Greetings from the Maratha Confederacy, everyone. I just got back from a vacation to Tenochtitlan, and I've been wondering what a world where Europe wasn't a technophobic theocracy would be like. I think that the best way to do this would be to somehow avoid the Papal War between the Roman pope and the Avignonan anti-pope. This war essentially centralized the Holy Roman Empire into a papal theocracy and turned the rest of Europe into its vassals. Another chance I can think of would be to make the Great War[1] less destructive. The HRE was beginning to reform, and without this war, it might have had a chance to modernize. Instead, the HRE was split into a number of smaller kingdoms like Prussia, Austria, and Bavaria, and now these countries are constantly fighting with each other. It seems like Al-Andalus[2] is the only good place to live, but people still need to worry about terrorist bombs by people from Aragon who are set on Reconquista.
How would the rest of the world fare if Europe industrialized? Would Bati Kita[3] get conquered? IOTL, the Ottomans performed terribly there. Even the Aztecs were able to defeat them. Would Maratha still get to colonize Vana[4]? Would the Ottomans, Chinese, and Japanese still colonize northern Bati Kita? Would the Inca and Aztecs still survive ITTL? What would a Great War analog look like here? What other ways would this world be different?
How would the rest of the world fare if Europe industrialized? Would Bati Kita[3] get conquered? IOTL, the Ottomans performed terribly there. Even the Aztecs were able to defeat them. Would Maratha still get to colonize Vana[4]? Would the Ottomans, Chinese, and Japanese still colonize northern Bati Kita? Would the Inca and Aztecs still survive ITTL? What would a Great War analog look like here? What other ways would this world be different?
- Great War: A WWI analog with the Ottoman Empire, the HRE, the Aztecs, and Japan on one side, and Maratha, China, and the Inca on the other side. The Ottomans, HRE, and Japan lost. The Ottomans, Aztecs, and Japan both had to pay reparations, and the HRE was split up into various German states.
- Al-Andalus: A Muslim country in Ibera; the only developed country in Europe.
- Bati Kita: Turkish name for North America.
- Vana: Hindi name for South America.