Recent content by Sycamore

Yes, it could still be used in that sort of context.

Sorry... :o Should I edit the post to get rid of the image?

Sorry, couldn't resist... ;) To kick things off, I'd like to put forward the Douglas X-3 Stiletto as a relatively unconventional candidate:

The best looking fighter of all time? Hmm... :D

So, your alternate history challenge is to create a plausible ATL in which the concept of 'Europe' is effectively destroyed, and resigned to the dustbin of ancient history; one in which the European peninsula is universally acknowledged as being merely part of the larger continent of Eurasia...

Well, that's very reflective of Russian Imperial attitudes... BTW, he's kind of on the line, but does King Leopold II of Belgium (and more importantly, of the Congo Free State) count?

Well, technically, there were a few. For instance, the Sikh Empire effectively offered social security and public education to the masses via Sikh religious institutions. Every Sikh Gurdwara provides a free community kitchen, offering Langar to all visitors, regardless of religious, regional...

But the Sikhs already truly supported the British at this stage. Look at the 1st Anglo-Afghan War, which had commenced at the time of Ranjit Singh's death. The British sent an envoy to Kabul to form an alliance with Afghanistan's emir, Dost Muhammad Khan, against Russia. The Emir was in favour...

Non-engine powered? Not sure that'd be possible, even if you somehow managed to tame birds which could potentially be strong enough to pull an aerial glider-chariot in tandem (eg, multiple Haast's Eagles, each of which could have potentially been capable of carrying a load of somewhere between...

Why should we assume that the nation would inevitably have a Muslim majority? IOTL, it's estimated that there were only 25,000 to 60,000 Sikhs who survived the Sikh Holocaust of 1762- this Holocaust, perpetrated by the Afghan Durrani Empire (the main source of their grievance against the...

It didn't collapse immediately upon Mahajarah Ranjit Singh's death. There were at the time two major factions within the Punjab contending for power and influence: the Sikh Sindhanwalias and the Hindu Dogras, who would later become the royal family of the British princely state of Jammu and...

I was thinking more along the lines of an alternate TL in which the Luso Sundanese Treaty was never signed; thus, neither the Kingdom of Sunda (analogous to Spain) nor the Majapahit Empire (analogous to the Hapsburg Empire) fall to Islamic invasion ITTL. Instead, the Majapahit Empire splinters...

For this alternate history challenge, you're tasked with coming up with a plausible TL in which the maritime powers of South-East Asia go forth to exert their colonial dominion over the rest of the world, to much the same extent as the maritime powers of Europe did IOTL. Any ideas?

As I said at the beginning, recounting the event of the uprising IOTL: The rebels of the Makonde Uprising succeeded in sweeping the Portuguese from the portion of Mozambique north of the Zambezi IOTL. It's not a question of whether it'd be possible for them to do so, because they actually...

The thing is, even after the Makonde ousted the Portuguese from the region north of the Zambezi, the British had already refused to intervene; the same went for the South Africans. And the colony of Mozambique wasn't even profitable for the Portuguese or anyone else- aside from its prestige...