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We are still not quite sure about why they vanished. Which makes a POD difficult. However, it seems hunger was at least a contributory factor. I suppose getting along with the Inuit better and adopting some survival techniques would have helped. But in that case, I expect they would have ended...

The Vikings got along with their neighbours as well as any other Dark Ages people. By neighbours I mean people who could hit them back. Their thing was, though, that they had naval tech advances that let them reach people who could not reach them back. That did not work out well for the those...

I posted this in a different thread a couple of days ago.

Eric the Red does not hit Greenland in his exile, but is blown of course and lands in Newfoundland. Later, like OTL he comes back to his exile with 25 ships. A more inviting climate means more settlers from Iceland, even with a longer voyage. I've always wanted to see what half a millennium of...

Periodic horse nomad invasions ? Developing rather hostile attitudes so the invasions are very destructive?

It is quite new. Here is an article in Science from a year ago. Note that I suspect they may be underestimating the size of the battle a bit. They base their estimates on the number of corpses left, but do not consider that the winning side would normally gather up their dead.

Bronze age collapse seems to have been more widespread than what was known when Cline wrote his book. Since then, they've found remains of an utterly massive, Homeric-size battle, with the remains of professional, well-equipped warriors from all over Southern Europe -on the border of Denmark...

Well. I think it would end in tears. I mean assuming Colombus manages to pass the Caribbean islands without landing, and has the provisions to get to the coast, and avoids a mutiny. The Spanish will not react well to the Aztecs enthusiasm for human sacrifice. The Aztecs will not react well to...

Ethiopia, Mali and the Incas are my candidates.

Domesticated Ostrich!

The Visigoths. I'd have liked the Vandals to have more success too, but there seems to have been less initial stability. Ostrogoths.

I don't think there would be a scramble, its short-circuited. The connection between faraway lands and profit, gold, colonies etc was all a result of the initial Spanish lottery-win in Mesoamerica. It you don't have that combination of luck and plagues bringing massive riches, Europe continues...

I had an idea a few months back, of a more successful Hansa expanding into North America. POD was the negotiations after they won the war with Denmark. Now I have this image of Hansa going down the coast of North America meeting them coming up.

Part of the problem with speculating is that we know so little about the Amazonian cultures. I did, however find this which I suppose is an example of an Amazonian culture. Amazonian cultivation tech and crop packages to the Congo is interesting, but I also suspect the improved ship and...

Currents make it pretty hard to hit the Amazon that way, unless we presuppose more successful colonies down the coast of Africa, reaching the Liberia area. There was some motivation, the area does have gold. However, the winter trade winds will take you to roughly the Amazon without needing to...

Well, I don't think that is factually accurate. This is an account from a Spanish physician who worked with the natives during the outbreak in 1576: "All witnesses mentioned that a striking aspect of this epidemic was its marked selectivity for the Indian population. Everywhere the disease was...

I am not convinced. Still, the paper seems strong. This is just something I seem to remember, but I thought smallpox was exceptionally dangerous because it had evolved counters for some human immunity system defenses. Then again, I suppose it could have jumped the species barrier repeatedly...

I think the OP means "first world" rather than western. Anyway, for Russia you somehow need to replace the revolution with a transition towards a constitutional monarchy with the power resting in a parliament, I think.

The Norse will have a smaller disease portfolio, particularly if contact between Vinland and the old world is sporadic. Still bad. The Aztecs though... the Spanish beat them because all their neighbors hated them. I think they were a pretty tottering setup to begin with. Even with no spanish...

I've been thinking, what you need is just for a Norse Jarl and a native leader to have really good chemistry. They get along, there is trade and intermarriage, fornication outside marriage, and two generations down lots of people on both sides have a grandparent or two on the other side. Could...