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That doesn't seem likely to me. Between Rolfe's marriage to Pocahontas and American Independence was a period of very nearly two hundred years. For one thing, that's a long time for the bloodlines to mix with other Englishmen and produce descendants who are barely Native at all. But an even...

I don't think we'd be well served to redefine words so that they mean something they've never actually meant. We all know what is really meant by "Native American" and also what is really meant by "President of the U.S." No matter what linguistic tricks one wants to pull, the reality is that...

I would have hoped so. I mean, the conventions of civil discourse should be foremost in everyone's mind anyway. Suppose A posts a timeline based on the idea of Alexander the Great having heavier-than-air flight and building an Air Force. Stupid idea? Yes, but it's not really helpful if B...

To be less frivolous on the Jackson point, albeit still without adding anything substantial to the discussion, I would say that preventing the Trail of Tears would be a necessary, though not a sufficient, condition to making this happen. It would still be an uphill battle; after all, it's taken...

The honest, albeit somewhat boring, answer is that I wouldn't deliberately change anything, because butterflies would then eliminate the world I know. Even if we're assuming a "parallel reality" scenario where I can't paradoxically wipe out my own existence, presumably I'm changing history so...

I think that's true as a general rule. No matter what your project is, getting rid of Andrew Jackson is a good way to start. This is what I was going to ask. How "Indian" does one have to be to qualify? I'm sure somebody keeps records on this kind of thing, but I would imagine that several...

I know Zheng He has become a bit of a cliche around here, but I suppose that's one potential way. Say the rise of Europe in the 15th century is stunted for whatever reason (a larger Black Plague being the most obvious, but we could also toss in dynastic wars or prolonged failed Crusades or...

I have to agree that the Spanish themselves would not have set up a colony for expelled Muslims; converting the heathen to Christianity was a large part of the Spanish project in the New World. But if they did get sent to the Spanish Netherlands, say, then I wonder if that could open the door...

I now live in the Greater Boston area which, as already pointed out, is too easy. But I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, which is more of a challenge. The best way I can think of to make Anchorage a battle site is to have the Cold War blow up into a conventional war. How we can get the U.S.A...

Yes, but I have to ask, did this agreement have any effect when Japan started grabbing pieces of China in the 1890s and afterward? Aside from leaving China weak and vulnerable, I mean? (One feels that a China occupied and administered, India-style, by an existing Great Power would have been a...

So what would Britain do about it? Go to war with France? Rush to expand their own holdings in China and try to get a bigger piece than the French get? Hold an international conference and try to get the other great powers to agree that China is off limits?

Personally, I think too much is being made of the alcohol thing. Sure, in theory, a religion that denies its adherents alcohol doesn't seem like it would become that popular. But that doesn't seem to have slowed Islam down any in OTL. Hell, Egypt was the birthplace of beer, and they didn't...

Are we assuming here that they've conquered France, or that they're bypassing it? I think their success in England would depend a lot on which of those was the case.

Suppose at some point during his reign, Napoleon III had decided he wanted China to become a colony of France just as India had become a colony of Britain.* China was going through a low period at the time, and France was second only to Britain as an international Great Power. Still, China is...

Huh. And here I'd always thought it was named after the Mason-Dixon line, which everybody thinks separates the North from the South. (Though it doesn't, unless you count Maryland as a Southern state.)

Southerners have their own regional term. It's "Southerner", with a capital S. That capital S is important; a "southerner" can be from the south of anywhere, but, in a United States context, a "Southerner" is from the South.

Yes, but which one tends to get shafted every time their powerful neighbors start getting grabby? Obviously there have been a lot of wars in Europe and a lot of chunks of land changing hands, but ephemeral conquerors like Napoleon aside, the powers of western Europe tend not to vanish as...

The U.S. Marines were beaten by the Mayans? :eek: I've never heard of this before, but words fail me. I must learn more about this Yucatan situation. As to the original WI, I guess I don't see why we would particularly want Baja California. I don't see how having a port at La Paz would...

Would it have been plausible for Russia to take the Baltic states during this period? Riga could have served as its main port just as well as St. Petersburg would later do. Granted this still doesn't solve the problem of having routes blocked by the Swedes or Danes, but it's a start.

Something I've been thinking about recently that I was inspired by the Europe-only Russia thread to post about. This seemed like it would constitute a hijack of that thread, so I'm giving it its own thread. See, I always wondered what compelled the Russians to move east into a land so nearly...