Several Timeline Jump-off Points (and which hold the most potential)

...no Leopold II, and, thus, no Belgian Congo. Countless suffering averted; yes, a great work of art (Heart of Darkness) is also averted, but the larger suffering is, to me, the better thing to avoid.

Leopold II was indeed an evil man. However, the exact same policies of slavery, torture and hostage-taking of families happened in both the French Congo and northern Angola. In fact the death toll was just as high, per capita, in the French Congo, and it probably was in northern Angola, although we do not have official statistics. Similar atrocities also happened later in the Amazon, although the more thinly-spread population there meant the death toll there was not as catastrophic. Sadly, it was the nature of European colonialism in rubber-producing regions, no matter who was in charge.
 
Actually in a twisted sense they're even less evenly matched: a Winfield Scott who's able to conduct a war in the field against the CSA just two years after his Mexico City campaign with the ability to wage classic Napoleonic War will give the CSA one of the greatest asskickings in the long, glorious history of kicking ass.

That assumes that the CSA gets it together enough to field a classic army. Possible, of course, depending on how the Texas situation goes, but I would expect a more internal civil war where the Union troops are doing proto-insurgency and pacification, not maneuver warfare.
 

Stolengood

Banned
Leopold II was indeed an evil man. However, the exact same policies of slavery, torture and hostage-taking of families happened in both the French Congo and northern Angola. In fact the death toll was just as high, per capita, in the French Congo, and it probably was in northern Angola, although we do not have official statistics. Similar atrocities also happened later in the Amazon, although the more thinly-spread population there meant the death toll there was not as catastrophic. Sadly, it was the nature of European colonialism in rubber-producing regions, no matter who was in charge.
Well, Leopold II was the only one to do it on his own dime, which makes him alone completely culpable in the atrocities; I think that's why it's gotten the most notoriety, aside from Heart of Darkness.

If not preventing Hitler's birth (which is always way too problematic :p), why not just keep Charlotte and the baby alive? Positive reinforcement for the history of Europe. :)
 

Stolengood

Banned
I like that you can at least trace the knock-on effect in history of Charlotte surviving; what gets butterflied, and what doesn't... :)
 
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