alternatehistory.com

This is not my work, this is from reddit's alternative history subreddit, by user cupnnoodlefreak, please upvote him if you enjoy the TL! He is currently up to the mid 1800s. He ignores butterflies a lot but it's still a pretty plausible and interesting Tl overall.

http://www.reddit.com/user/cupnoodlefreak

http://www.reddit.com/r/HistoricalW...if_the_industrial_revolution_had_occurred_in/

1368 - 1400: The Early Ming Dynasty
By the late 1360s, the Yuan dynasty, the legacy of Kublai Khan, is crumbling. Multiple rebellions have already risen, and the South has essentially fallen to revel forces under peasant-born Zhu Yuanzhang. Consolidating his hold on the rebel forces and defeating other rivals, Yuanzhang marches on Dadu (Beijing) in 1368 and expels the last Yuan Emperor, who flees back to Mongolia. Yuanzhang is an interesting figure. With the exception of his appearance (it's a common belief, but I can find no unbiased confirmation of it, that Yuanzhang was quite ugly), Yuanzhang comes out of some kind of preteen emo visual novel protagonist. Born to a peasant family with the name of Zhu Five Four (朱五四), he lost his whole family except one brother to a plague after they escaped a flood. He then lived at a monastery, spent some time as a hobo, came back and watched the monastery get bulldozed in the course of the rebellion, escalating rather quickly on to become the emperor of China. But I digress. Ascending as the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty, the new Hongwu Emperor is an individual aware of his peasant roots. Taking active steps to prevent the exploitation of the peasants (though this backfires in some cases), the Hongwu emperor establishes the legal protection of slaves, set out equivalents of homestead acts (those who cultivated unplowed land could keep it without being taxed) and reformed a stunningly complex legal code that, true to Chinese bureacracy, had been endlessly revised, modified and rewritten over four hundred years and four dynasties since the Tang. However, he wasn't a brilliant visionary either--he maintained Confucianism's traditional hostility towards merchants#Merchants), and at his old age he began a system of purges with his own version of the Blackshirts, the Brocade-clad Guards, killing at least 100,000 people (which, in China, is considered a minor hiccup). The Hongwu Emperor set his favorite grandson as his successor and then died.
This appointment, of course, was not well-accepted by his sons, most of which did not appreciate going straight from prince to duke, and so one of the Emperor's sons revolted. Zhu Di, later the Yongle Emperor, led an expedition to Beijing to "rescue" his nephew the Emperor. In the biggest "accident" ever, he "accidentally" burnt the Emperor, his whole family and half of Nanjing to the ground. Whistling loudly over the sound of charring flesh, Zhu Di proclaimed himself the Yongle Emperor and moved the capital to Beijing, instating a home makeover that took several hundred thousand workers and thirteen years. However, his convenient ascent to power is still considered the "Second Founding" of the Ming Dynasty. Under Yongle, the Civil Service examinations were re-established, and the great Treasure fleets under Zheng He are dispatched. Land Reclamation and repopulation projects were instated, and Yongle fought corruption the way he knew best--by killing all the officials who were found to be guilty of it. However, he was also extremely lenient to those who disagreed with his philosophy, accepting daoists, buddhists and muslims (building two mosques in deference to the Muslim Eunuchs such as Zheng He who had protected him during the war), and his reconstruction of the Grand Canal (built in the Sui dynasty but left to rot) revived trade within China.
Economic Roots of Industrialization in Ming China
At its height, the Ming Dynasty was the pre-eminent economic power in the world, controlling a full 31% of the World GDP. However, the dynasty was the vast economic freedoms afforded to its inhabitants. Since the Han dynasty, the government had controlled major industries such as Iron and Salt in order to limit the power of local merchants. Under the Ming, most major industries were Privatized, and traditional forced labor, considered a Civic Duty in China, was replaced with a wage system. Taxes were incredibly light even for the lowest strata of Chinese society, to point where at one point Peasants paid a 1.5% tax (this served the nation well in times of plenty but also weakened the amount of money controlled by central authority). The increasing power of merchants at the expense of the gentry forced the traditional land-owning nobles to associate with the ostracized merchants, and to the sound of Hongwu oscillating in his grave, Merchants became the pre-eminent power in China, particularly in the trade-oriented south, to the point where powerful merchants such as Zheng Zhilong, the son of a white collar accountant, controlled enough resources to defeat the Ming Government Navy. Many of the established nobles and gentry began appealing to financial backers in Guanzhou, Suzhou and Ningbo—and, with the financial gifts of the merchant class, the Mandarin, whose Confucian values belittled merchants (who earned a living producing nothing), were bribed into acceptance. The gentry began to meld with the merchant class, with the merchants acquiring gentrified mannerisms and the gentry enjoying a mutual relationship of privileges. Early bursts of capitalism emerged in the south, with early successful investments spurring increases in pottery, weapon, and ship factories and the development of powerful Zaibatsu-like companies. The Zheng Zilong Group trained their own navy to fight the Japanese-based Wokou pirates that plagued the Chinese coast, also defeating the East Dutch India Company, the flagship company of the powerful naval power of the time, from East Asia (to be fair to the Dutch, it was a stunningly lopsided fight).
1400 - 1570: Divergence Point - The Coal Rush
The development of specialized industries and increasing industrial production combined with increasing liberalism leads to greater private investment. Intermittent wars with the Jurchen, Manchu, Mongols in the North and later, for some time, the Japanese as well as a growing population and increased cultivation of previously-uninhabited land spurs need for an expansion of China's iron industry. However, the development of these industries is hampered by a shortage in Iron--or, more correctly, a shortage in coal. Iron is abundant, but the tools required to refine it are short. Coal, a major part of Chinese metallurgy for 400 years, is in relatively short supply in the South, and so merchants take active efforts to develop deeper mines in the south and routes to the North, where coal is more plentiful. Early steam engines come in the form of steam-powered water pumps, first used for clearing deep mines, convenient because there happened to be a lot of water, iron and coal in the mines to begin with. However, its viability in irrigating previously fallow parts of Chinese farmland is noted by Chinese plantation owners, who begin using it in the production of cash crops. This, of course, further exacerbated steam shortages as demand exceeded supply. As such, Chinese merchants began investing in the North, where coal was more readily available. Coal mines were moved farther up north to areas such as Shanxii. This, of course, brought problems such as distance. The abundance of coal was offset by the distance that required the coal to be transferred, though rivers helped. The need for greater efficiency leads to the slow development of steam-powered paddles. While the paddle wheel had been used in Chinese agriculture and naval warfare, the development of the use of steam allowed merchants to move coal in greater weights and amounts and allowed navy ships the speed to overtake much faster Wokou pirates while mounting more weaponry. By the 1500's, steamships are a common occurrence along the Yangtze, though the high cost of coal means that its use is largely limited to private merchant groups which come to hold greater power even in the court in Beijing. The need for greater coal leads to ever-northern investment by Southern merchants. Moved by bribery, the increasingly corrupt Ming government pushes further North to accommodate them as an aspiring steamship engineer begins construction of a steamship that will function--on land. The Fire Wagon (火車), as it is referred to by the average chinese, is a loud, bellowing monstrosity, but its speed is sufficient to exceed that of the horse, and it now allows the regular arrival of coal from the previously inaccessible North.
1570 - 1650:The Imjin War and the Stagnation of the Ming Dynasty
In 1570, the newly reunited Japan under Toyotomi Hideyoshi rises. A former footsoldier of his predecessor, Oda Nobunaga, Hideyoshi had united Japan as Regent under the banner of fulfilling Nobunaga’s dream, one of which was the conquest of Korea and China (Hideyoshi’s aspirations reached as far as India). In accordance, a diplomatic faux pas and mutual misunderstanding between the Korean Joseon dynasty leads to the invasion of Korea. The war starts with the Japanese ascendant, the Joseon having initially underestimated their enemies as Wokou and then having lost most of their Cavalry at Chungju. Constrained by its obligations to its tributary, the Ming government joins into the war. The Korean Navy under legendary admiral Yi Sun Sin defeats the Japanese navy several times, cutting off supplies as Ming forces and Korean Partisans fight an evenly-matched war against the Japanese. Shocked by the lack of headway, Hideyoshi attempts negotiations while attempting to mend his wounds. When negotiations fail, the Koreans are ready, having reformed their military and having obtained paddle-wheel engines from Chinese merchants. The new Korean Panokseon boast both greater speed (the main advantage of the Japanese navy) and more guns, devastating the Japanese navy and leading to the eventual Japanese withdrawal, leaving behind a ravaged Korea.
The Imjin Wars ended the political power of the Toyotomi, and the outward-looking rule of the Toyotomi was replaced with the inwards rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate. China, meanwhile, incurred a significant financial burden that, coupled with the gradual corruption of the previously-diligent Wanli emperor, led to discontent, particularly in the merchant south. The incompetence of the next two emperors led to a general weakening of the Ming position, particular in the North, where the Jurchen/Manchurian Leader Nurhaci annexed all of Chinese Liaodong. Meanwhile economic crises, coupled with natural disasters, left the citizenry discontent and angry. Increased banditry threatens coal production as the northernmost mines are disrupted, and industrial coal production drops. The coronation of the Chongzhen Emperor, the 16th since the founder, was not a happy one. Southern China was dominated by Guangdong and Fujian Cantonese merchants (particularly Zheng Zhilong, a former pirate and merchant with strong links with Europe, Japan and Southern China); the bulk of the Ming Imperial Army, led by Yuan Chonghuan, was fighting a vastly larger Manchurian-Mongol Army in the North united under the later Jin dynasty; Peasant discontent was fermenting, and most bureaucratic positions were understaffed or staffed by incompetent individuals thanks to years of rule by Eunuchs. The Chongzhen emperor, a hard-working but paranoid individual, promptly executed the Eunuchs who had controlled the court during the rule of his brother and predecessor, the Tianqi Emperor. In the North, the Ming army under Yuan Chonghuan repelled a larger Jurchen/Manchu force under Nurhaci’s son, the Khong Tayiji. In the years that followed, Chonghuan’s force retook occupied Liaodong, restoring relations with Joseon Korea, while Zheng Zhilong was hired by the Ming Navy as a privateer, proceeding to defeat the Dutch East India Company on the seas. All of this, however, this did not ease the anger of the people, which eventually culminated in open rebellion in Shanxi (previously struck by a famine) and Sichuan. The Shanxi rebellion, led by former soldier Li Zicheng, proved stunningly successful, defeating demoralized and overstretched government forces and taking the Imperial Capital at Beijing, where the Chonghuan emperor committed suicide after killing nearly all of his family.
Following the death of the Chonghuan Emperor, China was divided. In the south, Ming loyalists supported the Prince of Fu (and descendant of the Wanli Emperor), Zhu Yousong, as Emperor, led by Ministry of War minister Shi Kefa in Nanjing. In the North, the Ming Imperial Army, under Yuan Chonghuan, supported the Princess Changping, the only survivor of the Chonghuan Emperor’s final massacre of his own family (the Wanli Emperor had wanted his third son to inherit the throne during his reign. However, the Confucian conservatives and Mandarins opposed this and forced him to choose the eldest son, part of the reason he started to ignore the runnings of the country. Changping is the descendant of the eldest son, Zhu Yousong is a descendant of the third son, so Yuan Chonghuan, who had to have Confucian training to pass the Military civil service exams, probably would not have approved the ascension of Zhu Yousong). In Beijing and Shanxi, Li Zicheng established the Shun dynasty, based around the Imperial Capital, while Zhang Xianzhong, a rebel leader with an unhealthy obsession with ears and legs (he had them removed from every dead person as a measure in place of a headcount) ruled Sichuan, based in Chengdu. While the bulk of the Ming military force remained in the Northern Ming under Yuan Chonghuan, the constant threat of the Jurchens/Manchurians prevented them from playing much of a role in the resulting Four Kingdoms period. Li Zicheng’s peasant rebels, meanwhile, lacked the drive and organization to overcome either the Northern Ming or the Southern Ming, while Zhang Xianzhong, busy killing his own population, was even less capable. The eventual winner of this twenty-year war of succession would be the Southern Ming. Supported by the wealthy merchants of Guangzhou, Prince Yousong, coronated as the Hongguang emperor, had an ample supply of monetary support. Moreover, the presence of Zheng Zhilong and his half-japanese son, Zheng Chenggong/Koxinga meant that he had a capable military leader. Following the recapture of Beijing and the destruction of the Shun, the Southern Ming pacified Sichuan. Further conflict with the Northern Ming was prevented with the death of Yuan Chonghuan of natural causes. In a deal most historians believed to have been struck in secret by Zheng Zhilong and Northern Ming general Wu Sangui, the de facto commander following the death of his superior, Hong Chenchou, the Changping Princess was quietly forced into abdication and disappeared. Wu Sangui, in the meantime, gained control of the North and much of the remaining Imperial Army as a warlord.
1650 - 1700 The End of the Ming Dynasty and the Huang Continuation
With the reunification of China under the Hongguang emperor, the Ming dynasty looked set to continue. However, the court was dominated by Zheng Zhilong’s son, Chenggong, whose mastery of naval and land tactics had allowed the Southern Ming to defeat the rebels, an action that earned Chenggong the title Guoxingye, Lord of the Imperial Surname (westernized as Koxinga), as the adopted son of the Emperor thanks to his actions. With the deaths of Shi Kefa, Fengyang Viceroy Ma Shiying and Zheng Zhilong, Koxinga became the most senior figure in the courts. While Koxinga never explicitly rebelled against the Hongguang emperor or his son, the Taiping Emperor, his domination over the courts led to much worry. In time a plot was hatched by the Taiping Emperor in which Chenggong would be stripped of his positions. Chinese stories dictate that Koxinga confronted the young emperor personally, who quailed before Koxinga and collapsed once he had left. From there on, governance was in the hands of Koxinga and his family. When Koxinga died, his son, Zheng Jing, succeeded as Prime Minister. The Taiping emperor was completely dominated by Zheng Jing, and caved easily when Zheng Jing demanded the marriage of one of his daughters. As soon as this occurred, Zheng Jing proceeded to force the Taiping emperor to abdicate, ending the Ming dynasty. Under his rule, the new Yuanwei Emperor moved the capital from Beijing back to Nanjing, claiming the dynastic title of Huang (煌) , meaning shining/brilliant, both due to its relation to the Ming (明), which means bright, and because avoiding regional titles would reduce confrontation and sectionalism.
(Note: from here on out many characters will be completely fictional, as this has completely diverged from the history where the Manchu rule over china.)
The Huang continuation was met with limited resistance from the peasantry and merchants, many of whom were glad to see the end of the war and had predicted the end of the Ming through the Dynastic cycle. Ever-loyal to the merchants that had been the dynasty's main support, the Huang continued Ming policies of weak taxation, though its rates were somewhat higher for the peasantry. The South continues to be the economic powerhouse behind the Ming dynasty, and industrial production, based around coal and steam, continue. The chinese, who had been using Interchangeable parts for some time, came to increasingly depend on other coal-powered machines for the production of steamboat, pump and train engines, with development increasing to match it. The first commercial train line is established from the capital in Nanjing to the old capital in Beijing, connected by steamboat and later bridge. Coal-heavy areas such as Shaanxi and Yunan become dotted with factories as many peasants, now out-competed by industrial plantations, begin moving to manufacturing centers. Vast railways were developed towards the Northern Frontier, where Chinese troops were now regularly issued matchlock muskets. The need for new markets leads Chinese merchants to begin further trade down the coast. Train lines begin to move into Korea, while steamships begin to appear in European colonies in the East Indies, to the shock of European observers. Having preceded europe by centuries in the introduction of moveable type, Opium dens and Tea houses become areas for discussion on all matters philosophical, economical or political.
For all its industrial development, China is faced with increasing problems. Sanitation is being problematic in major urban areas and ports, while peasants are laid off the moment they become unprofitable. The Huang government, reliant on merchants, can do little to help. The increasing amounts of plutocrats in power, mixed with an opium addiction that had been growing since the 1600's, confirmed to many that the traditional values that had kept China alive are being eroded. Increased trade with Europe has led to a growing christian population in the coastal cities in the south, part of the corrupting influence of foreigners. The Radical ideas emerging from the Opium dens are further proof that China is being destroyed from the inside, and the Huang government was too weak to stop them. Secret societies begin to rise such as the old White Lotus, attacking what they see as decadent moral values and promoting agrarian values. Attacks on the growing Christian minority becomes increasingly common. These are not problems when times are good--but as the plight of the urban peasantry become increasingly obvious, the danger escalates.
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