Recent content by Letum

Germany gets partitioned into 3-4 states but in the face of the Soviet threat deindustrialization doesn't take place. Soviet Eastern Germany is depicted in western propaganda as a Communist Prussia with all of the old prussian militarism married to the Soviet bogeyman. In schools and media all...

The combined resources of Rome/Egypt would have basically been enough to conquer the known world with the only real limit to expansion being logistics. Rome is able to dominate the eastern med, which in turn means dominating the black sea and the river basins that feed into it this allowing for...

Today. With a POD that keeps Anatolia Hellenic (e.g no Turkic incursions) the survival of Byzantium (or a successor Hellenic state) becomes the most likely "default" scenario as it is easily defended (surrounded by Sea + Mountains) and provides an economic/manpower base that is larger that any...

The italo centric route mentioned is one path but what I see as most likely and necessary for this empire to work is control of the Danube. The Danube River basin already covers half the empire and yet the empire doesn't fully control the river. Move east and eliminate Bulgaria and then you...

After WW2 thé French Communist party distances itself from Moscow and as a result is able for form an earlier and more successful collaboration with other left wing parties and gain greater electoral success. This French government rejects NATO but also the Warsaw Pact and tries to form its...

Avoid the aggressive American expansionism and repeated attempts to conquer British North America and you have a good start. As mentioned the Franco-American alliance was also an issue. France already being the hegemon throwing it's weight around in Europe directly enabled and inspired the...

Well, they kinda did. The northern Aegean coast (today northern Greece ) was heavily colonized to the extent that it became an integral part of the hellenic world. The black sea coast in present day Bulgaria and Romania was essentially a large string of Greek Colonies. To the northwest the...

Hitler is murdered by an unknown individual upon leaving Prison, resulting in a continuously fractuous and weak Weimar regime and a Germany that remains disarmed. However this leaves Stalin unchallenged in his domination of Eastern Europe, and in the 1950s a fully industrialised Soviet Army...

Instead of taking over the Persian empire, have the Caliphate take over the Roman one, and from there expand to take over the Mediterranean basin.

Russia takes over Manchuria

Bulgaria, Serbia and Wallachia were all kingdoms well before the Ottomans came around so their concepts existed indeed. However, completely independent kingdoms are unlikely since nobody is interested in bits of other empires gaining independence lest some of their own ethnicities get ideas...

In your POD there was nothing to reconquer in Anatolia, it was already Roman. By contrast the slavic population of the balkans was pagan. Having France, Spain, Britain develop the same way is right out, for a start Iberia was Muslim at this point in time (with sicily to follow) and this was...

Killing off most of the men in war.

This does run into the issue that "Balkans" is a Turkish word and "Byzantium" was assigned after the fall of the empire, but a late Paleologoi revival might see a state weak enough to allow external definitions Bouli Bassilevousas, Balkanion Basilevounton "Council of Constantinople*, ruling...

The poison dissolves so much in the water that it only ends up having a handful of victims. The healthcare system, utterly broken by the war is unable to identify and connect together the source, blaming anything from food poisoning to chemical pollution to broken/old pipes to old age.