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  1. Plausibility Check: Imjin War leads to Ming Bankruptcy

    We've had a few threads on the the Manila Galleon trade, and the effect on the Ming if this trade had been stopped or never started. A common opinion on those threads is that while the Peruvian silver brought to China was important, alternative sources of silver via trade with Japan were just as...

  2. WI: Yellow Fever reaches the Caribbean in the 16th instead of the 17th century?

    Yellow fever is one of those diseases whose history changing sweeps are remarkably easy to spot. The Haitian triumph over the French during their revolution, the failure of early attempts to create a Panama Canal, the inability of Europeans to create settler colonies in the tropical lowlands of...

  3. Plausibility Check-Llamas introduced to Mesoamerica

    We had a productive thread on this subject a few years ago, but after recently revisiting some old notes of mine, I thought I'd canvass some opinions to see how possible/plausible people would find such an event occurring, and if it did occur, how far some sort of llama pastoralism could spread...

  4. Plausibility check-Iron Age starts a millenium early?

    Circa 1200 BC, iron replaced bronze as the primary metal for tools and weapons in the eastern Mediterranean. The use of iron as the main metal for tools spread rapidly across the globe from this point, with Britain entering its iron age around 800 BC. However, it appears that iron metallurgy is...

  5. Marriage Between Jeanne III of Navarre and Sigismund II Augustus?

    There's been quite a few threads on potential alternate brides for Sigismund II Augustus, but I haven't been able to find any proposals for this specific alternate marriage. So let's say that, for whatever reason, the marriage arrangement between Jeanne d'Albret and Antoine de Bourbon falls...

  6. Fashion WI: Beaver hats don't become popular in Europe

    Beginning in the Renaissance era, beaver hats were increasingly popular in much of Europe. The resulting demand made beaver pelts incredibly valuable, leading to the near extinction of the Eurasian and North American beaver, and driving European traders and conquerors both east into Siberia and...

  7. A Spanish Bride for Charles II de Valois Duke of Orleans

    During the Italian Wars, Charles V of Spain and Francis I engaged in a lot of diplomacy between their bouts of fighting. One of the potential diplomatic solutions that Charles V proposed for resolving their conflict over who got the Duchy of Milan was that the title should be granted to Francis'...

  8. Japanese Successfully Evacuate Korea After Invasion

    It's been a while since I watched the Extra Credits video series on Admiral Yi, but ever since I watched it I had a question nagging at me and finally figured that I'd ask yinz your opinion. After the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the Japanese tried to negotiate a peaceful exit from Korea; the...

  9. WI: Yellow Fever In Asia

    Please keep the objectifying jokes to a minimum One of the great medical mysteries of history is that, while yellow fever escaped the confines of Africa and became established in the New World (with dramatic consequences for history) it never did so in tropical Asia. I wonder what happens if...

  10. Portuguese relations with Protestant nations without the Iberian Union?

    I was looking through some of the "no Iberian Union" threads, but it didn't look like this specific question has been explored very deeply. Anyone have any thoughts on what sort of relationship Portugal would have with Protestant nations in a "no Iberian Union" scenario during the Reformation...

  11. Austrian Hapsburg Netherlands-do they still become a colonizing power?

    Assume that in 1556 when the Hapsburg Empire is divided between its Spanish and Austrian branches, the Netherlands goes to the Austrian branch rather than the Spanish one. Ferdinand I had a reputation for greater tolerance and an easier disposition than his brother Charles, and for decades the...

  12. Russian Far East with a more northern-focused Qing

    When Russian explorers reached the Pacific, it was very shortly before the Manchu began their conquest of China. For years afterwards, the Manchu would be focused on pacifying China, while the Russians established a port at Vladivostok and forced the peoples of the Amur river to give them furs...

  13. Amador Rei's revolt succeeds-what next?

    In 1595, a slave revolt lead by Amador Rei tore through Sao Tome. The slaves overwhelmed and slaughtered many of the Portuguese on the island. Ultimately, however, the better-armed Portuguese beat back the rebels and executed Amador Rei, who today is remembered as a national hero in Sao Tome...

  14. AHC: Hmong Chinese Emperor

    In my shallow reading of Chinese history, I see that non-Han emperors from steppe peoples to the north of China have become emperor, forming the Yuan, Jin, and Qing dynasties. So far I can't seem to find an equivalent for a southern non-Han ethnic group. Your challenge, should you choose to...

  15. Earliest use of the Strait of Magellan as a major shipping channel?

    I was reading some alt-hist scenarios where the English successfully set up colonies in California after Francis Drake, and was thinking back to my own timelines where the Spanish are not able to conquer the Americas due to the Native Americans having cavalry and nasty germs, and I had a...

  16. Portuguese India and Indonesia without Brazil

    IOTL, Brazil was somewhat neglected for a long time as a Portuguese colony, with the Portuguese chipping away at its coast enough to import slaves and grow sugarcane but otherwise not doing much to conquer the interior, focusing instead on controlling trade in India and Indonesia. What if...

  17. Japanese Slave Trade Without the Edo Period

    IOTL, Portuguese contact with Japan saw a growing Japanese slave trade, as Japan's perennial civil wars and poverty created a supply of captives and desperate people who were sold into slavery, and put to work throughout the Portuguese Empire. This trade was banned by both the Portuguese and...

  18. Hyper-Protestant England (and probably Wales too)

    Back when I was a believer in Holy Mother Rome, I mocked Anglicans as "Catholic Lite" believers. Now as one of those smug internet atheists you hear about, I still very much believe that. The Anglican Church very much does seem to be as an outsider to be a place for Catholics who don't like...

  19. Fate of Siberia with balkanized Russia?

    In the early 17th century, Russia suffered a great degree of political instability which IOTL saw the Romanovs seize power. However, what if this delicate time resulted in a stalemate between political powers with no-one able to reclaim the power once held by Ivan the Terrible? A seceded...

  20. How strong was Spain's desire to reach the Indies post-1492?

    Assuming events delayed or blocked Spain from getting easy access to the Pacific as it did IOTL-for example, Magellan lands on the wrong island in Polynesia and gets killed and eaten, or as a butterfly of the common "The Aztecs/Incas kill the conquistadors" scenario, how much longer would the...
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