/c/worldbuilding thread I'm cross-posting here - i think it'd be nice if people answered there instead of here, /c/worldbuilding could use the activity
/c/worldbuilding thread I'm cross-posting here - i think it'd be nice if people answered there instead of here, /c/worldbuilding could use the activity
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.