Miscellaneous <1900 (Alternate) History Thread

Arkenfolm

Skraea said:
If I decided that Antarctica would be colonized,it would be the Fuegians primarily due to the fact that they are already adapted to the cold. Moriori would be later if then. But much like their Arctic counterparts, the Antarcticans would have a primarily meat based diet with similar ways to cook leopard seals,penguins,whales and whatever Antarctic fish is around. And they might be more seafaring if for nothing else than how inhospitable mainland Antarctica is.
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As is often noted in Antarctic colonisation threads, the key problem with Antarctic colonisation isn't just food, but other resources too. Animal skins will only take you so far when there's not enough useful plants to supplement a human diet and most importantly making technology common to most hunter-gatherers. Antarctica is far worse than the High Arctic in terms of it's human habitation potential thanks to this lack of plants.

The Fuegians would do far better since they'd island hop down a landscape that gets more and more like Antarctica the further south they get. The Moriori or pretty anyone else would fail on arrival to Antarctica since they'd be island hopping across a much greater distance from much more pleasant (relatively, it's still basically Iceland-tier) islands to a far more desolate part of Antarctica. That's where ASB would need to come in.
 

sampleswift

NO 3/5ths compromise... could that have led to a Civil War way ahead of schedule since some of the Southern states would leave, or perhaps never join?
 

Skraea

metalinvader665 said:
As is often noted in Antarctic colonisation threads, the key problem with Antarctic colonisation isn't just food, but other resources too. Animal skins will only take you so far when there's not enough useful plants to supplement a human diet and most importantly making technology common to most hunter-gatherers. Antarctica is far worse than the High Arctic in terms of it's human habitation potential thanks to this lack of plants.

The Fuegians would do far better since they'd island hop down a landscape that gets more and more like Antarctica the further south they get. The Moriori or pretty anyone else would fail on arrival to Antarctica since they'd be island hopping across a much greater distance from much more pleasant (relatively, it's still basically Iceland-tier) islands to a far more desolate part of Antarctica. That's where ASB would need to come in.
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On Antarctica,they do have some grass and a few fungi. Most grass is edible and it appears that penguin meat is a source of Vitamin C which would help in fending off rickets.
 
Bytor

Bytor

Monthly Donor
Assuming no Soviet Union, whether the Whites win or Kerensky's republic, with no extreme bad example of socialism/communism to point at, how does that change the timing and amount of socialist programmes absorbed into Western Democracies because small communist parties are occasionally part of a coalition government or propping up a minority one?

Is Europe more socialist than OTL, or the same? Less?

Scandinavia?

Would Mao still have happened?

What about the USA? What about a USA where there is a CSA but no Sumter spark to cause a civil war? (USA-north has a much different cultural outlook than USA-aggregate including Dixie.) Could it reasonably have public health and be more like Canada OTL?
 

sampleswift

Sorry if this was already asked, but the Confederate Army at 1st Bull Run could have pursued the Union Army further, but did not due to its own disorganization. I once heard that had the Confederate Army there pursued the Union Army, the Confederates could have pressured DC... maybe even make it fall, and perhaps end the war right then and there? Or was that wildly optimistic?
 
ramones1986

ramones1986

"Gonzalo Campofrío y Los Rios (the son of La Quintrala) survived his childhood and his hypothetical role in colonial Chilean society".
 
Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

sampleswift said:
Sorry if this was already asked, but the Confederate Army at 1st Bull Run could have pursued the Union Army further, but did not due to its own disorganization. I once heard that had the Confederate Army there pursued the Union Army, the Confederates could have pressured DC... maybe even make it fall, and perhaps end the war right then and there? Or was that wildly optimistic?
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Likely widly optimistic. DC likely had at least some defenses and rebel forces would not be prepared for a siege. I am not an expert though, but that is my first thought.
 

sampleswift

Count of Crisco said:
Likely widly optimistic. DC likely had at least some defenses and rebel forces would not be prepared for a siege. I am not an expert though, but that is my first thought.
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Thanks for the answer.
This one is interesting: When I was in 8th grade, my history teacher claimed that the 3/5ths compromise was there because otherwise the southern states would have seceded and the founders did not want that or a civil war 60 years ahead of schedule...
Is this believable? Would no 3/5ths compromise lead to southern secession or early civil war? (Let's say some of the Founders say it's dumb or unjust to value some men as 3/5ths of other men)
 
Rhaegar I

Rhaegar I

In 1847, Delaware nearly passed a gradual emancipation bill that would have freed all slaves born after 1850. It passed the State House, but was defeated in the State Senate by one vote.

Would any significant changes have happened if the bill did pass, since Delaware was a small state, had very few slaves anyway, and relatively few slaves would have been freed by the Civil War?
 

sampleswift

Rhaegar I said:
In 1847, Delaware nearly passed a gradual emancipation bill that would have freed all slaves born after 1850. It passed the State House, but was defeated in the State Senate by one vote.

Would any significant changes have happened if the bill did pass, since Delaware was a small state, had very few slaves anyway, and relatively few slaves would have been freed by the Civil War?
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It might have inspired some other border states to try similar ideas, but I don't think those would have passed. I'm not an expert on this, but I don't think this would be a big POD state-wise.
 

Arkenfolm

While I'm not too familiar with the topic, I notice fish ladders were not invented until the Early Modern Age despite being a development related to weirs (which are found on all six continents inhabited by humans and date back to the Stone Age). Migratory fish benefit from fish ladders, weirs or not, since they allow fish to migrate into places they otherwise couldn't. And from European eel migration to Pacific Northwest salmon, humans have long relied on these migrations. While some fish ladders would need to be built unrealistically big to make a difference in scaling lengthy rapids, on some rivers fish ladders don't need to be a major project to let fish access a much greater part of the river basin.

So what if we have fish ladders in Old World Antiquity, maybe around 500 BC? This means salmon, eel, and other key fish can migrate further upstream and presumably end up with greater numbers or even colonise new lakes. Although I suppose an alternative is to have some idea of transplanting fish appear earlier, maybe accompanied by some mass harvesting campaign or even outright poisoning of the water to kill pre-existing fish and pave the way for the introduction of new fish.

Overall I'm curious about the limits of pre-modern fisheries management. Or the potentials of it, since eels, salmon, and other fish for a critical source of protein in premodern diets nearly everywhere. As for fish ladders, I'm sure it would help in terms of the evolution of dam building and other river management.
 

thanix01

Anyone know any good pre Qing (Ming and before) China alternate timeline story on this forum? Trying to find some but it is rather hard.

POD can be anything just that history differ in major way.

It is quite hard to find good Chinese ATL that is not about Qing (or period after it).
 
Bytor

Bytor

Monthly Donor
In an ATL where the South secedes but the conflict at Fort Sumter doesn't happen so there's nothing to start the Civil War:
  1. How long before slave states like Maryland that stayed in the Union get rid of slavery?
  2. How many Black people filter up from the Confederacy to live in the USA? Where do they settle to get work?
 
pattontank12

pattontank12

Ogrebear said:
Ah, so not the Deadlands universe then if you want realistic!
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Sad but true. Though it would be neat to have a timeline based off of the weird west and cattlepunk on this sight. That or you can do a bunch of those supposedly real paranormal encounters you see on the discovery and history channels.
 
Sarthak

Sarthak

A TL, where Siddhartha Gautama does not become Buddha and instead becomes the unifier of all Newari Clans in Nepal (Shakya is a newari clan of the Nepali culture, so basically he unified Nepal 2000 years earlier). This would have some far reaching impacts. 😃
 

twovultures

Donor
Not sure if this topic is really big enough for its own thread, so I thought I'd post here instead. Anyone have any thoughts on what sort of relationship Portugal would have with Protestant nations in a "no Iberian Union" scenario, particularly England and the Netherlands? The Portuguese were more tolerant generally than the Spanish, refusing to expel their Jewish population until the Spanish monarchy forced them too, and pre-reformation had a long history of alliance with England and allowing Dutch merchants to trade in their East Asian colonies. Would the Portuguese continue to have friendly relations with these nations, with realpolitik and the need to have allies against their powerful neighbor driving them? Or would sectarian concerns during the counter-reformation and fears of Dutch and English competition in the 17th century cause a rupture between Portugal and these two nations?
 
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