What alternate history ideas you wish they were used more often?

[TickTock The Witch's Dead]

1. France gaining the Burgundian inheritance instead of Austria
2. Portugal discovering the Americas a century earlier and becoming an absolute superpower

 

[Wendell]

The First French Republic (Consulate) surviving.

 

[Derek Jackson]

Successful Radical Reconstruction in the USA

"The agreement of the People" becoming England's Constitution by 1649

 

[Historicaltrolling]

I think some of the new rulers will practice polygamy but they’ll revert back. How syncretised would Christianity become? I’d think some sects will be basically the traditional religion with god shoved on top while others would be much more like mainstream Christianity at that time. I’d see a lot of former gods becoming saints for example.

Yeah, I’d think an Incan empire with some European technological and cultural transmission would make for a very interesting South America that’d survive with more Native American culture intact.

I think the key here is papal support. After Pizzaro or some other conquistadore crown themselves the Spanish will propably return. I can see a Spanish defeat in the Andes leading to the Incan government seeking recognition from the pope. The key here is to have an anti Spanish pope or a pope that is in conflict with Spain that are willing to accept the Inca state (with some gold bribes of course).

Pizzaro conquered the Incas in 1532 (if we follow a similar timetable). The pope at that time was Clement VII. But Clement VII died in 1534 and I can imagine the word to mouth would take time to reach Rome. His successor was Paul III. Sadly I don't know enough about these pope's and how their relationship was with the Spanish crown. Was there ever a conflict between the Spanish and the pope in this era?

 

[Ed of the Pueblos Libres]

Pizzaro conquered the Incas in 1532 (if we follow a similar timetable). The pope at that time was Clement VII. But Clement VII died in 1534 and I can imagine the word to mouth would take time to reach Rome. His successor was Paul III. Sadly I don't know enough about these pope's and how their relationship was with the Spanish crown. Was there ever a conflict between the Spanish and the pope in this era?

Troops of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and Spanish emperor did sack Rome in 1527, since Pope Clement VII formed an alliance with Charles V's arch-enemy, King Francis I of France.
But generally the Holy See was pretty friendly with Spain, the Spanish first ambassador in the Holy See, Gonzalo de Beteta, was appointed in 1480, stablishing the oldest permanent diplomatic mission in the history of the modern world.
Because of this and importance of Spain in the catholic world, there was a big cooperation between the 2 countries (and why the Vatican did allow the partition of the New World between Spain and Portugal via the “Bula Inter Caetera” in 1493 in first place)

 

[Alcsentre Calanice]

Indeed it was not. The Commonwealth's republican system had even worse internal issues than the Liberum Veto.

I do agree that it's a very underdeveloped setting, although I understand why, It's the worst combination of being outside the traditional AH spectrum, being a really complex and multifaceted period, and being villified by the nations whose members would know the most about it.

Could you give us some examples and some solutions that get rid of those problems without abandoning the Rzeczpospolita's republican character?

 

[Augenis]

Could you give us some examples and some solutions that get rid of those problems without abandoning the Rzeczpospolita's republican character?

Well, Confederations and the right to Rokosz for one, establishing a system of legal rebellion which sparked a series of civil wars across the Commonwealth's lifespan, pillaging the country and breaking royal power greater than any veto did.

Extreme power of the regional sejmiks was no good deal either, especially since it helped establish Liberum Veto in the first place (a deputy vetoes a law = a sejmik vetoes a law = a province will not follow that law = there's little point to pass that law anymore since those same sejmiks are what enforce laws).

Those two traits were inherent in the structure of the Commonwealth, or the Republic, inherited from long before the Union was even signed, so 🤷‍♂️

 

[NedStark]

"The agreement of the People" becoming England's Constitution by 1649

You would need a Leveller to become TTL equivalent of Cromwell.

 

[Mikestone8]

And nobody seems to think segregation had a chance to survive any longer than it did, but considering what Johnson had to do to end it, how extreme southerners were in their opposition to ending it, and the state of America today, I rather strongly disagree.

Indeed. W/o the Cold War I sometimes wonder whether the Civil Rights movement would have got off the ground at all. Indeed, w/o venturing too far in case I slip over the line into modern politics, I wonder if there haven't been distinct signs of backsliding since the Cold War ended.

 

[NedStark]

Southern-less USA TLs are also comparatively few.

 

[RY1985]

This is a bit far-out and i am not sure if it belongs in ASB but Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) are estimated to have been around for 200,000 years, while the first cities were formed maybe around 6000 to 7000 years ago (give-or-take).

What if. ....Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) started agriculture and forming modern settlements a lot earlier? Like over 180,000 years ago?

 

[Alcsentre Calanice]

Well, Confederations and the right to Rokosz for one, establishing a system of legal rebellion which sparked a series of civil wars across the Commonwealth's lifespan, pillaging the country and breaking royal power greater than any veto did.

Extreme power of the regional sejmiks was no good deal either, especially since it helped establish Liberum Veto in the first place (a deputy vetoes a law = a sejmik vetoes a law = a province will not follow that law = there's little point to pass that law anymore since those same sejmiks are what enforce laws).

Those two traits were inherent in the structure of the Commonwealth, or the Republic, inherited from long before the Union was even signed, so 🤷‍♂️

Thank you very much. I'm going to get a book about the Commonwealth at my university's library to aquire more information on this very interesting subject.

"The agreement of the People" becoming England's Constitution by 1649

You would need a Leveller to become TTL equivalent of Cromwell.

Or Cromwell seeing some decisive advantage in siding with the Levellers and enforcing some of their central demands – for example, if the Levellers are stronger than they were IOTL.

 

[Ogrebear]

Roman Britain survives
Prince Arthur becomes King
Black Death never happens
China continues the voyages of exploration
Titanic never even sees an iceberg
No Great Depression
Whittle never sells his designs to America
A-Bomb fails
National Government continues past 1945
America supports France and Britain over Suez
Iran democratic govt not couped for oil
Star Trek never happened.

 

[Fatt Shea]

Different outcomes in the warlord period in China. Most people assume it will be the KMT or the CCP, but the warlord period wars were very closely fought and it could have easily gone different, it would also be interesting to not just have Chiang or Mao.

 

[NyQuil]

Robert F Kennedy runs in 1964

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

The USA pursuing a Pacific First strategy.
Or a WW2 TL where the focus isn't on the war itself but on how the butterflies affect the Cold War.

 

[AltoRegnant]

Or a WW2 TL where the focus isn't on the war itself but on how the butterflies affect the Cold War.

i mean unless the POD is like 44, i don't see how that's possible without fronting it heavily with ww2

 

[Hugh Third of Five]

i mean unless the POD is like 44, i don't see how that's possible without fronting it heavily with ww2

Well of course it would involve major changes in WW2. I guess I phrased it poorly. Most of the WW2 alternate history seems to focus on Axis victories and their implausibility. However, even though they don't make an Axis victory plausible there are numerous potential PODs during WW2 that would drastically change the landscape of the Cold War.

 

[AltoRegnant]

Well of course it would involve major changes in WW2. I guess I phrased it poorly. Most of the WW2 alternate history seems to focus on Axis victories and their implausibility. However, even though they don't make an Axis victory plausible there are numerous potential PODs during WW2 that would drastically change the landscape of the Cold War.

ah. i get it; i've only read like two ww2 tls; most of blunted sickle's first thread and footprint of Mussolini, and even then i stopped either due to getting too far behind and lost, or the nuke on Adis Ababba. it felt gratuitous

 

[Deleted member 139407]

I've always loved the idea of a United States that's either a banana republic or a just-emerging regional power. So often in alternate history we either see a huge United States (which engulfs at the very least Canada and at most the entire continent) or the oh-so-typical USA v. CSA split (you, reading this, may even see that map in your mind). I've always had two ideas regarding the size of such a Union in my head: the United States in an alternate Treaty of Paris and a much closer War of Independence is relegated to the East Coast where the borders established are those the Proclamation of 1763 or a United States without the Northwest Ordinance and West Florida.

I'm not sure how plausible such a scenario is (given that it's one where history actively keeps the United States from expanding westward), but I've always loved to toy the idea of a United States which isn't a world power, but rather a nation which, while still important, has nowhere near the say it had at its height/has now as a global superpower.