Recent content by Martel

If this is a future history, I'd say no, not going to happen baring weird ASB intervention. A possible quasi British Empire scenario: UK, either alone or with the EU, forms a diplomatic axis with India, aimed at restraining the US, China, and militant Islam. A scramble for influence among the...

Well sort of. The problem is that the Army might not get its fine toys under an SA regime. Roehm's plan, as far as it can be discerned, was a more Swiss style militia or possibly a levee-en-masse army. So tanks and other toys would likely be sacrificed for the sake of infantry. And far worse...

I agree that the army would engineer his overthrow and kill him. There were plenty in the Party hierarchy who would happily stab Ernst in the back the second the generals said boo, especially after he kills the Fuehrer. The problem would be how much the SA decides to fight on the way down (they...

Alternatively, Heraclius could be killed by Phokas during his rebellion. With Phokas on the throne, the Persians could be sitting pretty with their new western provinces. Instead of fighting a divided, weakened enemy (enemies actually), Umar goes SMACK into a victorious, veteran army. He'd...

It's not that hard to imagine. If the Sassanids defeated the Muslims, Persia and Mesopotamia would stay Zoroastrian. Of course for that, the long war between them and the Byzantines would have to end sooner. For all the great mythology of the ghazu or jihad, Umar lucked out. If the superpowers...

Slavery was going to have a serious crisis in the late 1800s CSA no matter what the issue. First of all, don't underestimate the power of international pressure on the CSA. There's only so long CS diplomats are going to deal with the dirty looks and pointed questioned before they get sick of it...

As I hope my earlier time line pointed out, I think that the search for a moral or psychological cause for Islam's decline is foolish. Beside such searches tend to just be ways of having Europeans feel good about themselves (OOO, we aren't backward, fatalistic, and stupid like them). The decline...

OK here is my basic outline of the decline of Islam (with paralells to Western Europe). 869-879 The Zanj Rebellion in Basra province. Thereafter the caliphs declined in significance as Turk troops became the backbone of all Islamic armies in the east. Central government of the Umma collapses in...

The horse alone would be useful in terms of military and commerical mobility, but in the all-important field of agriculture, I can't see horses being very useful in North America. Horses weren't used that way until the medieval period and then only when there was the example of oxen to follow...

I don't see the Soviets intervening in Egypt or in Western Europe on behalf of Egypt. In 1956 Khrushchev was have more than enough problems in his own sphere of influence. The Poles were getting awfully mouthy and Hungary was threatening to jump ship. To say nothing of the attempt to replace him...

It is still part of the Texas Constitution (they have never gotten a new constitution, unlike most other states). The original purpose was allow for more slave states once Texas was annexed. And part of the annexation treaty was that the new state was able to use its independence constitution.

It might start earlier than that. As West Texas ranchers are drowning in cattle with only limited markets thanks to the lack of infrastructure in Texas, no Confederate support for railroads (unconstitutional under the CSA), the general poverty of the CSA population, some might get the same idea...

Socialism is similiar in some methods to other forms of etatisme. However, intention matters as much in ideology as method. To use the estate tax example, the ancien regime in France and the GOP both oppose estate taxes, but the aristocrats in the 1770s wouldn't be claiming social utility. As...

Well, it's socialist in the sense of government interference in the economy. In general political scientists prefer to call that etatist or statist (if you hate using French). Etatism is the general term for government control of the economy. Why does it matter? Socialism intervenes in the...

The only word is "non" It was once said of Italian fascism, that the only word they knew was "no". Lists of fascist ideological positions tend to focus heavily on "anti-" everything. That said here are some points on fascist economies. 1. There is no full-blown fascist economic model as there...