Recent content by DirtyCommie

Got my new project up. Update by Monday.

To expand on Asp's summary, you're right that a big driver was environmental degradation. The major one, however, was Somali nationalism, as the Ogaden represents one of the biggest populations of Somalis outside its borders. One of the major causes of Barre's coup was that the civilian...

With what money, I ask? Not only is Ethiopia vastly in debt after the war (they were IOTL even after winning), you have a government filled to the brim with kleptocrats and corruption, that, again, after winning IOTL, did little to nothing to solve the huge infrastructural issues that led to...

Probably unsurprisingly, I'm interested.

If Somalia's annexed the Ogaden, certainly not. The only rail line to Addis Ababa and Ethiopia's second most important airport are under Somalia's control at that point. If Somalia decides to close off the border, Ethiopia starves, no ifs, ands, or buts. Any united Ethiopia with in this sort of...

I tend to doubt this happens. It's in Somalia's best interests to have a stable Ethiopia next door, sans any Somali-majority territories of course, given that a balkanized Ethiopia is going to lead to conflict no matter what, especially if the Ethiopian successor states are specifically...

Buenos Aires is one of the more likely candidates, given that one of the most significant Argentinean conflicts of the 19th Century was the struggle between BA and the rest of the country. If the conflict goes a little differently, you could easily see an independent Buenos Aires.

Definitely against Europe, but I think you'd need to keep it a closely-held secret for it to allow a single Swahili power, so the various armies don't equalize. I don't see that happening if Kilwa gets it first; they'd want to make money with it, not hoard it.

Kilwa is most likely, given their extensive trade empire and maritime power. I think the best POD would likely be killing off Emir Muhammad Kiwabi, as he really established a trend of ambitious emirs competing with the Sultan; a trend the Portuguese later exploited. If Kiwabi dies early and the...

A poet and famed seducer of wealthy women, de Lusignan, originally from Poitou, stopped over in Venice on his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the 1170s, where he fell in love with a wealthy widow. His advances spurned, he famously made it his mission to destroy the lives of other women the same way...

One of Christianity's earliest saints, venerated for his attempts to save Jesus Christ from death, including his verdict of innocence in Jesus's trial. He and his wife purportedly received revelations via dreams that Jesus was in fact the son of God, and after Jesus's eventual death at the hands...

I don't think it's feasible given how revenge-driven the Allies were towards the Axis in general after WW2 (for damn good reason, I might add), but if you can keep Italy out of the war or on the Allied side (thus making a very different war) or less likely, have the Italian government be...

Actually, IOTL the Simbas had significant support from both states. There's a possibility they might be able to balance between them. More likely though is that the new regime ends up orienting towards the USSR out of pragmatism, with China mostly powerless to stop it. They had very little...

Okay, so I think I've identified the needed POD for Somali victory in the Ogaden. If the SNA captures Dire Dawa on August 17, 1977 (my birthday coincidentally), then Ethiopia has no chance at victory. The capture would cut off Ethiopia's only rail line to the sea and put their second largest...

I don't know how workable this is, given that I really don't know how important the Red Sea was to the Entente at the time, but I do like the idea quite a lot. I'm a big fan of the Dervish State.