WI: The Eastern Agricultural Complex develops early and faster than OTL

1)Would it lead to a civilization equivalent to the Aztecs & Incas in eastern North America.

2)How would trade develop between Mesoamerica and eastern North America. And how would the Eastern Agricultural Complex effect agriculture in Mesoamerica.

3)Would at least some trade develop between Greenland Vikings and North America.

4)What happens when of the Europeans come.

5)How would the world been effect bye the additionally crops.
 
1)Would it lead to a civilization equivalent to the Aztecs & Incas in eastern North America.

2)How would trade develop between Mesoamerica and eastern North America. And how would the Eastern Agricultural Complex effect agriculture in Mesoamerica.

3)Would at least some trade develop between Greenland Vikings and North America.

4)What happens when of the Europeans come.

5)How would the world been effect bye the additionally crops.
Probably not all that significant, really.

Note that when the Eastern Woodlands agriculturalists got their hands on the Three Sisters, they dropped their previous crops fast. So, clearly they weren't nearly as useful.

The other problem is that they have nothing to make clothes with. One source I read suggested that the Iroquois were population limited by the available deer to make garments. Whereas, of course, Mesoamerica and South America have cotton.
 
What about milkweed. The seed are attached to silky fibers. I know that during WWII the army used the fibers in parachute packing. I had a friend years ago who spun her own yarn who tried to spin it. She was able to do so by mixing it with wool or cotton, she said the fibers were to short. In the pacific Northwest dog hair and ceder bark were used. So some sort of combination might have worked.
Yes I guess that giant crabgrass might be problematic.
 
Probably not, really. The Eastern Woodlands of North America did not offer the sort of ecological constraints that would force horticultural societies to intensify their agricultural practices and foster the development of true states level societies.

It is also arguable whether or not the kinds of cultigens central to the woodland complex exhibited the combination of high nutrition and intense cultivation requirements of maize and the other mesoamerican crops. As others have noted, woodland cultures really didn't become more complex and heirarchical until maize showed up.

But then, arguably the most heirarchical and stratified north american cultures didn't even have agriculture. The NW Coast. So go figure.
 
Probably not, really. The Eastern Woodlands of North America did not offer the sort of ecological constraints that would force horticultural societies to intensify their agricultural practices and foster the development of true states level societies.

You can have cultural as well as ecological factors that drive people to create states. The Eastern North Americans actually had long periods of creating mounds and other similar works before the Woodland period. They were developing stratified societies, but these always fell apart because they could not feed urban centers with their crop package, and shifting rivers made relying on fish and shellfish unreliable.

It is also arguable whether or not the kinds of cultigens central to the woodland complex exhibited the combination of high nutrition and intense cultivation requirements of maize and the other mesoamerican crops. As others have noted, woodland cultures really didn't become more complex and heirarchical until maize showed up.

This is the big problem, IMHO. There's no wheat, maize, or rice equivalent that the Woodland culture had. In order to get the Woodland Culture to develop earlier and faster, they need to have some equivalent of those grains. Perhaps a mutation in meadow barley or a similar plant makes it grow large seeds like Old World barley, that would certainly kick-start civilization in the area.

To take on OP's questions one by one:

Screvier20 said:
1)Would it lead to a civilization equivalent to the Aztecs & Incas in eastern North America.

Only if something like the alternate domesticate scenario I proposed above happens. Otherwise, the Woodland culture would be limited by a crop package that could never support a population as high as that in the Andes or Mesoamerica.

2)How would trade develop between Mesoamerica and eastern North America. And how would the Eastern Agricultural Complex effect agriculture in Mesoamerica.

Going by OTL, there would be limited trade between Mesoamerica and the EAC, probably going through a Pueblo intermediary. Perhaps an earlier Woodland Culture would eventually create boats that could sail from the Mississippi to Mesoamerica, which would greatly increase trade.

I don't think Mesoamerican agriculture would be greatly affected by EAC agriculture. They had plenty of their own crops that IOTL were superior to EAC crops. In addition, even if this alt-EAC has good crops, the time and effort it would take to create cultivars that would be productive in the tropics might not be considered worth it by the Mesoamericans. Perhaps you might get some EAC crops in the more temperate highlands, though.

3)Would at least some trade develop between Greenland Vikings and North America.

The Norse were after land more than trade, which inevitably caused conflict when they ran into Native Americans. That said, they may have traded with the Dorset for walrus ivory IOTL, and it's quite possible that a large, urban society on the Eastern seaboard would have been able to provide them with goods they really needed such as wood in exchange for exotic European commodities such as glass, wool clothes, and cheese.

4)What happens when of the Europeans come.

High population densities and intensive agriculture did not protect the Mesoamericans or Andean peoples from colonization. That said, a more populous North America could result in more Mestizo colonies, and could mean that more trade-oriented colonies like the Dutch and French might get high enough numbers of Native allies to defeat the more settlement-oriented English colonies.

5)How would the world been effect bye the additionally crops.

In this scenario, not a lot. Lands of Red and Gold and Lands of Ice and Mice had alternate crop-packages that thrived in what is in OTL marginal agricultural land, which does change the world. However, Eastern North America can be hospitable to Andean, Mesoamerican, European, and in the deep south even African and tropical Asian agricultural packages. Plants that grow in the Eastern Seaboard won't really be game-changers, because they won't grow in any environment that doesn't already have crops developed for it IOTL.
 
Get the potato up there!

What you really need, in my opinion, is more trade and exchange of ideas in the Americas. A seaborne trading civilization that can move up the rivers and along the coasts, trading from OTL Venezuela up the Mississippi.
 
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