Miscellaneous >1900 (Alternate) History Thread

'Osama Bin Laden Dies in Soviet-Afghan War'.

 

'LBJ Dies Instead Of JFK'.

 

"WI America built the USS Illinois and USS Kentucky instead of Alaskas". Probably endorsed by @CalBear

 

Midways and subs. The US steel capacity at this stage of the war is maxed out and must be main force invested.

 

WI John Wayne remained a liberal or at least didn't go so hard to the right?

 

'Ronald Reagan Dies From 1981 Assassination Attempt'. In no way am I advocating for a certain POTUS's death or misery when suggesting this scenario--it's simply an alternate-history question to posit. And, if anything, it's probably far milder than a number of PoDs that I've been discussed on the board already (i.e. the Cuban Missile Crisis leading to World War Three).

 

There any good threads out there on post-Soviet Eastern Europe going into either a second Marshall Plan and/or NATO?

 

I have this idea of China being in WWI on the side of the Central Powers with Yuan Shikai on board; the POD I've thought up for this is that he decides to stay with the Qing instead of defecting in fall 1911 simply to retain his role as PM despite the risk of being disposed of which leads to the Xinghai revolution being crushed, which when leads to him enacting a coup against the Qing Dynasty in 1912, basically his Empire of China coming 3 years early. He then turns to whatever power to bolster his forces to wage war to cement his power and he gets his chance when WWI happens as we know it, albeit with provocation by Japan in 1915 in regards to the 21 Demands being fully rejected, which leads to him attacking the Entente and Japan that same year.

Thing is I'm not sure how this will go well considering my sparse knowledge of China during the 1910's, though it's something that I thought up as an excuse to have USA be somewhat more willing to be more pro-Japan than it was pre-1945 regarding the US's dissatisfaction of China in the CP and being more willing to have Japan share influence in China as part of a deal to decrease tensions between the two countries.

 

After World War 2 a United Nations Navy is formed. Probably first from captured Axis ships and Allied ships that are sold/donated (that were scrapped or sold iotl) to the UN, and later by building their own designs (or more correctly pay member nations to build) to police the seas. And other maritime peacekeeping.

My first thinking was that it would start with a mix of axis ships, gain some allied ships slightly later. Then buy ships that are being built or license designs to build (one thing I wanted to use this concept for is what were the best WW2 ships per type (as in what was the best Battleship, what the best carrier, what the best destroyer. With a fleet ending up with several different nation's designs together)). And then later design and build their own ships in the later years

 

Fleets fight best from a common tech base. That is why NATO STANFLOAT and the east Asians who are not PLAN or the Red Banner look so "American". (Also why the PLAN looks kind of "American"). As for a UN Navy, that assemblage of ships off the Horn of Africa on anti-pirate patrol, looks an awful lot like a de facto UN Navy. Just saying...

 

'WW2 Lasts To 1950+'.

 

‘Reverse 2000 Election: Al Gore Wins Electoral College, George W. Bush Wins Popular Vote’.

 

THe standard shipping container being invented slightly earlier - by a railway company (in the US) to increase on/off loading times in their freight yards. During development they realize it'll make sense long term to get other railroads in on it so they get a bit of input from outside and the resulting container is dimensioned to maximize use of existing infrastructure. Which means countries with smaller loading gauges have to upgrade their infrastructure to handle the containers.

 

'More Prosperous Post-Soviet Russia'.

 

Scenario where railways become dominant in the U.S rather than interstates-- is this even feasible at all or not?

 

I think this is possible if Yeltsin does not pursue shock therapy. Shock therapy, a problematic economic policy, may have worsened the economic crash in Russia (other factors include low resource prices and the collapse of the USSR). Shock therapy also led to a few people gaining lots of money quickly, which exacerbated the oligarch problem. I had an idea of a timeline like this where Russian Democracy survives due to Yeltsin doing better and these might overlap.

 

What if Britain did not garuntee Polish independence as they knew they could not defend it?

Perhaps they picked Norway or Greece as their line in the sand instead?

What does the extra time mean. Would Hitler avoid picking the fight with Britain?

 

What if the Maginot Line went all the way to the Channel?

Would Hitler avoid Belgium to keep Britain out? Or even risk France staying behind it while he attacked USSR?

 

Ground flotation along the Belgian border is a huge problem. The good firm ground able to float the weight for all that concrete is INSIDE Belgium. it was not just politics and economics that caused the line to sort of fade north of the Ardennes.