BiteNibbleChomp, now that is a good idea. Is there any earlier times this could have happened?
On another note a lot of tech arises from periods of warfare. Would increasing the amount of wars between the European powers make them more advanced and successful or was OTL close to the limit of how productive warfare could be? How would we increase warfare further?
My TL works on the basis that because there was no Congress of Vienna in 1815 (the peace arrangement post-Napoleon), it becomes the norm for their to be a major global war every generation or so, which understandably results in hideous actions (such as sacking cities with the use of poison gas) becoming accepted by the world. What this does is it kind of distracts the nations of Europe into gearing their whole economies around the eventuality that because there was a war in 1756, 1789, 1812, 1833... that there will be one in 1853, the 1880s and so on, which sets colonisation back into the 20th century as it becomes too difficult for nations to be both worrying about their neighbours (most of whom they hate) and at the same time thinking about territories on the other side of the world. And when colonisation does kick in, Europe has both an absurd tech lead (which is similar to OTL on most levels), and an almost Sherman-esque mentality about war: ie kill
everything.
I think to go any further with war (a 50M+ casualty war every 25 years or so) would be unrealistic as it would be too straining on a nation's economy, and by the 1930s of my TL tech does begin to lag significantly behind our own as a result of so many bright minds killed three generations before they were born (for instance, by 1985 we still don't have the ability to launch satellites). I think the 'optimum' for tech development probably lies somewhere in between OTL and mine, but to pinpoint a reason why risks upsetting the whole reason why OTL "worked" - ie if I stick a world war in 1848 of OTL, the century of peace 1815-1914 is disrupted and the change may be counterproductive. And ultimately, too much rests on butterflies to be sure.
As for earlier times the events of my TL happening, colonisation of Africa in it occurs around 1900-1930 (OTL 1880-1910) and China in 1950 (OTL 1840-1900). To go earlier, might as well use OTL. If you mean the trends generally, I based a lot of at least the first half of my TL off the general trends of the 18th century, which had 5 major wars occur in it (Spanish Succession, Austrian Succession, 7YW, Revolutionary War and the War of the 1st Coalition). The second half (post 1887) is a totally different beast so I'll just ignore that. Again, these trends came from OTL and I saw no reason why they should be interrupted, and if you want to change the war mentality away from generational world wars, either you need a Congress of Vienna-type event, or just butterfly the whole system with a change in the 1680s, which is when it all began.
- BNC