In case anyone missed the update (a literary one), it's at post 2893. Postwar Africa will be next, the last academic update of the 19th century.
If no one volunteers to update the wiki, I'll see what I can do after I finish the century, although I won't make any promises as to when. I do plan to take care of a couple of housekeeping matters then, including a story-only thread in the "Finished Timelines" forum (the timeline will be divided into three "books" for that purpose).
Was there a Battle of Jutland/big battleship brawl in the Great War?
Probably not. The French and Russian navies realized that they couldn't go toe to toe with the RN, so they concentrated on commerce raiding, defending their ports and keeping local superiority on critical sea lanes. Their strategy was to oppose strength with speed and maneuverability. There wouldn't have been an instance where 250 ships were in the same place at the same time - there were some smaller battles which included battleship duels, but nothing like Jutland.
Ise da Bahai dat build da boat
Probably no changes to the newfs yet - nothing short of direct ASB intervention could change their way of life.
One of the things ITTL that I like most so far is Salonika, so I was wondering what life is actually like there. We know it's a Jewish Majority but what are the actual numbers, what about distinctions within the Jewish community? Do the Sephardi/Ashkenazi/Mizrahi/Romaniotes all form distinctive groups within the Jewish majority or have they all basically coalesced into one big Jewish soup (which will then be thrown in Hitlers face)? If they are big distinctions within the Jewish community what are the general economic and social niches they fall into? Whats the general lingua franca of the city given how I count at least five different candidates for that?
At a rough guess, the population of Salonika (including both the city proper and the surrounding area that is part of the free port) is between 500,000 and 750,000, with at least 80 percent being Jewish. This is a much higher population than OTL and has made the city very crowded - one reason it didn't get even more Jewish refugees is that there simply isn't room for them.
The main dividing line within the Jewish population is between the Sephardim/Mizrahim/Romaniotes who were there before the free port was declared, and the Russian/Eastern European/Central Asian Jewish refugees who came afterward. The Central Asians may actually qualify as a third group - although they are from the Russian Empire, they're very culturally distinct from the Ashkenazim. There may also have been some late immigration from Persia (due to the civil war) and Yemen (due to the fighting in that region as well as the generally low status of Yemenite Jews). The Persians and Yemenis are fairly small communities and will eventually merge into the Mizrahim but haven't done so yet; the Ashkenazim, Central Asians and to some extent the Sephardi elites are large enough to stay culturally distinct.
The Sephardim and Romaniotes are, for the most part, at the top of the economic and political ladder, although some rich Ashkenazi businessmen who managed to leave Russia with their money are starting to break in. The recent immigrants and the Central Asians are at the bottom, although again with exceptions. The professional class is made up of Sephardim and educated Ashkenazim; the small businessmen and tradesmen come from the established Mizrahi community and the majority of Ashkenazim who arrived poor.
The lingua franca is Turkish, although there's a romantic Hebrew revivalist movement which is gaining traction, and there's a Hebrew publishing house in the city. Most people who are in business also speak some Greek. The communities also speak their own languages among themselves - Yiddish, Ladino, Judeo-Persian, Judeo-Arabic, Bukhari and Greek are all spoken, and there are clubs and literary societies for each community.
If you like, I'll set a narrative update there sometime during the early 20th century.
Well, he certainly got himself into hot water IOTL when he got himself trapped by his own stories and make-believe about really having lived through the adventures he described, but that hinged on the narrator being himself, the German "adventurer"; I think even Karl May wouldn't have succeeded in making others and himself believe that he was a Japanese adventurer as well.
Well, I didn't say he'd
successfully claim to be Japanese.
But yeah, he'd more likely claim to be Minoru's German companion, and would say that he's telling Minoru's story exactly as related by that hero.
There are so many small changes that could occur that would make the Maori experience better or different though that I was not aware of till I reviewed some of those links. A recent parliamentary report, written in part based on research from various constitutional scholars thinks that the legal framework in place from the 1850s British legislation in force for NZ expressly contemplated Maori self governance within the national parliamentary structure but that for various obvious reasons, was never implemented.
Those obvious reasons would all still exist in TTL, so I don't think this would happen, but as you've mentioned, there might be some other pragmatic concessions on land and parliamentary representation that make the situation at least slightly less contentious.
One day off-list, I'd like to hear about your work in the Maori affairs ministry.
There may be *fascist and anti-semitic dictatorships in some countries (Hungary looks like a prime candidate)
Belgium is headed in that direction also, and there will be others here and there.
The only threats for the Salonika Jews I could imagine would be the Ottoman Empire to be dissolved violently or fall into the hands of a nasty sort of Turkish nationalism, or a post-Tolstoyan Russia taking a turn for the worse, dredging up anti-semitic sentiments again and going for the domination of Europe (or at least for a return to the mission of "liberating the Balkan Christians").
There's also the possibility of an expansionist and ultra-nationalist Greece. But you're correct that these things won't happen - Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Greece will all have troubles, but not those particular troubles.
Jonathan, I'd like to also add that Lucknow was considered the last centre of Mughal culture; there were some princes who lived there as well; if they've survived in your TL, I could see the city being the point of entrance for Belloist ideals.
There's already been some entry through the *Ahmadis, but Lucknow may play a part as well. The Mughals will be involved in TTL somehow; I just need to work out the details.
