What if~Asians discovered America first?

The double continent of the Americas. Formed nearly 350 million years ago after they have separated from Europe and Africa. Because they drifted so far from Europe and Africa, their knowledge was basically a mystery to them.

This all changed in 1492 when Genoan Christopher Columbus along with subordinates of the new Spanish Empire set sail for what was supposed to be Asia, but stumbled onto North America. Changing what Europeans thought of the Physical World forever.

But now, there are some historians that are suggesting that Asia may have some knowledge of the Americas long before Columbus discovered them. This is still debated by many historians who don't find the information to be correct.

So, this brings up the question. What if Asians \*did\* discover America first, and would they colonized it as did the European Nations in our reality?

There won't be any real history context since (as mention before) the information regarding to Asians finding the Americas first is still very much a debatable topic. So, we will go right to the What if Segment of this page.

## What if?

Again, what if Asians were to discover America before Europe, and not just discover it but colonize it as well? This is what this page will cover.

First off, back in the 15th century there are only 2 countries in Asia that would be able to find America and even colonize it: China and Japan as they had ships that can sail across the Pacific Ocean.

One thing you have to keep in mind is that the Pacific Ocean is almost twice the size of the Atlantic Ocean in width. In our reality, it took Christopher Columbus and his men around 3 weeks to reach The Bahamas, in this alternate reality if say the Chinese reached the Americas, it'll take them nearly 2 months to reach the coast of what would be California (depending on the wind direction and ocean currents that they may encounter)

So, in this alternate reality around the 1430's the Chinese set foot on the west Coast of what would be California. They would stay for a few months before heading back home.

However, it'll be only a matter of time before the Japanese get word of China's Discovery and would want a piece of this new American Pie.

By the latter part of the 15th century, both the Chinese and the Japanese have established their own colonies in North America. China would claim California, parts of Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and some parts of Texas and even western Mexico. As the Years go on, China would also claim parts of South America too. Japan would jointly occupy Oregon and Washington and even parts of British Columbia (along with Vancouver Island) and Hawaii with the Chinese, but they'll have the Yukon and southern Alaska to themselves.

Depending on where these colonies are, the amount of people that live will vary from heavily to sparsely populated.

The Chinese and the Japanese however would also have to deal with constant threats from Native American Tribes in North America. The Chinese and the Japanese excel in close quarter combat as they'll have their swords, but the Native Americans will have Bow & Arrows

But because Asia has discovered America first, doesn't mean that Europe would be taken out of the game to the discovery of the continent. Christopher Columbus would still sail across the Atlantic to find the eastern part of the Continent.

However with this, the Chinese and Japanese Colonists would be threatened by settlers from Europe, in particular the Spanish Conquistadors who would fight not just a war with the Aztecs but also Chinese Colonists in Mexico and eventually places in the southwestern America.

Though, unfortunately for the Asian colonists by the 17th century both China and Japan would be taken over by Xenophobic Empires in the forms of the Qing Dynasty and the Tokugawa Shogunate respectively and both Empires would focus on preserving their own respective societies as they are and not wanting westernization to change it.

So, this would also mean for the colonists to either become independent or return to their respective native lands. There would be a huge debate on who would want to go and who would want to stay. Some would most definitely stay while a good amount would want to return to their ancestral nations. Though this wouldn't be an option especially for the Japanese as the Tokugawa Shogunate's foreign policy would eventually forbid even Japanese people already outside of their own native country to not come back.

For those who stay in the Americas, that would mean the Asian countries would play a bigger role in the history in a lot of the nations after European colonization especially in North America. Though, it is possible that the Chinese colony may abandon it's claim to South America due to the heavy vegetation of the jungles there, in our reality the Jungles of South America were also sparsely populated by the Spanish.

This would have an especially huge change on US History by the 19th century with the Mexican American War as it'll also have the Chinese and Japanese colonists in the USA involved in the War as the USA was extremely zealous to move westward, so around this time the expansion westward would be more difficult as the Americans would not just have to deal with the Mexicans, but the Chinese and Japanese as well. This would also be difficult for Mexico to hold onto their land in the west as well. So, the war would carry on for another 4-6 years in this alternate reality. If Japan were to stay with their territories in Alaska, they would also have to deal with Russian aggression, thus souring the relations with the 2 countries earlier than it did in our reality.

Going into the modern era in this alternate reality, one thing that would be noticable is that China and Japan would've played bigger roles in the history of Mexico, Canada and the USA. There would be toens and maybe cities in the west that would have either Chinese or Japanese names, and because the Chinese and Japanese would bring their own version of Buddhism (and the japanese may even bring Shintoism to America as well) there would be more diversity of religion in North America as well. However, when segregation came around, the descendants of the Chinese and Japanese Colonists would also be treated as bad as black people and so there would be more Civil Rights leaders in America then there was in our reality.

That is all for this page, be sure to look at my other pages. Until then, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.