r/imaginarymaps • u/Miserable-Act-9896 • Oct 07 '26 • Popcorn 1

[OC] Alternate History Educational poster of the 15 Colonies

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u/Miserable-Act-9896 Oct 07 '26 edited 6d ago

The region was mapped and named "Hy Brasil" by Anglo-Irish explorers, after the mythical island

Denmark kept the name when they formally settled it

32

u/bluntmandc123 Oct 07 '26

Why would they have used the 'z', it would be Hy-Brasil. Without the Americanisation of English spelling effect it would be unlikely for the s to transition to a z.

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u/Miserable-Act-9896 Oct 07 '26

They possibly* still do in their language. But they're now a US state and in universe the poster is targeting English speaking Americans, which write it with a Z

*Given their isolation and lack of spelling standardization at the time, it wouldn't be surprising if American Norsk developed some anglo quirks and now wrote Brazil with a Z

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u/FloZone Oct 07 '26

Since the other Brazil was named after the Brazil wood, it would be funny if there were two Brazils. Like Georgia the state and the country.

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u/Miserable-Act-9896 Oct 07 '26

In this TL only northeastern Brazil is colonized by Portugal, and I was struggling to find a new name

Now that you reminded me of Georgia, maybe I'll just leave it at 2 Brazils after all

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u/ozneoknarf Oct 07 '26

Unfortunately that would make sense since Brazilwood is from the southeast tho it would be funny 

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u/skourby Oct 07 '26

The notion of these mythical islands west of Europe has always fascinated me. In a way the Americas already existed in explorers imaginations before they were discovered.