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  1. WI: The USSR Continues to Not Participate in the Olympics After WWII

    The Soviet Union didn't join the IOC or otherwise participate in Olympic events until 1952, under the pretext that they were a decadent bourgeois showcase or something along that line of rhetoric, not changing their tune until after the war. What if, for whatever reason (slightly worse Cold War...

  2. WI: Churchill or Stalin Die Instead of Roosevelt

    What if Stalin or Churchill (or possibly both) die naturally on April 12th, 1945, while Roosevelt lives out his term? Who’s death of the two would have a greater impact? (I think Stalin, considering that Churchill would be out of office in four months anyway). How would British/Soviet policy...

  3. AHC/WI: Enduring Christian Minority in Nubia

    Nubia (in modern Sudan), had a large Christian community following the Alexandrine Rite, and several Christian states, for about a millennium until the rump kingdom of Makuria/Dotawo finally dissolved in the late 15th century. The region then fell under ottoman sway, and became heavily Arabized...

  4. Why Did Milan Become an Imperial Capital?

    In the wake of the Third Century’s various disasters, several cities away from Rome rose to prominence, as their strategic locations near the frontiers allowed for for imperial attentions to be channeled more effectively. Trier, Antioch, and Nikomedia/Constantinople spring to mind. However...

  5. American Organized Crime Without Prohibition?

    Without the stimulus of Prohibition, would organized crime have reached its OTL heights of influence in the 1920s and beyond? Would the Mafia ever become as renowned as in OTL?

  6. WI: Pueblo Incident Had Occurred in a World Without the Vietnam War

    If (disregarding butterflies and all that) the USS Pueblo incident occurred in a world where the US wasn't busy with Vietnam, would America have taken a harder line with North Korea (either in terms of measured reprisals, rescue efforts, or even a general escalation)?

  7. Why Did the Confederate Constitution Have a Single-Term Presidency?

    The Constitution of the CSA altered very little of the US Constitution except for explicit defenses of state sovereignty, slavery, low tariffs, and other issues central to Confederate political ideology. Why, then, did it change Presidential terms from a (then-unlimited) four-year cycle to a...

  8. Direct Knowledge of Homer in Medieval Western Europe?

    While reading various histories of the Middle Ages, I have occasionally come across references to the Homeric works (mentions of romances that alluded to Ulysses/Odysseus, for example), but not in a way that would imply familiarity with the actual texts of the Iliad and Odyssey. So, how familiar...

  9. Why Did Delaware Vote for Breckinridge in 1860?

    Why did Delaware, which barely had slavery and was decidedly unionist during the war to come, vote pretty decisively for Breckinridge in the 1860 Presidential Election, in contrast to other Upper South states, which broke for Bell, or Maryland, which only voted for Breckinridge by a very small...

  10. Without Mussolini's Invasion, Could Greece Have Remained Neutral in WWII?

    Assume that Mussolini either doesn't feel as much of a need to demonstrate Italian might in comparison to the blitzkrieg, or alternatively, that the Italian government makes a different strategic assessment in the late 1930s that doesn't see Greece as a "vital enemy"-so the war of 1940 doesn't...

  11. Fate of Afrikaans if the Cape Colony had Remained Dutch?

    What would have happened to the emerging Afrikaans language if the Cape Colony had remained under Dutch control? Would it have been subsumed back into Dutch, creating merely a more divergent version of Cape High Dutch? Would there have been a creole, stigmatized, less Dutch than OTL Afrikaans...

  12. Roughly, How Much of the Significant Literary Corpus of Antiquity Survives?

    Putting this in Before 1900 because it concerns antiquity. I know this is an unanswerable question. But, out of all the literary works we know about from antiquity that could be deemed “significant” (perhaps, mentioned in two surviving sources), what proportion do we still have?

  13. Foreign Policy of a Stevenson Administration From 1953?

    Would there be any significant changes to American foreign policy if Adlai Stevenson had somehow become President? Would we still have removed Mossadegh and Arbenz? Would we have taken a tough line against the Europeans on Suez?

  14. WI: Edward II Remains at Caerphilly During His Flight?

    During his long, pathetic retreat from the invasion of Mortimer and Isabella in 1326, Edward II and his retainers fled to the very strong defensive position of Caerphilly Castle. He abandoned it (along with much of his cash and other valuables) in early November in a probable attempt to flee...

  15. Would a "No Automatic Amnesty" Confederate Surrender Have Been Feasible?

    What if the US Government had, in early 1865, had intimated to the confederacy and the world at large that there would not be a blanket pardon with exceptions for a few especially heinous or high-ranking offenders, but rather a more standard policy where at least all former US officers and...

  16. After Qin's Fall, Could the 18 Kingdoms Have Endured, or Was Quick Reunification Inevitable?

    In the wake of the collapse of the Qin Dynasty, could the emergent 18 kingdoms have endured absent the phenomenal success of Gaozu, or was resorting into a new pan-chines state very likely after an initial unstable period? Could China have essentially returned to the old pattern of warring...

  17. How Would a Communist Greece Treat the Orthodox Church?

    Whatever the specific POD, in general terms how would the Greek Communists have treated the hierarchy and faith of the Orthodox Church if they had won the civil war of OTL, or if they had come to control the state in some other manner? What was the KKE's inclination on the matter?

  18. WI: Rapid Anti-Kabila Victory in the Second Congo War?

    What would be the consequences of a rapid Anti-Kabila victory in the Second Congo War, before pro-Kabila government had time to intervene (Perhaps if the capture of the Kitiona Base and Inga Hydro results in the collapse of the Kinshasa defenses)? Would Uganda and Rwanda fall out, perhaps having...

  19. PODs That Would Lead to Violent Upheaval in Britain in 1831-2?

    In hindsight, it appears obvious, at least to the present writer, that the Days of May, the period of the greatest apparent instability during the Reform Act crisis, was incapable of leading to prolonged violent unrest, let alone full-blown revolution, in any timeline where the great personages...

  20. Would Nationalist China Support Anti-Colonial Movements? Which Ones?

    If nationalist China (never mind the POD, it's one of those silly speculations based off of a HOI game) had won against the Japanese along with the allies, conquered the communists, and absorbed the more important warlord states by the early 50s, and somehow managed to reform the state apparatus...
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