Miscellaneous <1900 (Alternate) History Thread

Bytor

Monthly Donor
What if Mary's miscarriages from 1677 to 1680 had all been healthy, surviving children with at least the first one being a boy so that there was a clear heir to William III/II and her? (Assume they both die as per OTL.)

There'd be no need for the English Act of Settlement in 1701, or the Scottish Act of Security in 1704. Would William still spend so much time away from England as he did OTL if he had some heirs?

The Dutch provinces had selected several Princes of Orange (who were essentially foreigners) over the years to be their Stadtholders, eventually making it hereditary in 1747/51. As such, I don't think it's unreasonable that, given William's popularity that got him elected in spite of a decree that his father's son could never be, would result in William Jr/VI/III getting elected when his father dies in 1702.

How long can we keep a hereditary Stadtholdership of the Netherlands in personal union with England, Scotland, and Ireland? What implications does this have for British and Dutch colonisation efforts?

Is there any effect on the outcome of the Spanish War of Succession? Would this hypothetical William VI/III insist that he get the Spanish Netherlands that his Dutch troops are occupying? IIRC, OTL the Netherlands didn't get them because of British concerns about increased Dutch influence and power.
 
I've played with the idea of a Greater New World. One that not only includes the Americas and Oceania but also Madagacascar and the Canary Islands. With not only surviving Rapanui/Vinland but expanded with greater domesticated animals and spread of said domesticates. Such as paca,pacarana,chinchilla,peccary,igauna,hutia,emu, brush turkey and surviving elephant bird,moa and dodo,primarily by becoming status symbols of the elite. I would do a better timeline,but I reckon no-one would pay any attention.
 
Did the Chinese (or other Sinosphere countries like Japan or Korea) ever standardize guns and artillery based on traditional East Asian units like the chi/shaku or cun/sun (length for caliber/guage) or tael (liang) or Japanese kan (weight)? I understand that East Asian innovation in firearms and artillery (relative to Europe) mostly stagnated by the Ming era and many of their best weapons (like the tanegashima muskets) were based on European designs and later on only Meiji Japan ever had a strong weapons industry and they didn't seem to use traditional units in their artillery or weapons on their warships. Like for instance the Type 93 "Long Lance" torpedo is 610 mm and not 606.1 mm (2 shaku/20 sun).

Specifically because I was curious of the implications on artillery and other weapons in a world where East Asia is just as dominant as the West. I could imagine they might reform their system and metrify as Japan or the Republic of China did OTL (but not fully adopt metric like the US or Britain, so even if 10 sun equals 1 shaku you'd still need to convert to centimeters/meters) but they'd still ideally keep their system and we'd have a few more standards diameters for weapons and perhaps something as enduring as US/traditional English units of measurement.
 

Grey Wolf

Gone Fishin'
Donor
I've played with the idea of a Greater New World. One that not only includes the Americas and Oceania but also Madagacascar and the Canary Islands. With not only surviving Rapanui/Vinland but expanded with greater domesticated animals and spread of said domesticates. Such as paca,pacarana,chinchilla,peccary,igauna,hutia,emu, brush turkey and surviving elephant bird,moa and dodo,primarily by becoming status symbols of the elite. I would do a better timeline,but I reckon no-one would pay any attention.

How do you mean? Keeping OTL geography but defining the New World thus? I am intrigued about the timeline?
 
How do you mean? Keeping OTL geography but defining the New World thus? I am intrigued about the timeline?
Well for Oceania,many consider them to be New World since they were discovered centuries after Columbus with similar tech levels. Madagascar likewise was discovered around 1500 and the Canary Islands around the 14th century with the Guanche experiencing the same situation as Native Americans a century or two later. I've always had a fondness for both Vinland and Rapa Nui who got dealt some bad luck. And there are several large rodents of the Hystriacomorph family that are prime candidates for domestication as are several iguana species. For the Aboriginals,they were innovative,practiced aquaculture and there are some bird species alone with monitors that might be good candidates, As for the Guanche,what held them back was lack of boats. If they got ahold of some reed boats and learned how to use them,then they could colonize the rest of Macronesia and maybe set up trade along side the Outer Caribbean. For Madagascar, I never understood why the Malagasy didn't travel to and set up colonies in the Mascarenes,maybe more population pressure in Madagascar is the key,likewise maybe some could travel to and set up a small settlement in Kerguelen. For New Zealand,if the Rapa Nui grow in numbers and trade with the Andeans,maybe some will set sail for Polynesia.Maybe some in New Zealand,perhaps with guinea pigs or alpacas? More cold-adapted livestock at least. And of course,I want the Rapa Nui to colonize the Galapagos and other islands up and down South America to California.
 
What if Roman Briton became England?
That is to say, what if Briton was centralised enough and governed well enough (especially in respects to local customs, enough to prevent a Boudicca-case) and maintain a large number of willing auxiliaries - enough to defeat the Germanic invasions by the time of the 4th century. Then split from the Roman Empire to strike out on their own under largely mixed/integrated Local and Roman leadership? I'd expect such a state would quickly become a Monarchy or Aristocratic Republic of some description, run by local aristocrats and the past Roman regime (likely intermixing, with preference for Latin like how many English nobility knew French).
 
Another thing I'd want to do in Greater New World would be the colonization of Antarctica. I feel the Patagons would be the best candidates since they are right next door,but maybe some Moriori drifting further south as an infusion. Maybe it could be done with transplant of the megaherbs of southern New Zealand. Not deep into Antarctica,but eaking out a living alongside the coastal Antarctic islands/coastline. Who knows? Perhaps they develop a taste for penguins.
 
Have there been any "Battle Royale/Free for all wars in history?" More than 3 sides, no teams?
Warring States period China?
Warlord era China
Maybe Medieval Europe if multiple claimants fight for a throne?
If very few of these exist, how could there be more "Battle Royale" wars?
 
What if writing evolved much earlier than OTL? For context, behaviorally modern (the provable existence of culture and complex thought) started roughly 50,000 years ago, while writing started roughly 5000 years ago (and was independently invented only five times!). So if the POD is the invention of writing in the 45000 years between modern humans and OTL writing, what could the changes be?
 
Another thing I'd want to do in Greater New World would be the colonization of Antarctica. I feel the Patagons would be the best candidates since they are right next door,but maybe some Moriori drifting further south as an infusion. Maybe it could be done with transplant of the megaherbs of southern New Zealand. Not deep into Antarctica,but eaking out a living alongside the coastal Antarctic islands/coastline. Who knows? Perhaps they develop a taste for penguins.
Kinda ASB unless your Greater New World has another Antarctic Peninsula stretching up south toward New Zealand since the distance is utterly huge across legendarily stormy oceans and going from the treeless Sub-Antarctic Islands to the coast of East Antarctica is a massive leap in climate conditions and available plants (i.e. none) and animals.

There's some edible species of megaherbs like the Macquarie Island cabbage and there's probably enough of that combined with seaweed, fishing, and seabirds to scrape out a living for a hunter-gatherer society. I do wonder if there's any particularly useful species of megaherb in terms of calories and nutrients. But I doubt they'd be able to grow on Antarctica except maybe in very, very sheltered parts of the tip of the Antarctica Peninsula facing the sun since even there Antarctica's climate is colder than places like Macquarie Island.
 
Kinda ASB unless your Greater New World has another Antarctic Peninsula stretching up south toward New Zealand since the distance is utterly huge across legendarily stormy oceans and going from the treeless Sub-Antarctic Islands to the coast of East Antarctica is a massive leap in climate conditions and available plants (i.e. none) and animals.

There's some edible species of megaherbs like the Macquarie Island cabbage and there's probably enough of that combined with seaweed, fishing, and seabirds to scrape out a living for a hunter-gatherer society. I do wonder if there's any particularly useful species of megaherb in terms of calories and nutrients. But I doubt they'd be able to grow on Antarctica except maybe in very, very sheltered parts of the tip of the Antarctica Peninsula facing the sun since even there Antarctica's climate is colder than places like Macquarie Island.
If I decided that Antarctica would be colonized,it would be the Fuegians primarily due to the fact that they are already adapted to the cold. Moriori would be later if then. But much like their Arctic counterparts, the Antarcticans would have a primarily meat based diet with similar ways to cook leopard seals,penguins,whales and whatever Antarctic fish is around. And they might be more seafaring if for nothing else than how inhospitable mainland Antarctica is.
 
Since I have written a lot about an Independent Luzon, Luzon's or Selurong's aristocracy if they ruled Luzon would have suppressed Spanish culture, the peninsular Spanish, all the Spanish affiliated populations and the Spanish loyal tribes from day one such as the Ilocanos, the Chavacanos and the Macabebeans, the Spanish used Ilocanos and Macabebeans as soldiers and mercenaries against the other tribes, actually, the aristocracy of Luzon are still not fond of Ilocanos and Macabebeans even now just secretly, another thing that they would suppress would be the Chinese minority.

More like Laos or Malaysia I think...

I kind of have knowledge in this since I have observed the political class in Luzon and how they act and have discussed this with my friend who has also observed how the political class acts.
 
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