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  1. Two Q's about the Cairo-Cape Town Railroad

    As others have said it is going to be a white elephant that is never going to be financially sustainable. However it's cultural effects could be much larger, not only would it be a tie for the various colonies and post-independence countries but it could well gather the sort of mystique and...

  2. Largest possible medieval city?

    Yes, in fact those are the ones we have the most accurate information for. During the Principate under the Julio-Claudian dynasty around 40,00 total, 30,000 net slaves were imported into Rome a year. The figure for 20,000 free migrants is entirely guesswork, but as the proportion of slaves...

  3. Largest possible medieval city?

    It's mostly guesswork, there is a distinct lack of accurate census data for the period but yes Rome especially the Aventine which was the main immigrant neighbourhood and the Subura which was the main working class area had horrific mortality rates. If you were an immigrant to Rome you either...

  4. Alec Douglas-Home Election Victory

    British involvement at anything above the symbolic level isn't going to happen, Britain is broke and has way to much else on it's plate though a squadron of SAS is a possibility. The Tories are going to get hammered into the ground come the next election which will be in '68 or '69 so you might...

  5. Northern Ireland WI

    Actually there were no go zones for brief periods in Londonderry and West Belfast where the writ of the British state did not run and the IRA did set up parallel institutions. Operation Motorman saw 27,000 troops end those no go zones with while killing only two people.

  6. Harold Macmillan no illness?

    It would be an incredibly easy PoD, with just 0.7% separating the two parties anything could happen. Wiki has a short article on it

  7. Northern Ireland WI

    It wouldn't be a British Vietnam, the IRA for all their evil simply lacked the resources of the NVA, however it could very easily have gotten a lot worse. Enoch Powell and Tony Benn are the two best options, if either had become British PM the results would have been nasty, Powell because he...

  8. Challenge: More American Cities Like Detroit

    What happened to Detroit was the consequence of being a one industry town that boomed so much it became a city. If you can name another city as dependent on a single industry as Detroit then boom you've OP fulfilled.

  9. WI: Rhodesia joins the Union of South Africa in 1922?

    Wasn't De Villiers Graaf the richest guy in South Africa after the Oppenheimer family?

  10. WI: Rhodesia joins the Union of South Africa in 1922?

    On the subject of Coloureds if you had a reasonably smart government that wasn't too far up it's own arse with Afrikaner nationalism along with encouraging greater immigration what is the possibility of co-opting the Coloured population, in OTL they've been "too black for the National Party, too...

  11. WI: Rhodesia joins the Union of South Africa in 1922?

    Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't the Cape Colony have an education and wealth based franchise that allowed some non-whites to vote, though because of the demographics of the Cape Colony I think they were mostly Coloureds (i.e. mixed race) rather than Africans.

  12. What happened to the Royal Navy?

    Oh I completely agree but that was in response to someone saying that navies are only for fleet battles, as you correctly point out the RN during that period and the USN today are so strong that no one is stupid enough to engage them in a fleet battle.

  13. What happened to the Royal Navy?

    I agree that the RN didn't do a bad job during WW1, it fulfilled it's objectives perfectly well but it was the Heavyweight Champion of the World beating a smaller, weaker, less experienced opponent. It was par for the course and it rightly shouldn't get that much extra credit. While in WW2 it...

  14. WI: Rhodesia joins the Union of South Africa in 1922?

    Actually my mother had quite a few family members who living in Kenya in 50's, two of her uncles and their children were out there after the war. One uncle and his kids moved to Rhodesia in 1961 in the run up to independence and one stayed. They've both since died but the branch who stayed in...

  15. Thirty Years War with Post Fawkes England

    The Fronde is in some ways a better comparator than the OTL English Civil War although unlike France there is no territorial nobility to consider. The opposition is obviously extremely divided but remember the King only has one group who will back him whatever happens; the "Divine Right of...

  16. What happened to the Royal Navy?

    The British economy was actually still very competitive, though behind the USA in per capita GDP, it's 50 million people simply can't support as much of a Navy as 150 million Americans.

  17. What happened to the Royal Navy?

    So in other words the Royal Navy did nothing between Navarino and Jutland?

  18. WI: Rhodesia joins the Union of South Africa in 1922?

    Might you see a four party system with; National Party: an almost purely Afrikaner party less successful than OTL at attracting English-speakers, basically the same policy wise. Dominion Party: Right-wing party for English speakers, dominant in Rhodesia and similar areas. Similar to the...

  19. Thirty Years War with Post Fawkes England

    But who would be the Roundhead's and who would be the Cavaliers? The more hardline "cold is God's way of telling us to burn more Catholics" Protestants would be backing the King in this scenario but so would much of the Cavalier aristocracy. The potential for shenanigans is enormous, in the...

  20. Thirty Years War with Post Fawkes England

    I was actually thinking about writing a TL on this topic and had done a bit of cursory research before rl got in the way. Anyway my conclusion was similar to Professor Hutton in that Charles would be raised as a model zealot complete with martyr parents and would inevitably drag England into all...
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