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Napoleon Bonaparte is never born, or never rises to prominence. How does the French government look and how do the Revolutionary Wars go?

It's well-known that the Western Allies intented to punish the Germans far more severely than they did after the war, via the Moregenthau plan and the later "levels of industry", but were forced to moderate after a few years due to the Soviet threat. Despite this, Germany only began its recovery...

From a brief read at Wikipedia, American, European (British) football and rugby are both descended from the same sport, and the unique American rules were codified in the late 19th century. Can we make the British rules be accepted around that time? If so, how would the sport develop? Would...

President Roosevelt signs an executive order desegregating the military in early 1942, citing military necessity. What would the effects of this, both during WW2 and after it? Could we see an earlier Civil Rights movement?

After the USSR fell, by contrast to the slow reforms of previews years, the new Russian leaders decided to go all out and privatize and deregulate the economy immediately, which led to a huge recession which Russia only recovered from in the late 2000s, in addition to the new oligarchs getting...

At the end of Homeward bound, the Race has been definitively surpassed by the plucky humans, and are annoyed when they find who Commodore Perry really was. But, in my mind, the Race seem apt to complete the analogy and launch a new Meiji Restoration. They aren't slow adapters for biological...

I recall Flocc saying once that Singapore was becoming an increasingly Anglicised place by the beginning of the Second World War, and it was the Japanese invasion which convinced the population the British couldn't protect them. If WW2 had been averted or confined to a limited European war could...

Libya ended its WMD program in 2003 after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq. But what if they persisted in their ambitions and manage to assemble some crude bombs without the west ? Though less likely than in the other North African states due to oil revenue, popular dissatisfaction is going to...

(Inspired by the AH title thread) What if, instead of banning turbochargers in response to the increasingly dangerous nature of F1 races, regulators decide to remove nearly all restrictions on technology, but with the caveat that cars are required to survive nearly any possible crash scenario...

Assuming a much,much more militarised and autharitarian US which is still an economic superpower, how large could the US armed forces be in 2011? Think defence budgets in the trillions (but no social programs for "defence reasons") and universal conscription.

Let's assume that Japan never occupies French Indochina and somehow manages to occupy China (an even more disunited Nationalist cause; a lack of German investment into the Republic; general incompetence by Chiang) and force an unconditional surrender. What would Japan do with China? Would their...

What if Wilhelm II, for some reason, never felt any attraction towards naval matters and concentrated on the army? Would France be the "big bad" for the Royal Navy ITTL? Could this help Germany secure an alliance with Britain?

Preston Tucker's 1948 Sedan was literally decades ahead of its time. It included four-wheel disc brakes, independent suspension, safety glass, standard seat belts and fuel injection. Only fifty were ever made, and many blame the Big 3 for conspiring to eliminate it. Could Tucker succeed in...

As you probably know, the First Balkan War was fought by Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro over territorial aspirations in the Ottoman Empire. In the aftermath Bulgaria, unhappy after Serbia's refusal to follow their earlier agreement to divide Macedonia, attacked Serbia and Greece to...

Presume Stalin dies in 1946, and Khruschev or some other moderate leader (unlikely, but bear with me here) becomes the head of the Soviet Union. While he believes that capitalism is an inferior system, he thinks that it will eventually fall due to its own self-contradictions and there's no point...

China was the world's most advanced nation for millenia, before stagnating in its later years. Some say it was because of the inflexible chinese bureaucracy, while others blame it on the Qing than any inherent failure of its government. Is it possible to keep China on par with the rest of the...

With a POD after 1900, make it happen by YTK. Bonus points for a Sharia-like system banning all unchristian culture (Inspired by the Anime thread).

In 920,the First Bulgarian Empire,led by Simeon I, was in a golden age.It was the most powerful nation in Eastern Europe,controlling modern day Bulgaria,Romania,and parts of Serbia.Its scholars were among the best in medieval Europe, and its armies nearly conquered Constantinople. What would...

A german scientist discovers fission in 1931 and after Hitler takes power he orders a massive program to develop nuclear weapons.The first nukes are ready for deployment just before the invasion of Poland.What happens now?

Take a look at this really bizzare future history I found from 1990-a group of terrorists actually manage to put half(!) of humanity back in the stone age :eek: http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/enigma/writing/fut-his/index.html