1. Inevitability: No to the Spanish-American War, Yes to an Analogue. The events that led up to the Spanish-American War was definitely a windfall for America, but America was now ready to expand abroad: the same-old "we're better than the natives" logic definitely hadn't died in the West at...
Point taken.
However, I was only talking about the Qing Dynasty. Buddhism and the Jesuits preceded that. Communism was after 1900. If you can get China to adopt a Western style government, Communist or not, before then, let me know. I just don't really see it being likely, especially...
Thank you all for noting that the American Revolution is more difficult to avoid than most think.
Alternate European scenarios that haven't been mentioned yet:
The War of the Spanish Succession provides the opportunity for France, but if France surrenders in 1708 or 1709 (it's one of the other...
Your doubts really remind me of the similarities this settlement has to the Polish-Saxon Crisis after the Napoleonic Wars. Similarly, while all of Europe had been at war for quite, such a shift in the balance of power could not be tolerated. Just as there is a fair chance a new war would have...
Hello, everyone!
This is the return of a timeline I've been working on for a friend who is a huge fan of the Civil War. It was originally a lot more bare than this, but thanks to everyone's help it's gotten much better and more realistic. Any comments and pointers from you guys on the quality of...
Good luck.
A central value to China since time immemorial was the supremacy of Chinese ideas. It was the center of its own world, and its neighbors revolved around it. That's one of the major factors that prevented it from getting along with the Europeans. When the Qing Dynasty wanted to...
You are aware that the ENTIRE Portuguese monarchy fled to Brazil and (re)established Portugal to be ruled from Brazil DURING the Napoleonic Wars, right?
Are we talking a Republican-esque government (meaning the idea was Chinese to begin with) or a Republican government by Western standards (meaning the Chinese learned about the Western idea and then adopted it)?
What if we have a strong Emperor with a solid Christian backing? True, there were plenty of weak Emperors, but what if this guy isn't or he's weak but a more powerful Christian in the background wants to keep him on the throne? (Christians did have the guns...)
The majority of my knowledge about Japan is later than the Closing, but what if either the Shogun or Emperor convert to Christianity? Considering it was the Christians with the guns I can imagine a Japanese Christian rising to power. If the Emperor was Christian I doubt anyone would have the...
No kidding. Why do so many people think that just because a place speaks English that it won't become any sort of power? Spanish and French places are definitely more successful IOTL, but Anglophone places could have had a shot too.
I'm not the first to cross between pre-1900 and post-1900 here, but if that's so awful, I won't do it again. When did I dismiss Russia? I warned against romanticizing it and overpowering it. That doesn't mean they're trash. Read what I actually wrote rather than accuse me of sentiments that...
A casual remark about a comparable example is not a strawman, threadjacking is having an alternative discussion on a thread about something else-which your attacks are now making me do, and EVERYONE was dirty back then. Showers weren't common. I'm not comparing them to "clean" people, I'm...