Assume that, for the most part, Napoleon's career goes relatively historically. Just that his child by Marie Louise is a daughter, rather than a son. We'll assume this daughter doesn't necessarily die at 21, like Nap2 did. What happens to this girl, what does she do? Its unlikely that anyone...
Assume that England doesn’t goes Protestant: either Henry VIII never breaks away in the first place, or one of his Catholic successors is more successful in restoring Catholicism. However, England and Great Britain in general are still relatively divided religiously.
Assume also that some...
Pretty straightforward. What changes might we see if the Long Island Sound Link - a proposed tunnel or bridge connecting Long Island with either Westchester, Connecticut, or evenRhode Island - is built?
As you can see, there were many proposals (this isn’t even all of them), and the latest...
As many know, Epcot center was originally going to be an actual city. And it was a reasonably viable plan for a planned city of the future, even if lots of the details themselves wouldn’t remain practical. So what if it got built?
I do think that the general structure of the city’s core was a...
*Super specific discussion warning. I want to stay focused on the title topic, rather than a general discussion of related matters*
I’m putting the suppositions of this discussion in the spoiler, mainly as a nice little visual cue that I don’t want to debate them too much. So, if we can, lets...
Here’s your challenge (yes, I’m on a China kick, that happens every time HoI4 updates and I get used to the updates by playing as Chiang): In a world where the Nationalsts won the Chinese Civil War and maintains a staunch anti-communist state, have a Soviet leader open up warm relations with...
We have occasionally discussed scenarios in which the Soviet Union economically liberalizes while staying authoritarian - essentially doing what China managed to do. It has produced some interesting discussions, but here is what I’m particularly interested in:
Assume that the Soviets pull this...
Your challenge is to have the KMT control, after the Civil War is de facto over, territory on the mainland, in addition to Taiwan. It should generally be limited southern coastal regions, such as:
Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan.
Its somewhat tragic that the Lateen Sail was developed - at the earliest - in the Roman Empire, well after the more adventurous Punic and Greek sailors had gotten fat and happy with the Pax Romana. Okay, I’m being hyperbolic there.
But given that we know that the Carthaginians did make forays...
Introduction
I enjoy writing Roman timelines that go on for a few centuries, until I come up with a POD that fascinates me more. This is one of those times... sort of. This is not an indication that I’m abandoning my timeline about the Byzantines becoming a republic and doing better because of...
I’m having a blast listening to Dead Ideas Podcast discuss a Steampunk Rome.
https://deadideas.net/2018/11/25/steampunk-rome-i-an-ancient-industrial-revolution-almost-roman-history/
They briefly touched on the contrast between the road system of Rome and the turnpikes of early industrial...
One of the challenges with feudalism (yes, we could have a long debate about what it actually is) is that there were so many different obligations and chains of obligations between different people in a society that it often became difficult to keep track of it all. Whatever our debates on what...
What it says on the tin:
Assume either that Teddy Roosevelt runs (and wins) in 1908, or that he wins his bid on 1912. Either way, the point is that he’ll spend more than 8 years as President. What do you think the odds are that an analogue to the 22nd amendment would be passed earlier?
What if...
We often explore the idea of earlier steam power, and we often conflate it with two other ideas: an earlier industrial revolution and an earlier scientific revolution. I’ve noticed that, while the first does get lots of pushback, the latter doesn’t. Perhaps this is due to the adage that ‘science...
The Pelton Wheel is among the most efficient types of water turbines. While turbines, in general, date to no earlier than the 18th century, there are esrlier examples, most tantalizingly a water wheel from Roman Tunisia that was more properly a turbine. In general, we can say that a Pelton Wheel...
The US is currently the leading oil producer in the world (and some day, I’m going to have to find the discussions I had on this very forum from a decade or more ago where people were tell me that was crazy).
Cribbing some #s from wikipedia:
1) USA 11.7mil bpd
7) Canada 3.6mil bpd
11) Venezuela...
I have no real concrete ideas here, fair warning. I’m just curious if a society without the broad economic trappings of feudalism could maintain chivalric knighthood. Perhaps one of the major Republics of Europe expands substantially, perhaps a non-feudal empire, like the Byzantines...
With a POD no earlier than 1789 (Washington’s Presidency) have a viable political party that is formally pro-expansionist. I don’t mean in terms of Manifest Destiny, but in terms of formally annexing as much territory around the world as possibly.
There was some Whig opposition to the Mexican...
Here’s one of history’s ironies: a storied business that thrived by cornering the mail order market, dies in no small part to abandoning that market just as it came to dominate again.
Yes, thats an oversimplification, but lets consider these two years:
1993: Sears ends its general merchandise...