Western Expansion (Sideways Earth)

The north pole lay in what we call the Indian Ocean - known to later explorers of this world as the Arctic Ocean. The shores of "North Africa" and the "Great Northern Desert" (OTL Saudi Arabia), was covered with ice, as were the shores of "Northern India." Civilization developed not in modern day Iraq, but in our Turkey, and moved into Greece and along the shores of Palestine over into Egypt.

In this tilted world, civilization never reached the sub continent of "India" for it was separated from the rest of Asia by the Himalayan mountains and thus was a frozen wasteland. On the other side of the Arctic Ocean was the horn of Africa, also under a load of arctic Ice. During the ice age glaciers reached deep into the interior of Africa. In modern times the mountains of Ethiopia are permanently snow covered, their icy waters draining toward the Eastern Sea (OTL "Mediterranean Sea") or the "Arctic Ocean." The shores of the Nile would later produce a much different Egypt that the one we know. Instead of barren desert beyond its flooded banks, the society was much like what arose in the what we know as Northern Europe.

From the fringes of the ice fields, mankind fled south - into Africa in the east and into Europe in the west. Instead of going upstream from the mouth of the Euphrates, a Semite named Abram would head downstream from its headwaters to the land promised him on the northern shores of the what they still considered the middle of the world. After centuries of wandering, though, that sea would be considered the eastern edge of civilization. Though preceded along the shores by Hamitic settlers into Africa, Abram's people would be the northernmost nation when it reached its zenith. Egypt would expand down the coast from the Nile's southern shore.

On the central sea's other shore, Aramaic and Aryan tribes spread into Greece and the Italian peninsular. To the north, between the two lesser seas, Aryans spread west into what is now Russia. These tribes spread further, becoming the first Asians. Other tribes, spreading west from the sea into the interior of Europe, would reach the Scandinavian nations by way of Germany. These people would migrate south into France and across into the British Isles. The Iberian Peninsular would be the last to be settled.

Some migration up out of Scandinavia would meet with the growing population in southern Asia (OTL "Siberia") and hear of other tribes to the north. The tribes that were in the north, up south of the Himalayan Mountains, would become the Chinese, and related oriental tribes. The tribes in the south would eventually spread across into West America in small numbers. The northern Asians would also discover the sea, spreading further west into the great western ocean later called the Pacific. They would populate tropical islands known for their fruit and spices. These islands would include "Wonderland" (OTL = Australia). Late migration would even reach the rich, untouched continent to be discovered only centuries later by Megellan (and that only by accident).