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This topic is inspired by the perennial troubles the face the EU, with so many southern members indebted to northern members. Countries like Germany and France, with nice navigable rivers and relatively flat land have some inherent advantages over hilly or mountainous regions like those to their...

The challenge is for a plausible world war that is both a) evenly matched and b) does not involve the US. Bonus points if its after the collapse of the Soviet Union (I’d say that makes it easier, but I want to leave options open). The war must include major fighting on at least two continents...

We’ve occasionally discussed the early days of automobiles, when steam, gasoline, and electric vehicles competed until gas clearly one out. I think this is pretty much inevitable, due to the energy densities - electric vehicles are still a marginal industry, even with a century plus of battery...

Could a war, in the 1910s, between some combination of Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire (possibly including smaller regional powers) be relatively evenly matched? Follow-up: how could such a war break out, without the involvement of Germany, France, or Great Britain?

Lets assume that everything goes wrong for the Turks after WW1, and they ultimately have to accept the Treaty of Sèvres more or less exactly as the Allies intended. When the dust settles: - Greece has Smyrna, more of East Thrace, and, de facto, the Zone of the Straits and Constantinople, though...

World War 1 killed three major multi-ethnic empires: Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Ottomans. Of the three, Russia did the best, and recovered much of its lost non-Russian territory in the next war. Suppose, however, that there is no World War 1. How do these empires fare? Which is best...

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government,” straight from the US Constitution. And every independent state that has applied for admission or annexation has been a republic prior to doing so. The closest any monarchy came to being annexed was...

1958 saw Communist China embark on the Great Leap Forward, which killed tens of millions, directly and indirectly, and wrecked the economy, society, and ecology of China, vie with the Soviet Union for leadership of the Socialist World (Mao hated Khruschev and the feeling soon became mutual...

I've seen a few threads from awhile back that basically flip the India/China economic situation. IE, China remains comparatively sluggish, while India's economy booms. Typically, this is a scenario in which the Indian License Raj is avoided, and the Deng Xiaoping reforms don't succeed. However...

With a POD after 1800, and within reason, how advanced can technology get in the year 1900? No ideas as to which technologies are the most amenable to being sped up, so I leave it open to anyone with ideas, good or otherwise.

Take any individual alive and in power during the 20th century, and extend their life to 100 years. Who has the biggest impact on world history simply by virtue of being alive for that long? Note that their extended life is to be the primary divergence, rather than a consequence of the...

Suppose that tensions leading up to WW1 cool and things stay tense but peaceful at least until 1930 or so. Could Russia still fall to a communist revolution and/or civil war, as it historically did? Or is Russia sans the pressure of WW1 stable enough to avoid such a fate?

I don't think I've ever seen this one, its usually the US annexing Mexico, perhaps bits and pieces of Central America, or the Caribbean. But never Brazil. Obviously, that makes sense. Brazil is further away. It is huge. But, thats why it's a challenge. So, here's the rules: - POD after 1789...

One of Alexander’s many failed projects was his attempt to fuse Greco-Macedonian culture and the cultures of Asia - most notably Persian culture. None of his successors had any interest in this project, and it failed utterly (with the possible exception of Bactria). So, assume he lives another...

The Han Dynasty sent expeditions to Central Asia, the first famous one under Zhang Qian in 138-125 BC, in order to establish relations with potential allies against the nomadic Xiongnu of modern Mongolia (the most popular candidate for the Huns of that era). While the missions were largely a...

I was thinking about the careers of Caesar and Pompey, and how, until the First Triumvirate became known, Caesar really had a relatively normal political career. Especially when compared to Pompey and Crassus, who both forced the Republic to make them Consuls at the point of their collective...

Let us assume, for the moment, that the Hellenistic states are able to continue their fights among themselves for supremacy, without Rome, Carthage, or another comparable state coming in from the west and upending the whole apple cart. Its the Ptolemies, Antigonids, Seleucids, or one of the...

This is just the beginning of an idea, so I’m going to provide a rough sketch. I was reading up on early pressure cookers, which were mainly used to create bone meal rather than cook food. It occurs to me that bone meal was used commonly enough as fertilizer in antiquity. Pressure cookers...

Given that Saint Thomas made it all the way to India, what if one of the Twelve Apostles made it all the way to China and established a local Christian church that can trace its origins all the way to the first Apostles? Presumably, its population would be somewhat proportionately similar to the...

Last year, I started a thread in the ASB forum about the potential to build passive radiative coolers in the 19th century: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-earlier-air-conditioning.447607/ The thread has a handy link to a TED talk on the technology. Well, it seems researchers...