WI: No Indo-European penetration west of the Vistula?

Just a crazy thought I had that has to do mainly with what modern languages would look like. The vast number of other butterflies would so change world history that I could never even begin to start identifying them, hence the purpose for this thread. The title says it all.

EDIT: This would probably make more sense with a few other constraints. Lets say the Indo-Europeans, from their starting point on the steppes of southern Russia or Central Asia, never move west of the Vistula, west of the Carpathians, or south of the Danube.

Check out this link for an overview of one of the most commonly accepted proposals for Indo-European origins in OTL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan_hypothesis

What sort of butterflies would we see, and what would happen to the rest of Europe's indigenous population?
 
Last edited:
A map with the above boundaries. Excuse the size.

2500BC.png
 
I think its really impossible to say, since the only areas we know anything about (linguistically) prior to Indo-European settlement are Iberia, Aquitaine, Greece and Anatolia...and even then our understanding is pretty limited.
 
I think its really impossible to say, since the only areas we know anything about (linguistically) prior to Indo-European settlement are Iberia, Aquitaine, Greece and Anatolia...and even then our understanding is pretty limited.

Good point, but what about other issues, such as the level of technological and societal development that some areas did/did not experience? For example, would we ever see the rise of a Greek civilization? Would most of Europe remain tribal into the indefinite future? And how would other parts of the world be different because of this? If the limits of Indo-European settlement never expanded west of the Vistula, presumably there would be a higher concentration than OTL of their population east of it. Perhaps even more would migrate to India or remain in Central Asia on the steppes, leading to a dramatically different iron age from OTL's. Let's assume for the moment that even if more Indo-Europeans migrate to India, the divergence from OTL of India's history would not be significant until well into the future, when enough butterflies have accumulated.

I guess the real question I'm driving at is where (in the Indo-European world excluding India) would an Ancient Greece analog develop in this scenario?
 
Last edited:
*bump* ....No other takers on this one? This is seriously a broad enough question that even just shots in the dark are worth listening to.
 
Top