Interesting AH ideas that aren't commonly used
- Thread starter lerk
- Start date
-
- Tags
- alternate history
If we're talking post-1900, then there's a lot of stuff to be used with the Chinese Civil War, different Warlord periods, the Long March fails. Hell even during Cold War, you could go for something interesting with no death of Mao Anying, giving Mao a viable if not entirely mouldable in his image successor.
I recommend reading @Alt History Buff 's timeline: America: Albion's orphan.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...onquest-of-britain-1760.470001/#post-19095968
How the fuck do you get worse than OTL, without being ridiculous. China of the early teens to the late twenties was basically divided between armies of what amounted to glorified bandits mercenaries and some professional soldiers. Maoist China had the bad luck being seen as an expendable puppet to Stalin, so it is not like the Cultural Revolution, or Great Leap Forward was always in the cards, or Korean War was always in the cards.
Nah, I haven't seen a detailed ATL on it. Sure, I've seen it as a side thing in a bunch of maps but can only recall one map where it was the main focus(someone's mexican independence referendum map showing the referendum failing).
I've never seen one deal with the development of American music in any serious way. Like what happens if you somehow manage to keep jazz from developing, or if country/western mixes with slave music sooner.
Related to that, I've never seen one deal specifically with the influence of tech on music: what happens if the electric (solidbody) guitar is invented sooner? Or if cars are (& so the honkytonk arises sooner)?
Related to that, I've never seen one deal specifically with the influence of tech on music: what happens if the electric (solidbody) guitar is invented sooner? Or if cars are (& so the honkytonk arises sooner)?
So again, without it being ridiculous. The first is a bit of reach, the second and third are flat-out impossible.
I think the scariest thing is trying to come with band names and lyrics, as far as music goes.
I won't go near lyrics.
Song titles are bad enough.Band names aren't so bad. There are opportunities to have a little fun. And there are rejected names & earlier-use names that can come into play: have The Beatles stay The Quarrymen, frex, or CCR choose The Mugwumps, instead. (Or not...
)There are issues of fads to beware of. At one time, it seems like every band was Four *something*: Four Tops, Four Lads, Four Seasons... I wanted to do a Beach Boys analog & call them The Four Deuces; nope, there already was one...& I didn't want to confuse them.
Of course, there's always "parallellism". Want to evoke Eagles? Call them The Falcons, maybe. Want Jan & Dean? How about Jim & Dick?
When you consider The Light Crust Doughboys were a real band, you can get away with damn near anything.
DOD is more extreme than a simple "polk dies, dallas takes over and mexico is added". a good TL but not what i was looking for
McPherson
Banned
No self respecting
wants to be compared to a
Now that would be an utterly weird ATL when the chokers and the Super Bowl champs were somehow reversed.
McP.
You do understand I have no knowledge of CFL football at all, don't you?
(Nor really do I care, TBH. )BTW, unless Glenn Frey & Don Henley were from Philadelphia, I don't think they'd care, either.
McPherson
Banned
You do understand I have no knowledge of CFL football at all, don't you?
BTW, unless Glenn Frey & Don Henley were from Philadelphia, I don't think they'd care, either.
Don't see many Russia-centered TLs
A Novgorodian defeat at the Battle on the Ice leads to a more western-looking, Catholic Russia
The Golden Horde survives making TTL version of Russia part of the Turkic world
For a more modern TL you could give Putin a different assignment when he was part of the KGB. IOTL Putin spent almost all of his KGB career in Dresden, where he spent most of his time pushing papers around a desk. Sending him to Bangladesh or Afghanistan, or even a city in East Germany closer to the border (where he could reliably access West Germany radio station and TV channels) could give him a much different view on the world and a different trajectory for his political career (if he even still ends up having one)
Shifting focus to China
Mao could have easily failed to seize power the way that he did during the Zunyi Conference, leaving the CCP under the control of the 28 Bolsheviks or having the Long March collapse into infighting
You could leave Mao with a more positive legacy by having him die during the 100 Flowers Campaign
Or make things even worse by Twilight of the Red Tsar-ing him, either by extending his own reign or having the Gang of Four take over China after his death
Apparently, most of America's Japan experts were sidelined by MacArthur during the Occupation. According to Embracing Defeat they wanted more moderate reforms than what MacArthur ended up going with, having them more involved could lead to America being more conservative even before the Reverse Course
Don't have the First International invite Karl Marx, completely changing modern left wing thought
A Novgorodian defeat at the Battle on the Ice leads to a more western-looking, Catholic Russia
The Golden Horde survives making TTL version of Russia part of the Turkic world
For a more modern TL you could give Putin a different assignment when he was part of the KGB. IOTL Putin spent almost all of his KGB career in Dresden, where he spent most of his time pushing papers around a desk. Sending him to Bangladesh or Afghanistan, or even a city in East Germany closer to the border (where he could reliably access West Germany radio station and TV channels) could give him a much different view on the world and a different trajectory for his political career (if he even still ends up having one)
Shifting focus to China
Mao could have easily failed to seize power the way that he did during the Zunyi Conference, leaving the CCP under the control of the 28 Bolsheviks or having the Long March collapse into infighting
You could leave Mao with a more positive legacy by having him die during the 100 Flowers Campaign
Or make things even worse by Twilight of the Red Tsar-ing him, either by extending his own reign or having the Gang of Four take over China after his death
Apparently, most of America's Japan experts were sidelined by MacArthur during the Occupation. According to Embracing Defeat they wanted more moderate reforms than what MacArthur ended up going with, having them more involved could lead to America being more conservative even before the Reverse Course
Don't have the First International invite Karl Marx, completely changing modern left wing thought
Last edited:
Kaze
Banned
1. I could see a way to retell "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" - where Lu Bu, Cao-Cao, etal replace the modern day warlords this time using modern day tech. The Japanese could take the place of the Xiongnu - or if you are playing Koei's Warriors Orochi - they could either be the Japanese forces or the Orochi forces.
2. Project 571.
A coup against Mao is successful - you could do this at any period in his lifespan.
3. The competition with Wang Jingwei, Nanjing Decade, Dai Li's death, UN negotiation, the flight to Taiwan, planed invasion of mainland in 1962, and others could be used as POD for Chiang Kai-Shek.
4. The fate of Hong Kong post Japanese occupation could lead to many situations - reunification to the mainland, independence, or follow IRL history.
There are lots of AUs where people are killed (especially a certain mustachioed Fuhrer) but I don't see many where people live who died OTL. Specifically, what about all those heirs who died, leaving second sons to inherit? Arthur Tudor is sometimes toyed with since Henry VIII is so powerful, but there's also Henry Frederick Stuart, eldest son of James I, whose reign could potentially butterfly the English Civil War with major consequences. Thinking there may be more "lost heirs" and lots to play with in terms their surviving illness or accident to take the throne ahead of their more famous siblings.
I haven't seen too many works discussing how the USSR would turn out if Lenin lived longer or if he was succeeded by someone other than Stalin or Trotsky. Or both for that matter.
Here's an interesting POD related to Jazz: Duke Ellington's Black, Brown, and Beige symphonic length work receives rave reviews by the New York media as one of "America's finest works of musical genius" when it debuts in 1943.
Instead of Ellington essentially locking it away and only partially reperforming it on a small scale, you get an explosion of symphonic jazz and recognition as a fully American high art form worthy of long-form performance.