Search results for query: *

Forum search Google search

  1. WI: Joanna la Beltraneja wins the Castillan Succession War

    Any European conquistador who comes across the Inca is going to want to conquer it, and the combination of disease-induced mortality and unclear succession (civil wars over succession being very much the rule rather than the exception) they are likely to stumble upon it during an unstable...

  2. WI: Joanna la Beltraneja wins the Castillan Succession War

    Even if Columbus never gets funded, Cabral (or his TTL equivalent) will still run across Brazil on the way to India. And that will be interesting enough for a follow-up trip or two, without intra-Iberian conflicts getting in the way. Meanwhile, North Africa beckons as well (even if it turns out...

  3. WI: Vikings meet a Pagan/Heathen Anglo Saxon England?

    I'd also note that it's not at all clear that the Anglo-Saxon pagans and the Vikings would identify with each other anyway. Sure, we recognize them as having common roots, but they've been separated for centuries, and developed differently (to the extent they could be described as organized at...

  4. How would civilization develop without horses?

    One thing to keep in mind: horses today are not horses as they were when they were first domesticated. They've become vastly bigger. One big reason chariots mostly fell out of favor by the early classical period is that horses were now big enough that you could ride them and fight from them...

  5. How would the Inca and Aztec do in mid classical europe

    Yes, the Aztecs and Inca had impressive accomplishments. So did the Greeks/Romans/Persians/etc. Just having metallurgy, domestic animals beyond llamas, dogs and guinea pigs, and a full-fledged writing system (as opposed to Inca qipu and Aztec pictograms; only the Maya had full-fledged writing...

  6. WI: George of Clarence had married Mary of Burgundy?

    On the other hand, France isn't exactly going to sit quietly here either; both trying to foment distrust between George and Edward, supporting pretenders/local dissent if that doesn't work (and if you think the Woodvilles, Richard of Gloucester and George of Clarence aren't going to have some...

  7. WI: George of Clarence had married Mary of Burgundy?

    On the other hand, when/if opposition to the regime arises, they won't need to turn to an exiled Henry Tudor for a plausible figurehead, they'll have a powerful neighboring ruler ready to pull a Louis VIII...

  8. If the Spanish failed to take down the Inca, would they bother with southern cone?

    Yeah, pretty sure the immediate response would be more Spanish trying to conquer (or at least raid) the Inca. It's vastly more profitable than establishing colonies in Chile/Argentina. Remember that most Spanish expansion was more driven by locals on the spot than a Civilization-style "ruler...

  9. WI: More Nations Join the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy?

    One big thing is that the Iroquois didn't really want the other nations as full members. Even the Tuscarora were kind of half members at first. The more members you had, the less power the original nations had. We do know that the Iroquois claimed some sort of protectorship role over many of...

  10. Why is Latin America historically unstable while the US and Canada aren't?

    Most of Latin America is built around resource extraction (either mining, timber or farming). That's a recipe for instability (for instance, it makes you extremely vulnerable to commodity price crashes, and also tends to fuel wealth disparities based on land ownership). The US and Canada were...

  11. How likely is British hegemony with a prehistoric PoD (5000 BCE)?

    The Inca were certainly impressive. But so were the Babylonians/Sumerians/Akkadians/etc. And the Inca were just entering the Bronze Age when the Spanish arrived with steel and gunpowder. Being more or less technologically advanced doesn't make them better or worse people. But they clearly were...

  12. WI: Oilfields more accessible to the Axis

    It's Italian, so not under direct German control in the 1930s; Mussolini didn't want a war in 1939, and wouldn't have been planning the (extremely expensive) infrastructure buildup this would require (not just to drill the wells, but to transport the oil to the ports, and from the ports to Italy...

  13. Presidency of a surviving Zachary Taylor?

    The Firebreathers will get the immediate blame; they were the ones who tried to dissolve the Union, and they will be the ones who get defeated and thus politically marginalized at least in the immediate aftermath of the war. The abolitionist movement is going to still be there, but...

  14. WI: Large Native State on the West Coast

    "California" is Spanish. It was the name of a mysterious island (populated by Amazons!) in an early 16th century Spanish romance (basically the equivalent of modern pulp fiction) that the Spanish discoverer was a fan of. And Inca refugees would be far more likely to go further south into the...

  15. WI: Large Native State on the West Coast

    The Spanish spent decades fighting in the Yucatan, long after it was clear to any reasonable observer that there was nothing there remotely worth the cost. They spent decades searching for rumors of a fountain of youth, seven cities of gold, a guy who bathed in gold dust every day, etc despite a...

  16. WI: Large Native State on the West Coast

    People tend to focus on the luck involved in historical Spanish victories. Early on it was the conquistadors emphasizing the odds against their success, in order to both bolster their reputations and make it seem as if God was on their side. Later, as the conquistadors stopped being portrayed as...

  17. WI: Large Native State on the West Coast

    The Spanish sent expeditions all over the Southwest very early after conquering Mexico. They would hear about the Cal Inca very quickly, and it would draw in conquistadors like flies. For all the talk about "the Spanish wouldn't get lucky a third time," remember that they only have to get lucky...

  18. AHC: Third party victory

    Note that you don't necessarily have to win a majority. You can also prevent anyone from winning a majority of the electoral college and thus throw it to the House and hope that they vote for the 3rd party candidate (there was even an attempt to do this in 2016 with a candidate from Utah having...

  19. Arthur and Katherine of Aragon had a daughter...

    Whether he was or not, Henry VII was well aware that the murders a propaganda disaster for Richard; without the fallout from Richard's usurpation and the subsequent disappearances, Henry Tudor would still be an exile on the continent, and he was well aware of it. Likewise, avuncular marriages...

  20. Arthur and Katherine of Aragon had a daughter...

    I suspect baby Henrietta will have a career in the nunnery lined up for herself from day one. The Plantagenets weren't nearly as gung-ho about sending their excess daughters off to become abbesses as the Anglo-Saxons or the Germans were, but this is certainly a situation that calls for it...
Top