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How would the Hapsburg Empire have fared in the 16th Century had it not had access to the gold and silver it obtained from the conquest of the Aztec and Inca Empires in the New World?

With a POD no earlier than 1500, did either the Aztec or Inca Empires have a chance of successfully resisting European conquest?

How would English society and culture have evolved if England had remained loyal to Catholicism? Would England have still seen a literary renaissance in the late 16th and early 17th Centuries? Would it have been more politically stable without the religious strife of OTL? Would we still have...

During the American Civil War, the two most prominent and important Southerners who remained loyal to the Union were General George Thomas and Admiral David Farragut. Farragut, at least, seems to have considered joining the Confederacy (lots of his colleagues apparently expected him to do so)...

If Joe Johnston had remained in command of the Army of Tennessee in July of 1864, would the Confederacy have been better off, worse off, or would it have made no difference?

In counterfactual discussions of the American Civil War, there is a contention among some that the Confederacy, in order to win the war, should have adopted a "Fabian Strategy" designed to wear down Union morale until they gave up. This would be in contrast to the strategy apparently pursued by...

A common belief I see on the board is that, in a CS Victory TL, there will be another war between the Confederacy and the Union sooner or later. I thought a thread on this particular question would make for some good discussion. I myself do not adhere to this belief. Barring foreign...

With a POD no earlier than June 26, 1864, is there any way for Jubal Early to capture Washington?

At the Battle of Cedar Creek, in October of 1864, Jubal Early very nearly pulled off a surprise victory against Phil Sheridan's larger army in the northern Shenandoah Valley. With any number of PODs, a decisive Confederate victory could have been achieved. Suppose that the battle turned into...

Suppose that, for whatever reason, the Germans discovered the full details of ULTRA and knew exactly how the Allies had cracked the Enigma code. What could they then have done about it? It seems to me devising an entirely new way of encrypting their messages and then implementing it throughout...

Suppose (and pick your POD) that the deception operations to fool German intelligence prior to the D-Day invasion failed. What would happen if the Germans had a clear idea of when and where the invasion would take place, and a decent idea of the forces involved, by around the middle of May 1944?

Of the following choices, which does the board think would make the most interesting TL of Early American Alt History? 1. Pre-war political settlement prevents American Revolution? 2. British win Revolutionary War? 3. Constitutional Convention fails? 4. Washington vetoes Hamilton's bank...

During the 1800 Presidential Election, Jefferson brought Aaron Burr onto the ticket as his VP candidate because he was expected to bring New York (and its 12 priceless electoral votes) into Democratic-Republican column. After the votes had been tallied, Burr had done his job and won New York...

Suppose FDR, rather than issuing a public demand for the unconditional surrender of Germany at the Casablanca Conference in February of 1943, instead issued a statement that the Western Allies were fighting only against Hitler and Nazism, rather than against Germany as a nation, and that they...

During WWII, the Western Allies were often very worried about the possibility of Nazi Germany and the USSR signing a separate peace treaty, thereby allowing Germany to throw the bulk of its resources against Britain and America. Was this ever a realistic possibility? Could Hitler and Stalin have...

Suppose that LBJ decided to deescalate the Vietnam War until all American troops were gradually withdrawn by the end of 1966. How would this affect the Great Society and space program?

Before Operation Torch, in what was known as Operation Flagpole, Dwight Eisenhower sent his deputy commander, Lt. General Mark Clark, ashore to meet with pro-Allied French officers in North Africa. This was an attempt to convince the French forces not to resist the coming Anglo-American landings...

Suppose that, for whatever reason, the Franco-Prussian War is delayed for a few years and breaks out in the mid-1870s rather than 1870. Does this delay benefit France, benefit Prussia and its allies, or does it not really give any advantage to either side?