Dozens of them... I even have three half-written ones on my computer I keep promising myself to continue writing on and finish.... Soon....
You have ever half planned some ATL timelines who likely will never be written?
- Thread starter isabella
- Start date
The Eagles of Pontus: A timeline I am slowly working on in my spare time while I research as much as I can find on the regions of Anatolia and the Caucasus during the early and mid 13th centuries as well as learning more about the Mongol invasions out of necessity.
The POD is that Alexios I Megas Komnenos does not get himself captured at Sinope and thus is able to keep the Sultanate of Rum effectively cut off from the (direct) Black Sea trade, and maintains the alliance with Georgia and eventually forms a union between the two countries along similar lines to the Polish-Lithuanian union. I know this forum doesn't necessarily need more more Eastern Roman timelines than it already has, but I think this one is quite unique. Or will be once I actually get enough of it written to consider posting any of it!
The POD is that Alexios I Megas Komnenos does not get himself captured at Sinope and thus is able to keep the Sultanate of Rum effectively cut off from the (direct) Black Sea trade, and maintains the alliance with Georgia and eventually forms a union between the two countries along similar lines to the Polish-Lithuanian union. I know this forum doesn't necessarily need more more Eastern Roman timelines than it already has, but I think this one is quite unique. Or will be once I actually get enough of it written to consider posting any of it!
A whole bunch of stuff:
Knights of the Charter: A successful Chartist revolution in 1839 galvanises the radical liberals and early socialists in Britain. When 1848 breaks out Britain enthusiastically backs the revolutionaries resulting in successful revolutions in the low-countries and western Germany. Featuring Ashanti Princes in the Netherlands working with the British, Dutch and Garibaldi to export the revolutions to their homelands, the averting of the Great Famine due to David Owen's agricultural collectivisation program and the American Civil War escalating into a global conflict that destroys the French Empire and leaves the world divided between the Alliance of Free States and the Reactionary Habsburg-Romanov alliance of the Russian Empire and restored Holy Roman Empire.
Britannia Rules the World: An over-the-top dystopian timeline that's intended to critique and deconstruct Brit wanks. ITTL the British are able to peacefully resolve the issues with their American colonies and grant them representation averting the American Revolution. As a result, slavery becomes deeply entrenched in British politics and the resources of the Empire are thrown behind supporting the expansionist aspirations of the colonies. Marriage alliances result in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (including Belgium and Luxembourg), Denmark-Norway and Prussia all being incorporated into personal unions with the UK. The Hanoverian Empire steadily transforms into a repressive militarised slavocracy, who make the Draka look like a bunch of hippies, which dominates the world with their equally reprehensible Portuguese allies.
Liberty and the Lash: A dystopian timeline where Slave Power wins out in the US and Liberalism never embraces Abolitionism. No single PoD as it's more of a "what needs to happen to achieve this end goal" sort of timeline but various notable things include: the legalisation of slavery in the Indiana Territory resulting in Indiana and Illinois becoming Slave States, no Trail of Tears meaning that more southern slave owners move to the territories, Ernest Augustus coming to the British throne in the late 1820s and intervening in the Belgian Revolution which forces Britain to remain focused on European affairs and undermines its efforts to oppose the international slave trade, the rise of a horrific trans-Pacific slave trade, liberal revolutions in the Netherlands and South Africa that enshrine the right to own slaves as a part of the fundamental right to property, the horrors of the Scramble for Africa being carried out by empires that both maintain and actively encourage the slave trade and Liberia becoming a major hub in the re-energised trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Iranian Knights: A Sassanid timeline where Kawus succeeds Kavad instead of Khosrow. Using Mazdakism, which he is the dominant authority on following Mazdak's martyrdom, Kawus is able to carry out far more extensive reforms than Khosrow did IOTL which, despite initial instability, leaves the Sassanid Empire in a much stronger state in the long run. The Byzantines aren't so lucky with Justinian dying of plague and getting caught up in several devastating civil wars with Kawus and his successors taking full advantage of the situation, ultimately subsuming the ERE and weathering the storm of the Arab conquests (under a very-different Zoroastrian-influenced alt-Islam). The Iranian Empire steadily transforms towards a centralised semi-secular bureaucratic empire, along the lines of China, with religious authority steadily giving way to bureaucratic legitimacy and Zoroastrianism evolving in a more transtheistic and inclusive direction.
Broken Cross: A Christendom screw. Been done better elsewhere. Featuring Muslim Southern Europe, a big-dick Saxon Empire that unites the various cultures and faiths of the Baltic into a cohesive state and conquers northern France and Vikings up the wazoo.
Sons of Abraham: A pan-Abrahamic timeline where the barriers between the Christian and Muslim worlds are a lot more blurred during the Middle Ages, Islam is regarded as being as much a part of Europe as Christianity and Judaism and all three Abrahamic faiths coexist with even the most Christian countries having significant Jewish and Muslim minorities. Featuring: Hellenised Muslim Byzantine Abbasids, multifaith Aquitaine founded by Odo the Great and Munuza, Jewish Hungary and Novgorod, the Crusades inadvertently becoming a multifaith coalition and the Kingdom of Jerusalem being established to safeguard religious liberty in the holy land, the Nicean Church shattering into a dozen schismatic sects, several rival Caliphates in both Sunni and Shia flavours (as well as a bunch of strong independent Emirs who don't need no Caliph), Amazigh mercenaries becoming a standard feature of European warfare, Amazigh mercenaries playing a key role in the Norman conquest and being settled in northern England following the Harrying of the North and the peoples of the Abrahamic faiths learn to put aside their differences, live in peace with each other and team up to dick on the pagans.
Broken Chains: Due to the Romans being bogged down by a worse Numantian War, the army led by Consul Repilius being wiped out in a freak storm and various rebellions in Greece, Italy and North Africa managing to gain traction the First Servile War results in the rebels forcing the Romans to come to terms after cutting off grain supplies from Sicily and North Africa. The leader of the revolt Eunus, styling himself King Antiochus of Sicily, establishes a new religion with a strong emancipatory message to legitimise his rule and rally the slaves and dispossessed to his cause whilst Tiberius Gracchus, who had been taken prisoner and comes to sympathise with the rebels, becomes a St. Paul figure helping to spread the faith to the Roman masses in concert with his populist political career. As the Roman Republic steadily collapses due to external invasions and internal strife Sicily comes to take it's place as the hegemon of the Mediterranean and spreads it's emancipatory faith across the known world and seeking to liberate the enslaved and oppressed throughout the world.
For Want of a Thunderbolt: Seleucus Nicator survives his assassination, secures Thrace, Macedonia and Greece and stabilise his Empire in Anatolia. His son finishes off the job of reuniting Alexander's Empire after invading Egypt and beating off the Gallic Invasion of Greece. From there the history of the classical era diverges extremely from IOTL. Featuring Hellenophobic Rome that's BFFs with Carthage, Indianised Arabia, Caucasian Galatia, the emergence of an Greco-Indo-Iranian cultural melange throughout the Empire of Asia, pre-Bantu East African civilisations, all of the religions claiming Zalmoxis, Rome getting the Jerusalem treatment and the diaspora resettling in Spain under Carthaginian protection, Carthage circumnavigating Africa and discovering the New World in the 7th century, Buddhist Gaul, the Republic of Israel during the Second Shofet Period, Samaritans forming an Empire in the levant, an atheistic-materialist philosophical and political movement gaining traction, Buddhist Gaul, Hindu Magyar Iran, multiple dynasties claiming the mantle of the Asian Empire of Seleucus, Alexander and the Achaemenids, Jews for days in a wide variety of flavours and long-term cultural and economic consequences of extensive contact between China, India and the Mediterranean.
The Legacy of 1830: The Revolutions of 1830 escalate into a global war lasting 4-5ish years. This completely throws off the trajectory of the following century from IOTL. Muhammed Ali has a completely free hand in his war with the Ottomans laying the foundations for a united Arabian Empire that will become a superpower, French Algeria is strangled in its crib and European colonialism is kept out of North Africa entirely, Russia is completely expelled from the Caucuses, Britain ends up going through several revolutions and retreats from global colonialism, Jamaica becomes a second Haiti, the US absorbs Canada turbocharging its expansionism, Prussia gets screwed, Austria gets wanked, Franco-Spanish-Sicilian Bourbon Alliance dominated Western Europe, France annexes Flanders and Wallonia, South Africa declares independence, revival of the Anglo-Moroccan Alliance and Sweden can into Finland. And these are just the immediate consequences. Later on a successful Indian Mutiny restores the Mughal Empire with French and Arabian support, rapid overextension causes the US to collapse in the wake of multiple uprisings and secession crises and it is generally agreed that Europe ends at the Sahara.
The Time of Monsters: The US enters WW1 6-12 months earlier and the Bolsheviks still take power in Russia. As a result, Germany is in a weaker position and the Bolsheviks string out the Brest-Litovsk negotiations long enough for Germany to be on the brink of collapse before talks collapse and they re-enter the war. The Soviets have a seat at Versailles but, as the post-war revolutionary wave starts to erupt, they walk out denouncing the talks as an Imperialist land-grab (which isn't entirely untrue) and declaring the commencement of the world revolution. WW1 resumes until 1922 when exhaustion, disease and the withdrawal of the US following Wilson's crushing defeat in 1920 trying to run for a third term forces the combatants to sign an armistice when it becomes clear that neither side can break the stalemate. Peace is declared, though none expect it to last, and Eurasia is divided between the nascent Soviet World Republic that stretches all the way to the Netherlands and the Concert of Eurasia that was established to contain them. But within the Concert all is not well. The French-led Integralist Bloc dominates Catholic Europe, much to the chagrin of their British allies under an increasingly autocratic permanent National Government, and Integralism is fast becoming the dominant tendency of political Catholicism. Across Africa and Asia the colonised peoples are beginning to stir, sensing the fragility of their overlords, whilst the non-European Empires plot to betray their erstwhile allies and claim their place in the sun. And in America the Republic shambles from disaster to disaster as the Democratic Party falls increasingly under the influence of the KKK, rapidly growing in influence due to the perceived threats of "Jewish Communism", "Catholic Integralism" and "Gerveyite Negro Supremacism", while the Republicans, deeply mired in corruption, horribly mismanage the Great Depression throwing millions of Americans into desperation and poverty. From out of the chaos one man has emerged to forge a coalition of radicals from across the political spectrum to deliver the program that will save America and share its bountiful wealth with all its citizens; Huey Long, the last hope for democracy. The old world is dying, the new world cannot be born and now is the time of monsters.
Century of the Common Man: A successful Operation Long Drop kills everyone at the Tehran Conference. As a result, the post-war leadership of the UK (Stafford Cripps), USA (Henry Wallace) and the USSR (Anastas Mikoyan) are all considerably more cooperative and are willing to pursue (mostly) good faith attempts to build a lasting peace and usher in a new era of global cooperation. As a result, the Cold War is completely averted. European politics is dominated by an alliance of Communists and Democratic Socialists, the USSR enters the postwar era utterly secure and fully embracing reforms and the US undertakes a massive expansion of the welfare state. Though things are far from perfect by and large the world enters a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity with the dawning of the Century of the Common Man. What follows would be an exploration of the political and cultural consequences of a world without the Cold War with one of the main framing devices being the intergenerational stories of three soldiers (one British, one American and one Soviet) who meet during the joint occupation of Germany and their descendants.
A History of the American Social Democracy: The 1848 Revolutions are larger and more devastating yet still end in defeat. With Britain no longer a safe haven for would be revolutionaries, due to a civil war sparked by a Chartist Uprising, thousands more radical emigres move to the United States, including a young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This larger pool of radical intelligentsia and exiled radicals, along with native radicals like Horace Greeley and William Lloyd Garrison, decide to establish the foundations for an independent party that will mobilise the growing industrial proletariat in the pursuit of socialism and the transcendence of capitalism. From humble beginnings the Socialist Workers Party of America would grow from rivals to the Free Soil and later Republican Parties to being part of the Union's wartime coalition during the Civil War. Growing rapidly during America's post-war industrialisation and the rising labour radicalism that came with it and absorbing the Radical Republicans following the betrayal of Reconstruction they edge out the Democrats in the northern cities and establish themselves as the main opposition party in the border states. During the 1880s and 90s they breakout and establish their hegemony over the American political system through exploiting the division between the Republican and Democratic Parties, absorbing the agrarian Populists and pursuing extensive political and electoral reforms that radically reshapes the very character of the American body politic. The Gilded Age is stillborn and the age of the American Social Democracy reigns supreme.
A History of a Land and its Peoples: Some musings on Binational Palestine and successful pan-Arabism.
Ruins of a Global Political System: Currently planning to make this one work but I'll leave it in just in case. A worse 9/11 results in Joe Biden establishing a bi-partisan National Unity Administration that takes the place of the Bush years and leaves the entire American political establishment utterly discredited and holding the ball when the 2008 Financial Crash hits just as political polarisation is on the rise. In 2008 America elected the sort of black radical extremist socialist that Fox News claimed that Obama was just in time for the Arab Spring. Heavily inspired by Ruins of a Global Political System and covers many similar themes.
In addition I also have 2 Warhammer 40K timeline ideas.
The first is a straightforward alternate history timeline where Ferrus Manus kills Fulgrim during the Dropsite Massacre. The Horus Heresy plays out as IOTL but after the war Ferrus Manus throws his support behind Rogal Dorn against Robute Guilleman. This significantly alters the trajectory of the 40k timeline and results in an Imperium with a more pan-Asian aesthetic. The Imperium, or Dai Man as it is come to be known, evolves into a centralised Confuscian-style Bureaucracy instead of the heavily decentralised theocracy of IOTL and as of the 41st Millennium is going through a multi-faction civil war following the expulsion of the Fang Dynasty (Qing analogue descendants of the Space Wolves and White Scars) and the Wars of Humiliation against the Gweilo. This timeline features not-Japan Ultima (known as Uroshima ITTL due to linguistic divergences), the Kroot as the not-American rising power of the Eastern Fringes, Alien Megacorporations seeking to plunder the wealth of Dai Man and flood their worlds with Drukhari narcotics, Warp Canals, Bureaucrats, Pirate Queens and the evolution of civilised Orkoids following the War of the Beast playing out very differently.
The second one is pure crossover crack fic where each of the Primarchs is raised by characters from various fictional settings (cannons adjusted accordingly to fit in the 40k setting). The current plan for the Primarchs is thus:
Knights of the Charter: A successful Chartist revolution in 1839 galvanises the radical liberals and early socialists in Britain. When 1848 breaks out Britain enthusiastically backs the revolutionaries resulting in successful revolutions in the low-countries and western Germany. Featuring Ashanti Princes in the Netherlands working with the British, Dutch and Garibaldi to export the revolutions to their homelands, the averting of the Great Famine due to David Owen's agricultural collectivisation program and the American Civil War escalating into a global conflict that destroys the French Empire and leaves the world divided between the Alliance of Free States and the Reactionary Habsburg-Romanov alliance of the Russian Empire and restored Holy Roman Empire.
Britannia Rules the World: An over-the-top dystopian timeline that's intended to critique and deconstruct Brit wanks. ITTL the British are able to peacefully resolve the issues with their American colonies and grant them representation averting the American Revolution. As a result, slavery becomes deeply entrenched in British politics and the resources of the Empire are thrown behind supporting the expansionist aspirations of the colonies. Marriage alliances result in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands (including Belgium and Luxembourg), Denmark-Norway and Prussia all being incorporated into personal unions with the UK. The Hanoverian Empire steadily transforms into a repressive militarised slavocracy, who make the Draka look like a bunch of hippies, which dominates the world with their equally reprehensible Portuguese allies.
Liberty and the Lash: A dystopian timeline where Slave Power wins out in the US and Liberalism never embraces Abolitionism. No single PoD as it's more of a "what needs to happen to achieve this end goal" sort of timeline but various notable things include: the legalisation of slavery in the Indiana Territory resulting in Indiana and Illinois becoming Slave States, no Trail of Tears meaning that more southern slave owners move to the territories, Ernest Augustus coming to the British throne in the late 1820s and intervening in the Belgian Revolution which forces Britain to remain focused on European affairs and undermines its efforts to oppose the international slave trade, the rise of a horrific trans-Pacific slave trade, liberal revolutions in the Netherlands and South Africa that enshrine the right to own slaves as a part of the fundamental right to property, the horrors of the Scramble for Africa being carried out by empires that both maintain and actively encourage the slave trade and Liberia becoming a major hub in the re-energised trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Iranian Knights: A Sassanid timeline where Kawus succeeds Kavad instead of Khosrow. Using Mazdakism, which he is the dominant authority on following Mazdak's martyrdom, Kawus is able to carry out far more extensive reforms than Khosrow did IOTL which, despite initial instability, leaves the Sassanid Empire in a much stronger state in the long run. The Byzantines aren't so lucky with Justinian dying of plague and getting caught up in several devastating civil wars with Kawus and his successors taking full advantage of the situation, ultimately subsuming the ERE and weathering the storm of the Arab conquests (under a very-different Zoroastrian-influenced alt-Islam). The Iranian Empire steadily transforms towards a centralised semi-secular bureaucratic empire, along the lines of China, with religious authority steadily giving way to bureaucratic legitimacy and Zoroastrianism evolving in a more transtheistic and inclusive direction.
Broken Cross: A Christendom screw. Been done better elsewhere. Featuring Muslim Southern Europe, a big-dick Saxon Empire that unites the various cultures and faiths of the Baltic into a cohesive state and conquers northern France and Vikings up the wazoo.
Sons of Abraham: A pan-Abrahamic timeline where the barriers between the Christian and Muslim worlds are a lot more blurred during the Middle Ages, Islam is regarded as being as much a part of Europe as Christianity and Judaism and all three Abrahamic faiths coexist with even the most Christian countries having significant Jewish and Muslim minorities. Featuring: Hellenised Muslim Byzantine Abbasids, multifaith Aquitaine founded by Odo the Great and Munuza, Jewish Hungary and Novgorod, the Crusades inadvertently becoming a multifaith coalition and the Kingdom of Jerusalem being established to safeguard religious liberty in the holy land, the Nicean Church shattering into a dozen schismatic sects, several rival Caliphates in both Sunni and Shia flavours (as well as a bunch of strong independent Emirs who don't need no Caliph), Amazigh mercenaries becoming a standard feature of European warfare, Amazigh mercenaries playing a key role in the Norman conquest and being settled in northern England following the Harrying of the North and the peoples of the Abrahamic faiths learn to put aside their differences, live in peace with each other and team up to dick on the pagans.
Broken Chains: Due to the Romans being bogged down by a worse Numantian War, the army led by Consul Repilius being wiped out in a freak storm and various rebellions in Greece, Italy and North Africa managing to gain traction the First Servile War results in the rebels forcing the Romans to come to terms after cutting off grain supplies from Sicily and North Africa. The leader of the revolt Eunus, styling himself King Antiochus of Sicily, establishes a new religion with a strong emancipatory message to legitimise his rule and rally the slaves and dispossessed to his cause whilst Tiberius Gracchus, who had been taken prisoner and comes to sympathise with the rebels, becomes a St. Paul figure helping to spread the faith to the Roman masses in concert with his populist political career. As the Roman Republic steadily collapses due to external invasions and internal strife Sicily comes to take it's place as the hegemon of the Mediterranean and spreads it's emancipatory faith across the known world and seeking to liberate the enslaved and oppressed throughout the world.
For Want of a Thunderbolt: Seleucus Nicator survives his assassination, secures Thrace, Macedonia and Greece and stabilise his Empire in Anatolia. His son finishes off the job of reuniting Alexander's Empire after invading Egypt and beating off the Gallic Invasion of Greece. From there the history of the classical era diverges extremely from IOTL. Featuring Hellenophobic Rome that's BFFs with Carthage, Indianised Arabia, Caucasian Galatia, the emergence of an Greco-Indo-Iranian cultural melange throughout the Empire of Asia, pre-Bantu East African civilisations, all of the religions claiming Zalmoxis, Rome getting the Jerusalem treatment and the diaspora resettling in Spain under Carthaginian protection, Carthage circumnavigating Africa and discovering the New World in the 7th century, Buddhist Gaul, the Republic of Israel during the Second Shofet Period, Samaritans forming an Empire in the levant, an atheistic-materialist philosophical and political movement gaining traction, Buddhist Gaul, Hindu Magyar Iran, multiple dynasties claiming the mantle of the Asian Empire of Seleucus, Alexander and the Achaemenids, Jews for days in a wide variety of flavours and long-term cultural and economic consequences of extensive contact between China, India and the Mediterranean.
The Legacy of 1830: The Revolutions of 1830 escalate into a global war lasting 4-5ish years. This completely throws off the trajectory of the following century from IOTL. Muhammed Ali has a completely free hand in his war with the Ottomans laying the foundations for a united Arabian Empire that will become a superpower, French Algeria is strangled in its crib and European colonialism is kept out of North Africa entirely, Russia is completely expelled from the Caucuses, Britain ends up going through several revolutions and retreats from global colonialism, Jamaica becomes a second Haiti, the US absorbs Canada turbocharging its expansionism, Prussia gets screwed, Austria gets wanked, Franco-Spanish-Sicilian Bourbon Alliance dominated Western Europe, France annexes Flanders and Wallonia, South Africa declares independence, revival of the Anglo-Moroccan Alliance and Sweden can into Finland. And these are just the immediate consequences. Later on a successful Indian Mutiny restores the Mughal Empire with French and Arabian support, rapid overextension causes the US to collapse in the wake of multiple uprisings and secession crises and it is generally agreed that Europe ends at the Sahara.
The Time of Monsters: The US enters WW1 6-12 months earlier and the Bolsheviks still take power in Russia. As a result, Germany is in a weaker position and the Bolsheviks string out the Brest-Litovsk negotiations long enough for Germany to be on the brink of collapse before talks collapse and they re-enter the war. The Soviets have a seat at Versailles but, as the post-war revolutionary wave starts to erupt, they walk out denouncing the talks as an Imperialist land-grab (which isn't entirely untrue) and declaring the commencement of the world revolution. WW1 resumes until 1922 when exhaustion, disease and the withdrawal of the US following Wilson's crushing defeat in 1920 trying to run for a third term forces the combatants to sign an armistice when it becomes clear that neither side can break the stalemate. Peace is declared, though none expect it to last, and Eurasia is divided between the nascent Soviet World Republic that stretches all the way to the Netherlands and the Concert of Eurasia that was established to contain them. But within the Concert all is not well. The French-led Integralist Bloc dominates Catholic Europe, much to the chagrin of their British allies under an increasingly autocratic permanent National Government, and Integralism is fast becoming the dominant tendency of political Catholicism. Across Africa and Asia the colonised peoples are beginning to stir, sensing the fragility of their overlords, whilst the non-European Empires plot to betray their erstwhile allies and claim their place in the sun. And in America the Republic shambles from disaster to disaster as the Democratic Party falls increasingly under the influence of the KKK, rapidly growing in influence due to the perceived threats of "Jewish Communism", "Catholic Integralism" and "Gerveyite Negro Supremacism", while the Republicans, deeply mired in corruption, horribly mismanage the Great Depression throwing millions of Americans into desperation and poverty. From out of the chaos one man has emerged to forge a coalition of radicals from across the political spectrum to deliver the program that will save America and share its bountiful wealth with all its citizens; Huey Long, the last hope for democracy. The old world is dying, the new world cannot be born and now is the time of monsters.
Century of the Common Man: A successful Operation Long Drop kills everyone at the Tehran Conference. As a result, the post-war leadership of the UK (Stafford Cripps), USA (Henry Wallace) and the USSR (Anastas Mikoyan) are all considerably more cooperative and are willing to pursue (mostly) good faith attempts to build a lasting peace and usher in a new era of global cooperation. As a result, the Cold War is completely averted. European politics is dominated by an alliance of Communists and Democratic Socialists, the USSR enters the postwar era utterly secure and fully embracing reforms and the US undertakes a massive expansion of the welfare state. Though things are far from perfect by and large the world enters a new era of unprecedented peace and prosperity with the dawning of the Century of the Common Man. What follows would be an exploration of the political and cultural consequences of a world without the Cold War with one of the main framing devices being the intergenerational stories of three soldiers (one British, one American and one Soviet) who meet during the joint occupation of Germany and their descendants.
A History of the American Social Democracy: The 1848 Revolutions are larger and more devastating yet still end in defeat. With Britain no longer a safe haven for would be revolutionaries, due to a civil war sparked by a Chartist Uprising, thousands more radical emigres move to the United States, including a young Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. This larger pool of radical intelligentsia and exiled radicals, along with native radicals like Horace Greeley and William Lloyd Garrison, decide to establish the foundations for an independent party that will mobilise the growing industrial proletariat in the pursuit of socialism and the transcendence of capitalism. From humble beginnings the Socialist Workers Party of America would grow from rivals to the Free Soil and later Republican Parties to being part of the Union's wartime coalition during the Civil War. Growing rapidly during America's post-war industrialisation and the rising labour radicalism that came with it and absorbing the Radical Republicans following the betrayal of Reconstruction they edge out the Democrats in the northern cities and establish themselves as the main opposition party in the border states. During the 1880s and 90s they breakout and establish their hegemony over the American political system through exploiting the division between the Republican and Democratic Parties, absorbing the agrarian Populists and pursuing extensive political and electoral reforms that radically reshapes the very character of the American body politic. The Gilded Age is stillborn and the age of the American Social Democracy reigns supreme.
A History of a Land and its Peoples: Some musings on Binational Palestine and successful pan-Arabism.
Ruins of a Global Political System: Currently planning to make this one work but I'll leave it in just in case. A worse 9/11 results in Joe Biden establishing a bi-partisan National Unity Administration that takes the place of the Bush years and leaves the entire American political establishment utterly discredited and holding the ball when the 2008 Financial Crash hits just as political polarisation is on the rise. In 2008 America elected the sort of black radical extremist socialist that Fox News claimed that Obama was just in time for the Arab Spring. Heavily inspired by Ruins of a Global Political System and covers many similar themes.
In addition I also have 2 Warhammer 40K timeline ideas.
The first is a straightforward alternate history timeline where Ferrus Manus kills Fulgrim during the Dropsite Massacre. The Horus Heresy plays out as IOTL but after the war Ferrus Manus throws his support behind Rogal Dorn against Robute Guilleman. This significantly alters the trajectory of the 40k timeline and results in an Imperium with a more pan-Asian aesthetic. The Imperium, or Dai Man as it is come to be known, evolves into a centralised Confuscian-style Bureaucracy instead of the heavily decentralised theocracy of IOTL and as of the 41st Millennium is going through a multi-faction civil war following the expulsion of the Fang Dynasty (Qing analogue descendants of the Space Wolves and White Scars) and the Wars of Humiliation against the Gweilo. This timeline features not-Japan Ultima (known as Uroshima ITTL due to linguistic divergences), the Kroot as the not-American rising power of the Eastern Fringes, Alien Megacorporations seeking to plunder the wealth of Dai Man and flood their worlds with Drukhari narcotics, Warp Canals, Bureaucrats, Pirate Queens and the evolution of civilised Orkoids following the War of the Beast playing out very differently.
The second one is pure crossover crack fic where each of the Primarchs is raised by characters from various fictional settings (cannons adjusted accordingly to fit in the 40k setting). The current plan for the Primarchs is thus:
- Lion El'Jonson found and raised by the crew of Serenity (Firefly), named Lionel Tam. Legion called Lionel’s Raiders A.K.A The Browncoats. Space cowboy! Falls to Chaos. Is killed after the Heresy.
- Fulgrim found and raised by Kamina (Gurren Lagann), actually is Simon. Legion named the Dai Gurren Legion A.K.A. the Spiral Lords. Falls to Chaos (Tzeench) and becomes a Daemon Prince
- Perturabo found and raised by Baron Wulfenbach (Girl Genius), named Peter Heterodyne-Wulfenbach von Europa. Legion named the Jaegermarines. Falls to Chaos and becomes a Daemon Prince.
- Jagatai Khan found and raised by Cimmerians on Hyboria. Named Conan (Conan). Falls to Chaos (Khorne) and becomes a Daemon Prince.
- Leman Russ found and raised by Angel (Buffy and Angel), is Connor. Forced to kill Angel after he goes Angelus. Legion named the Knights of Midnight. Falls to Chaos and becomes a Daemon Prince.
- Rogal Dorn found and raised by Fire Lord Zuko (Avatar), named Ruko. Legion called the White Lotuses. Loyalist.
- Konrad Curze found and raised by the Judges of Mega-City One (Judge Dredd), named Fargo Dredd. Legion named the Lawbringers. Loyalist. Founds the Adeptus Arbites ITTL.
- Sanguinius found and raised by Darkseid (DC), named Samael. Legion called the Exterminating Angels. Loyalist, but has own agenda.
- Ferrus Manus found and raised by John Connor (Terminator), named Kyle “Iron Fist” Connor. Legion named the Fatemakers. Falls to Chaos (Nurgle) and becomes a Daemon Prince
- Angron found and raised by Angus McFife XII and becomes Angus Mc Fife XIII (Gloryhammer). Legion called the Space Knights of Crail. Loyalist.
- Roboute Guilliman found and raised by Eric von Shrakenburg (Draka), named Rudolf von Shrakenburg. Falls to Chaos (Slannesh) and becomes a Daemon Prince. Legion named the Praetorians.
- Mortarion found and raised by the last remaining Green Lantern in the galaxy. Legion called the Iron Wills.
- Magnus the Red lands on Telguuth (Tales of Telguuth) and is raised by sorcerers. Is names Tesro Karnik/Yazella (has their soul merged with a mortal women’s after his body is destroyed yes that is in the source material). Joins the Heresy in an attempt to betray the Chaos Gods and bind them to his will using the Webway. It doesn’t work and he gets possessed by many daemons. Later he is able to overcome his possession for a brief moment in order to backstab the forces of Chaos, sacrificing himself in the process. Legion called the Witch Lords.
- Horus Lupercal found and raised by John Luc Picard (Star Trek), and named Horatio Jean-Paul Picard. Legion named the Intrepid Voyagers.
- Lorgar found and raised by Quinn Dexter (Night’s Dawn Trilogy) on Catachan, named Iblis Levi. Legion called the Lightbringers A.K.A. the Luciferii.
- Vulkan found and raised by Katisa and the Ilyassai (Imaro), named Imaro. Legion called the Imperial Lions.
- Corax found and raised by Andrew Ryan (Bioshock), named John Galt. Legion called the Living. Falls to Chaos. Buddies up with the Ferengi.
- Alpharius and Omegon found and raised by the crew of Red Dwarf (Red Dwarf), named Jim and Bexley. Legion called the Boys from the Dwarf. One falls to Chaos and the other remains loyal, but it is later revealed that the Chaos one was loyal the whole time and betrays the forces of Chaos.
I have a TL planned where the Entente during WWI allies with the Kurds, which causes a much more earlier and destructive defeat of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. However, it doesn’t stop the 1917 Russian Revolution. Both sides, realizing how exhausted they are, agree on a white peace. Germany gains the German-speaking parts of Belgium and Austria-Hungary as well as Czechia and Slovenia. However Germany loses its colonial empire but isn’t subject to harsh reparations. The US isn’t involved either, which causes world history to be much different.
Unfortunately I only know a cursory amount of detail of world history so I need to do more research which I’m not sure if I have the time for. I also am stuck in a writer’s block and I don’t know what to do as of now.
Unfortunately I only know a cursory amount of detail of world history so I need to do more research which I’m not sure if I have the time for. I also am stuck in a writer’s block and I don’t know what to do as of now.
Wait, I forgot the Communist 1848 timelines.
The June Days Uprising results in France falling under the control of a radical Communist-Jacobin government. They throw their full support behind the 1848 Revolutions and escalate them into a Europe-wide revolutionary war.
In one version they're completely successful and all of Europe is united into a radical democratic socialist federation that allies with the Taiping Rebellion in China, instigates slave revolts in the Americas and proceeds to unite the world into a global federation whilst rapidly accelerating humanity's productive forces.
In the other version they're less successful and the Republique Populare only comprises 2/3 of France, the Rheinland and the Low Countries. They're force to take part in the European balance of power and the end result is the Victorian Era but with a Communist Great Power.
The June Days Uprising results in France falling under the control of a radical Communist-Jacobin government. They throw their full support behind the 1848 Revolutions and escalate them into a Europe-wide revolutionary war.
In one version they're completely successful and all of Europe is united into a radical democratic socialist federation that allies with the Taiping Rebellion in China, instigates slave revolts in the Americas and proceeds to unite the world into a global federation whilst rapidly accelerating humanity's productive forces.
In the other version they're less successful and the Republique Populare only comprises 2/3 of France, the Rheinland and the Low Countries. They're force to take part in the European balance of power and the end result is the Victorian Era but with a Communist Great Power.
The Four Corners of the World: During the Diadochi era, the city of Byzantion takes the place of OTL Pergamon but is more successful, expanding into an empire covering the Balkans, Anatolia, Armenia, and northern Syria. By the OTL year 0, the Mediterranean is divided into 4 roughly equal powers, the Roman Empire in the northwest, the Carthaginian Empire in the southwest, the Byzantine Empire in the northeast, and the Ptolemaic Empire in the southeast, plus Parthia off to the east. After years of fighting, the empires gradually settle down into an era of peace, diplomacy, and commerce that mirrors the Late Bronze Age, Hellenistic-style.
The Eagle Still has Claws: The Byzantine Empire has an easier late 1200s and early 1300s, mainly by butterflying away the Catalan Company fiasco. Anatolia is still lost to the Turks but the Byzantines manage to consolidate an European realm roughly comparable to OTL Greece + European Turkey, small but powerful for its size and able to keep the Turks on the other side of the Hellespont. In the early 1400s, this stable situation is shattered as a Central Asian warlord crushes the might of the Turks, leaving them in utter disarray while Constantinople eyes new opportunities.
Enemies of All Mankind: The Boer War is an even harder and longer slog for the British, costing more in time, blood, gold, and prestige. The British eventually win, but it's a Pyrrhic victory with most of the Boer population killed, with many people wondering if that last bit is a bug or a feature. The British become even more imperialistic and jingoistic in reaction to the not-so-glorious victory and foreign response, developing into the 'big bad' of the twentieth century. In a series of wars the British Empire is smashed by a coalition of the other great powers, reducing Great Britain to a second-rate European state.
The Eagle Still has Claws: The Byzantine Empire has an easier late 1200s and early 1300s, mainly by butterflying away the Catalan Company fiasco. Anatolia is still lost to the Turks but the Byzantines manage to consolidate an European realm roughly comparable to OTL Greece + European Turkey, small but powerful for its size and able to keep the Turks on the other side of the Hellespont. In the early 1400s, this stable situation is shattered as a Central Asian warlord crushes the might of the Turks, leaving them in utter disarray while Constantinople eyes new opportunities.
Enemies of All Mankind: The Boer War is an even harder and longer slog for the British, costing more in time, blood, gold, and prestige. The British eventually win, but it's a Pyrrhic victory with most of the Boer population killed, with many people wondering if that last bit is a bug or a feature. The British become even more imperialistic and jingoistic in reaction to the not-so-glorious victory and foreign response, developing into the 'big bad' of the twentieth century. In a series of wars the British Empire is smashed by a coalition of the other great powers, reducing Great Britain to a second-rate European state.
I might get around to these some day, but not any time soon, so I may as well post these quick ideas I had not too long ago.
The Manichaean Empire
Rome converts to Manichaeism rather than Christianity. The religion would obviously be altered in some ways due to the conversion, and the TL's primary purpose would be to see how the religion evolves over time.
Fall of the East
The Sassanids, in coalition with the Avars, destroy the Byzantines in the Byzantine-Sassanid war of 602-628. This is according to the premise that the Sassanids supposedly sought to recreate the Achaemenid Empire's borders, though in this case it is a bit of a partition. The Avars take Greece, and Slavicize it to a greater degree than OTL due to a lack of Greek authority in the matter. I was considering a fully Slavic Greece as a result, leaving Greek spoken only in Anatolia. North Africa is the last bastion of the Byzantines, specifically around Carthage. Islam is not butterflied away, with similar conquests to OTL except with Anatolia and Persia's fates reversed. I am unsure about Visigothic Spain and what happens to Italy, but I was thinking the Lombards would expand into Byzantine Italy while they are collapsing. Overall, not a good time for Byzantophiles.
Gothic Wars SI
Try to beat Belisarius in Italy. Bonus points for Gothicizing Italy to some degree.
Franks Denied
Burgundians win out in southern Gaul against the Franks. Franks are limited to northern Gaul and western Germania for the time being, with the Burgundians ending up as undisputed rulers of southern Gaul. They end up as rivals to the Franks, with Gaul permanently split up along Frankish and Burgundian lines. I was considering northern Gaul eventually Germanizing while southern Gaul ends up with a variant of Occitan that is only slightly influenced by Germanic languages for further separation of Gaul between the two powers.
Summer in Sumer
Sargon of Akkad never rises to power. Rather, one of the many Sumerian city-states takes up the mantle of King of the Universe. The Sumerian language spreads, and that's about as far as I got in planning.
The Fall of Civilization
ASBish TL where the Bronze Age Collapse is far greater, decimating all centers of civilization rather than destroying only much of the area around the eastern Mediterranean. The ASB factor would be something like natural disasters such as a massive volcanic eruption to potentially lead to the end of all civilizations.
The Manichaean Empire
Rome converts to Manichaeism rather than Christianity. The religion would obviously be altered in some ways due to the conversion, and the TL's primary purpose would be to see how the religion evolves over time.
Fall of the East
The Sassanids, in coalition with the Avars, destroy the Byzantines in the Byzantine-Sassanid war of 602-628. This is according to the premise that the Sassanids supposedly sought to recreate the Achaemenid Empire's borders, though in this case it is a bit of a partition. The Avars take Greece, and Slavicize it to a greater degree than OTL due to a lack of Greek authority in the matter. I was considering a fully Slavic Greece as a result, leaving Greek spoken only in Anatolia. North Africa is the last bastion of the Byzantines, specifically around Carthage. Islam is not butterflied away, with similar conquests to OTL except with Anatolia and Persia's fates reversed. I am unsure about Visigothic Spain and what happens to Italy, but I was thinking the Lombards would expand into Byzantine Italy while they are collapsing. Overall, not a good time for Byzantophiles.
Gothic Wars SI
Try to beat Belisarius in Italy. Bonus points for Gothicizing Italy to some degree.
Franks Denied
Burgundians win out in southern Gaul against the Franks. Franks are limited to northern Gaul and western Germania for the time being, with the Burgundians ending up as undisputed rulers of southern Gaul. They end up as rivals to the Franks, with Gaul permanently split up along Frankish and Burgundian lines. I was considering northern Gaul eventually Germanizing while southern Gaul ends up with a variant of Occitan that is only slightly influenced by Germanic languages for further separation of Gaul between the two powers.
Summer in Sumer
Sargon of Akkad never rises to power. Rather, one of the many Sumerian city-states takes up the mantle of King of the Universe. The Sumerian language spreads, and that's about as far as I got in planning.
The Fall of Civilization
ASBish TL where the Bronze Age Collapse is far greater, decimating all centers of civilization rather than destroying only much of the area around the eastern Mediterranean. The ASB factor would be something like natural disasters such as a massive volcanic eruption to potentially lead to the end of all civilizations.
A few more I forgot:
Strange Bedfellows: Due to Louis Barthou living longer and helping to normalise relations between France and the Soviet Union a Franco-Soviet alliance is formed during the interwar period. Concerns over the shifting balance of power in Europe results in the UK forming closer relations with Nazi Germany. When WW2 breaks out France and Britain, both liberal democracies (albeit with vast oppressive colonial empires) are on opposite sides of the war. There would be a strong focus on cultural consequences of these alliances, in particular Britain's complicity with Nazi crimes against humanity and how that is addressed.
Barbarism: A timeline that deconstructs the idea that the Nazis came to power because of the threat of Communism and the Soviet Union. Lenin dies before he can return to Russia and as a result the Bolsheviks form an alliance with the other socialist parties in support of the February Revolution. Civil War in Russia breaks out after a successful Kornilov Coup and Russia ends up divided between a rump far-right militarist dictatorship and the Polish-led centre-left Intermarium (ironically supported by the Bolsheviks ITTL on grounds of national self-determination). In Germany Versailles is just as harsh as IOTL and the internal situation is even more destabilised due to the larger influx of left-wing and Jewish refugees fleeing Russia. Without the rise of Communism the SPD is more unified and retains its radical wing. When the Depression hits the radical wing, led by Rosa Luxemburg, takes control of the party. With elections coming up and fearing a possible revolution the right rally around Hitler to stop them. In the chaos that follows the Nazis launch a coup with the support of the army and the conservative establishment, pre-emptively purging the SPD before turning on the other parties and establishing a one-party dictatorship. Nazi Germany forms an alliance with Kornilov's Russia with the aim of dismantling and dividing the increasingly unstable Intermarium between them.
The Rise and Fall of Volkism: A timeline that switches the places of Germany and Italy in the interwar years and WW2.The German Army collapses earlier, before the German Revolution of 1918 can sweep the Kaiser from power, and the Kaiserriech is forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The post-war political situation is extremely rocky but, due to the army no longer abroad and the reactionary forces able to call upon larger numbers of demobilised Friekorps, they are able to maintain order. After the Zwei Rote Jahre, where extensive use of Friekorps were needed to stamp down the unions and Communists, the Kaiser is forced to appoint Gregor Strasser as Chancellor following the March on Berlin by the German Völkisch Freedom Party and their militia. In Italy the Austrian advance was successful in breaking through. In response mass unrest breaks out and the Monarchy is overthrown and the Salo Republic proclaimed. Attempts by Bordiga to launch an uprising in Rome are brutally crushed by Fascisti militias with the support of the Socialist-led government. The Republicans negotiate a peace treaty with the Central Powers, although the loss of Italy isn't enough to tip the tide of war in their favour. For peacing-out earlier the Allies screw over the Italians even more than IOTL. Despite this the Republic is able to slough onwards. As time goes on failed artists Filippo Tommaso Marinetti begins to build a movement of disaffected nationalists, Sorelians, anti-semites and Strasser sympathisers under the banner of National Futurism. With the Great Depression ravaging Italy and the legitimacy of the main political parties in tatters the National Futurists come to power. When the allies invade Germany the Kaiser attempts to oust Gregor and negotiate a peace. In response Gregor proclaims the German Social Republic with the support of his brother Otto in the town of Weimar proclaiming that Volkism would now be republican and socialist. They are later killed by partisans and strung up in the town square.
Taking a Third Option: After WW2 the Stalin Note is accepted Germany is reunified and demilitarised. With a reduced military threat Hungary is able to break away from the Soviet Union as an independent Communist country along the lines of Yugoslavia. Without Germany to secure their southern flanks Denmark and Norway do not join NATO. Germany and Hungary are among the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement which soon expands to include Austria, Switzerland and all of Scandinavia. A negotiated solution to the Prague Spring adds Czechoslovakia. The Sino-Soviet Split results in China, Romania and Albania joining it as part of a popular front against the Two Imperialisms of the US and USSR. The Suharto coup fails and Indonesia continues the Konfrontasi. Over time the NAM begins to coalesce into an independent power-bloc uniting all the people sick of the two superpowers' bullshit with several of its members establishing independent nuclear deterrents and closer economic ties resulting in new global economic institutions designed to protect its members from being dominated by either side. As Cold War shenanigans continue to alienate their allies, to the benefit of the NAM. Britain and France join in the 80s, the Soviet Union collapses in the 90s and the US is contained to North America and returns to isolationism. The Non-Aligned Movement wins the Cold War.
Khrushchev's Checkmate: The Soviet plans for Cuba go off without a hitch and the first the Americans hear about the missiles is when the Soviets announce their presence and President Kennedy is forced to make a series of humiliating concessions to in exchange for their removal, such as guaranteeing the independence of Cuba and normalising relations, ending support to the South Vietnamese, withdrawal of ballistic missiles from Turkey and the evacuation of West Berlin. In the USSR Khrushchev's position is unassailable and he remains in power until the mid 70s continuing his reform policies and is succeeded by Kosygin. In the USA following his foreign policy humiliation, his various affairs and health scandals coming to life and a bitterly divided Primary Kennedy, remembered as one of the worst Presidents America ever had, loses the 1964 election to Barry Goldwater who proceeds to halt Civil Rights reforms, roll back the New Deal and shift US Cold War policy from containment to rollback.
Strange Bedfellows: Due to Louis Barthou living longer and helping to normalise relations between France and the Soviet Union a Franco-Soviet alliance is formed during the interwar period. Concerns over the shifting balance of power in Europe results in the UK forming closer relations with Nazi Germany. When WW2 breaks out France and Britain, both liberal democracies (albeit with vast oppressive colonial empires) are on opposite sides of the war. There would be a strong focus on cultural consequences of these alliances, in particular Britain's complicity with Nazi crimes against humanity and how that is addressed.
Barbarism: A timeline that deconstructs the idea that the Nazis came to power because of the threat of Communism and the Soviet Union. Lenin dies before he can return to Russia and as a result the Bolsheviks form an alliance with the other socialist parties in support of the February Revolution. Civil War in Russia breaks out after a successful Kornilov Coup and Russia ends up divided between a rump far-right militarist dictatorship and the Polish-led centre-left Intermarium (ironically supported by the Bolsheviks ITTL on grounds of national self-determination). In Germany Versailles is just as harsh as IOTL and the internal situation is even more destabilised due to the larger influx of left-wing and Jewish refugees fleeing Russia. Without the rise of Communism the SPD is more unified and retains its radical wing. When the Depression hits the radical wing, led by Rosa Luxemburg, takes control of the party. With elections coming up and fearing a possible revolution the right rally around Hitler to stop them. In the chaos that follows the Nazis launch a coup with the support of the army and the conservative establishment, pre-emptively purging the SPD before turning on the other parties and establishing a one-party dictatorship. Nazi Germany forms an alliance with Kornilov's Russia with the aim of dismantling and dividing the increasingly unstable Intermarium between them.
The Rise and Fall of Volkism: A timeline that switches the places of Germany and Italy in the interwar years and WW2.The German Army collapses earlier, before the German Revolution of 1918 can sweep the Kaiser from power, and the Kaiserriech is forced to sign the Treaty of Versailles. The post-war political situation is extremely rocky but, due to the army no longer abroad and the reactionary forces able to call upon larger numbers of demobilised Friekorps, they are able to maintain order. After the Zwei Rote Jahre, where extensive use of Friekorps were needed to stamp down the unions and Communists, the Kaiser is forced to appoint Gregor Strasser as Chancellor following the March on Berlin by the German Völkisch Freedom Party and their militia. In Italy the Austrian advance was successful in breaking through. In response mass unrest breaks out and the Monarchy is overthrown and the Salo Republic proclaimed. Attempts by Bordiga to launch an uprising in Rome are brutally crushed by Fascisti militias with the support of the Socialist-led government. The Republicans negotiate a peace treaty with the Central Powers, although the loss of Italy isn't enough to tip the tide of war in their favour. For peacing-out earlier the Allies screw over the Italians even more than IOTL. Despite this the Republic is able to slough onwards. As time goes on failed artists Filippo Tommaso Marinetti begins to build a movement of disaffected nationalists, Sorelians, anti-semites and Strasser sympathisers under the banner of National Futurism. With the Great Depression ravaging Italy and the legitimacy of the main political parties in tatters the National Futurists come to power. When the allies invade Germany the Kaiser attempts to oust Gregor and negotiate a peace. In response Gregor proclaims the German Social Republic with the support of his brother Otto in the town of Weimar proclaiming that Volkism would now be republican and socialist. They are later killed by partisans and strung up in the town square.
Taking a Third Option: After WW2 the Stalin Note is accepted Germany is reunified and demilitarised. With a reduced military threat Hungary is able to break away from the Soviet Union as an independent Communist country along the lines of Yugoslavia. Without Germany to secure their southern flanks Denmark and Norway do not join NATO. Germany and Hungary are among the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement which soon expands to include Austria, Switzerland and all of Scandinavia. A negotiated solution to the Prague Spring adds Czechoslovakia. The Sino-Soviet Split results in China, Romania and Albania joining it as part of a popular front against the Two Imperialisms of the US and USSR. The Suharto coup fails and Indonesia continues the Konfrontasi. Over time the NAM begins to coalesce into an independent power-bloc uniting all the people sick of the two superpowers' bullshit with several of its members establishing independent nuclear deterrents and closer economic ties resulting in new global economic institutions designed to protect its members from being dominated by either side. As Cold War shenanigans continue to alienate their allies, to the benefit of the NAM. Britain and France join in the 80s, the Soviet Union collapses in the 90s and the US is contained to North America and returns to isolationism. The Non-Aligned Movement wins the Cold War.
Khrushchev's Checkmate: The Soviet plans for Cuba go off without a hitch and the first the Americans hear about the missiles is when the Soviets announce their presence and President Kennedy is forced to make a series of humiliating concessions to in exchange for their removal, such as guaranteeing the independence of Cuba and normalising relations, ending support to the South Vietnamese, withdrawal of ballistic missiles from Turkey and the evacuation of West Berlin. In the USSR Khrushchev's position is unassailable and he remains in power until the mid 70s continuing his reform policies and is succeeded by Kosygin. In the USA following his foreign policy humiliation, his various affairs and health scandals coming to life and a bitterly divided Primary Kennedy, remembered as one of the worst Presidents America ever had, loses the 1964 election to Barry Goldwater who proceeds to halt Civil Rights reforms, roll back the New Deal and shift US Cold War policy from containment to rollback.
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Heh, it's time to call the shoots here.
And the Pyrenees are no more: When Charles II of Spain died he stated that his heir would be the prince of Anjou and grandson of Louis XIV of France, the man who would eventually be crowned Philip V of Spain. There was a growing fear in Europe about the possibility of a Bourbon Union should the Dauphin of France die and Philip's older borhter, Louis, die aswell. IOTL this happened, leaving the crown in theory to Philip himself, however his grandfather, who was still king, decided that the future king of France would be one of Louis' sons (as usual succession works). The main point of this Timeline is that the future Louis XV of France (the only surviving son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy) dies like his two brothers at a short age, leaving France heirless except for the Spanish branch. Since the to-be Louis XV died around 1718, after the war of succession and with his grandfather dead aswell, only the king of Spain is able to rule France. Thus the Union of Bourbon is created and a coalition consisting mainly of Britain and Austria declares war to the Union, but fail to bring it down.
Let the steel and blood rip the air: This was intended as a map game set in a parallel 1910, with the POD dating back to 1788 (The US collapses into separate independent states). The world follows a very different course through the XIX century, with changes and differences everywhere. By 1910 the world was at the boiling point, and I let players of said map game orchestrate or avoid the war. They prefered to avoid it and one of the major powers destroyed itself in a fluke war (Germany thought it could face a coalition alone). From that point on old diplomacy begins to show signs of weakness and the world tension deludes in a series of bloody and brutal, but short conflicts. Radical ideologies surge all across the world until in 1921 it all explodes. The world is submerged into a great war for 6 years which rages from California to Australia and from Finland to Tierra del Fuego. The British Alliance kind of wins the war, but in a terrible shape and ends up in a brutal occupation of France. The war corrupted many people, even in the high ranks of the army, and the occupation of France turns into a massacre. Soldiers want to occuppy it no more and Britain implodes in a "socialist" revolution while France and Spain collapse under their own weight and many radical regimes. The war, post-war and radicalism essentially destroyed the European civilisation, sending Europe a hundred years back in time in quality of life. I can't really explain much in this short paragraph, but let's just say that the XX Century is a very dark, very grim scenario.
I have other scenarios of which I've written some things, such as a scenario in which the US Civil War goes reverse and it's the north who secedes due to slavery, an scenario in which Napoleons wins at Waterloo but ends up losing anyways and butterflies almost everything, Italy decides to defend Austria against the Anschluss leading to a very short war with Germany and the collapse of the Reich, a TL on this site about a Spanish colonisation of Australia, another TL attempt in which the Fashoda incident sparks a world war, among other things.
And the Pyrenees are no more: When Charles II of Spain died he stated that his heir would be the prince of Anjou and grandson of Louis XIV of France, the man who would eventually be crowned Philip V of Spain. There was a growing fear in Europe about the possibility of a Bourbon Union should the Dauphin of France die and Philip's older borhter, Louis, die aswell. IOTL this happened, leaving the crown in theory to Philip himself, however his grandfather, who was still king, decided that the future king of France would be one of Louis' sons (as usual succession works). The main point of this Timeline is that the future Louis XV of France (the only surviving son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy) dies like his two brothers at a short age, leaving France heirless except for the Spanish branch. Since the to-be Louis XV died around 1718, after the war of succession and with his grandfather dead aswell, only the king of Spain is able to rule France. Thus the Union of Bourbon is created and a coalition consisting mainly of Britain and Austria declares war to the Union, but fail to bring it down.
Let the steel and blood rip the air: This was intended as a map game set in a parallel 1910, with the POD dating back to 1788 (The US collapses into separate independent states). The world follows a very different course through the XIX century, with changes and differences everywhere. By 1910 the world was at the boiling point, and I let players of said map game orchestrate or avoid the war. They prefered to avoid it and one of the major powers destroyed itself in a fluke war (Germany thought it could face a coalition alone). From that point on old diplomacy begins to show signs of weakness and the world tension deludes in a series of bloody and brutal, but short conflicts. Radical ideologies surge all across the world until in 1921 it all explodes. The world is submerged into a great war for 6 years which rages from California to Australia and from Finland to Tierra del Fuego. The British Alliance kind of wins the war, but in a terrible shape and ends up in a brutal occupation of France. The war corrupted many people, even in the high ranks of the army, and the occupation of France turns into a massacre. Soldiers want to occuppy it no more and Britain implodes in a "socialist" revolution while France and Spain collapse under their own weight and many radical regimes. The war, post-war and radicalism essentially destroyed the European civilisation, sending Europe a hundred years back in time in quality of life. I can't really explain much in this short paragraph, but let's just say that the XX Century is a very dark, very grim scenario.
I have other scenarios of which I've written some things, such as a scenario in which the US Civil War goes reverse and it's the north who secedes due to slavery, an scenario in which Napoleons wins at Waterloo but ends up losing anyways and butterflies almost everything, Italy decides to defend Austria against the Anschluss leading to a very short war with Germany and the collapse of the Reich, a TL on this site about a Spanish colonisation of Australia, another TL attempt in which the Fashoda incident sparks a world war, among other things.
I never knew I needed these TLs until now.
Not so much abandoned ideas as a few which I'm toying with and might get round to one day:
- The Open Veins of Anglo America: The American War of Independence shakes out more or less the same but in the Treaty of Paris Britain retains control of the bits west of the Proclamation Line of 1763 which they turn into a big Native American Protectorate called the United Nations of America that runs from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Mississippi to the Appalachians. This affects US history less than you might think for the first 20 years or so but further down the line it does mean American economic growth is ultimately stunted and more prey to British and other influences. The Union eventually breaks apart into a series of competing states. The Spanish Empire evolves into a series of large allied states stretching from the Rockies to the Pampas.
- The Strange Birth of Radical England: Disraeli decides that royalties from his books are too large for him to risk entering into politics. Consequently, he's not around to save the Tory party, which implodes in the late 1840s and doesn't recover from the splits over the Corn Laws. The Liberals become hegemonic before splitting between the Radicals and the Gladstonians some time in the 1880s. British leftism thus develops in the liberal tradition, disconnected from the union movement.
- [Insert good Spain title here]: A bit less thought out but work out a way for the Spanish succession to go like this: Charles IV (1788-1819) -> Francisco (1819-1865) [Francisco de Paula, Duke of Cadiz] -> Enrique I (1865-1900) [Enrique, Duke of Sevilla] -> roughly follows the Dukes of Seville.
1. After Magnus Maximus was defeated, his son Flavius Victor narrowly avoids assasination and takes whatever troops of his father remain loyal to the northwest of gaul. From here he fights first against the huns and then a guerilla war against his enemies of the empire until his brother constantine III is able to relive him with troops from britain. Basically it is an Arthurian Take on the late Western Roman Empire but i am still figuring out what roles certain characters will play like Constantine III, Ambrosius Aurelianus and Flavius Victor. Problem is, I just dont know how to start writing it down and what the story arc will be since at the moment it is still very convoluted and i constantly find something new about that period that i wanna add or sparks my interest. Also my english is bad and i need to learn how to format nicely.
2. A third Germany. After Prussia formed the North German Federation the south german states explicitly got the option to also form a union themselves. However there already was an earlier idea of a germany that is not dominated by either prussia or the Habsburgs. A Union of all or most of the smaller states. This would be the Third Germany. Biggest Problem here. I dont know enough about dynastic relations and i dont know a good PoD ( i prefer as early as possible but even the most likely one imo after prussia formed the North German Federation is somehat unlikely)
3.The Hohenstaufer Reich. Basically what if the duchy of swabia and the Hohenstaufer survive and dont die out. For this i have several problems, i dont know enough about dynasties again, i dont know about the vast butterflies this could have, i dont have the time atm for such a big scenario and i dont really now what a good pod could be. In general i find the Hohenstaufer super intresting but i dont wanna do an HRE wank or just some super speculative stuff. Also my Interest atm is more about late rome and the byzantines (how stereotypical)
4.Another Peace.What would have happened if WW2 had a different peace treaty. Especially with germany (Not that germany won or anything more about different territorial changes and zones) I am currently torn between Churchills plan - Hungary since i find that the least usual one, Roosevelts one or a fictional one where west germany keeps austria and east germany as a respons keeps sliesia and pommerania so it doesnt become too weak. Idealy i would like that Germany (or the Germanies depends) together with others become their own power block similar to the non-aligned movement idea above. However this is all very conceptual and i still dont know what PoD to use or what post war germany plan would be the coolest to use.
Also my bad english is a huge problem since i dont want to write things especially on the Internet which are full of mistakes or badly worded
2. A third Germany. After Prussia formed the North German Federation the south german states explicitly got the option to also form a union themselves. However there already was an earlier idea of a germany that is not dominated by either prussia or the Habsburgs. A Union of all or most of the smaller states. This would be the Third Germany. Biggest Problem here. I dont know enough about dynastic relations and i dont know a good PoD ( i prefer as early as possible but even the most likely one imo after prussia formed the North German Federation is somehat unlikely)
3.The Hohenstaufer Reich. Basically what if the duchy of swabia and the Hohenstaufer survive and dont die out. For this i have several problems, i dont know enough about dynasties again, i dont know about the vast butterflies this could have, i dont have the time atm for such a big scenario and i dont really now what a good pod could be. In general i find the Hohenstaufer super intresting but i dont wanna do an HRE wank or just some super speculative stuff. Also my Interest atm is more about late rome and the byzantines (how stereotypical)
4.Another Peace.What would have happened if WW2 had a different peace treaty. Especially with germany (Not that germany won or anything more about different territorial changes and zones) I am currently torn between Churchills plan - Hungary since i find that the least usual one, Roosevelts one or a fictional one where west germany keeps austria and east germany as a respons keeps sliesia and pommerania so it doesnt become too weak. Idealy i would like that Germany (or the Germanies depends) together with others become their own power block similar to the non-aligned movement idea above. However this is all very conceptual and i still dont know what PoD to use or what post war germany plan would be the coolest to use.
Also my bad english is a huge problem since i dont want to write things especially on the Internet which are full of mistakes or badly worded
Here's the links for 2 of the 3 along woth one I'll be updating later this week:
An alternate WWIII scenario:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/this-just-in.389179/
SkyNet that went over (Redux/update pending):
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/genisys-domination.360944/
Derivative of SkyNet that ran long:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/genisys-domination-the-augment.375573/
United Kingdom of Brittany and Normandy:
William of Normand dies on his way to England in 1066 and his distant cousin Conan II of Brittany invades Normandy as a descendant of Richard I. Conan's heiress Havoise and her husband Hoel of Cornouaille make Brittany and Normandy a United Kingdom.
The new King Arthur:
Geoffrey II of Brittany survives and succeeds Richard the Lionheart, then is succeeded by his son Arthur. OR Geoffrey dies but Constance of Brittany doesn't die in childbirth in 1201 and wisely advises her son, who eventually succeeds his uncle after the First Barons' War.
Joan the Lame:
John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, marries Joan of Penthièvre and survives. When the War of the Breton Succession starts, Joan and John are supported by England, and their rival John of Montfort by France. John of Montfort dies as he did OTL and although his son later challenges Joan and John, he is swiftly defeated.
Queen Anne:
Edward of Middleham doesn't die in 1484 and his father is victorious at Bosworth, crushing Henry Tudor and executing the Stanleys. In Brittany, Duchess Anne marries Charles VIII, then Louis XII. When Louis dies in an accident in 1502, Anne goes back to Brittany and later marries Edward.
Queen Anne could be a sequel to Joan the Lame.
William of Normand dies on his way to England in 1066 and his distant cousin Conan II of Brittany invades Normandy as a descendant of Richard I. Conan's heiress Havoise and her husband Hoel of Cornouaille make Brittany and Normandy a United Kingdom.
The new King Arthur:
Geoffrey II of Brittany survives and succeeds Richard the Lionheart, then is succeeded by his son Arthur. OR Geoffrey dies but Constance of Brittany doesn't die in childbirth in 1201 and wisely advises her son, who eventually succeeds his uncle after the First Barons' War.
Joan the Lame:
John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, marries Joan of Penthièvre and survives. When the War of the Breton Succession starts, Joan and John are supported by England, and their rival John of Montfort by France. John of Montfort dies as he did OTL and although his son later challenges Joan and John, he is swiftly defeated.
Queen Anne:
Edward of Middleham doesn't die in 1484 and his father is victorious at Bosworth, crushing Henry Tudor and executing the Stanleys. In Brittany, Duchess Anne marries Charles VIII, then Louis XII. When Louis dies in an accident in 1502, Anne goes back to Brittany and later marries Edward.
Queen Anne could be a sequel to Joan the Lame.
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