Alternate history scenarios you've never seen that would be interesting to explore

Veylon

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Aris Khandr said:
I would love to see an alternate history story about the outcome of a failed Reconquista. Had the Muslims not been ejected from Spain, and thus no Columbus or Spanish Inquisition, how would the modern world look today? Would Islam be less prone to extremism? How would a strong Muslim state have affected British and French colonialism post-WWI? Would there even be a state of Israel now? What would be the status of the "New World"?
Well, we already have one example of a failed Reconquista: Anatolia.

The Spanish Inquisition wasn't nearly as impressive as we imagine it to be, so it's absence probably wouldn't matter. Columbus, likewise, isn't that important and is interchangeable with any number of other ship captains.

Islam's decline into extremism is a reaction to stress from outside forces and - more recently - magnified an infusion of oil money. If Europe never achieved ascendancy, Islam would have little reason to develop it's modern day inferiority complex.

The flipside is that Christianity's inferiority complex - the one that spurred it to desperate trans-oceanic graspings at straws in the first place - would be intensified. Maybe it's too big a gap for real ocean-going ships to be developed to reach the Americas from France or Britain without knowing that there's land there to reach. Historic colonialism and the ultimate victory of Europe wouldn't be impossible without Spain. But without Colombus and a secular answer to encroaching Islamic armies, Europe may have just kept doubling-down on ever-more-fervent religiosity.

In the latter case, there is no French or British Colonialism (except possibly when the Turks arrive) or a recognizable World War I. The Muslims are the main cast of history in this part of the world now, leaving Christians to play in the corner.

Should Europe have triumphed, I can easily see Spain becoming (again) the stomping ground for Napoleanic armies and treated by Europe like Tunisia or Egypt. Assuming it stays independent, it may adopt a neutral position towards the Christian fraticide of the First and Second World Wars.

Or it could have modernized and become a solid player in world politics. I don't see this as so likely, given that an Islamic Spain would feel culturally and religiously drawn into the politics of the Middle East rather than those of Europe.
 

solemnwar

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Nickolai77 said:
Zontar said:
Sure it probably wouldn't realistically get to "Romans having steam powered shits" but it would be a very different world from the one we know simply from the butterfly effect.
Still, one could probably write a very entertaining alternative history novel of some sort of steam-punk Roman-Empire, with factories, steamships and railroads encroaching all over ancient Europe and forcing the Roman Empire to expand ever-eastwards to satisfy Roman industries insatiable demand for slaves to work down the mines and in the factories. It could make a pretty good dystopian novel.

There actually is a sort of steam-punk roman empire sort of trilogy out. I own the first two (haven't gotten around to book three yet). The first book is called "Cold Fire", and they're written by Kate Elliot. They're actually rather interesting! 0:
 

Hawk eye1466

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I think someone already mentioned Rome surviving until the present day, so the only ones I can think of is what if Napoleon had won? His won every battle including into Russia and started a dynasty of French power that lasts to the present day. France wouldn't have the reputation of surrendering all the time and would most likely be considered the worlds greatest superpower. The US might not even exist since Napoleon didn't sell the land in the Lousiana purchase and with Russia taken he may go on to take all of Europe.
 

Zykmiester

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What if Hitler never got into politics?
What if Napoleon was never defeated?
What if USA never bombed Japan to end WWII?
What if the Dutch decided to colonize Australia?
What if the Russian revolution failed?
What if the English monarchy never returned to power?
What if the people of Africa were more technologically advanced than Europeans?
 

truckspond

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What is computers were physically impossible? (NOT a Revolution (TV Series) style thing but ACTUALLY impossible!)

Just how much different would the world be without them?
 

DeadRise17

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1. To continue a Rome theme, if they had traveled to the New World and conquered some peoples, then lost contact with the fall of Rome. Colombus, Cortes, Pizzaro etc would have arrived and found a highly disciplined and militarized opposition.

2. What if trade had been more important than conquest in the Americas. We could have had an industrialized Aztec Empire, including automated sacrifices continuing to this very day.

3. If the Late Bronze Age collapse had never occurred. The trade route would never collapse and humanity remains in a very literate, but nevertheless Bronze Age.
 

maxben

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This is fun! I want Viking North America! Vikings create an outpost on Newfoundland that does not get murdered by Native Americans. Then, they continue down the east coast creating outpost on island and certain land good for harbours (as they've done throughout their history) plundering Cahokia, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. Man, that would be fascinating.
 

NQJ

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What if the vikings never converted to christianity and instead aquired the superior steelmaking technology of the ulfberts?
 

hazabaza1

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Nov 26, 2008
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Dragons.
We need more dragons.

I just want to go to any point in time and just... put a dragon there. See what happens.
 

Alcamonic

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I think it would be interesting to see an alt-history about a Swedish Empire that never fell. How the effects would be on the past 200 years of war.
 

Teh_Moose

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Imperioratorex Caprae said:
4. What if dinosaurs had survived the various extinction points to evolve side-by-side with mammals?
You've never seen The Flintstones?
 

Imperioratorex Caprae

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May 15, 2010
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Teh_Moose said:
Imperioratorex Caprae said:
4. What if dinosaurs had survived the various extinction points to evolve side-by-side with mammals?
You've never seen The Flintstones?
Not good source material it being a cartoon and all. Not what I would consider an interesting exploration of said "what if". Unless you're under the age of 12.
 

Shinkicker444

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Seems the ones I'd like to see have already been mentioned (Rome, Napoleon, Russian Revolution).

But one other one I'd be interested in, that I've played with a Veritas et Fortitudo mod for Europa Universalis, is the failure of the Ottomans to defeat the Byzantine and Persian Empires, thus no push into eastern Europe resulting in the schism of sunni/shia factions in Islam being much more crippling those regions. If that timeline went anything like my game, well the entire Mediterranean Coastline including all of Italy and then down into the Persian Gulf ends up back in control of the Roman Empire.
 

Fractral

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maxben said:
This is fun! I want Viking North America! Vikings create an outpost on Newfoundland that does not get murdered by Native Americans. Then, they continue down the east coast creating outpost on island and certain land good for harbours (as they've done throughout their history) plundering Cahokia, the Aztecs, and the Mayans. Man, that would be fascinating.
We know what happens then- the Aztecs develop advanced technology, cross the Atlantic ocean and begin the sunset invasion against western Europe.
 

1Life0Continues

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Jul 8, 2013
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shootthebandit said:
Who the fuck could shoot john lennon after listening to imagine
In a similar vein, what would the world be like if we discarded religion altogether?

How would the world look? I like to think it would be exactly the same, only with far more tolerance for everyone and less knocks on the door early Saturday morning by twats in suits.
 

Thaluikhain

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shootthebandit said:
Another good example would be if the vikings settled america years before anyone else. There is strong evidence to support that they travelled to america
IIRC, they did, they just didn't last long...I don't think they brought the right diseases to wipe out the natives.

Sleekit said:
eh "the Romans" were "a dark age"

2000 years and they virtually never advanced technologically at all.

everything they did have they basically took from others and they discarded, or even worse destroyed, everything they could not see a use for.

oh they codified stuff and they spread stuff about...but they didn't innovate.

HUGLEY overrated as a civilization....but hey they have that cool looking militaristic thing going on, they lasted a long time and wrote great histories of themselves (mostly for political purposes) so people think they are all round awesome.

you can't name one Roman inventor tho.

The Renaissance came about after "Rome" finally fell completely in the east (with the fall of Constantinople in 1453) and Greek scholars brought ancient Greek knowledge from antiquity back into central European circulation as they emigrated away from the remnants of the defeated eastern empire.

but the "Roman" legions that defended Constantinople were virtually indistinguishable from those of 2000 years earlier.
Yeah, that's not remotely true. The Romans developed all sorts of things, there were plenty of reforms to their military.

Look at the Colosseum, that didn't spring out of nowhere, that required a lot of engineering and architectural advances to construct.

Likewise, Galen, and his medical advances.
 

Floppertje

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What if Hannibal had won the second punic war like he probably should've after Trebia, definitely after lake trasimene and MOST definitely after Cannae. Think about it. Rome wouldn't have been able to conquer the mediterranean, no legionaries to nail jesus to a cross and probably no way for christianity to spread the way it did. Furthermore we probably wouldn't have modeled our governments after the roman republic.

Another one I like is what if the mongols never left mongolia? China would've been more powerful and the Muslim world wouldn't have been devastated the way it was. This would have probably meant a very different balance of power in Europe and it could've gone so many ways. what if it had been muslims who colonized the new world rather than christians?