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Why would Vietnam be the seat of their power? The climate doesn't suit them and I have a hunch Vietnamese will not be any happier than the Chinese about being ruled by the Mongols...

So after lurking on this site for years I've decided to make my first thread. Please be gentle with me. The Taiping revolt was one of the most bloody wars in human history killing in excess of 20 million people and devastating large areas of China. But what would have happened if Hong Xiuquan...

Except that South Korea and Taiwan had extensive foreign investment and governments smart enough to listen to what technical experts they had and import technical expertise that they lacked. Mao's plan was essentially to set ridiculous targets and throw people at the problem regardless of the...

Accepting that you can't just will a nation into achieving several centuries worth of development into a bit over a decade would be the first step. Having Mao less distrustful of technical experts and intellectuals in general would also help. Mao was more or less clueless about metallurgy and...

A Nationalist victory without a POD either pre 1940 is difficult as the fighting against Japan lay bare a lot of the weaknesses of the nationalists while the communists built up strength in Yan'an. Compounding the issues of inflation, corruption and the damage done to the nation by the war was...

I agree. Not to mention that there will be increased economic competition in an undamaged Europe and general scientific curiosity to drive technological development.

Finished it at last! I must say this is an extremely compelling timeline. But obviousily not a happy one! This is going to be a grim world after the war. Its not just the staggering loss of life and the destruction of so much wealth and culture, think about the physiological damage done to...

China’s simple, I think: without the interference of the western powers, the Qing maintain control of the country for another 100 years or so before the pressures on resources caused by China’s rapidly growing population* tear it about with peasant revolts. Granted this is not going to...

Far too far away. Besides, the Song were having big problems of their own about now what with the Jin moving in from the north etc.

Concept of '0' anyone? Its obvious when you think about it and it its development, and the development of decimals could make caculations so much easier. How about the development of the experimental method? The Greeks were good Naturalist and Philosophers but staggers me that they believed...

Never going to last for long. Basically, the tribe that pratices this will be pretty small and will find their hunting land/farm land appropriated by the larger, hungrier tribe next door.:D

A far more cohernt and detailed answer than I gave. However, thinking about it a little bit I can see a number of reasons why the empire would want to expand: Firstly, as I think you mentioned, is defence. The rapid Qing expansion was driven by a desire to prevent other steepe upstarts from...

I suppose if you delay the Europeans forcing open China you could see them expanding a little. Nepal could be just about doable I think as the Nepalese raided the south western Chinese empire. They could possibly shift the borders of Xingjiang a bit (the Tang after all were able to push quite...

Having several hunderd million more people living first world lifestyles would have quite an impact on the world's resources. You will probably ealier developments in green technology and recycling. We would probably see peak oil in the mid 1990s and ealry 2000s. Politcally, the dymanics...

Assuming that the Romans can pull off a steam/mechanical industrial revolution, I think the following would happen. 1: Readdressing the trade balance with the East. This would take some time as shipping or overland transport would have to improve for the volume of the cheap bulk goods the...

I'd say no. The biggest problem would be the amount of extra equipment that the nomads would have to carry about with them: blast furnaces, glass making furnaces, boilers and distillation columns can easily weigh several tonnes. Trying to lug that around the steepe is no easy task and would...

O.K. first post so be gentle with my ramblings Dathi THorfinnsson is rigth I believe. I think one of the fundamental problems the Qing faced was that they weren’t a Han dynasty and so had to tread quite carefully to ensure that they did not upset their Han Chinese subjects who massively out...