What if Europe never expanded? What type of unique cultures would still be alive today...

What if Europe never expanded? What type of unique cultures would still be alive today? Would the Aztecs become a superpower?

If Europe didn't, China would have. If China didn't either, the Muslims would have. If they didn't, the Indians would have. And if no-one else ever did, eventually the Aztecs would discover the old World and be wiped out by diseases.

>If Europe didn't, China would have
>

>Virtually all that is known of Abu Bakr II is from the account of Chihab al-Umari. Al-Umari visited Cairo after Mansa Musa stopped there during his historic hajj to Mecca, and recorded a conversation between Musa and his host, Abu'l Hasan Ali ibn Amir Habib. According to Musa, Abu Bakr became convinced that he could find the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, and outfitted an expedition of 200 ships to find it. Only one of those ships returned; the captain related that the expedition had come to a "river with a powerful current" in the ocean. The current took most of the fleet away, after which the captain turned back. According to Musa, Abu Bakr was undeterred and launched an even larger expedition with himself as the head, departing with 2,000 vessels for his men and a like number for supplies. He left Musa, his vizier, as his deputy during his absence. The expedition was never heard from again, and Musa became the next emperor.

China wouldn't have. They hardly explored their front yard

TINY

Were their boats really this big?

>Build biggest ships known to man
>Never do anything with it except explore the coast of the Indian Ocean
>Go home after one expedition and go back to
cannibalism for political purposes

What the fuck is wrong with the Chinese?

Seriously quite probable, when you consider that it's a much shorter distance from Guinea to Brazil.

Would make for a fairly dank alt-history.

>>Build biggest ships known to man
>>Never do anything with it except explore the coast of the Indian Ocean
Think for a moment, and you'll find these two are related.

Portugal did not have that much territory in India

The Aztecs would of had their shit kicked in regardless because the Spanish had little to do with their demise. No culture has been completely destroyed due to European expansion, at worst they have had European customs introduced.

>fairly dank alt-history
>alt-history

>Magellan

I always wonder why he is so famous when he died in the middle of the voyage and his goal wasn't to do the first circumnavigation of the earth

the olmecs existed during the same period as the Assyrian Empire

I highly doubt it was fucking Africans,

Aztec Empire was going to fall no matter what. All their subjects despised them.

The Incas might have fared much better though. The Spanish arrived right in the middle of their civil war.

>culture
Oh yeah, literally most Inca culture were forbidden and the art and metal-wroking from the capital, alongside the textil quipus and tocapus, were burnt and destroyed. Literally the buildings from the cities were destroyed so the european no-seismic resistant "buildings" could have materials.

The european diseases provoked the civil war.

Multiple independent sources from across different ethnicities/time have made those claims.

So we can be fairly certain they were really big. One, if I remember right, Algerian(or Moroccon not sure) explorer who went all across world made extensive notes of his travel in China and their ship sizes. Another one made remarks about gigantic Chinese ships travelling across south east asia trade routes. And so on.

It was a series of exploration that spanned few decades. They fought battles in Sri Lanka and defeated their kingdom during one of those voyages. They have shipwrecks, graves and descendants in Madagascar. So they made it far.

from what I remember on the subject the records on their actual size is inconsistent, but they were supposively huge.
Its important to note that they were mostly big for hauling tribute and being intimidating though. If I remember right the fleet supporting it would need to do the actual fighting.

After the autistic 2pac made a mess of the viceroy yeah, they got quite harsh, and despite that, their culture survives. People aren't just their Age of Empires unique buildings.

That looks to be about 50 meters long, am I correct?

Some of the boats were huge and extravagant.

The fleet that went on the military exploration/scouting had troop ships/support ships/water ships/live animal ships/etc

They fielded massive fleet similar to the size of Spanish Armada

what if germanics never got the knowledge from romans/greeks?

There would probably be a big divide between northern and southern europe

I really don't see how that could possibly happen.

But that's where you're wrong, Shaquan.