I'm not an expert on diseases and how they transfer, so I'm not sure if there's a chance to avoid that mess, but if it's there, then absolutely a POD in the Americas themselves would be awesome indeed.
Somewhat reversed, somewhat straight - could the kingdom of Siam/modern Thailand would have survived full on colonial attempt? (Did it, like from France from Indochina?)
It was a trend, but earlier on, you had soldiers who easily took on European soldiers (Mughals in the 16th to early 18th century). Not to mention many attempts to recruit and train troops according to European standards when that became a mainstay of military training. But it is still easily butterflyable. The trends may remain, but if you have another power become more interested in actual trade and exploration like the Mughals, said power actually has the capability to challenge and upheave the entire Indian Kcean trade.They did well enough when given/sold enough weaponry by France's rivals before/during WW2. It's not out of the question at all.
At the same time, I'm gonna drone on about grand movements etc. and contradict Hummingbird a bit there. While every individual expedition depended on something going right for the Europeans and something going wrong for their opponents, the fact that it kept happening so consistently when faced with the widest possible variety of opponents really makes me think there was something systemic to all this.
In the 1500-1600 period, besides the Spanish conquest of the Americas, there's the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Arabia and India, Portuguese and Dutch and Spanish colonies and conquests in East Indies, Russian expansion all the way east, and minor colonial efforts by Sweden and France and Britain and Denmark. European mercenaries destroyed Songhai and won and lost the Algerian coast several times. European mercenaries fought for Ethiopia against the Somalis, and successfully. By land, sea, and colonial effort, this is either a real trend or something that looks a lot like a real trend.
The Inca could have survived. Its amazing they did not, as they had everything. Huge population, territorial depth, defensible terrain and advanced infrastructure, advantageous geographical location (away from the Atlantic and the european's immediate reach), and a good administration.
I have a big post about infantry doctrine in 18th C south india and how some changes in the TL could lead to the south indian states resisting direct colonisation and existing like Thailand as independent clients. I'll try and dig it up
The Navajo manage to avoid having their language wiped out, to the point that it's one of few living Native American languages (especially in North America), because of their geographic location. Is it possible that they could have found a way to resist colonization?
The Navajo manage to avoid having their language wiped out, to the point that it's one of few living Native American languages (especially in North America), because of their geographic location. Is it possible that they could have found a way to resist colonization?
Weren't some Indian states (Mysore and the Sikh Empire?) about *this* close from becoming equal to any European power?
No matter how many times and different things I read about the European (not just British) rule over India, I'm amazed that a) we got it and b) we kept it. We couldn't keep the 13 American Colonies, god knows how we kept India.
Not really. They managed to copy some European techniques. But politically they were hopelessly unstable in the long term.
As noted, once is an accident, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. There are far too many British victories over native Indian armies to be explained as a run of good luck; far too much political weakness and division among Indians to be explained as bad luck.)
That same amount of luck transferred over to actually get India. Then skill came into it to keep it.It took a fair amount of incompetence and bad luck to lose the American colonies. (And good luck for the Americans: how many countries just starting out have a squad of geniuses like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and Adams?)