What if, in the middle ages, North America had been settled by Europeans? The Americas would have developed very differently. Settlers from an eleventh-century Europe would have been on a relatively even footing with the local people. We could end up with an Anglo-French empire along the Mississippi up to the head of navigation at Saint Anthony Falls. North of that would be Norse, settling on the Iron Range; and north of the Norse, Finns. Large areas of North America would still belong to the indigenous peoples. Traders would travel about, by land and by river, as traders always have. At trade fairs, men and women of different lands, laws, and customs would come together. As always, jackals would gather to prey upon them …