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The mere challenge of controlling both Germany and Italy at the same time taxed the Hohenstaufen Emperors to their limit, and led to the fragmentation of the state. Adding even more territories would simply be impossible by my reckoning, unless this is a very different HRE and a very different...

I'm not really an expert on the Ottomans, but I suspect that even if everything went perfectly for the Ottomans in the Mediterranean, a very tall order, whatever expansion they made would be limited both in scope and duration. Southern Italy/ Sicily would probably be the effective limit...

One of the main incentives for the Japanese expansion was the acquisition of resources not widely available on the home islands, particularly fossil fuels and mineral resources. Britain, on the other hand, is very rich in coal and iron which frees it from the necessity of invading other...

Metallurgy in the classical world was not advanced enough to make economically useful steam engines. In particular, constructing a boiler unit that was a) structurally sound and b) low-maintenance would have been impossible at this time. What examples were produced were small novelty devices...

The Republic was a political system suited for a small city-state, not a very extensive territorial empire, which required a large standing army and allowed military leaders to assume positions of great power and circumvent the traditional democratic machinery. As Rome acquired its empire, the...

It's just the kind of scenario that doesn't make any sense. Belongs in ASB. That said, I imagine you'd have serious political (and social) restructuring in Rome, since most of the top aristocrats and magistrates are gone. Results after that? Probably very unpredictable, but Rome is going to be...

An interesting but deeply flawed scenario. First of all, there is no incentive whatsoever for the Chinese to risk the long journey in unknown waters around the Siberian and North American coast. This is a route of literally tens of thousands of kilometers past barren coastline just to reach...

It seems to me that there's no one defining moment when the Roman Empire can be said to have morphed into the Byzantine Empire. Rather I should say there are many defining moments: the reforms of Diocletian (doing away with the primacy of Rome and Italia, inaugurating a true autocracy), the...

A Russia that never had to suffer the Mongol Yoke is my favorite kind. Less death and destruction is always nice.

Like most conquering peoples, the Mongols were only really interested in overthrowing already-established states. The reasons are obvious: established states have vast reserves of wealth, taxable populations and the potential for lucrative trade. Empires of the Mongol type had no incentive to...

The problem is, the Finns were less economically advanced and much, much less populous than the East Slavs. There's no way they can fit the same niche without some serious changes way back in the past. That said, the 'empire' pictured in the OP is pretty much what you would expect to fall under...

Yes, the balance of power in Rus' had been shifting north for a while (see Vladimir-Suzdal), due to the declining importance of the trade routes south into Constantinople. The north is going to assume a very important role in Russia, but not being utterly destroyed is definitely a bonus for Kiev...

The Mongols are often credited for introducing western Europe to Asian ideas and products by inaugurating a free-trade zone extending across Eurasia. Transcontinental trade stimulated the European economy, greatly enriching the Italian city-states (Venice, Genoa, etc.) who became even more so...

The arrival of Europeans cannot be delayed indefinitely. With a POD far enough back you could retard the development of naval technology in Europe enough to give the Mesoamerican civilizations maybe 2 or 3 extra centuries of development: not enough to make any meaningful development on their...

William was clearly very cunning and a talented general, but the Byzantines were still powerful and the Normans don't have the numbers, organization or equipment necessary for such a titanic endeavor. Not to mention that the Byzantines are going to pull out all the stops in order to halt his...

William is going to have a very, very difficult time convincing the Norman dukes to support this kind of adventure. He had enough trouble getting them to back his invasion of England.

In their original state the langues d'oil, superficially at least, had just as many differences between them as the languages of the stem duchies in Germany. Language is not going to be the make-or-break factor in switching the fortunes of royal authority in France and Germany. In Germany, royal...

If Estonia were to form part, early on, of a greater 'Finnic' polity also encompassing the Finns and the Ingrians it might be able to at least survive in the face of Swedish and East Slavic incursion and would also be well-placed to control a great deal of the lucrative Baltic trade. This is the...

The Byzantines were consistently assaulted from both east and west for centuries, and the territorial integrity of the empire was progressively weakened over the same period (I'm aware that there was temporary recovery here and there, but it was just that: temporary). Here's a short summary...

The Byzantine Empire, being surrounded on all sides by enemies for its entire lifespan, has to maintain a certain critical mass in order to survive. IOTL, the loss of Anatolia dropped the empire under this threshold and it slowly entered freefall, as the economic resources available to it could...