New Reality Seeds

[PTTG]

At some point in May 1940, something changed globally. Inertia appeared to break down suddenly, and history from that point seems explicable, rational, and increasingly divergent from Homeline's.

Nonetheless, the Allies won the war and the Soviet Union emerged strong enough to challenge the west. However, the soldiers who survived, their personal histories, their friendships and assignments; these were largely different.

This seems to have dramatically changed the US' political environment at the end of the war. The USA engaged in a program not unlike the Marshal Plan, albeit larger in scope. This included the establishment of a Western Hemisphere Trade Plan, specifically designed to prevent Communist infiltration of South America. No military adventures were taken, aside from a few controversial interventions to deal with far-right insurrections.

This economic program, combined with growing trade with the US and a recovering Europe, lead South America to become the favored source of international labor...

[Astromancer]

Breton Woods would need to be stronger to fully develop Latin American economies.

[PTTG]

Green-4, one of a series of decidedly ecological worldlines, is of interest for its politics as well as its tech. Due to a variety of different theological positions, Evangelical Christianity in the United States was closely tied to environmentalism from early on in its history. It started with opposition to water pollution in the early 1800s, and just continued to gather momentum. As of 1990, The USA leads the world in clean energy production, and has more protected wilderness than the rest of the world combined.

Fuller is named after a surviving Margret Fuller. Her ship made it to port instead of sinking 300 yards from the coast in 1849. She published a resounding text of European history and over the rest of her lifetime advanced women's suffrage by a century.

[dcarson]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Fuller is named after a surviving Margret Fuller. Her ship made it to port instead of sinking 300 yards from the coast in 1849. She published a resounding text of European history and advanced women's suffrage by a century.

According to Wikipedia her body was never recovered. So she could be on a ISWAT team. Or kidnapped by swagmen.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

There was one Reality Seed I posted in another thread about nine years ago.

So here we go again ...

========================================
Ethiopia-2

We start in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Roman Legions are having a fine old time suppressing rebellion and laying siege. In the original history, Jerusalem fell, the Temple was looted, and the Diaspora began.

In the new timeline, the nucleus of the priesthood escapes, along with various important persons and wealthy artisans. Instead of going north (into the heart of the Roman Empire) or west (into the Persian Empire, who they didn't like any more than they did the Romans), the Jewish refugees go south, into the Axumite Empire (which, according to their own holy texts, has a historical connection to their people through the Queen of Sheba).

In Axum (future Ethiopia), the Jewish refugees take root and flourish. Their sophisticated religion and vigorous intermarriage soon (perhaps a century or so) results in Axum becoming a new Jewish State. When Saint Frumentius introduced Coptic Christianity in the early 4th century, it was politely allowed to exist but had no direct impact on the ruling class (at first).

The following centuries are pretty much identical outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Inside, though, the Axumite Empire expands by fits and starts. A Christian merchant class develops, intermarries with the lesser nobility, then attempts to impose Christianity on the nation. The nation fights back. The centuries that follow have a vaguely-similar pattern: refugees found small nation-states outside of Axumite influence, then go to war to spread increasingly-radical forms of Christianity. Through superior everything, Axum crushes these upstarts, who go further out to start the whole thing over again.

Tenuous contact is made with the rest of the world through the Red Sea and Egyptian trading concerns. The Islamic World avoids "Jewish Ethiopia" because of the Prophet's injunction against jihad in Ethiopia (the first historical impact being that the African slave trade with the Middle East dies out early). The rest of the world hardly knows it exists. But the Axumite Empire picks up technology and information and manages to keep technological pariety with Europe.

Then in the late 18th century, the expanding Axumite borders hit the Slave Empires of the Gold Coast. At this point the Axumites learn about the British colony in South Africa as well as the expansionist goals of Britain and France. They realize that their territorial integrity is endangered by these invaders and send official envoys to the European capitals. At best, the envoys are turned away; in the worst cases, they are enslaved or killed.

The Axumite Empire, with lavish gold and a sound banking system, acquires shipwrights and builds a fleet with strong African hardwoods and acquires sailors to teach their arts. The slave trade is shut down from the African side. (The Axumites don't care about the slave trade - to them the West Africans are just savages - but they don't want foreign powers to have a foothold in their territory.) The Axumites begin interfering in global politics, including providing gold and weapons to the anti-imperial rebellions in British America, Haiti, and Spanish America. The slave-owning classes of the Americas and Europe quickly rationalize between "Ethiopians" (Eastern Africans of Jewish blood, with kings descended from the Biblical Solomon) and "Negroes" (the primitives of West Africa who make up the bulk of their slaves) so they can accept the obvious wealth and power of the Axumites.

The Axumites don't care, they just want the European empires' ears pinned back. With a sound economy, vast natural resources, and a unified empire, the Axumites quickly chase the Europeans off the continent and claim the former colonies. "Ethiopian" ships dominate the sealanes of the late 18th and early 19th century.

This timeline's Axumite Empire went through centuries where the only outside contacts they had were with their splinter kingdoms - Christian states that would use any unscrupulous tactic to destroy them. British colonial claims on India made the Axumites look at England in the same light, especially since the Europeans would insist on sending missionaries. Axum became a major competitor to England, industrializing itself massively, making alliances with America and Mexico, competing for trade routes, even fighting wars over the ownership of Australia, resulting in the continent being split between Axum and Britain.

Japan was opened to trade with the rest of the world in the 1810's by Axumite ships, which managed to avoid a lot of the Japanese trade restrictions by being Jewish. Axumites, not caring about rapid religious conversions or racial theories, managed to pull off a major economic coup in the 1830's by a dynastic marriage between the Imperial houses of Axum and Japan. Now the Axumites completely dominated Asian trade. (No Opium Wars - Axum made a better trading partner for China since they could offer raw materials in trade, so British opium traders never managed to get a secure foothold. Hong Kong remains a small village.)

When the Napoleonic Wars pushed the Portugese Court to Brazil, it was guarded by Axumite warships (Axumites seeing the Portugese Royals as a potential weapon against Napoleon should it come to war). The Empire of Brazil modeled itself on the Axumites (who encouraged upward mobility) rather than the Europeans (who isolated their royals from common contact).

Black slave rebellions in the American South and the Carribean are inspired (but not usually backed) by the very existence of the Axumites. Slavery is phased out by the 1840's because it becomes unprofitable to maintain the needed level of security. Freed blacks consciously took Axumite role models, even converting to Axumite Judiasm (a very different faith from the European Jewish sects). The aristocratic Southern families fled over the decades to Canada and England.

European Jews were (as usual) stuck in the middle. The mightiest Jewish Empire in history was too alien for them to adjust to, while it's very success made anti-Semitism in Europe even worse than before.

The year is now 1880. The world is divided between Africa and Europe. All of Africa, the Pacific coast of Asia, South America, half of Australia, and half of North America all either are allied with or ruled directly by the Axumite Empire (or "Ethiopia" as the British insist on calling it). The rest is owned or dominated by European interests, dominated in turn by the British Empire. TL is late 5, thanks to vigorous competition.

The stage is set for World War I.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The whole period between the end of the middle ages right up to the later 17th-century magic was intellectually respectable. Figures like John Dee were real pioneers in science education. Dee was very focused on improving education so that anyone could be a mage. Once he met Edward Kelly though, he was sidetracked either into ventriloquist tricks or silly spirits who wasted his time with childish prattle, depending on the mana level. In this world, however, Edward Kelly's stunts got him hanged before he met Dee.

This meant the Dee stayed focused on things like promoting math education and collecting books. He managed, aided perhaps by a curious member of the Cabal working for their John Dee, to get a copy of Archimedes' work which, when it was discovered on Homeline in the late 20th century was said to either come close to inventing calculus or really did invent calculus. Whatever happened, Dee's excellent translation of the text caused calculus to show up forty years early.

The present day in this world is 1706AD. Magic is still an acceptable idea. The Second Sight is being explored scientifically. Progress is being made. They've established that the sight is linked to certain bloodlines. They've actually come up multiple ways to test for psi potential.

The technology is slightly advanced on Homeeline's 1706AD. That's to say that it is early Tech Level 5 rather than late TL4.

Homeline, the Cabal, and Centrum are all exploring this world's Psionic Lore. Mainly because it is radically different in its assumptions.

(More Later)

[fchase8]

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One:

If Archduke Franz Ferdinand wasn't assassinated, could WWI have been averted? Or was it inevitable that war would come to the empires of Europe?



Ironically, one of the factors that could have averted war was the rise of Franz Ferdinand to become Emperor of Austro-Hungary, as he was a (relative) liberal. The old emperor died in 1916.

Also, the Social Democrats were a rising party in Germany, and were less eager for war.

The biggest factor pushing for war was probably the Kaiser, who didn't die until 1941 in real life. And France still wanted Alsace-Lorraine back.



If there wasn't war, even for a few years, could the social strife have become bigger & bigger? Clash of classes, rise of revolutionary socialism.

Or maybe an empire or two implodes. I'm thinking Russia and/or Ottoman. Turkey had only lost its Balkan territories a few years before WWI began. And Russia had the 1905 Revolution.



With it being an alternate history, there's no 100% sure way it would go, so there would be a possible route to continued peace. But it seems like it would have to dodge a lot of potential war-starters, with leaders who didn't necessarily want to dodge war.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by fchase8

In honor of the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One:

If Archduke Franz Ferdinand wasn't assassinated, could WWI have been averted? Or was it inevitable that war would come to the empires of Europe?

Inevitable. The Archduke, for all his family connections and fancy title, was a minor player of little significance. Franz-Ferdinand's assassination wasn't the reason, it was the excuse.

The treaty networks had been in place for years. The Imperial Powers were all stable, with no room for further expansion unless another empire fell. All it needed was a nudge.

The Archduke's survival would delay the war for a short time until another excuse popped up (yes, probably in the Balkans).

If there wasn't war, even for a few years, could the social strife have become bigger & bigger? Clash of classes, rise of revolutionary socialism.

Or maybe an empire or two implodes. I'm thinking Russia and/or Ottoman. Turkey had only lost its Balkan territories a few years before WWI began. And Russia had the 1905 Revolution.

All likely, with the Ottoman collapse being the most likely (the "Sick Old Man of Europe" was everyone's favorite theoretical target.). Tsarist Russia without the war could have lasted another generation before self-destructing.

Giving another decade for tech development might make a more enrgetic war. If Little Willie of Germany will let it wait that long. Or the growing expansionist factions everywhere don't gain power.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

Inevitable. The Archduke, for all his family connections and fancy title, was a minor player of little significance. Franz-Ferdinand's assassination wasn't the reason, it was the excuse.

The treaty networks had been in place for years. The Imperial Powers were all stable, with no room for further expansion unless another empire fell. All it needed was a nudge.

The Archduke's survival would delay the war for a short time until another excuse popped up (yes, probably in the Balkans).

On the other hand, if you had more skilled statesmen across europe, it might have been avoided without an all out war. Its been remarked several times that Europe at the time of the great war was cursed with mediocre statesmen.


Fraz Joseph, the emperor of Austria-Hungary, was a great statesmen earlier in his life (The man convinced a half dozen people groups he was their personal king) but he was old, tired, and jaded by that point.



But to avoid the great war, you need a great statesman in Russia, Germany, England, or France as well.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by ericthered

But to avoid the great war, you need a great statesman in Russia, Germany, England, or France as well.

I don't know about that. It seems *likely*, but they'd been avoiding one for about a century without a particularly exceptional number of great statesmen despite some really pretty major changes and equally serious looking crises - the unification of Italy, the rise of Prussia, the scramble for Africa, the decline and fall of the Qing, the collapse of the Spanish Empire. Maybe history could have stumbled on with the same sorts of minor wars they'd been having through the Ottoman retreat from the Balkans too, without necessarily spilling over into a fight involving everybody everywhere.

A timeline that scrapes through the 20th century without a World War got lucky, but maybe not *implausibly* lucky.