The timeline/WI suggestion thread!

This thread serves two purposes. The first is for those of us who come up with interesting AH scenarios, but do not have the time or energy (or knowledge about a particular area of history) to make a new TL or story about them. This thread gives us a chance to post these concepts for others to look at.

Which brings us to the thread's second purpose. Do you want to write a new TL or story, but can't think of an idea? Then you've come to the right place. Look at some of the suggestions posted by other users here. Maybe these will give you some inspiration. Please notify the original poster if you wish to use their idea, unless they specify otherwise. That way, credit can be given where it is due.

If this thread does well, I'll make another one for the post-1900 board.

So, let's have a few ideas to get this thread rolling:

What if the Olmecs develop the technology to create metal tools?

What if Manichaeism became the dominant faith in Europe, or, for that matter, Asia?

What if Nelson's navy had caught up with Napoleon en route to Egypt?
 

Thande

Donor
What if Nelson's navy had caught up with Napoleon en route to Egypt?

This to my mind is one of the most underrated WIs ever, especially if Napoleon was captured and brought home to Britain as a prisoner before he was anything more than a rising general rather than killed outright. What happens to the Directory without him? If there's a Peace of Amiens analogue and he gets released to go home, does he just slot back into the army or does he still have political ambitions? And if he does end up in a position of power, how would his captivity in Britain have affected his ideas and priorities?
 
Here goes:

Boleslaw III does not partition the Kingdom of Poland between his heirs in his will, leading to a period of fragmentation and chaos in Poland from 1138-1306.

Change around the Union of Lublin creating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth to give the King more powers/create a hereditary monarchy. Maybe you could have Sigismund II August have an heir, which could lead to a hereditary monarchy in the Union.

Gustav II Adolf of Sweden does not die at the Battle of Lutzen.

Charles XII marches on Moscow after the Battle of Narva in 1700.

Charles the Bold does not die at the Battle of Nancy.

The Ottoman Empire wins the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

No Miracle of the House of Brandenburg.

Catholic victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld (maybe the Swedes retreat after the Saxons flee instead of standing and fighting)

No Louisiana Purchase

The Mexicans win the Battle of San Jacinto in the Texan Revolution.

That's all I can think of now.
 
Here's a couple of PODs for New Zealand:


  • Abel Tasman's visit in 1642 isn't quite so brutal or bloody, not scaring off Europeans for a hundred years.
  • The 1808 Boyd Incident is avoided. This means less hostilities between Europeans and Maori.
  • Explorers brave the savage lands of New Zealand between Tasman's 1642 blunder and Cook's arrival in the 1760s (earlier French expeditions, perhaps?)
 
This to my mind is one of the most underrated WIs ever, especially if Napoleon was captured and brought home to Britain as a prisoner before he was anything more than a rising general rather than killed outright. What happens to the Directory without him? If there's a Peace of Amiens analogue and he gets released to go home, does he just slot back into the army or does he still have political ambitions? And if he does end up in a position of power, how would his captivity in Britain have affected his ideas and priorities?

I really wanted to write a TL about this subject, but I know very little about the Napoleonic Wars save what has filtered to me through fiction (which is usually inaccurate), so I don't think I can do the concept justice. I read about Nelson's campaign in the Mediterranean a few weeks ago in John Keegan's book on Intelligence in War, and it occurred to me that there is a lot of potential in the idea. Do we have any takers on this one?
 
Here is another one:

Pelaganism is not condemned as a heresy at the Council of Carthage in 418 and becomes orthodox Christian doctrine.
 
Here's my own idea for an off-beat TL, or more accurately, scenario:

What if Lillian Russell got involved in elective politics and was elected to Congress (either House or Senate)?

For those of you who don't have any idea who she was:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Russell

The idea is not as ASB as it may seem at first glance, for the following reasons:

1) Her mother, Cynthia Leonard, was a prominent 19th-century feminist and suffragist.
2) In her later life, Russell was politically active, campaigning for women's suffrage, running popular lecture tours nationwide, helping the U.S. Marine Corps' recruitment effort during World War I, and carrying out a major investigation of European immigration for the Harding administration near the end of her life.
3) She was THE single biggest star of her era; by the time when I think she might have been ready to have a go at electoral politics, she was a national institution. Given her later-life political leanings, I can see the GOP in New York or Pennsylvania selecting her as a House candidate for one of the major urban areas (NYC or Pittsburgh, for example, where she made her home in her later life).

So, assume she gets elected to the House circa 1910-12, or to the Senate circa 1920. What effect would her career as a politican have on later American political life?

The POD could be anytime in the late 19th century, with young Helen Louise Leonard (her real name) getting more interested in politics than she did OTL, and doing more work in the women's suffrage movement.

(If it's more likely that the POD for this scenario would be post-1900, feel free to move it to the post-1900 board!)
 
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