Quote:
Originally Posted by malloyd
I don't even think it's even very controversial anymore that there were European fishermen working the Grand Banks for several decades before 1492 and landing on the "phantom" island of Bacalao there. Columbus himself apparently even claimed to have landed on an island "beyond Thule" in 1477.
The Atlantic is not incredibly wide - people must have been blown across it fast enough to survive, in both directions, multiple times since the invention of boats. But "foreigner blown in from he has no idea where" isn't likely to have much impact. Even if he wanted to try to go home, he doesn't really know where it is, and talking anybody into a voyage that nearly killed him in reverse isn't going to be easy.
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Exactly. And even if he does make it home, what results? The Atlantic is not anything like as wide as the Pacific, but it's wide enough, and all he's brought home is knowledge that there are lands out there _somewhere_. Not necessarily a strong motive to try to go back, if there aren't pressing other reasons.
Those social, religious, economic, etc. reasons came into alignment around the late 15C. Before that, the motivation would not necessarily be there even if somebody brought back news of the existence of those far-off lands.