Polling for a TL

What scenario should I attempt?

  • For Whom the Axe Falls - The Death of Elizabeth Tudor

    Votes: 18 30.5%

  • I Claim This Land - How Columbus Was Beat to the Punch

    Votes: 26 44.1%

  • In the Name of God - John III the Pious Protestant of Portugal

    Votes: 13 22.0%

  • Other - Suggest Your Own Ideas

    Votes: 2 3.4%
  • Total voters
    59
  • Poll closed .

Troyer IV

Its still a relatively new year and I've been a member on this site for something like two. I've bounced around various ideas for TimeLines, but have never sat down and begun. I think its because I can't convince myself to concentrate on one alone.

So, in between my increasing schoolwork, I plan to begin... something. I don't care which, so you all choose. And feel free to comment, critique, or question. Whatever I do write will no doubt be far more a piece of fiction than plausible historical scenarios. My theory is if you can't logically explain a piece of Alternate History, blame it on butterflies. Butterflies on steroids.

Anyway, these are the current ideas bouncing 'round in my head. I don't know how long I'll stick with this, or how often I'll update, but I figured I won't ever know until I begin. So here we go.

1) For Whom the Axe Falls - The Death of Elizabeth Tudor
-What say Mary, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, decides she can't trust her half-sister to protect the One True Faith in most bless'd England?

2) I Claim This Land - How Columbus was Beaten to the Punch
-Columbus wasn't the only one to believe the Earth was round, so who else might endeavor such an enterprise?

3) In the Name of God - John III the Pious Protestant of Portugal
-Lisbon and Rome have... a falling out, so to speak, possibly over the division of the New World. What next?

4) Other - Suggest Your Own Ideas
 
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The Doctor

Cabot land in the new world? Or rewrite history for more moorish prescense in Europe in Iberia, making the ideas of colonization that Spain used, to be used by other powers. Spain/Portugal used the idea of assimilation of natives in many instances while the French and English did not. Nor did the Dutch. This is due I have recently learned because of what I will call at this point the first form of the slave trade in Africa, and in the Islamic religion of this time period before there was any racist ideals attached to it. The goal was service and assimilation into the culture. Not to have one person be under another. You still had some of the bad stigmas and such with it, but in some places you were thought of as part of the family. That is what I've learned in two college classese at any rate. I'm sure I have errors and not completely informed about the slave trade, but like I said, I have only had two classes thus far on the subject.
 

Troyer IV

Alright, got some votes and comments, keep 'em coming!

IchBinDieKaiser said:
I have an idea, but no title for it. Instead of Columbus landing in the west indies, he lands in the Chesapeak bay?
Click to expand...

That may be possible; the I Claim This Land will approach a rather drastic (i.e. random) alteration to the colonization pattern of OTL. That is, Spain may land elsewhere, Columbus might sail for another power, Russia might end up in the Chesapeake... you get the idea.

The Doctor said:
Cabot land in the new world? Or rewrite history for more moorish prescense in Europe in Iberia, making the ideas of colonization that Spain used, to be used by other powers. Spain/Portugal used the idea of assimilation of natives in many instances while the French and English did not. Nor did the Dutch. This is due I have recently learned because of what I will call at this point the first form of the slave trade in Africa, and in the Islamic religion of this time period before there was any racist ideals attached to it. The goal was service and assimilation into the culture. Not to have one person be under another. You still had some of the bad stigmas and such with it, but in some places you were thought of as part of the family. That is what I've learned in two college classese at any rate. I'm sure I have errors and not completely informed about the slave trade, but like I said, I have only had two classes thus far on the subject.
Click to expand...

Indeed, this is my understanding of the Islamic approach of the time period as well, though I admit my knowledge base is rather spotty. But yes, depending on the story, there will be some rather different interactions/influences of Islam in Iberia (for the In the Name of God at least, and maybe I Claim This Land).
 

Gonzaga

I vote for the death of Elizabeth. England would become a mess so big, with the Greys becoming the Protestant champions and the Catholic heir of Mary being Mary of Scotland, the wife of the anti-Habsburg French king (and therefore, if Mary is still married to Philip II, an enemy of England). That it would interesting to watch.
 

Troyer IV

Gonzaga said:
I vote for the death of Elizabeth. England would become a mess so big, with the Greys becoming the Protestant champions and the Catholic heir of Mary being Mary of Scotland, the wife of the anti-Habsburg French king (and therefore, if Mary is still married to Philip II, an enemy of England). That it would interesting to watch.
Click to expand...

Yeah, if ever the proverbial "fate" abounded in the matters of men, it was in the politics surrounding the English throne of this time period. With all the potential outcomes, with all that was on the line, a leader less shrewd than Elizabeth may well see it all crumble.
 
Emperor Norton I

Emperor Norton I

Troyer IV;4149238 2) [I said:
I Claim This Land[/I] - How Columbus was Beaten to the Punch
-Columbus wasn't the only one to believe the Earth was round, so who else might endeavor such an enterprise?
Click to expand...

Columbus wasn't the only one to believe the Earth was round since everyone else did too.;)
 

Evan

Emperor Norton I said:
Columbus wasn't the only one to believe the Earth was round since everyone else did too.;)
Click to expand...

Exactly. The difference was, everyone else knew the earth's diameter fairly accurately and knew that ships would run out of food and water long before crossing the Atlantic and Pacific to Asia. Columbus simply had the great fortune to first miscalculate things and then run into another, totally unknown, continent roughly where he'd thought Asia was!
 

Malta

Well its not like we haven't had enough recent upsurge of interest in alternate 'discovery' of the Americas scenarios :p
 
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