1560: The Year that Changed the World - An Alt-16th century TL

[Gian]

Hey guys.

So finally I'm back with a TL of my own, which I plan to write to finish. Hopefully, when things go well, I will use this timeline to take you where I want to go (and also hopefully turn it into a book)

So enjoy.

What inspired you to make this TL?
I guess you could say that I'm a bit inspired by the TLs made by people like Zagan, BBadolato, Thespitron, and Telynk, some of whose ideas brought forward might make their way into this one.

What's the Point of Divergence?
I'm not going to say at the moment. But one thing's for sure, there's going to be two points of divergence (one for the East and one for the West), all within 1560. After that, butterflies begin to take over, which will lead us to those surprising twists and turns history often lead us to.

How are you going to take this forward?
With any luck, I will take this TL to the present day (I'll put in 2016 as the cap). So as not to overload the TL into say 1,000 pages (and also to preserve my sanity-ish), I will break the TL into four-five "books" that'll cover a specific era (like Thande's(BBUH) Look to the West series)

How is your update schedule going to be like?
Honestly, I don't know. I would want to keep a "stockpile" of already written chapters, so as to release them every two to three weeks, assuming if procrastination or just my general schoolwork/internship hunting don't get in the way.

Are you going to make maps for this TL?
Some maps, yes. But, if the map I want to make is too complicated to show the complexity of, I may have someone do it for me.

 

[Gian]

(RESERVED FOR TABLE OF CONTENTS)

 

[Zagan]

Good luck with the TL!

What inspired you to make this TL?
I guess you could say that I'm a bit inspired by the TLs made by people like Zagan, BBadolato, Thespitron, and Telynk, some of whose ideas brought forward might make their way into this one.

Thank you.

Are you going to make maps for this TL?
Some maps, yes. But, if the map I want to make is too complicated to show the complexity of, I may have someone do it for me.

I volunteer.
When need arises, P.M. me with the exact specification of the map and I'll give it a try.

 

[Gian]

Good luck with the TL!


Thank you.


I volunteer.
When need arises, P.M. me with the exact specification of the map and I'll give it a try.

Thanks!

 

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

Interested on what it is. I'm expecting maybe a Spanish wank?

 

[Xenophonte]

Interesting preview...

Interested on what it is. I'm expecting maybe a Spanish wank?

Agree , that seems but notwithstanding the picture (painting?) there aren't too clues... perhaps can be Djerba, the place where will begin the change?

I will be looking forward to the next updates.

 

[Gian]

Interested on what it is. I'm expecting maybe a Spanish wank?

Interesting preview...


Agree , that seems but notwithstanding the picture (painting?) there aren't too clues... perhaps can be Djerba, the place where will begin the change?

I will be looking forward to the next updates.

As to the PoD, my lips are completely bolted shut with Cat5-hurricane resistant bolts (that are lined with depleted uranium) and sealed with liquid carbon nanotubes

 

[Yanez de Gomera]

If I had to guess, I would say successful Amboise conspiracy, somehow leading to protestant France, but I wait to read the first installment and see what this is about

 

[Gian]

So I think this lull is needs to go away now (can't keep you guys waiting). The suspense I guess is killing you guys. The following of course is inspired by BBdolato's TL (which I highly suggest you read)

Currently, I'm writing the second chapter now...

Chapter I: In the Beginning

***

The history of the world in the last 500 years has been called nothing short of exceptional. After all, the half-millennium has seen the fortunes of nations rise and fall, of battles involving armies large and small being won or lost, and the emergence of both great and noble men who oversaw some of man’s greatest achievements and wonders and also the fools behind some of its biggest follies and mistakes, and also of the tyrants and monsters responsible for some of mankind’s worst atrocities. But for the arguments regarding some notion of a linear progression of history “as inevitable”, it has also seen the lucky breaks and random twists and turns of history that even those who had lived through it could never imagine, nor could we imagine such a thing if it were to happen today.

After all, no one at the time can predict that one pivotal battle would set the stage for the rise of a great Christian power in East Asia, dominating the Pacific Rim for many generations to come. No one could predict that the unlikely survival of a king would lead to decades of religious upheavals throughout Europe, but ultimately allowed for the rise of a Franco-British empire from which the sun never set. No one at the time can foresee the fall of two empires in their prime in that same era, one from famine and civil war of the worst kind, another from the folly of its own emperor. And no one can predict that a simple dream from a monarch who dared to dream would have the power to move entire nations, destroy empires in its wake, and create amongst his people one united nation.

Of course, we will not disclose immediately the circumstances of how this world would come about, at least not right away. Instead, we will focus our attentions to one battlefield, where the course of history began to change forever, and sow the seeds of a united archipelago that will shape the history of a continent for generations afterward. For it is in understanding the twists and turns history takes on, that we can understand some of the aspects of the modern world, and perhaps gain a glimpse of the future ahead...

***

From “One Daimyo to Rule Them All: The story of the Unification of Japan”
(c) by Junichirō Takagi
Chūkyō University Press

It is easy to imagine just how one pivotal battle could change the very fate of a nation, and the countless generations of people yet unborn. Yet it’s also easy to see just how a single lucky arrow shot or sword strike could change the very outcome of that battle, and thus a nation. For all the great armies of the world, perhaps one general could have had seized the day and become a great conqueror of men, had fate not intervened…

The year of course was 1560, at least 93 years into one of the most chaotic and violent periods of Japanese history. A large army led by Imagawa Yoshimoto marches through the lands of Owari Province; their target: Kyōto, the seat of the emperor and of the ruling Ashikaga Shogunate. At his side marching with him are his loyal retainers and commanders, Matsudaira Motoyasu [1], Hattori Hanzō, and others among them. Opposing them are the small armies of the Oda clan, led by the ambitious Oda Nobunaga, hoping to halt the Imagawa advance.

At the time of the battle, the Ashikaga Shogunate had been weakened by constant fighting, especially during the Ōnin War, which started the Sengoku period, as well as the constant suffering that followed. The advance of the Imagawa and their vassals was meant to prop up the tottering shogun. Already, the numerically superior Imagawa army seized a few border posts on the march, and were camped outside of the Dengaku-hazama gorge. With this information given by scouts, Nobunaga had set up his own positions on the Zenshō-ji temple a short distance away. Now, the Oda forces could only muster around two to three-thousand men (the Imagawa had around 25,000 at their disposal), and thus a direct assault on the Imagawa would lead to Oda’s demise. This fact led many of Nobunaga’s generals to advise him to instead shore up his defenses in Kiyosu Castle [2] and prepare for the inevitable siege. Instead, Nobunaga would devise a rather clever or by most accounts, foolhardy plan. [3]

In the dead of night, as the Imagawa forces were celebrating over what looked to be their inevitable victory to come, the Oda armies moved from Dengaku-hazama into the forests surrounding the Imagawa camp, leaving only a fake army with banners at Zenshō-ji. Aiding the Oda was a strong afternoon thunderstorm that gave them plenty of cover, so as to catch the Imagawa off-guard from the north. Nobunaga’s plan would have succeeded spectacularly, had it not for one thing. For all the Oda’s meagre resistance, a thought began to emerge in Imagawa Yoshimoto’s mind that somehow it might all be a trap, that Nobunaga was plotting a surprise ambush that might do them in somehow, and thus called his retainers to send for extra guards, just in case

A "ukiyo-e" depiction of the Battle of Okehazama by famous artist Utagawa Toyonobu​

It would turn out of course, that Yoshimoto’s intuition proved fortuitous, as Nobunaga’s forces would be caught unaware that there were a few more guards that apparently haven’t been wasting away in the festivities. Even worse for the Oda forces was that Yoshimoto was also there, with his quiver at the ready. Quickly, he reached for his bow, took an arrow and loosed it straight into Nobunaga. Unfortunately for Nobunaga, the shot made its mark, straight into his abdomen. Nobunaga must have felt a sharp pain and perhaps flashes of his life’s work and destiny, only for it to be snatched from his hands; at least before Yoshimoto loosed another arrow strait through Nobunaga’s head. Nobunaga thus collapsed into the wet earth, dead.

Oda Nobunaga (1534-1560)
a man who could've unified Japan by himself, yet was stricken in his prime​

With Nobunaga gone, the rest of the Oda army were soon routed, with a good number of Nobunaga’s commanders dead among with him. Among those killed was Oda’s sandal-bearer Kinoshita Tōkichirō [4], another man who many said could have also made his way to greatness. With the Oda forces gone, and even a few officers still alive defecting to the Imagawa side, the path to Owari, and thus Kyōto, was open for the invading armies.

With that, the process of the unification of Japan after a century of war and disorder began. …

***

[1] History would know of Matsudaira Motoyasu as the great Tokugawa Ieyasu, the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate (and of the Edo period), and the man who ultimately unified Japan under a single ruler in our world.
[2] Of course, the Oda clan were holed up in Kiyosu Castle, located in the central part of Owari Province (this world's western Aichi prefecture today). Kiyosu's castle would actually be dismantled by Tokugawa Ieyasu (see [1]) and resettle the inhabitants to Nagoya, which Kiyosu functions as a suburb of today.
[3] Nobunaga's rather odd and largely foolhardy tactics on the battlefield was largely well-known at the time, even being described as the Fool of Owari, after that and his home province. In fact, this kind of behavior extended into generally his everyday life, leading some of his retainers to declare him insane and thus support his brothers. That of course, led to a series of civil conflicts that ended in Nobunaga's triumph and consolidation of power.
[4] Again, Kinoshita Tōkichirō would of course be later known as Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who would later take Nobunaga's mantle as a would-be unifier of Japan. Only his invasion of Korea (which gave rise to the legendary admiral Yi Sun-shin) in our world cost him much of his power, and in the end, a scion of Hideyoshi's would be defeated by Tokugawa Ieyasu at the battle of Sekigahara

 

[Xenophonte]

Unexpected begining... I am fully astonished but at self time Interested : a chrstian imperial Japan!? a Franco-British empire!? Two empires fell!
I will be looking closely thisvTL development.

 

[Gian]

Unexpected begining... I am fully astonished but at self time Interested : a chrstian imperial Japan!? a Franco-British empire!? Two empires fell!
I will be looking closely thisvTL development.

Thank you. I also should add that another empire would also fall (as an indirect consequence of the rise of another)

 

[Timaeus]

*watches closely*

 

[MERRICA]

I never knew how much I needed this in my life.Continue this, please!

 

[Yanez de Gomera]

Beautiful! I don't know much about japanese history but I like battle PODs.

Do the notes refer to what happened iotl? It is not entirely clear.

 

[Gian]

*watches closely*

I can see the excitement for more.

I never knew how much I needed this in my life.Continue this, please!

And continue it shall.

Beautiful! I don't know much about japanese history but I like battle PODs.

Do the notes refer to what happened iotl? It is not entirely clear.

Thanks.

The notes refer to things from OTL (mostly)

 

[Xenophonte]

Thank you. I also should add that another empire would also fall (as an indirect consequence of the rise of another)

Can I infer from your state that it's a reference at Spanish or at Chinese empires?

 

[Gian]

Can I infer from your state that it's a reference at Spanish or at Chinese empires?

I'm not going to say any further at this time.

Also, classes have resumed for me, so writing will be really, really slow until classes are over. (I'm taking classes at UMUC anyway)

 

[Historyman 14]

Is the POD for the West is the Amboise conspiracy is successful?

 

[BBadolato]

Wow, I never thought my TL would be inspirational for anything on this site. Honor and flattery aside, I wouldn't use my TL as complete gospel as I take a few artistic liberties for some events, and has a co-pod as well. Thankfully you don't see that many changes in the political landscape outside of what happened in OTL from the rise of the Oda and subsequent fall of the Imagawa.

 

[Gian]

Is the POD for the West is the Amboise conspiracy is successful?

I'll just refer to this quote:

As to the PoD, my lips are completely bolted shut with Cat5-hurricane resistant bolts (that are lined with depleted uranium) and sealed with liquid carbon nanotubes

Wow, I never thought my TL would be inspirational for anything on this site. Honor and flattery aside, I wouldn't use my TL as complete gospel as I take a few artistic liberties for some events, and has a co-pod as well. Thankfully you don't see that many changes in the political landscape outside of what happened in OTL from the rise of the Oda and subsequent fall of the Imagawa.

Thanks.

I'm not going to use the other co-PoD (and anything outside 1560), but I'll find some way to avoid the sakoku policy somehow (and also slowly Christianize the country in the process)