Recent content by EMT

I think people are working the question backwards. The path of least resistance isn't about making Russia conform, it's also about making them less of an outlier such that there's no real need or desire to other them. Don't bother wasting time arguing what's part of the West or what isn't...

That's exactly the idea. It's so powerful that it could an 'If I can't have it no one will' if someone is forcibly evicted from the club with the support of the remaining powers. IMO the easiest candidates are either Spain or France being fucked by Britain and the other. A power that's been cut...

Have one of the major slaver powers overseeing transport get locked out of the slave trade entirely and abruptly. No transport, no slave exploitation, not even selling goods that are traded for slaves to other Europeans. They must have been a major player in the slave trade prior. Once locked...

I agree with you completely but will play devil's advocate on this one caveat; it'd be like a port in Bordeaux to export Polish goods if Bordeaux was by far the easiest place to transport Polish goods for export(downriver). There's no reason to conquer more land that you're not going to make use...

An Old World power playing Islamic Revolution Iran-style games in the New World with other powers' colonies resulting in a domino effect and a complete collapse of most colonial extraction models. Make it unprofitable enough and be willing to enrage every major colonial power enough, and...

Anyone have any ideas on how to recreate a stable de facto late Eastern/Western Roman Empire split, better yet de jure? I was imaging that a wildly successful Franco-Ottoman alliance that has reached the point of constant coordination and clear delineations of spheres of influence could reach...

This is a really cool idea OP. I can't help but imagine (baselessly) that this OTL Somalia would be akin to the Manchu were to China; conquering their way into being subsumed by the larger, older, more prestigious entity(Ethiopia). There's so many butterflies that who can really say how things...

In order: 1. I think the Cuzco elite are screwed, heads will roll, and many families that are nobles through lineage association with past Inca Emperors and their mummies are about to eat soooo much shit. The mummy system is an albatross around the Inca state and I think Atahualpa will be aware...

I don't think it's impossible, but I'm also very unfamiliar with the Muisca outside of a high level overview. Let's go with the civil war ending exactly as OTL as a starting point, except no Spaniards show up. 1) Victor or not, Atahualpa is the start of something new in the Inca system in that...

I'll grant you the iron but that's less than 0% of the world's known reserves of coal at 112 million tonnes. Ease of access, abundance, and low cost of energy is pivotal for industrial development IMO and I don't think Peru has that in its favor at all. There is plenty of coal in Colombia at...

I don't think it's feasible nor can I think of a good cause for this to happen any sooner than the industrial revolution at the absolute earliest. I place the Inca or a successor state to them as the more likely candidate to be politically organized for such an invasion. But conversely, the Inca...

This sounds incredible

Too much money and momentum behind American capitalism by the time of the Civil War IMO, there was too much socioeconomic glue after the Union victory

I agree with the idea that it could succeed, but it'd also be a holding that'd be easily lost and difficult to control. Just another thing for the Hapsburgs to lose control of when their star starts to dim

IIRC? A lot of the original topic starters tended to dip their toes into easy potholes for Turkish exceptionalism/nationalist apologism given enough time to argue a politically charged topic. Or wanted to take an extended break from this forum