and one ocean,
until breaking up and eventually forming the continents we see today.
Booo!
What if in alternate timeline,
Pangea still existed?
The continents simply never broke apart
and if humans were rose to spread across the world.
How would civilization be affected?
Before answering these questions,
we need to discuss a few facts.
This is all theoretical.
If Pangea was still around,
it's best to assume humans wouldn't be.
Evolution is a cause and effect process
affected by the environment and geography.
The simplest change in climate
can affect the lineage of a species
forcing them to adapt or to go extinct.
Without an Africa factor for apes to be able to rise,
homo sapiens ancestors would have gone down a much different alternate path.
This said, we can still place humans on Pangea for the sake of the theory.
Plus, it would be boring without us.
Humans are resourceful
and would be able to spread and conquer this Pangea world.
But geographically, what would this planet look like?
Pangea specifics are a mystery to us.
We can only get a basic look of what its shape was
and hypothesize form there.
Unlike today,
where most land is in the Northern Hemisphere,
most land on Pangea was south of the Equator.
Long mountain ranges rose in the center of Pangea from connecting continents.
Similar to India pushing up against Asia,
creating the Himalayas.
Because of these mountains,
arid desert landscapes formed due to lack of rainfall.
It's been theorized, mega monsoons swept from the oceans
and brought rain to the equatorial regions.
This would replenish the vast rainforests which spanned the Equator,
which is present day North America in western Europe.
Fun Fact!
A lot of that coal used to bring
Britain into an industrial age
and mine in West Virginia,
was from the lush tropical forest millions of years ago.
Yay! Science!
Back on track,
human civilization would be drawn to the coastline
just as in our timeline.
No surprise.
Tribes in Nomadic people
would roam in the less hospitable lands.
Even if all of humanity share the same continent,
this does not mean they would be more connected.
If large deserts or rainforests did form in the center of Pangea,
they would just be as limiting to communication
between people as any ocean would be.
We see this in Africa,
Sub-Saharan Africa is connected to Asia,
just as it is with Europe.
Yet there was much less communication.
Very little trade occurred,
not counting East Africa and Madagascar.
Parts of Sub-Saharan Africa
were almost the equivalent of the Americas
in its isolation.
Which is why tribes like the Zulus
still use spears up against British machine guns.
This was because of the natural barriers
of the Saharan desert and the Congo jungle.
Both regions were very difficult to cross
before the Industrial Revolution
and create a rift in communication
between civilizations of East Asia and Europe
with Sub-Saharan Africa.
The point is
we could still see the same effects in Pangea.
Deserts could split east and west,
while the equator rainforests could split north and south.
Present day North America and Eurasian peoples
could develop a culture independent of South American,
African and Australian people.
This is all theoretical though,
there is no hundred percent accurate way
to predict how things would have been.
This was just my two cents on the matter.
Pangea itself is much of a mystery,
but it's always fun to explore the possibilities and geography.
What do you think the world would be like if Pangea still existed?
Say it in the comments,
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This is Cody from the Alternate History Hub.