Search results

Native Americans have gotten an incredibly raw deal from the United States, and were systematically pushed from their native lands onto non-arable and undesirable lands where oftentimes there isn't clean running water, electricity, heat, or jobs. What could make a Native American version of the...

What if Detroit in the 1970s manages to turn things around and increases its population from 1.2 million to 2.5 million by 2020 (fueled by rapid growth in the 1980s and 90s)? What are the effects for the Midwest/Great Lakes region, and the United States as a whole? For some context, let's say...

The Ford administration offered $600 million to the metro Detroit region to build a subway system, but due to internal city vs suburbs politics, an overambitious subway system plan, and the eventual emergence of the Reagan administration in 1980, the subway system was never built. What would...

The Imjin Invasions were two invasion attempts launched by the Japanese to conquer Joeson Korea and Ming China in 1592 and 1596. The Japanese got no further than parts of the Korean peninsula before they were stymied by combined Chinese and Korean forces and forced to retreat. My question is...

In my TL, West Africa is developing several centuries sooner than it did IOTL due to Carthage winning the 2nd Punic War and spurring a large scale trans-Saharan trade to pay off its wartime debts. I have a sahelian state that spans the Senegal and Niger rivers and I was wondering if it's...

How can Ukraine become stronger than Russia, but still remain distinctively Ukrainian without becoming Westernized? For example, they still follow Eastern Orthodox and the Cryllic script. The POD can be set back no longer than the Mongol domination of Eastern Europe.

Let's say trade networks are more developed between North and South America and llamas are traded into the Mesoamerican civilization complex, meaning both the Maya and Aztec get them. What's the earliest they can get llamas? How does this affect how the Spanish Conquest goes? Does a llama...

It's always bothered me that Italy doesn't control Corsica, it would look more aesthetic that way, kind of how the United States would look better if it controlled all of the peninsula Maine borders. Anyhow, what can plausibly happen so that Italy controls Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily up...

So here's my dumb question of the day. Who lived in the Middle Eastern region in the Levant (think Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and so on) and the Mesopotamian region before the Arabs conquered the lands during the Islamic expansion? Were they replaced by Arabs or did they just undergo...

How to get more French immigrants coming to America along with Irish, Italians, etc? And why is it that the U.S. never had a sizable French population outside of New Orleans?

Basically have a large preferably charismatic predator species from the Old World such as tigers, lions, leopard, etc and have them established somewhere else in the world as an invasive species. I was inspired to make this post after reading about how Old World Eurasian Boar were brought to...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is how to make the states in the Great Lakes area the most populous and economically powerful region in the United States. When I say Great Lakes region, I mean specifically Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. How do these...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is how to make the states in the Great Lakes area the most populous and economically powerful region in the United States. That includes Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. How do these states draw immigrants, industry, and...

By 2017, what needs to happen in order to have Thanksgiving have the same cultural significance as Christmas in the United States? I'm talking about Thanksgiving-themed movies, people dressing up like Thanksgiving-related characters, people decorating their houses with....corn and light-up...

Let's say that there's a very limited African slave trade going on but Portugal is still trading with West Africa for gold and it introduces squash, maize, cassava, and sweet potato to western Africa. What are the demographic, cultural, and political effects of this? How long does it take for...

What are the warning signs when you're writing alternate history that your timeline is starting to "wank" a particular nation/movement/continent? Is it an improbable string of good luck in terms of wars waged and good rulers? What are some good ways to do a sanity check on your timeline and...

Africa was able to develop its own Tsetse fly resistant cow breeds. Why couldn't they breed sleeping sickness resistant horse breeds?

This timeline is a rewrite and expansion of In the Shade of the Baobabs, my first timeline. It explores the possible consequences of a world where Hannibal wins the Second Punic War and Carthage maintains its dominance in the Western Mediterranean. It focuses mostly on Africa while...

I'm looking for some really good and immersive books that talk about the Swahili Coast, its history, its ethnic makeup, the politics of the region, the relation between it and the Great Lake Bantus, as well as its architecture. Do you guys have any suggestions?

If the Portuguese incursions into the Swahili Coast had failed, where would the city-state have gone from there? Would they have united or started to push into the interior toward the Great Lakes?