las Américas

Chinese empire: "The map, which shows North and South America, apparently states that it is a 1763 copy of another map made in 1418."

History could have been different if China had made contact with the Americas and continued them. I doubt China at the time would have tried to conquer and convert the American Indians the way the Spanish did, though it did treat Vietnam and Korea with some cruelty.

Still, imagine if China, developing the guns and artillery, were to trade them in the Americas. Around the time the Spanish armadas arrive, the existing civilizations would have been more than a match for Cortéz. South America could be speaking very different languages.

Still, one of the things that wiped out the sudamerican civilizations was diseases that the Spanish brought with them. I don't know what would have Chinese people brought, but could the people have recovered before Cortéz?

Unfortunately, the state control of the economies made it unlikely for China to develop industrially. If the government had let capitalism thrived, then private ventures could have developed trades rivaling Europe.