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During the Cold War, Finland, while democratic, did not join NATO and was closer diplomatically to its neighbor the USSR than it was to the US. Was there a possibility that Castro's Cuba becoming a Caribbean version of that - Marxist, but still friendly with the US? What effect would this have...

I wasn't talking about the economic preferences of the population at large; rather that the Pakistani elite seems to have been more capitalist than the Indian one, and presumably they'd be part of Indian politics in an undivided India scenario, and maybe nudge the nation in another direction.

The main thing that held India back for a long time was its socialist economic system which lasted until the '90s; without such policies being implemented after independence it would probably be at least at an OTL modern Thai/Chinese level of income by now, and maybe even a Malaysian one. In...

It would look very similar to the Greek flag of that era: Not sure if that would stop them.

There were two Gerhard Schroeders in 20th century German politics, from opposite parties. And I of course thought "what if they ran against each other?"

The US was already the world's largest economy and industrial power in 1914, and there was no realistic way Germany was going to overtake it even absent any war. Being the first to develop new technologies doesn't matter much when the world market means others quickly adopt it as well.

Weak; real former monarchs are elected Prime Minister instead and actually exercise power.

And one where Bulgaria keeps rivaling the Byzzies, IIRC

Having read the entire Worldwar series, the last one, Homeward Bound, might be one of the worst "sci-fi" novels I've seen.

I mean if one or more went bust for good and didn't come back, rather than the accounting game that event was.

I'm not sure precisely how bad the Detroit automakers' finances were in late 2008/2009, but the argument was certainly made that without the bailouts they would go bust. What if one (or even two) actually did due to a different administration or whatever refusing to bail them out? Chrysler would...

In a more extended sense, I could see the Ottomans deposing the Sharif of Mecca and the other Hashemites (who had rebelled anyway IOTL) and ruling the area directly rather than as a de facto protectorate. No idea if this would cause problems, though. Possibly they'd also seek to finish off and...

For Germany, two things come to mind: 1) The German Revolution doesn't happen due to a hardening of the popular will for some reason, resulting in the Entente being well into Germany by the time the Armistice is signed, lending the "stab in the back" myth much less power. 2) As a corollary of...

Million Dollar President.

Actually, it's interesting to consider if WW2 could have ended with one side throwing in the towel due to exhaustion like in WW1, though I understand attitudes in favor of total war until victory or death were much more hardened in WW2.

Germany signs a much less harsh peace with Russia, leading to most of the 30 divisions that OTL were on occupation duty until the end of the war in the East be sent to the West ITTL. That probably lengthens the war at least a little.

You'd assume Scotland would have to maintain fairly good/"Finlandized" relations with England even in this scenario given the disparity, unless the Auld Alliance persists and they have a LOT of faith in it.

I'm interested as to why, as they were not particularly religious, and the return to the Holy Land thing has overwhelming religious implications by definition, surely? And Palestine at that time was an sleepy, deserty poor land.

Something eclectic would be a Dutch creole culture on Taiwan, I suppose, if the Chinese didn't take it as in OTL. But then it would still be Dutch, at least on paper.

Americans west of the Appalachians if Britain remained in control and banned formal settlement.