Forget everything you know
about the United States of America.
It is not united anymore,
but divided into several independent nations.
No, this isn't the result of a divisive election.
This is what America's borders
would look like
if it were never stumbled upon
by Christopher Columbus.
In school, most of us are taught that
Christopher Columbus
discovered America in 1492.
But in reality,
there is evidence that the Vikings
and the Polynesians were there
hundreds of years before.
And most importantly,
we can't really say he "discovered"
anything when there were already
millions of people living there.
But Columbus arriving in America did
spark massive amounts of exploration
and colonization that
led to the world as we know it.
So if he never arrived in America,
would colonization still have happened?
Before we go too far down
the alternate history route,
let's set a few real historical facts straight.
First off, before Columbus arrived,
the Americas were not just sparsely
populated wildlands with
tribes wandering through them.
Instead, there were actually more people
in the Americas living in complex
and highly organized societies,
than there were in Europe.
All of the communities had rich
and mature cultures,
and established languages.
There is even some evidence that
Indigenous populations of
North and South America
occupied the region for about
20,000 years before Columbus arrived.
Since time immemorial,
they had diversified so greatly in terms of
culture that they spoke approximately
300 different languages.
But that all changed when Columbus
and the European colonizers arrived.
A study from England's
University College London found
that the European colonization of the Americas
indirectly contributed
to the deaths of 56 million people
by the year 1600.
The study attributes the deaths
to factors including introduced disease,
such as smallpox and measles,
as well as warfare and societal collapse.
If the Americas had never been
colonized by the Europeans,
not only would many lives have been saved,
but also various cultures and languages.
Through colonization,
the Indigenous populations were labeled
as Indians, they were enslaved,
and they were forced to abandon their
own cultures and convert to Christianity.
If it weren't for this oppression,
the Indigenous nations would have continued
to develop and progress.
Modern-day California would be the most
densely populated region,
but the entire continent would be divided
into different nations,
much like Europe and Asia.
Smaller tribes would get swallowed up
by larger ones and
borders would continue
to change throughout history.
But one group that may have emerged
as a dominant culture over the others
would be the Iroquois.
They were known as one of the
strongest nations due to their
successful agricultural practices,
and their ability to invade other nations.
If Columbus hadn't brought
colonization over to the Americas,
then the Iroquois would probably
have continued to grow their nation
and surround much of the Great Lakes area
and the Mississippi River.
And our geographical borders wouldn't be the
only things that would look different
in this alternate timeline.
Our diets would too.
Wheat would not have been a staple
in the American continents,
as this is something introduced from Europe.
And American foods like corn,
tomatoes, and potatoes
would not have been introduced
to the Europeans.
But in all honesty,
even if Christopher Columbus
didn't sail the ocean blue,
America would likely have still been invaded.
The Age of Exploration, beginning in 1450,
had many nations looking for
new lands to conquer
and goods to exploit.
So eventually,
someone would have stumbled upon it.
Nowadays, the only new worlds
to be discovered are in outer space.
If we find one we can live on,
let's take a lesson
from our history here on Earth.
If someone else already lives there,
let's just leave them alone.
But that's a story for another WHAT IF.