Miscellaneous >1900 (Alternate) History Thread

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To expand on my post 2,518:

In a speech given in the US Senate on 28 May 1912, Hon W Smith (Michigan) uttered the damning sentence;

"We shall leave to the honest judgment of England its painstaking chastisement of the British Board of Trade, to whose laxity of regulation and hasty inspection the world is largely indebted for this awful fatality"

PoD

If this comment had preceded the debate in the House of Commons on 21 May 1912 (Board of Trade: Loss of Life at Sea. Hansard vol 38 chap 1757 to chap 1829)* and there had been more public and press outcry about the lifeboat regulations not having kept pace with increasing ship sizes since 1894, would the resulting disgrace have been sufficient to destroy the future careers of the two previous and the current Presidents; David Lloyd-George, Winston Churchill and Sydney Buxton?

* https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1912/may/21/board-of-trade-loss-of-life-at-sea
 
loneranger

loneranger

ramones1986 said:
WI: New Mexican Spanish, most specifically the variant(s) used in both Albuquerque and Santa Fé, is the standard used in the United States, most specifically in both education and media.
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I would say maybe popularize a New Mexican actor on television? It would have to be cross-border popularity, as if you're still getting significant migration from south of the border you'll need them to speak that variant as well.
 
Bytor

Bytor

Monthly Donor
ramones1986 said:
WI: New Mexican Spanish, most specifically the variant(s) used in both Albuquerque and Santa Fé, is the standard used in the United States, most specifically in both education and media.
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Out of curiosity, how does that differ from the "standard" Mexican Spanish, or from Iberian/Castilian Spanish?
 
loneranger

loneranger

Bytor said:
Out of curiosity, how does that differ from the "standard" Mexican Spanish, or from Iberian/Castilian Spanish?
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Castillian Spanish uses vosotros and is generally more formal in verbage, AFAIK. Mexican vs New Mexican... idk, but I could see it. New Yorkers and Texans both speak English but in different ways that have more to do with pronunciation than anything else.
 
ramones1986

ramones1986

Bytor said:
Out of curiosity, how does that differ from the "standard" Mexican Spanish, or from Iberian/Castilian Spanish?
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From what I read from the New Mexican dialect/variety, it supposedly preserved the forms and vocabulary of colonial-era Spanish, alongside loanwords from Native American languages and English (more recent in the case of latter).
 
Bytor

Bytor

Monthly Donor
Wendell said:
WI: No French fifth republic?
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The what if depends on the why. Is the Algerian Putsch handled differently? Does something else change that it never happens?

Are you asking for a Poont of Divergence to make your what if happen, or do you already have a PoD?
 

Wendell

Bytor said:
The what if depends on the why. Is the Algerian Putsch handled differently? Does something else change that it never happens?

Are you asking for a Poont of Divergence to make your what if happen, or do you already have a PoD?
Click to expand...
I don't have anything in mind. Just brainstorming.
 
Driftless

Driftless

Donor
America's Cup sailing races on Lake Michigan? Lake Superior would be interesting, but maybe less support infrastructure available.
 
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Aisha Clan-Clan

Aisha Clan-Clan

Nixon doesn't listen to that one advisor who talked him out of compromising with Ted Kennedy on healthcare/guarenteed income proposals and we get the US with national healthcare/unconditional basic income/negative income tax in 1970 or so but things mostly play out otherwise.

I imagine it'd blunt various post-1973 trends of rising inequality some. Definitely more hedonism from boomers than even OTL. Dunno if we'd see this weakening the 1970s Christian Right or if we'd have to wait ofr 90s or 00s for it to start weakening -- less negative sum/zero sum economy means less reason for boomers to be ah overinvolved parents.
 
Zyobot

Zyobot

‘AHC: Axis Powers Outproduce The Allies In WWII’.

Would probably require that there be more Axis Powers to start with, such as Stalinist Russia buddying up with Hitler in a more permanent alliance (or something like that). Or, maybe the US stays out of the war altogether, so that it never lends its supreme industrial might to the Allies.
 
Count of Crisco

Count of Crisco

Zyobot said:
‘AHC: Axis Powers Outproduce The Allies In WWII’.

Would probably require that there be more Axis Powers to start with, such as Stalinist Russia buddying up with Hitler in a more permanent alliance (or something like that). Or, maybe the US stays out of the war altogether, so that it never lends its supreme industrial might to the Allies.
Click to expand...
Maybe a more efficient German economy which actually functions close to what pop culture says it did. Talking streamlined production of a few basic models of tank, gun, ammunition, and logistics vehicles, better access to raw materials.

Maybe this more efficient Germany is smart enough to not invade the USSR or antagonize them so they felt inclined to go to war with them and instead continued to sell them raw materials. Possibly in such a scenario with the Soviets keeping out and selling materials to Germany and Italy, and Germany being more efficient in their production methods and hardware lineup you might get something. Though obviously even here the US would have to be kept out of the war.
 
TheKutKu

TheKutKu

The second woman to go to space, and first non-Soviet one, could have been french If Françoise Varnier had made it through the selections for the first french astronaut in 1979-1982, she apparently had presidential preference among the 5 finalists, but a broken leg during a parachuting in front of the Soviet medical delegation was a poor showing (for a probably relatively misogynistic delegation) and it got her disqualified. She could have taken Jean-Louis chretien’s seat, or Patrick baudry’s backup one, and have flown on Soyuz T-6 in June 1982, 2 months before Svetlana Savitskaya and a year before Sally ride
 

Strategos' Risk

So in a game I'm in right now, Stalin resigned in June 1947 because of declining health and passes away, replaced by Andrei Zhdanov, with Mikhail Suslovthe secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(B). How would that change the course of the Soviet Union, that final six years of Stalin being replaced by Zhdanov?
 
Zyobot

Zyobot

'Ba'athist Iraq Survives To The Present'.

Obviously, this assumes no Iraq War as a start. Even if he remains in power, though, Saddam's age would catch up to him and might end in a succession crisis once he croaks, considering how ferocious his sons were and what tends to happen whenever the top guy's gone for good.
 
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