Opening Post
Greetings, fellow Alternate Historians. For the past three and a half years, I’ve been working on the moderately successful timeline of English Canada/French Carolina. With a POD in the Anglo-French War of 1627-1629, I have gone through over 300 years in the timeline. I have now reached the 1970s, which means that the end of the timeline is near, likely sometime in 2022. With the end of my current TL coming so soon, that begs the question of what I am going to do next. I’ve thought about doing a few different TL’s. One of them was a timeline where Christopher Columbus either never sails the ocean blue in fourteen hundred and ninety two or never returns from said voyage. However, I’ve decided that the No Columbus TL would be a bit too daunting, so I’ve narrowed it down to the other two.
First, a timeline where the Pilgrims and Puritans never decide to migrate to OTL’s New England, meaning that the colonies that formed OTL’s American North never come into existence. This obviously has huge consequences on the future of not only North America, but the entire world. New England (specifically Massachusetts) was the cradle of the American Revolution, which likely would never occur if it were just the Southern Colonies. The American Revolution’s success was one of the major factors contributing to the French Revolution, whose removal would change European and more broadly global politics in ways we can’t even describe. Having a smaller empire in North America might mean that England (and later Britain, assuming the Act of Union still happens) takes a more Asia-focused strategy, changing not only Asia (British Indonesia, anyone?), but also Africa (earlier British Cape Colony, anyone?). Similarly, the Dutch might focus more on the New World instead of Asia if they’re beat to the Cape and still have the New Netherlands (although the Dutch did briefly conquer Portuguese Angola), possibly having more of South America and The Caribbean (the Dutch also briefly conquered Northern Brazil). Really, this is just scratching the surface of what could occur in a Pilgrims-less world, so I’ll leave more of that to further discussion.
Now, the other timeline. I am of majority Scandinavian ancestry (not much of a surprise if you know that I’m from Minnesota). Thus, one of the timelines I’ve thought of is a timeline where the Kalmar Union survives. In OTL, the Kalmar Union (named for the town in which it was declared) lasted from 1397 to 1523, when Sweden officially became independent of the union. However, what if this union survived? This timeline would give the lion’s share of its focus to the Nordic Empire, from its internal development to expansion around the Baltic and North Seas and finally the sizable colonial empire it’d acquire (think The Netherlands or Portugal in terms of scope), mainly in North America (expect a Scandinavian Canada). However, other regions would also garner attention, especially as the butterflies begin to affect other parts of Europe and then the world at large.
I’d like to see input and discussion on both of these scenarios, as I figure out which one to pursue further in the future. I’ve got the basic ideas I listed laid out, but fleshing them out more with you guys would be helpful. Oh, and I’d like to announce that EC/FC will be continued as a Maps & Graphics TL after it has reached the present day.
Sincerely, Gabingston.
First, a timeline where the Pilgrims and Puritans never decide to migrate to OTL’s New England, meaning that the colonies that formed OTL’s American North never come into existence. This obviously has huge consequences on the future of not only North America, but the entire world. New England (specifically Massachusetts) was the cradle of the American Revolution, which likely would never occur if it were just the Southern Colonies. The American Revolution’s success was one of the major factors contributing to the French Revolution, whose removal would change European and more broadly global politics in ways we can’t even describe. Having a smaller empire in North America might mean that England (and later Britain, assuming the Act of Union still happens) takes a more Asia-focused strategy, changing not only Asia (British Indonesia, anyone?), but also Africa (earlier British Cape Colony, anyone?). Similarly, the Dutch might focus more on the New World instead of Asia if they’re beat to the Cape and still have the New Netherlands (although the Dutch did briefly conquer Portuguese Angola), possibly having more of South America and The Caribbean (the Dutch also briefly conquered Northern Brazil). Really, this is just scratching the surface of what could occur in a Pilgrims-less world, so I’ll leave more of that to further discussion.
Now, the other timeline. I am of majority Scandinavian ancestry (not much of a surprise if you know that I’m from Minnesota). Thus, one of the timelines I’ve thought of is a timeline where the Kalmar Union survives. In OTL, the Kalmar Union (named for the town in which it was declared) lasted from 1397 to 1523, when Sweden officially became independent of the union. However, what if this union survived? This timeline would give the lion’s share of its focus to the Nordic Empire, from its internal development to expansion around the Baltic and North Seas and finally the sizable colonial empire it’d acquire (think The Netherlands or Portugal in terms of scope), mainly in North America (expect a Scandinavian Canada). However, other regions would also garner attention, especially as the butterflies begin to affect other parts of Europe and then the world at large.
I’d like to see input and discussion on both of these scenarios, as I figure out which one to pursue further in the future. I’ve got the basic ideas I listed laid out, but fleshing them out more with you guys would be helpful. Oh, and I’d like to announce that EC/FC will be continued as a Maps & Graphics TL after it has reached the present day.
Sincerely, Gabingston.
