What If Columbus Never Discovered the Americas

We all know the history of Christopher Columbus sailing to a "New World" in 1492, but what if Spain never claimed to have discovered the Americas and the Natives of the continent maintained control over the land? Check out today's epic new video that re-writes history in a way you've never seen before.

🔖 MY SOCIAL PAGES

💭 Find more interesting stuff on:

All videos are based on publicly available information unless otherwise noted.

[DASBIGUN]

This seems like a REALLY happy and EXTREMELY optimistic view of it all. I mean, the civilisations in America where at war as much as in Europe.

[michaelmaxwell]

The optimism that was utilized creating this video is hilarious

[alexsduthie]

Sorry to nit-pick but there weren't horses in the Americas until the Spanish reintroduced them.

[emersonharris]

This is an idealistic dream at best. If people were able to get along without war it would have happened a long time ago well before even the Romans.

[trevboster]

This video is being extremely optimistic. Guns, germs, and steel is what allowed Europeans to dominate the Americas. If those in the Americas somehow got to Europe before the Europeans found the Americas, the Europeans would have immediately set out to conquer the Americas and dominated in much the same way as they had in real history.

[jasonblum]

Not sure about this. Indigenous peoples were at war a lot, kidnapping, slavery, scalping, etc. were all common. Even today, different tribes don't agree with one another and do not accept those claiming to have have a link. The ideas presented in the video is too cumbaya.

[agustingonzalez]

Has anyone ever realized that not only was Columbus lost when he "discovered" the Americans who were not lost, but he was the most lost person in history. He was almost exactly on the opposite side of the planet from where he was trying to go. He could not have been more lost without leaving earth.

[mattmz]

Aztecs were destroying other tribes, killing and enslaving them. Those tribes would’ve gone extinct just at a much slower pace. Aztecs were very much conquering other lands nearby.

[Ahmad-yheg]

I think it's a highly optimistic view. We can't get along now, let alone getting along in a world where resources are limited.

[mickeyray]

Alternate history is always fun! I remember once reading a great book from the library on the theme of alternate history. It was a collection of "what if" scenarios, exploring many different alternate histories. Fascinating.

[Blackavelli]

This would make a pretty good TV series idea. I'm watching For All Mankind about an alternate history if The Soviets landed on the moon first. Really good show and I think a show based on this could work as well.

[LukeC]

This hypothetical is pretty best case scenario, but highly unlikely.

[robertdean]

A couple of thoughts: (1) You showed Native Americans on horses: horses came from Europe. (2) The Vikings had already made it to North America.

[sealtyk]

The definition of discover is to find something unexpectedly or in the course of a search so regardless of indigenous people's residing where he landed he did find those islands unexpectedly or while he was searching so technically...

[zollen]

If no European ever discovered the America continent, common ingredients like chilli pepper, potato and tomato would never be part of the European diets. Without potato, the European population would have been much smaller, many scientific discoveries and industry revolution would have been delayed for a few centuries or more. Europeans might even have adapted having rice as their stable diet when instead coming in contact with Asian cultures.

[Erichev]

Your whole scenario revolves around the idea that loving mother Earth would have made the different tribes live in harmony. It also assumes that they wouldn't develop a love of wealth and exploit one another. I think this is a rose tinted glasses view of the indigenous people. I feel they would have evolved and might have gotten to a collective North, a collective Central, and a collective South Americas. However, from there it would be no different than Europe. Each nation would want to rule. Each nation would house radicals that hated the government and want to oust the dictators (a la Scotland hating England). I think they would have had their own Kings vying for land grabs. Then when they met Europe it would have started peacefully, but Europeans had gun powder from China. Would the Americas have something comparable?

[reubenmarchant]

I could 'discover' a restaurant or other place. This does not mean no one knew about, not even workers, owners. People need learn that words have many variations usage. If it had not been Columbus it would been some other European, the technology, desire to seek out new places was already there. Whoever would have been could have made Columbus look good in comparison.

[palamabron]

Saying that the European explorers had absolutely no interest in science or knowledge just seems so ridiculous.

[Honkious]

He says that they 'protect mother earth' as if they didn't believe it was a giant ever-hungering demon which would eat them all if they upset it (it's an Aztec thing at least, no idea if other cultures shared deities beyond the feathered serpent).

[WildeHoppsANDW]

I think one aspect that is missed in all this, is that no matter the empire in the Americas, they amassed their power through subjugation and slavery of other tribes. In the section on the Incas, it was said they'd find tons of medicines and share with all other cultures.

That's the opposite of what had been happening for centuries in the Americas. So I dont see how or why human nature would change because Europeans hadn't come along.