Blank canvass periods of history

ar-pharazon

Banned
This isn't a TL as much as it is a general discussion of pre 1900 AH(or some periods therof.

Anyway certain historical events, regions, and patterns had such a great impact having them not happen would dramatically change how history proceeded.

One example is no Islam-Islam's impact on history is hard to understate and having no Islam means the writer of a TL is free to basically use their imagination after a maybe a century of extrapolating.

And that is what a lot of TLs are-extrapolations, research, and imagination.

What other periods, events, personas, and patterns if changed or butterflied away would have a similar impact-meaning that writing about the lack of them is very hard after a maybe a century of "well things were going in this direction so this is reasonable".

Thoughts?
 
That is a good example-who replaces the Roman's in Italy? Greece? Carthage? The celts? Some other italic people?
Isn't that the question of the day? I'm not sure Carthage has the reach to rule the whole peninsula, nor do they have the ambition, being focused more on controlling the key ports in the Mediterranean.

Greeks? Sure, but which ones? After Alexander dies they are too busy with their struggles against each other.

Other Italians? Might be, but it's hard to tell since we don't know much about them.

Celts? Well they never unified into a definite empire OTL, but being based in Italy might help with that. Still, I feel they might just get absorbed by the culturally more... hm... assertive Greeks or Carthaginians.
 

Brunaburh

Gone Fishin'
No Norman conquest of England. Fall of Constantinople around 647. Rome doesn't adopt Christianity (wasn't inevitable). Balkanised China, early. Chinese alphabet before, say, 1200 CE. No Jesus. Muslims stopped early in attempt to conquer Spain. Egypt never falls to Islam. Western European Communism. Protestant France.

There's loads really.
 
While history sure seems to be very, very random, there are certain distinguishable patterns or more likely outcomes for most PoD's.
For instance, a Crusader conquest of Egypt could, most likely, have led to an earlier estabilishment of European trade with the Orient, namely India, Indonesia, and China. While it isn't a 100% sure thing (it could be hampered by stuff such as local Muslim rebellions), it's at least the most likely outcome of it. A window of opportunity for an interesting timeline.
 
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Genghis Khan fails to unite the Mongols.
That would release such a massive jar of butterflies that history would end up unrecognizable in the long term. However, as i said, some potential patterns can be noticed in the short term, such as the Song dynasty living longer and prospering, the Thai not being pushed into Khmer territory, Hungary and Poland not having to replenish their demographic losses with German settlers, Georgia staying strong for longer, etc.
 
You could do the opposite of a no-Islam world, show a world where a minor religion or a even a forgotten cult from our world managed to grow into one of the world's major religions.
 
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No Carolingian dynasty (shameless plug for my own TL)

Persia conquering Greece

The Persian Revolt against the Medes fails

No Black Death

Hinduism goes the way of European paganism and is successfully replaced by Buddhism/Jainism

No Hunnic migration west

Alexander dies before conquering Persia

Constantine dies, Maxentius lives
 
Migration Era battles ending differently—pretty much any of them, as they’ll result in invading tribes going different places and completely changing the medieval world
 
The rise of Rome.
This sticks out in my mind as "the big one" so to speak. Whether or not Rome would have been replaced with another empire that spanned much of the Greater Mediterranean is another matter (I tend to think that it would be), but so much of Western (and Islamic) civilizations owe a great deal to Rome, so much so that in terms of culture, language, etc, the world would be totally unrecognizable.

Think about it, no Christianity, no Islam, no Latin. Hell, Semitic speakers dominating OTL Scotland? With a POD before the rise of Rome, it's actually possible.
 
The inca succefull repel The Spanish.
No Potosí
Not Potosi Silver to wreack Havoc in the Spanish económy( The mexican Silver Is from later)
Not abuse of The mita system
Not ARAUCO war
Less rich spanish Empire
Europe have less cash to to comerce with The east.
Spanish monopoly of The american trade Is unenforceable without control of The Peruvian-Chilean coast
 
Alexander of Macedon, and Roman emperor Constantine later on. The social changes they brought about shaped the western and eastern worlds as we know it.
One example being religion: the former's legacy helped spread Buddhism, while the latter's government helped spread Christianity.
 
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