The Sahara is a lot bigger than you think. If you theoretically had to walk from one end to the other it'd be farther than hiking from Maine to Washington. Imagine a giant sandbox the size of the United States that barely anybody lives in. That's the Sahara. The Existence of this desert is not really given much thought. It's an ocean of sand and just like any ocean Historically the people that learned to sail it made use of it And those that couldn't stayed on the shoreline the Sahara apparently goes through dry and wet periods Every twenty thousand years or so rain comes back to North Africa the Sahara wasteland transforms into a prosperous grassland Then soon the region dries back up again And the desert returns. What we live in is a dry period ever since humans have had agriculture We've never seen a green Sahara But there is evidence nine thousand years ago there were many people that did, they lived and prospered here. When the rains went away in the span of only two centuries It was basically the apocalypse for them. Their homeland was dying and all life Migrated to greener pastures as the desert returned, but what if in an alternate timeline? It didn't what if the Sahara never dried up and instead we see a fertile North Africa today? "Cody" you say "This is quite" "scientifically inaccurate." "The Sahara turned into a desert because the rains" "disappeared due to the Earth's axis." And to that Jimmy I agree with you. This is simply a thought exercise Not every single climate factor needs to be brought up I just really wanted to imagine the world. So just take it in I guess This video is going to be a lot more general than I usually do, this is more involving historical themes like rivers civilizations than specific historical events. And so don't imagine I think my ideas are the only path that could have happened This is spanning a big distance of time and land. So think of this as fun with maps and My personal best guess into what I think could have happened. That's all. Also special Thanks to Sean McKnight for his fantastic map involving a green Sahara Which was the major Inspiration for the topic. This map is what I'm basing my scenario and my maps on so check out his page in the link below Let's go back to an alternate 7000 BC The rain always pours down in the Sahara and the region simply Doesn't dry up. You could imagine great rivers flowing into massive freshwater lakes Larger than the Great Lakes, let's call them uuhhh Lake Chad, Lake Fazzon and Lake Maghreb. Deeming these lakes does a bit of a disservice to them These freshwater bodies are more like sees like the Caspian Sea. Just like it was thousands of years ago Villages dot the coastal waters. If you want to imagine how this grain Sahara looks don't think it would be a lush tropical Rainforest, it'd probably be very flat and covered in grass Pretty much like the savannas of today or the great plains. Cave art depicted animals like elephants giraffes and rhinos All living in this region. The Sahara isn't simply one big flat Dust Bowl, it has large mountain ranges and plateaus so these ranges rivers and lakes would split up the huge American sized region into Various smaller parts. So who are the people that would be living in this area? Well upon further research this region wouldn't be the European Or Arabic or even sub-saharan African instead the people in this alternate timeline are a mixture of all three groups Creating a middle group between other regions. Let me explain It's theorized that modern Berbers are a genetic mix of all three Continents, during the wet periods in the Sahara each time the region was Green it influenced Europeans or Asians or Africans to migrate into. It changing or contributing to the genetic makeup of the area each time. So in this alternate timeline I'd imagine the people in this alternate Sahara would resemble modern-day Berbers Even if they aren't Berber. And going south the people would have more Sub-saharan African features. I'd imagine the Sahara like India today Made up of multiple different ethnic groups and even races. The further south you go The darker the features are. Most people would live around rivers and these Lakes creating cultural regions perhaps separate from one another Just like any other region in the world, I'd imagine city-states could pop up Now remember everyone else exists I don't imagine the Sahara being green affects much of ancient history Mesopotamia, China, Persia, India and Greece are so far away They aren't influenced by the Sahara having sand or not, but what about Egypt you ask Well that's a bit trickier two things. I theorize could occur: If Egypt still had a desert, say it's a continuation of that Middle East climate, Egyptian Civilization might not be changed drastically at all. True They'd have more invasions from the West But otherwise their society doesn't need to be too different. If Egypt itself however was green instead of sandy deserts It's covered in grasslands Then this fundamentally changes Egyptian society. Their farming, structure, religion, government Everything is changed. First They are much less stable, the desert was a natural defense that kept invaders out Second, Egypt's population looks more spread out. It doesn't need to cling to the river the Nile is still a good River Don't get me wrong But most resemblance from the Egypt we know and love is Entirely altered. As Tigerstar even pointed out to me the sandstone needed to construct the pyramids when it exists So say goodbye to those. Going back to the Sahara itself There's a wide range of possibilities for the type of civilization That would live here. If the rains were consistent and people could remain stationary I don't see why city-states couldn't form on different rivers and lakes Unless consistent regions now pastoral herders are more prevalent. The Sahara is so large and divided by mountains I could see all of these groups forming and divided between various societies That's the most interesting aspect of the scenario in my opinion A whole new region with thousands of years of political history that otherwise would've just been sand in our timeline. It'd be its own distinct cultural region or multiple cultural regions on a massive Continent just as China and India were, now who would be the people doing the fighting? First is the natives themselves The Sahara could be divided into various groups Who'd fight over whichever reasons Second is invaders from the south and west? Empires like Mali or Ghana fueled by their trade of gold and ivory Third is Mediterraneans from the north in Ancient times this could be Carthage I doubt Carthage would have a far larger Empire in Africa however I think it's economic and cultural Influence would be profound in northern Sahara Being a generally flat region with access to rivers and lakes Political boundaries will fluctuate a lot ,yet while troops can easily cross the savannas so too can Caravans Trade builds relationships between different people more than anything else. Even if Carthage is still salted into the earth by an angry Rome It would have only been the first Mediterranean empire to explore relations with the rich empires to the south in our timeline there were trade routes in the Sahara While trade still flowed in this region I'd imagine a green Sahara would make the passage far more safer and more accessible Not to mention with another region of Empires in between Europe and Sub-saharan Africa, the journey isn't as daunting. The Sahara made sub-saharan Africa pretty mysterious to Europeans, with easier trade routes There is a consistent flow of trade and perhaps people from all regions going across from Europe to the Sahara to sub-saharan Africa Africa is far more prominent in Western history by the time of the Romans, who knows what the Romans would even do? Perhaps want their own chunk of the Sahara? What remains is the constant of trade from the golden coast all the way up to Britannia Another Silk Road Now due to time I don't want to dedicate 20 minutes talking about literally every single detail Tigerstar brought up about what could happen with imperialism However whenever I mentioned that the comment section always turns horrendous so let's end on a happy note. In a world where the Sahara was green This area would certainly be its own cultural region with ancient empires like China and India The grasslands would allow for easier trade access and greater connection between Africa and Europe if this would end in conquest or genuine beneficial contact for both I'll leave that for you to decide. The best prediction I can make is that Africa would be included more in the histories of Europe and Asia and Cooperation between all. The Sahara was like an ocean Sure some people could cross it, but for many they stayed on the other side So as such a barrier was gone There is endless possibilities for what such a culture in such a world would arise if the Sahara had never dried up What do you think? LIKE this video and subscribe to support the channel if you have not done so, this is Cody of alternate history hub and then I sat back up realizing that was a stupid Idea to lean back like that without thinking about how close the window was and then you spoke and by that point So much had changed. I'm just imagining Dan Carlin narrating the history of your day, and he's like "little did tigerstar know" "That his day would be forever changed when this tire went flat" "Tires were invented by the ancient" "Babylonians" "And that over the history we are now left in a 21st century Missouri and Missouri was conquered in 1830 by the United States from the whatever tribe and then this eventually has led to Tigerstar going into Walmart a symbol of mass consumerism And that's yeah yeah And that's Dan Carlin
that's lovely
One thing I think should had been noted are more environmental factors. Apparently the Sahara feeds the Amazon - somehow. But a green Sahara apparently kills a Green Amazon.
I have been working on a world in which the Sahara didn’t exist but was instead grassland and steppe. This video helped out a lot.
It was for about 2000 years, it was called Neolithic Subpluvial
I love this guy, have an upvote for the free notification.
By the way, there is an enormous grassland in my world, so to an extent it also helped me.
Edit: fixed a typo
I love Alternative History Hub. It does give a lot of ideas for world building!
Fun fact, the Sahara used to actually be permanently green. In fact, it used to be part of a shallow sea with its own swamps, mangroves, and everything. Fossils of some of the world's largest predators could be found there - the largest crocodilians, the largest predatory dinosaurs, some of the first toothed whales, and many more.
I believe in school I learned something about the Sahara being green at one time, I think it was because of what they called the earths wobble, not entirely sure of the specifics
My main setting actually begins during the Mousterian Pluvial, when the Sahara was green for roughly 20,000 years, and serves as the origin story for the lion-man sculpture as well as the concepts of anthropomorphic animals and gods.
For a while I've wanted to do a world where earth just has massive geological changes (handwaving the science away though), I hadn't considered a green sahara yet.