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Message 1 in thread
From: Robert J. Gill (rjcgill@g2a.net)
Subject: Change location of the "Middle East" (was: Misprint AH Challenge
View this article only
Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if
Date: 2004-07-17 05:49:59 PST
>(President Chester A. Arthur) wrote:
>ABC News just now made a broadcast about AIDS in
China containing the caption: "Bangkok, China."
Yes, real-life news broadcasts have a strange habit
of altering OTL's reality, without intending to [a],
a habit which was spoofed recently, in the movie
_Anchorman_; a dimwitted TV weatherman gestures to a
map, forecasting "38 degrees in the Middle East"---
yet he's pointing at North Dakota!
So let's play with that idea; short of having ASBs
mess with the tectonic plates, how can we turn North
America into the "Middle East?" Two suggestions, both
of which involve non-Europeans exploring the Americas:
1.) Discovery/settlement of Americas by Muslims (perhaps
a Muslim world as advanced as that shown in GURPS Caliph
world), making it an extention of that part of the world
we associate with OTL's Middle East. (Culturally, that is).
OR...a more likely POD (and somewhat related to Chet's
earlier post about matters Chinese):
2.) In OTL, the Levant's (and lands further east) designation
as "the Middle East" is Western in origin, treating the West
as the center of civilization, while labelling major centers of
Jewish/Muslim population as "Near"/"Middle" Eastern, while Asian
lands are further the the East are labeled the "Far East."
(Related to the geographical position of the Americas, of course).
So, bearing this in mind, the POD would have to be a discovery of
the Americas by a China which is actually interested in doing so,
establishing itself as a world power (perhaps Zheng He's voyages
are not cut short?), and as such, one which would continue to view
itself as the center of civilization , labelling the Americas
"Middle Eastern" (as seen from the geographical location of China).
Europe, interestingly, might be called...the "Far East!"
Any other suggestions?
[a] On one particularly bizarre TV-news flub I once saw, in
1986, a local (in Colorado) anchorwoman, commenting on the
recent Challenger disaster, said that this tragedy was the
greatest of its kind since the assassination of President...
Reagan! (Yes, the mistake was later corrected--it was JFK,
obviously).
Though there would still be a little confusion resulting
from China's insistence on calling itself the "Middle Kingdom."
From: Robert J. Gill (rjcgill@g2a.net)
Subject: Change location of the "Middle East" (was: Misprint AH Challenge
View this article only
Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if
Date: 2004-07-17 05:49:59 PST
>(President Chester A. Arthur) wrote:
>ABC News just now made a broadcast about AIDS in
China containing the caption: "Bangkok, China."
Yes, real-life news broadcasts have a strange habit
of altering OTL's reality, without intending to [a],
a habit which was spoofed recently, in the movie
_Anchorman_; a dimwitted TV weatherman gestures to a
map, forecasting "38 degrees in the Middle East"---
yet he's pointing at North Dakota!
So let's play with that idea; short of having ASBs
mess with the tectonic plates, how can we turn North
America into the "Middle East?" Two suggestions, both
of which involve non-Europeans exploring the Americas:
1.) Discovery/settlement of Americas by Muslims (perhaps
a Muslim world as advanced as that shown in GURPS Caliph
world), making it an extention of that part of the world
we associate with OTL's Middle East. (Culturally, that is).
OR...a more likely POD (and somewhat related to Chet's
earlier post about matters Chinese):
2.) In OTL, the Levant's (and lands further east) designation
as "the Middle East" is Western in origin, treating the West
as the center of civilization, while labelling major centers of
Jewish/Muslim population as "Near"/"Middle" Eastern, while Asian
lands are further the the East are labeled the "Far East."
(Related to the geographical position of the Americas, of course).
So, bearing this in mind, the POD would have to be a discovery of
the Americas by a China which is actually interested in doing so,
establishing itself as a world power (perhaps Zheng He's voyages
are not cut short?), and as such, one which would continue to view
itself as the center of civilization , labelling the Americas
"Middle Eastern" (as seen from the geographical location of China).
Europe, interestingly, might be called...the "Far East!"
Any other suggestions?
[a] On one particularly bizarre TV-news flub I once saw, in
1986, a local (in Colorado) anchorwoman, commenting on the
recent Challenger disaster, said that this tragedy was the
greatest of its kind since the assassination of President...
Reagan! (Yes, the mistake was later corrected--it was JFK,
obviously).
Though there would still be a little confusion resulting
from China's insistence on calling itself the "Middle Kingdom."