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  1. School Debate - Was Hitler Insane?

    The legal definition of insanity is completely different from the medical definition. The legal definition is a person who commits a crime without the capacity to understand that it is wrong. The medical definition is none. "Insanity" does not exist as a term in any psychiatric literature...

  2. Roman Colonialism

    The Romans WERE colonialists. Many cities throughout the Mediterranean and England were founded as Roman colonies in order to place Roman influence on an area of control. Often the Romans would deliberately destroy the settlements of locals in order to refound them as Roman towns. So in fact...

  3. Could the Incan Empire survive less the Spanish conquest?

    It is highly unlikely that the Inca Empire would survive in any case, because of their technological inferiority. By the time Pizarro arrived, the civil war had already drawn to a close, and the Incas presented a unified opposition to the Spaniards. They were nevertheless defeated, as they...

  4. Islam Nonexistant - What Religious Effects?

    Without Islam, Zoroastrianism would replace some of Islam's influence. Christianity would likely spread throughout Africa, while Zoroastrianism would remain straddled between Mesopotamia and India. It would have far reaching political effects. The (Eastern) Roman Empire would survive far...

  5. How would have Gore reacted to 9/11?

    Probably the same way, initially, with an invasion of Afghanistan. It's not clear whether that would lead to a capture or killiing of OBL at Tora Bora. Probably not. The reason for the failure was the use of natives to guide Special Forces, who were untrustworthy. Those same guides would...

  6. AH Challenge, Carthage

    Hannibal implants his animals into the Carthaginian Council, before the second Punic War, such that he gains the state's full support in the war. While pillaging Italy, he receives reinforcements that prevent the Roman flank attacks into Spain and Africa. Eventually, more desperate Italians...

  7. Space Program Challenge: a man on Mars by 2000

    Until about 1964, the USSR was quite a dynamic country. Khruschev had some success in liberalizing the climate of the nation, and furthering scientific progress through research institutes. After his removal from power, he was replaced by hard-liners like Brezhnev, who retreated from visionary...

  8. AH Challenge: European 'Samurai'

    Exactly. If we use Japan as the model, it would have to be a period in which warfare became unnecessary due to internal peace and lack of meaningful threats abroad. Japan could be isolated for 300 years because it was internally cohesive and as an island, it had little fear of invasion. You...

  9. Technocracy ascendant

    The only way I could see this happening is if some massive catastrophe happens in which the only hope for survival is to grant scientists power to the exclusion of all others. Examples: widespread fatal disease, environmental destruction (whether self-inflicted or not, and may occur from space...

  10. Solving Rome's problems in the 2nd Century BC

    I had a scenario that is archived under the old board. In a nutshell: Tiberius Gracchus escapes from a violent mob that killed him in OTL (123 BC), leading to a civil war that ultimately results in a Republic that institutes land reforms and redistribution. This then leads to political...

  11. AH Challenge: European 'Samurai'

    What you're proposing is OTL. Knights were the equivalent of Japanese samurai in Europe. Their roles were identical. They were a military nobility who served a feudal house, and in return received payment in land. Like the samurai, their manner often took on religious connotation, since...

  12. WI: No Classic Maya Collapse

    You would first have to explain why it did not occur. The Maya collapse was environmental, caused by a merciless exploitation of the soil by their brand of agriculture, as well as deforestation. When a drought hit in the early 10th century AD, it caused a catastrophic collapse on an already...

  13. A more aggressive late 19th Century America?

    The Civil War was a great impediment to American expansion. Prior to the Civil War, the US was expanding through North America under the guide of "Manifest Destiny." The Civil War forced the country to concentrate more on reconstruction than on expansion, and not until nearly the 20th century...

  14. WI earlier anesthetics?

    That's not true, actually. Opioids are actually safer to use than ethers or halogenated anesthetics. I disagree. There have been effective anesthetics even in ancient times. Although ancient knowledge of anesthesia was nowhere as good as today, it would not have prevented its use. Opium...

  15. WI earlier anesthetics?

    You don't even need to do either. Opium was traditionally used as an anesthetic, and there are reports of surgery being performed as early as the secondary century AD using it. The problem isn't anesthesia, but surgical technique and medical knowledge.

  16. Hero of Alexandria points Rome towards the Space Age

    Look at it this way. In the 7th century AD, the Byzantines invented Greek Fire, so it's not beyond them to be innovative. Just imagine Byzantine sailless steamships firing flammable liquid at Arab wooden fleets.

  17. Hero of Alexandria points Rome towards the Space Age

    There's no way that spaceflight would take place so quickly after the invention of a primitive steam engine. First of all, there has to be a reason why Heron's steam engine is put to use in this ATL. In OTL, it was never used to do any work, and was intended as merely a demonstration of...

  18. WI Babbage's Difference Engine No 2 had been completed

    There used to a website that had a whole timeline based around this premise. It was a little dodgy, in that it used a lot of butterflies. It went all the way to 2000, and postulated that the Analytical Engine would accelerate technological progress throughout the 19th century. Inventions such...

  19. 415 BC : Alcibiades does not have to flee to Sparta

    I have doubts that, even with a Sicilian victory, that the Delian League could still win the war. The reason is that Attica is still open to invasion and pillaging by the Spartans, year after year, and the Athenians cannot challenge the Spartan infantry on equal terms. When they were...

  20. Alternate sexual revolution?

    Estrogen wasn't discovered until 1923.
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