In 1487, Christopher Columbus presented his proposal of sailing the ocean blue by going west and reaching the Indies that way.
IOTL, we know Portugal knew that this proposal was wrong, and promptly rejected it.
Some historians believe that the King of Portugal at that time, João II of Portugal either knew or strongly suspected that there was a landmass in the direction Columbus wanted to go in, so he rejected Columbus's offer knowing that it was unlikely for Portugal to reach the Indies that way.
But a POD that I present is having Duarte Pacheco Pereira - who many historians strongly suspect reached the Americas and Brazil sometime in the 1480s - die in a shipwreck sometime in the 1470s, which both difficults the Portuguese understanding over what's in the west AND drains the coffers of Portugal further, leading the Kingdom to accept Columbus's proposal as a desperate attempt to regain prestige and fortune.
As @Mildtryth pointed out, Pereira's expedition actually happened in 1498, not the 1480s as I assumed. An alternate POD is having 1: Bartolomeu Dias's expedition taking place sooner (1486) and 2. it being a major failure (with a shipwreck in 1487), just in time for the news to arrive in Portugal and convince the kings that sailing around Africa would be useless.
What would be the impacts of a Portuguese-led Columbus expedition? Who would colonize which parts of the American continent? Would the Treaty of Alcáçovas (which basically gave OTL US + Canada to Spain and left the entirety of Latin America to Portugal) be respected by Castile? (Of course, the other European powers would want a share of the pie IF Portugal firstly discovers regions that are as lucrative as the Caribbean was to Spain)
IOTL, we know Portugal knew that this proposal was wrong, and promptly rejected it.
Some historians believe that the King of Portugal at that time, João II of Portugal either knew or strongly suspected that there was a landmass in the direction Columbus wanted to go in, so he rejected Columbus's offer knowing that it was unlikely for Portugal to reach the Indies that way.
As @Mildtryth pointed out, Pereira's expedition actually happened in 1498, not the 1480s as I assumed. An alternate POD is having 1: Bartolomeu Dias's expedition taking place sooner (1486) and 2. it being a major failure (with a shipwreck in 1487), just in time for the news to arrive in Portugal and convince the kings that sailing around Africa would be useless.
What would be the impacts of a Portuguese-led Columbus expedition? Who would colonize which parts of the American continent? Would the Treaty of Alcáçovas (which basically gave OTL US + Canada to Spain and left the entirety of Latin America to Portugal) be respected by Castile? (Of course, the other European powers would want a share of the pie IF Portugal firstly discovers regions that are as lucrative as the Caribbean was to Spain)
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