CHENNAI: The faces of all our founding fathers would have been carved on the Himalayas. We would have become a superpower that we are always on the verge of becoming. Our citizens would have been ‘expats’ in any country they go to. We would have dictated the world’s financial markets and be the cause of universal economic meltdown. Or not.
Given that history is written by the victors — isn’t it fair to say, 500 years later, that Columbus wasn’t exactly victorious?
For contrary to popular belief, the Vikings of the Nordic region were the first Europeans to find their way to the Americas. Instead of setting up colonies, however, they wisely decided to focus on inspiring comic book characters, films and spin-offs, giving us the much more valuable legacy of Thor.
Speaking of colonisation, it’s England that claims that John Cabot was, in fact, the first European to discover that what Columbus had termed the ‘New World’ wasn’t the east coast of Asia; but an entirely different continent altogether.
Let’s just assume that Columbus had recognised this himself – a bit doubtful perhaps, given that the man thought the Earth was the size of the globe he was looking at. It would have taken him almost four years to get all the way around to India. Unlike most of the sailors of that time, he thought he could find India if he sailed westwards; the longest route imaginable.
In our alternate timeline, he gets to India around 1496-1497. By then, most of his crew is already dead; he wasn’t carrying enough freshwater or food to last over four years. He reaches the east coast of India; or, in this case, Madras.
Trade Routes between India and Europe had already existed but only on the west coast; so this would have been the first ever European contact the east coast had made via sea.
Being generous, we would have given him a lot of food and sent some of our people back with him. The Spanish crown would have been furious that it had taken him four years to bring back his onsite reports; something Vasco Da Gama had done in just over a year.
All other sailors would have opted for the route via the Cape of Good Hope around Africa. We would have still become a British colony eventually. We might have perhaps had a few Hispanic colonies in Tamil Nadu; Sangria might have been a Madras delicacy, and not a Spanish one. In a nutshell, Columbus would have just been a footnote in India’s otherwise vast history.
As for the Americas, a lot would have changed for those who actually paved the way for Colonies of Exploitation; the Aztecs and the Incas would have still been introduced to it and a good dose of ‘Old World’ diseases. John Cabot might have been credited with it’s discovery, giving Britain an excuse to take over the Americas.
The Butterfly effect finally caught up with the alternate timeline and looks like a lot of it might have stayed the same. If Columbus had realised his dream of discovering India, he would have simply erased his biggest mark in History – Columbus Day wouldn’t be found in USA’s list of National holidays. That, and the C in Washington DC would have stood for Cabot, and not Columbus.
(When he isn’t writing, the creative producer with The Rascalas watches a lot of ‘cat videos’ on YouTube)