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Old 03-09-2014, 02:02 PM   #11
Bill Cameron
 
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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Originally Posted by martin_rook View Post
Brandywine Creek, Pennsylvania, 1777: Major Patrick Ferguson...
This one has been shot down so many times Snopes should do page on it.

First, while his rifle was very good, it wasn't the revolutionary advance well meaning but misinformed myth makers claim it to be.

Second, Ferguson and Washington never got within a dozen miles of each during the Brandywine campaign. In fact, a ball in his arm sent Ferguson well to the rear for medical attention hours before Washington approached the ford.

Third, Ferguson never claimed to have had Washington in his sites and died very soon afterwards at Kings Mountain where the irregular colonial forces treated his corpse rather badly. The whole "I could have George" was made up after Ferguson died and by someone other than Ferguson.

I'd like to second patchwork's suggestion about alternatehistory.com. If you're truly interested in the subject and want to explore turning points instead of making stuff up, it's well worth a visit.
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Old 03-09-2014, 02:29 PM   #12
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

Black Sea 704AD Justinian II's ship is caught in a storm. In our history Justinian II regains his throne and soaks the Byzantine Empire in blood. He was also a second rate emperor as well. His subjects revolted again and killed him in 711. Meanwhile Tiberius III droped the wasted effort to regain lost territories in the west and focused on defense against Eastern foes. Had his life been longer Byzantium would have been much stronger.

If Justinian II were to drown in the Black Sea and Tiberius III were to rule longer (and as Tiberius seems to have been far less brutal and vastly more tactful than Justinian) and less destructively, you might get a stronger Byzantine Empire for centuries longer.
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Old 03-09-2014, 04:31 PM   #13
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Washington D.C., 2000:

The Supreme Court, after much debate, finds that cutting the Florida recount short would be pantamount to dictating the result of the election, and instead allows them to continue. After an extended lame-duck presidency by Clinton, Al Gore enters office, to loud comparisons to Nixon.

Gore's presidency is unremarkable; of minor note is continuance of Clinton-era antiterrorism efforts that result in the capture of several Muslim extremists in late 2001. Gore's more well-known efforts revolve around a campaign to advance solar power, and as a result, when he leaves office in 2004, he's mainly remembered as the Geek President.

The republican president that followed him ran on a campaign of lowering military spending for a more efficient government, and reducing illegal immigration. An economic crisis and housing bubble in 2006 is blamed largely on Democratic housing policy.

Between then and now, the United States and other nations view terrorism as a police matter rather than a military one, and the US in particular grows somewhat isolationist.

Last edited by PTTG; 03-21-2014 at 11:53 AM.
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Old 03-10-2014, 02:50 AM   #14
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Originally Posted by Bill Cameron View Post
This one has been shot down so many times Snopes should do page on it.

First, while his rifle was very good, it wasn't the revolutionary advance well meaning but misinformed myth makers claim it to be.

Second, Ferguson and Washington never got within a dozen miles of each during the Brandywine campaign. In fact, a ball in his arm sent Ferguson well to the rear for medical attention hours before Washington approached the ford.

Third, Ferguson never claimed to have had Washington in his sites and died very soon afterwards at Kings Mountain where the irregular colonial forces treated his corpse rather badly. The whole "I could have George" was made up after Ferguson died and by someone other than Ferguson.
.
Does it matter precisely who shoots Washington?
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Old 03-10-2014, 03:05 AM   #15
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Does it matter precisely who shoots Washington?
Name dropping is part of the fun of alternate histories.
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Old 03-10-2014, 04:23 AM   #16
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A couple of suggestions that likely result in Britannica timelines.

1) The British win the 100 Years War. My favorite way of doing this involves the fact that the French savior was a woman, but the whole thing got started over weather or not the line of succession could pass through a women, the French side said it could not.

2) Pr-American War of Independence. The British Crown uses Parliaments mismanagement of the colonies to reassert it's primacy, the War of Independence either doesn't happen or happens later
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Old 03-10-2014, 06:10 AM   #17
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Having recently read The Russian Origins of the First World War I'd suggest this reality seed. Durring their build up to the first World War, which they needed in order to keep their Black Sea fleet from being made obsolete, the Russians realises they'll need to switch their priorities around. So they ignore their main goals in Europe to throw two-thirds of their force directly against Berlin and the other third is sent to Eastern Anatolia.

The Germans, having sent all their troops to France, and unable to turn them around, find the Russians have taken Berlin. (The token forces sent by Russia to threaten Berlin were easily handled in our world, in this world the attack is much sooner and vastly stronger.) In Eastern Anatolia, the Russians, allied with the Kurds and the Armenians, as they were in real history, march toward the Borphorus with little significant opposition. The Czars become the clear winners of WWI.
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Old 03-11-2014, 11:00 PM   #18
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Does it matter precisely who shoots Washington?
It doesn't matter, which it makes it all the more surprising that every time Washington gets shot it's always Ferguson and His Magic Rifle. The myth always gets trotted out when even a cursory examination of Washington's military career would reveal dozens of actual dangerous situations in which the man was under fire.

Hell, during the Seven Years War alone Washington could have been killed several times. There was the Jumonville ambush, his defeat and capture at Fort Necessity, the disastrous Braddock expedition, and more. During Forbes advance across Pennsylvania towards Fort Duquesne Washington was involved in a friendly fire incident in which about four dozen men were killed or wounded.

All the real incidents during the Seven Years War, all the real incidents during the American Revolutionary War, and all anyone can ever suggest is Forbes invented the Thirty-Ought-Six and could have potted Washington while he was chopping down a cherry tree but didn't because he was a gentleman.
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Old 03-12-2014, 12:46 AM   #19
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Killing famous people early seems overdone. I like the killed early people living longer for alternate histories.
Like Alexander of Macedon, for example.
Or Hitler escaping and possibly going to trial. That might make the whole war trials more obviously the kangaroo courts they were. Could give neo Nazis more recruiting ammunition.
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Old 03-12-2014, 06:24 AM   #20
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Try this idea, place a millitary genius in the family of a key supporter of Louis Napoleon (in our world the kid dies in infancy). The French still start the Franco-Prussian war outnumbered and outguned, but with a general of genius. Bismark finds the Prussian army fought to a standstill. Deals are made. France keeps Alsance and Lorraine and no reprerations are paid. Louis stays on the throne, the Prince Imperial stays in Paris and becomes Napoleon the IV. France is reactionary but has strong generals for the next century.

Germany and France stalemate each other and the British Empire survives into the 21st century as the dominant power on the planet. The USA becomes the home of democratic socialism and progressive thought .
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