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Obviously the Spanish Conquest is a vastly complicated topic, and no one has a satisfying explanation for how Spain (insofar as its usefuk to talk about Spain in the modern sense in this context) was able to do it. However, I'd offer that one aspect of the conquest that helped was the complexity...

Frankly, even if the Song are able to successfully evacuate to Taiwan, they'll be lucky to even buy themselves a few years before the Mongols conquer them. Taiwan is effectively undeveloped in the period we're discussing, so the Song will basically be trying to build a viable state from scratch...

Not if Hawaii is annexed and governed as a territory/state. Although maybe there would be a route for a later quasi-restoration of the monarchy as a purely ceremonial entity with no connection to government. I’m thinking the monarchy could basically be an ngo/corporation lead by the monarch and...

I was thinking about that while writing my post actually, and I don’t think that the analogy works in this situation. The US and the USSR were operating in largely the same sphere politically. While there was certainly a significant cultural distance, fundamentally the US and USSR were peer...

I guess it would depend on what you mean by "powerful". Personally, I'm not really sure how you'd go about determining the power of a country in that sense, especially when the countries in question are so separate. While there was certainly a degree of interaction between Rome and China in the...

I remember hearing that the set of Greek mythology that has been passed down to us skews heavily toward the mythology of the urban elite generally, and to the Athenian versions of those myths within that. We know that myths could vary substantially between cities and authors, and sometimes...

I don't think it would take anywhere near that long. Going by the maps compiled here:https://www.aei.org/publication/maps-of-the-day-travel-times-from-nyc-in-1800-1830-1857-and-1930/ (note that its measured in terms of travel time from New York City, but still we can use the "contour" lines to...

I've heard and read that too, and the fact that Peru had to be conquered by the armies of Bolivar and San Martin would seem to back it up. So, perhaps a scenario with a surviving Viceroyalty could be constructed? Or an agreement whereby Peru becomes independent but under the rule of a member of...

IOTL it was something of a scandal when Hong Kong was annexed instead of the Chusan islands. If Britain and France are establishing condominium over Shanghai then Britain may decide to take another bite at Chusan. It's the perfect position to guard Shanghai- or strangle it if the Chinese ever...

Well, right away you can go with the early or the late option. Early is changes to the colonization, late is to the independence wars. Let's start with late. I think Haiti is another of the low-hanging fruit. It had three monarchies IOTL, so really you can pick whichever one you want to have...

Well, the opium wouldn't have been coming through the silk road- it was fairly widely cultivated in the Roman Empire and its use, for a variety of purposes, has extremely deep roots in the Near East. However, it seems like actual addiction to opium wasn't really a phenomenon, apart from...

Yes. But that doesn't really affect wether or not the people in said airship will want to try bombing whatever is below them, and if the airship is anything other than a novelty they'll want to be dropping something bigger than handgrenades from it. Anyway, I wasn't really envisioning bombs like...

It occurs to me that you could probably get pretty far with some minor alterations to contemporary artillery shells and fuses. It wouldn't need to stand up to the stresses of being fired, so you make a cannister out of the cheapest sheet metal that will do the job, and basically fill it as if it...

With the earlier Zeppelin dates, really armed dirigibles at that stage as I'm not sure you could build a rigid airship that early, you could put some of the contemporary manual machine guns on them. The Gatling and Nordenfelt guns and the Hotchkiss rotary canons are quasi-machine guns and they...

I agree. But, there is a case to be made that some legal questions like this are resolved through might makes right. It still happens today, and it was even more the case at the time.

Others have said much of this, but I hope to be able to expand: 1) I don't think so. I tend to think that secession is a matter of state (in the sense of a political unit, not the American sense) sovereignty and that states have an inherent right to protect their sovereignty and national...

My pleasure! Since you seem knowledgeable on the subject, I'm wondering if the Garamantean irrigation system is related to the qanat system, and if so, if it is a case of convergent evolution or if the technology was transmitted from other areas to the Garamantes. I know that they were mining...

Qanats were used IOTL by the peoples of North Africa and the Magrehb. There are lots of them in the area inhabited by the Garamantes and throughout all of North Africa, including Tunisia, where it seems they are called foggara. It seems like the use is essentially the same as in other areas...

Making an effort to post more often these days! So if you see me around, that's why!

I think Japan has much better odds of maintaining its empire than Portugal ever did. For one, the substantial majority of the population and economic production would be in the Japanese home islands. I thik it is a relatively safe bet that Taiwan stays content under Japanese rule, as IOTL they...