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Our concept of Europe largely derives from medieval Christendom. Thus Russia, Turkey, North Africa and even the Balkans (until at least the 19th century part of the 'Near East') are dubiously European because they were, in the 12-15th centuries, either Muslim or non-Catholic. This is in contrast...

The main issue is finance. Parliament was willing to fund the war if it was going well, usually, but only up to a point. Funding was cut in the last years of Henry V's reign because Parliament assumed that as he was now effectively King of France, the war had become a French civil war which...

It was Livy, I believe, and he argues Rome's superior tactics and civic virtue would allow it to triumph in the end.

Focusing on Edward himself, from what's mentioned in Ormrod's biography of Edward III, the Black Prince sounds pretty incompetent. He was a sub-par ruler of Aquitaine when he governed that, inciting conflict with his tenants and courting a confrontation with the French that was simply...

The Slovak border is based on OTL Austro-Hungarian sub-national borders, and yes, Franz Ferdinand was historically very suspicious of the Hungarians, and having precipitated a civil war and then an enormous Great Power war, he's taken the opportunity to put the stick about. Austria annexed a...

To weaken Hungary at any cost, essentially. Any more feedback would be welcome.

'Don't worry, dear, scars are all the rage now!' That's what Archduke Franz Ferdinand said to his wife as he sat in the hospital in Sarajevo which was also treating those injured in a bomb blast that was, much like the bullet, meant to kill him. The Archduke and his wife returned to Vienna the...

That Other Empire Slightly later than promised, here's my update on developments north of the Alps, where the pseudo-Emperor Henry licks his wounds.... The Diet of Hamburg called in 1090 would be like no other called in Germany. After six years of civil war, the once-deposed, now...

Actually absorbing Serbia might have helped the Empire because it would have diminished the relative weight of the Magyar half of the Empire. In this period the Hungarian government was pursuing an aggressive Magyarisation policy in the areas of Croatia and Dalmatia it controlled, whereas Vienna...

If you want John of Gaunt to take over England, I'd say that a better time would be in the later years of Edward III's reign, where he effectively served as regent while his father was too senile to rule. Parliament was scared of him taking over and took measures to try and stop it, but I reckon...

There was discussion about how to address a president and one suggestion was 'Your Grace'; basically, most of the proposed nomenclature was either watered-down monarchical jargon or Roman.

I take the point, but remember the title President itself was a dilution of some more grandiose suggestions. Perhaps if the American political system were different, e.g. an elected monarchy, or a more centralised system, this might be more realistic, but I thought it might be a fun thought...

It's occurred to me that there is, in many cultures, a long-standing tradition of a ruler adopting a new name upon assuming the throne, or otherwise modifying their name due to some great feat or accomplishment, for example Augustus, or Scipio Africanus, with many other Eastern rulers besides...

That's not bad except for Britain. Christianity and the Roman Empire generally went together: that's why Charlemagne's imperial campaigns were also religious wars, like the Saxon Wars: conversion and conquest went together. So Britain would probably remain Christian, unless the Saxon/Norse...

Yes; you don't need political independence to have a separate cultural identity; look at the Gaelic revival in Ireland in the 1890s. Scotland would retain its parliament and its main state institutions, which could form the nucleus of a national identity. The main institution in Scotland that...

Have William Duke of Gloucester (Queen Anne's son) survive to inherit the throne. The main reason for the Union was that the Scots threatened in 1704 to appoint their own monarch on Anne's death, ignoring the Act of Security which guaranteed the Protestant Succession. If the succession were...

It doesn't include women, who might have been less exposed to education and it also excludes the disabled, both physically and mentally, thus excluding a lot of people with severe learning difficulties.

In the early 18th century, successive British governments refrained from direct imperialism; asides from the settler colonies in North America, Britain had few land holdings outside Europe; India was traded with rather than conquered, and through the EIC rather than government officials...

WW1 starts pretty much on cue, except Japan joins in 1915 and Italy sides with the Allies. Africa has seen some changes; the Ottomans gained Italy's African colonies, including Libya, at the peace table, although not as much as they would have liked (they wanted Somaliland, Djibouti, Egypt...

The Russo-Japanese War of OTL was a shock for the international system; not only had the institutional weaknesses of the Russian Empire been laid bare, with the disastrous Battle of Tsushima the most humiliating example of this, but it also heralded the rise of the first non-white Great...