Part 1 (You Are Here!)Part 3 (To Be Announced)EDIT: I've tried norsifying native names but I'm not sure how well I did. If anybody that knows a Norse-based language has any pointers it would be much appreciated.This is an alternate history I've had in my head for a long time and have previously attempted, but which I've revamped to make more plausible. The idea is that the Viking settlements in Newfoundland, which in OTL were short-lived logging camps for the settlements in Greenland, became much more than that and sparked European colonization of the new world a bit early. Starting in 1000 AD Norse explorers went south and decided to begin settling the American Northeast. The natives were devastated by European illness, but because the Norse colonization was much slower and more gradual they had time to rebuild their populations. During this time the Mississippian mound-builder culture was still flourishing, and as they recovered from foreign plague they rebuilt their civilization rather than scatter and adopt more "primitive" ways of life as they did in OTL. Influenced by the Norse settlers they adopted technologies such as iron working and stone masonry, building kingdoms of their own. The natives on the side of the Mississippi closer to the Norse were conquered or colonized by the expanding Norse territories over the next three centuries, becoming "norsified" states populated by mixed Norse/Native peoples that blended cultures and languages into something new and unique. They introduced the Norse to Maize agriculture and many other crops that would eventually replace the few that the settlers had brought with them, which were not doing so well in the new and strange environment. On the other side of the Mississippi the mound-builders retained their own unique cultural identities with limited Norse influence, founding their own kingdoms that came to oppose further Norse expansion. Further to the west the people of the Great Plains have founded their own kingdoms centered around the horse culture that has developed in the past couple of centuries. They have low populations and few natural resources, but sedentary, urban lifestyles supported by maize agriculture supplemented with the hunting of vast buffalo herds (which luckily nobody yet has the technology to destroy as they did in OTL) has allowed them to compete with their more powerful Mississippian neighbors. They have amicable relations with both the Mississippians and newly arrived Europeans and trade the hardy horses they breed (which are cheaper to acquire than importing large numbers of horses from Europe) as well as buffalo meat, pelts, and leather goods for iron tools, lumber, and stone.Sometime in the late 1200's traders began to arrive in England with strange exotic goods: colorful grains, dried herbs that were smoked in wooden pipes, fine pelts, and cotton cloth. Rumors of the mysterious land of Vinland were known in Europe, but most regarded it as mere legend until now. Throughout the 1300's various European powers began to send expeditions to this new world to find lands of their own to colonize, but it was not as easy as it was in OTL. Over the past three centuries the Norse settlers, now known as Vinnics, had expanded throughout much of the Atlantic coast and what we know as Hudson Bay, and there was no way to easily take these lands from them, not for lack of trying. During this time the natives had also rebuilt their populations and extended their influence, and now had resistance to European illnesses. They had become adept at the art of smelting and forging iron, and had become masterful horsemen after trading or stealing many of the horses the Norse had brought with them. Attempting to conquer them would be as difficult as trying to conquer any foreign power back home in Europe, perhaps even more difficult due to their distance from the homelands. The Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico offered enticing possibilities though, as the natives there had only limited contact with the Vinnics and Mississippians and had not strayed much from their traditional ways of life. England, Portugal, and Castile were all quick to stake their claims. The English got there first and took Cuba (New England in this timeline) while Portugal had to settle for less desirable Florida. Castile took land around the Gulf where the natives had not recovered from the earlier depopulation quite as well, and they slowly expanded inland from there. The Kalmar Union funded a few expeditions as well, but has done little to develop their colony of New Denmark (ironically populated mostly by Swedes seeking to escape Danish oppression) due to internal problems back home. When England began to gather wealth from their sugar plantations the Genoese took a bold step and established colonies in the Bahamas to get in on the sugar trade while the getting was good, and the Venetians followed soon after as they colonized Haiti and usurped English claims to it. When the Knights Hospitaller were forced from the Holy Land they set out to found a colony of their own with Papal support and embarked on a journey that would become legend, landing on what they called the Isle of Saint John. In the years since the Order has expanded their influence into the Mayan and Aztec realms. While knowledge of iron working and horses had made its way as far south as the Andes in the four and a half centuries since the Norse first arrived, the Mesoamerican peoples had been slow to adopt them. The region was in a constant state of turmoil, and the Knights Hospitaller saw it as their duty to help these people however they could. They allied with the fledgling Aztec Empire against its enemies, providing them with horses, weapons, and armor as well as favorable terms of trade. They helped stabilize the political and social upheaval in Mayapan, and provided them with iron goods as well. Since then both the Aztecs and Maya have converted to Christianity and expanded their spheres of influence. The powerful priesthood that more or less ruled these societies before this were not pleased when their leaders converted, and they were even less pleased when they were burned at the stake for heresy and blasphemy when they attempted to usurp power from the new Christian aristocracy. While the Empires of the Iron Eagle and Iron Jaguar remain minor powers for now the stage has been set for them to become major powers in their own right in the next few centuries.All is not well in the new world of Vinland though. The recent influx of Europeans has brought with it the bubonic plague. Although it has been less devastating here than in Europe due to lower population density and more limited contact between states it is still spreading fast and killing many. The Plains kingdom of Kaw has become increasingly aggressive with its neighbors, conducting raids into Mississippian lands and building their forces to unite the Plains peoples under a single banner. This has caused a split as Wichita grows closer to New Castile and Mandan and Hohe with the Mississippians and Vinnics respectively for protection. The Mississippian kingdoms, Cahokia in particular, are at each others throats and each wants to be the one that unites them all into a single empire with the strength to drive the foreigners out of Vinland for good, but none want to be the one to strike the first blow lest they be weakened and easy targets for the increasingly ambitious Vinnic kingdoms. The Vinns too have high tensions, particularly between the "pure" Norse along the coast and the mixed-race kingdoms further inland who fear that they may soon become prizes for the larger and wealthier coastal kingdoms. The coastal states seek to dominate each other and gain a monopoly on trade with Europe but are content for now to simply wait for the opportune moment to strike.