Points of divergence concerning various cultural and habitual developments of human civilisation and human cultures. Organised by topic into sections, with each section having its POD entries sorted as chronologically as possible.

What's your favorite prehistoric POD ?

Why can't we speed up the Mesolithic ?

Why no earlier civilizations ?

Questions regarding "Bronze Age Collapse"

Recreation of the Bronze Age systems post-collapse

No "Bronze Age Collapse"

Peripheral civilisations during the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age

WI: No Sea People invasions

No Classic Mesoamerican Collapse

Ideas about more developed medieval era Amerindian civilizations

Why didn't urban Native American cultures move particularly far north ?

Challenge: European Society collapses before 1492 AD

Challenge: Make Africa the most developed and stable region in the world (with a POD in the 16th century at the earliest)

Challenge: Proto-Swahili City States in the Indosphere

Challenge: Weirdest 19th century

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Plausibility check: Europe with a population of 1,5 billion people (POD in 100 AD)

Population carrying capacity of the Malay Archipelago

American cities that could have been more prominent

Global population without decolonisation ?

Stop the plague of sprawl !

WI: The world with half the population ?

WI: The world in 2013 with half the OTL population

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Challenge: Ideologies based on psychology instead of economics

Challenge: Earliest possible feminist movement

WI: No feudalism

Medieval Muslim minorities in Christian Europe

Plausibility check: Queen Elizabeth I a feminist

Challenge: Socially liberal authoritarianism

How inevitable is nationalism ?

Challenge: Native Americans "pull an Iwakura"

Weird feminist what-if

Challenge: Minorities in New World countries are politically conservative

How would American culture be different with the draft ?

Challenge: No Great Depression

Plausibility check: Large-scale American anti-war movement in WWII ?

Challenge: Conservative Counterculture

An ATL 1960s counterculture in an USA which lost WWII

What could the eventual post-communist flags of the presently remaining communist countries look like ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

WI: Discrimination based on eye colour

African slaver empire

Challenge: Classical world abolitionism

Challenge: Stoicism bringing the downfall of slavery in Rome

WI: No feudalism

Plausibility check: How long could feudalism have survived?

Challenge: Avoid Black slavery

No black slavery

WI widespread animal slavery ? (the wherefores of domestication)

Different crops and the viability of slavery

Can slavery be ended peacefully with a POD around 1800 or afterward ?

Plausibility check: Napoleon outlaws slavery

Plausibility check: American Racial Equality before 1900 ?

How long can a segregated society last ?

WI modern society stayed more misogynistic for a longer time ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Women's Rights in ATLs

Plausibility check: Female legionaires

Sociopolitical and Cultural progress if Roman Empire survives

WI: No Surnames

Piracy as a British stereotype

Plausibility check: Challenge: Female Soldiers in the 1700s

WI: No rise of secularism in the 18th and 19th century West ?

Challenge: Dueling survives to present day

WI modern society stayed more misogynistic for a longer time ?

Challenge: Spread female AND male military conscription

Plausibility check: More women recruited for combat in WWII

Plausibility check: Earliest possible acceptance of female fighter pilots post-1900 ?

Did the past smell like cigarettes ?

Challenge: Conservative Counterculture

Earth seen regularly from orbit by thousands of tourists - any psychological/social effects ?

Cultural effects of a nuclear war

Most and least multicultural Europes by 2012

Will women ever play professional sports alongside men ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Challenge: Arabian science continues

Challenge: Western-style 'Englightenment' era in the Middle East

Orthography POD

How powerful is a book ?

Books and TV shows effect on history

Plausibility check: Teaching of Classics (history, languages, geography, social sciences) marginalized or cancelled ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Alternate Cuisine

Alternate Foods and Drinks

Alternate Food & Drink Thread

Culinary and agricultural PODs

A world without forks

Alternate utensils

Boiling water before drinking it common in medieval Europe

Cuisine and foods of a Japanese/Korean/Chinese colonized west coast of North America ?

Challenge: German cuisine as popular and well-regarded as French cuisine

Challenge: Tea-drinking and coffee-drinking countries reversed

WI: No fast food chains

Non-American multinational fast-food and similar chains

Challenge: An Asian-themed fast food chain is as big as McDonald's or Burger King

Alternatives to vanilla ?

Europeanised Asian Cuisine - what makes it Europeanised ?

Alternate history clothing, dining habits, etc.

Points of Divergence: Agriculture

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Are there any standards for fashion and military uniforms in ATLs ?

Making male skirts fashionable with at least 80% of the world, and trousers considered appropriate women's wear ?

No early modern era "wig phase" in fashion

Challenge : Blue is seen as the colour of girls, pink as colour of boys

Neck ties go out of fashion

Zipper not invented or invented at a different time

Suppose pantyhose had never been invented/developed

Alternate history clothing, dining habits, etc.

Points of Divergence: Agriculture

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Points of Divergence : Arts, Architecture and Monuments

Points of Divergence : Musical Instruments and Recording Technology

Points of Divergence : Popular Culture

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Christmas PODs

Why do many modern Christmas decorations have an early 1800s aesthetic ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Points of Divergence : Medical Science

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Challenge: Dueling survives to present day

WI: Richard the Lionheart popularizes bullfights in England

Points of Divergence : Sports

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

The butterfly effect and human culture

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

DBWI: Anti-Magical racism is on the rise

DBWI: Industrial Revolution in Europe

ASBs reverse standards of living in countries

WI ASBs made every country "first world" ?

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Points of Divergence : Language and linguistics

Points of Divergence : Famous People

Points of Divergence : Political Movements

Points of Divergence : Religions

Useful Resources on Everyday Aspects of Life in Various Eras

Points of Divergence Main Directory