• Bobson_Dugnutt [he/him]
    ·
    2 years ago

    In other words, no European colonies in the Americas and in the middle of the Pacific, which means no genocide of the Indigenous of the Americas. Perhaps there wouldn’t even be an Atlantic slave trade either since the original purpose of the slave trade was to replace the Indigenous slaves toiling in the European colonies. Trade of African slaves would’ve been controlled by various Arab traders and polities instead.

    All of that started before the Industrial Revolution. I could see it being much more limited in scale, but colonialism, slavery, and international trade could still happen even without fossil fuels or cheap lumber. There would still be an international market for sugar, cotton, tea, spices, beaver pelts, etc. but they would probably be luxury goods reserved for wealthy aristocrats, instead of the middle class/bourgeoisie. There would at least be a few small colonial port cities, trading posts, and plantation agriculture along various coasts and islands, maybe at the scale they were circa 1750.

    Otherwise I agree with everything you wrote.