Imperial Colonies throughout the world

[Samurai Waki]

Its another feet, that the British Empire managed to do it with a relatively small (but supremely elite) military.

[hoom]

Some would say it started with the Phoenicians who it is claimed by some had colonies in the Americas a thousand years or more before Columbus.
The Vikings seem to have had a colony on the North East bit of North America at some time.
There are maps that predate Columbus which show bits of the East coast of the Americas.
Then there are all the Greek colonies that Alexander founded...

[Avicenna]

They didn't really need the military, they just won over the natives I heard.

The Phoenicans did have some famous explorers such as Hanno, but I doubt that they could reach America with the ships of the dark ages. The Vikings did have a colony, but they got driven off by natives. (was it in Canada?)

The Chinese had also sailed to America long before Colombus, but they never bothered to have colonies. They just never had any wish to make an Empire.

[Aenlic]

They didn't really need the military, they just won over the natives I heard.

The Phoenicans did have some famous explorers such as Hanno, but I doubt that they could reach America with the ships of the dark ages. The Vikings did have a colony, but they got driven off by natives. (was it in Canada?)

The Chinese had also sailed to America long before Colombus, but they never bothered to have colonies. They just never had any wish to make an Empire.

The Vikings spent at least a couple of seasons in Newfoundland and possibly further south. The remains of a typical Norse settlement have been excavated in Newfoundland at L'Anse aux Meadows. The site had typical Norse ember pits and longhouses, as well as obvious Norse tools such as a soapstone spindle whorl and bronze pins. They didn't get along with the natives, however; and soon left. They called the natives skraelings in the sagas about Vinland. The sagas tell of Lief Erikson's brother Thorvald being killed by a skraeling arrow in Vinland.

On the subject of the Chinese exploration, Chinese admiral Zheng He is believed by some to have reached the west coast of the Americas; but there is no supportable evidence of such. He certainly sailed much of the Southwest Pacific and Indian Oceans and went as far as Africa in exploratory missions for the Chinese emperor. It's the sailing east to the Americas that is controversial.

The Phoenicians making it to America is more controversial still. Any storied Phoenician exploration of the Americas is pure supposition. They did manage to visit the British Isles, certainly; and possibly went down the west coast of Africa. In their ships, which were coastal traders, making an Atlantic crossing would be improbable at best.

[wolftrapper78]

The Phoenicians making it to America is more controversial still. Any storied Phoenician exploration of the Americas is pure supposition. They did manage to visit the British Isles, certainly; and possibly went down the west coast of Africa. In their ships, which were coastal traders, making an Atlantic crossing would be improbable at best.

Why improbable? The ancient polynesians could sail 4,000 miles from their South Pacific Islands to the Easter Island and Hawaii. So why couldn't the Phoenicians, with how much better ship technology they had, sail the two thousand miles from the edges of their empire in Africa to, say, Brazil. How is that improbable?

[Red Peasant]

The Phoenicians making it to America is more controversial still. Any storied Phoenician exploration of the Americas is pure supposition. They did manage to visit the British Isles, certainly; and possibly went down the west coast of Africa. In their ships, which were coastal traders, making an Atlantic crossing would be improbable at best.

Due to the nature of the wind systems as one rounds the Bight of Benin (i.e. leaving the Trade Winds route) as well as the Atlantic currents, I would surmise that it would probably have been easier for the Carthaginians to cross the ocean to Central or South America than it was to round Africa, which is a far more difficult enterprise. I'm sceptical about the latter.

[Red Peasant]

BTW, I'm not saying that they did cross the Atlantic!

[Avicenna]

So you're suggesting that they travelled close to either of the Poles or sailed around the large African-Asian-European landmass and then crossed the Pacific? Remember that the Phoenicans came from warm climes..