It's not true:
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080218055914AA66P9r
http://www.prb.org/Publications/Articles/2002/HowManyPeopleHaveEverLivedonEarth.aspx
I mean- technically it's possible that 2 persons being perfect copies of themselves walk the Earth at this very moment... But...
Well, such a state would be more or less equal to modern Turkey in terms of potential (I'm talking about Byzantium consisting of portions of Anatolia, not all of it. Something like during peak of Komnenian era). It wouldn't be superpower (although if they develop better than Ottoman Empire, they...
Hey, that's quite interesting idea- if they get beaten by Byzzies... Although commander able to accomplish such feat at this point would most likely simply reconquer at least coastal Anatolia rather than keep them as vassals.
Wait, wait, wait. It's NOT how PLC worked at all... Majority of ruling class was Polish speaking. Initially PLC had three official languages- Polish, Lithuanian and Ruthenian. Last one was abolished in XVI century (or XVII?), because it wasn't used! Lithuanian language stayed official (but...
That's enough to keep PLC strong into XIX century. Russia was considered backward for all the XIX century, even despite being major power (mostly due to distance between western Europe and Russia). Not that PLC wasn't "exotic", but it had strong ties with west. Even partitioned Poland was...
By all means, I'm sure that gunpowder would be utilized in many ways. But it would still take a very long time to make it standard on the battlefield. And it's rather useless for any other purposes than killing other people.
We've had this topic already. Inventing gunpowder would be possible even during classical era- it wasn't something incredibly complex to create. Problem is- how to utilize that? You could make mines (if it blew my hand, it could blew someone else's too!), but guns? You would have to invent...
Jesus Christ, what?! First and foremost- which Habsburg ruler actually considered incorporating Poland (not mentioning whole PLC) into Austrian empire? Only one I can actually think of, was Maximilian, but PLC was supposed to be only loosely affiliated with rest of the empire (decentralized...
It's quite ironical that infighting in Republic's days was incentive to (immense) growth in power, but became reason of downfall later ;)
Anyway- I can easily see Byzantium- early- taking Italy without otl enormous losses and grabbing more of Spain during Visigoth civil war. Then attack...
Hah. Romans You say? Recently I've been reading fascinating book about New Testament. Its author states that Jesus actually [i]was[/] considered to be one of pagan gods. Not by mainstream of course (although- decentralized nature of Roman faith makes it difficult to discern...), but for some...
Damn, I've had no idea that it's still going on (or was- until May :P). Maybe You could actually post it on paradoxplaza and moddb? This forum is hardly suited for mod threads.
Could You give us some info on GDP and armies of these countries? I assume that it's much more important than population numbers, because- as usual- money decide who wins war. I'm particularly interested in European states.
BTW- Maybe You could post this list on google docs? It'll be much...