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If you've looked at population density maps, like this one(https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Computed-global-distribution-of-population-density-for-the-year-1800_fig3_228074769), the first thing that stands out is how population density is at it's highest in Europe, South Asia and East Asia...

Maybe they could? Let's say Napoleon avoids his catastrophic defeat in Russia, and so France remains hegemonic in continental Europe while Britain retains it's naval hegemony. Britain then has a very strong incentive to nip any French(or allied) colonial ventures in the bud, and given their...

POD: Neither Christianity nor a Christianity analogue emerges in the Roman empire. Of course there will be mystery cults and such, but none of them receive patronage as the official imperial religion, or if they do they lack the missionary zeal that led to Christianity's spread into Northern...

On this tangent, how long did the division between Indo-European and non Indo-European cultures remain significant(outside of language) IOTL? By which I mean, by 200 BC(to pick a random date) were there any meaningful ways in which distant Indo-European cultures had common cultural features that...

Bear in mind that for a considerable amount of that time period, most of Europe lacked organized states and literacy. The comparison probably shouldn't be between China and Europe, but between China and the Mediterranean. I also note how South Asia and Persia tend to get left out of these...

With a POD anytime after 1900, have Austria acquire the borders that Australia has on this map:

True, but we only know that particular package of innovations in warfare and organization was plausible because it happened. In a TL where those stars didn't fall into alignment, saying "it's plausible because in my TL the Mongols implement a package of innovations in warfare and organization at...

True, although that was a Caliphate with the resources and strategic depth of Persia and Mesopotamia at it's command.

Premise: After losing hold of Mesopotamia, the Sassanids manage to halt the Arab advance past the Zagros mountains. The Zagros mountains are a decently defensible position, although Persia was in disarray at the time and the loss of wealthy Mesopotamia would hardly make rebuilding easier. The...

I've had the same thought. Push the Polish border a little bit further East with each passing Summer, until the Tsar begs for mercy.

Have fewer Jews killed in the Holocaust*. The Holocaust began on January 1933, so let's say the order is given a few months later, and let's say the Operation Valkyrie coup succeeds in mid-1944. That means the Holocaust lasts for only 1 year rather then two and a half- I'm unsure how much that...

If you wanted to be pedantic you could argue that, like most traditional empires, they extracted the resources of most of their territory for the benefit of the imperial capital and Ottoman elites. Is that really so different from the European colonial empires where the resources extracted...

POD: Napoleon shows a little more restraint. He doesn't overthrow the Bourbons in Spain, nor invade Russia. As it becomes increasingly obvious that the Napoleonic order is a fait accompli, the British seek a peace treaty- neither side concedes much, but the Continental system trade embargo is...

Couldn't some of the US's Eastern Seaboard state governments be considered "surviving companies", in so far as there is an unbroken line of descent from the founding companies?

Being larger doesn't necessarily mean it would dominate Italian politics(does California dominate American politics?). Especially if the Italian system weighted representation in favour of the smaller states like America's system is. And if the unification is Northern-lead they might rig the...

I wonder what the situation of the Inuit would be? Would they still have an independent state like Nunavut? Perhaps America's notions of buying Greenland would be more likely to go through, so possibly bringing all the Inuit under one state banner? Although geographically speaking it make more...

New Zealand, probably. The South Island in particular.

The problem, as noted by others, is that while it's easy to imagine nation-specific PODs those probably wouldn't do much to uplift the other countries on the continent. Perhaps if AIDS hadn't made the jump to humans? I'm not well versed in the origins of HIV/AIDS, but according to Wikipedia it...

There's so many different theories(there;s at least 20+ theories already cited in this thread), and most of them aren't mutually incompatible. Of course many of the theories are likely wrong, but if even just a fifth of them are right then that invites the possibility that industrialization was...

As the title says, what if the Islamic invasion began while Byzantium and Persia were still at war? The obvious problem with this is that IOTL the war ended before Muhammad had consolidated control of Arabia. But it was a relatively narrow thing- the war ended in 628, Muhammad conquered Mecca...