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Instead of Conquistadores, some of the first Spanish adventurers on the mainland, trying to find and take down giant beasts like the mastodon with their ivory tusks, might be called the Cazadores - hunters.

The first Columbus voyage will be disappointing in not finding gold. But land and freshwater should be found. Columbus will no doubt say that these wild islands should be used as bases to keep exploring just a little further, where surely, the orient must be. He should at least have...

But Venezuelan llano rain shadow area sounds like an area, even if hot, which should be arid enough to be healthy, like the S. African Cape.

Neat - maybe Guajira would be set up as Castille's first permanent colony, sometime after Columbus's 3rd or 4th voyage, as basically a small station for revictualing/resupplying exploration efforts in the Caribbean. The Spanish will release pigs on the land at first and then send shepherds. If...

In an America empty of humans until the voyage of Columbus, where would Spanish voyagers find the first *natural* open grasslands? Areas where good ole Castillian sheep could graze? Would the terrain of all Caribbean islands and coastal lands in their pre-human state be all thickly overgrown...

I never said the would not be other animals. Other animals, large ones, may prosper.

Could your analysis be undervaluing timber and ivory (assuming there is a mammoth population) and fish-drying in attracting explorers and settlers. These were all huge industries. Timber was the primary fuel source of Europe and an Empty America would represent a fresh source of virgin forest as...

This sounds like a very dramatic slowdown. Is it possible then that in this world, humans first see some places in the Americas, like perhaps the Amazon jungle or the Andean peaks or Canadian rockies, from the air, after hot air balloons or powered aircraft are developed? Like how some of Papua...

This brings up a question, were jungle areas so deadly and disease ridden for purely climate and non-human (say insect and animal borne) related biological reasons? Or were dense human populations and their domesticates in tropical areas part of the package making jungle and savanna areas so...

So, in an “empty America” until the Vikings scenario, Vinland is still a short lived thing and ultimate failure? And in an empty America until Columbus scenario, no settlements of 100s of thousands, or millions, anywhere in the Americas, until the 1700s or 1800s?

Have you heard of the original scenario by long time (25 year + what-iffer) Doug Hoff? Here’s the summary in the AH.com wiki: timelines:empty_america [alternatehistory.com wiki] It is a nifty old AH timeline, that I think is worthy of some renewed discussion. First of all, although it is never...