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  1. Presidential Reign Names

    It's occurred to me that there is, in many cultures, a long-standing tradition of a ruler adopting a new name upon assuming the throne, or otherwise modifying their name due to some great feat or accomplishment, for example Augustus, or Scipio Africanus, with many other Eastern rulers besides...

  2. Did Empire Benefit Britain?

    In the early 18th century, successive British governments refrained from direct imperialism; asides from the settler colonies in North America, Britain had few land holdings outside Europe; India was traded with rather than conquered, and through the EIC rather than government officials...

  3. A Question on the Levant and the Indies

    It's commonly asserted that the circumnavigation of Africa made the eastern Mediterranean trade routes from the East to Europe uneconomical, at least by the 16th century or so, thus rendering states like Venice and the Ottoman Empire much less commercially powerful. My question is this: was...

  4. An Aztec Tetrarchy

    The 'Aztec Empire' was, in reality, an alliance of the city states of Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, each of whose rulers had the title huetlatoani, meaning 'Eldar Speaker', often translated as Emperor. In the late-15th century, Tenochtitlan had become the pre-eminant player and its...

  5. Connolly Lives?

    During the Easter Rising of 1916 James Connolly, leading Marxist and Irish Revolutionary was badly wounded and, after a cursory trial, was executed strapped to a chair alongside his compatriots in one of the crucial turning points of Anglo-Irish history. Meanwhile, Eamon De Valera was...

  6. Epithets for POTUS

    Many monarchs or other notables over the years have earned (or rather, not earned but been given them anyway) epithets by their contemporaries and by posterity. So, what would OTL Presidents look like if we awarded epithets to them as well? My own handful: Washington the Great Lincoln the...

  7. People Whose Reputations Would be Improved by Death

    A response to this thread but obviously the reverse: people whose reputations would be completely different had they died earlier than they did IOTL. I'm going to go with the obvious and say Hitler in 1939. Now that's out the way, I'll also say Thatcher. Had she died in 1983 before the...

  8. The People's Reich.

    Part One: Revolution, or Counter-Revolution? The final years of the German Empire were to be a bloody and chaotic time both in Germany and abroad, for four great empires were tumbling down all at once, and no one knew what would replace them-if anything at all. Three ancient houses and one...

  9. German Communism?

    What if Germany had gone communist in 1919 rather than managing to struggle on as the Weimar Republic? Given that independent social democrats were in favour of the democratization of heavy industry, nationalization seems inevitable, but would this help the economy or hinder it? Hell, could...

  10. WI: Charles I, Closet Puritan

    There was widespread fear prior to the Civil War (indeed it was one of the War's main causes) that Charles I was a closet Catholic who wanted to bring England back into the Catholic Church. Indeed, both his sons, the future Charles I and James II, were indeed Catholic. But, what if instead of...

  11. The Second Ptolemy: Muhammad Ali

    The province of Egypt had always been an anomaly in the vast Ottoman Empire. Ever since Selim the Grim had conquered it in the 16th century, the rich African province had never seen itself as a part of the Empire, but rather a state-within-a-state. The Mamluks, who had ruled the land since the...

  12. Alternate Treaty of Tilsit

    So, in 1807, Alexander and Napoleon get together and hash out their differences. They carve up Prussia and promise to be friend forever etc. etc. But, what if Alexander proposes a coalition against the Ottomans? Nappy was fascinated by the Middle East, as we can see through his Egyptian...

  13. The Tudor Century.

    1500-1522. Henry VII of England is a monarch much maligned by history. Forever cast in the historical role as the schemer, the penny-pincher, the perjurer and the conceited, this is less due to his personal traits, which although parsimonious were by no means unjustified, following decades of...

  14. The Long Walk to Anagni-an alternate history of the Western Roman Empire.

    Part I: the Intestiture Controversy, the Norman War and the Fraternal Rebellion. It is 1076 and the Holy Roman Empire is in turmoil. Pope Gregory VII had announced in his Dictatus Papae that he alone, as Christ’s Vicar on Earth, had the power to dismiss an Emperor, and that he alone could...

  15. Hamilcar Barca: The Great.

    A note on names. Carthage, much like Rome, had only a short list of personal names (e.g. Hannibal, Mago, Hasdrabul) and so many of these characters will share names. Wherever possible I shall give surnames, however when that is impossible I shall define them by some notable trait (e.g. Hamilcar...

  16. Force and Strength: the Hellenic Commonwealth.

    NB: I've used 'traditiona' (i.e. BC/AD Gregorian calendar) datse for the TL, although the Greek calendar was lunar and its year began in June rather than January. So when I say ' . . . happened in January 443 BC' I mean simply that, just for clarity's sake, in case you purists are scandalised...

  17. A Roman de Gaulle

    So I've been wondering: the Republic already had an office of Dictator, which had a six month mandate and who could command almost absolut power within that time period. Say this were reformed so that it became kind of like a de Gaullist office-similar to the President of Germany, or indeed the...

  18. Rule of the Qinlong Emperor

    In 1567 the Longqing Emperor ascends the throne as the 12th Ming Emperor as China. Before his accession, the bureaucracy had grown venal and nepotistic; eunuchs controlled the palace and intrigues were rife. Furthermore, the martial nobility was weak and the Imperial Armies disorganised...

  19. Reformist Phillip D'Orleans

    So Phillip d'Orleans was the regent of France between 1715-1723 while Louis XV was a minor. He was an atheist, he performed in plays, he wrote opera and was opposed to censorship; overall, he was a fairly modern kind of person. Now, what if he ad turned his attention to France's political...

  20. Guilty until proven innocent

    So there's been a storm of controversyacross the world about anti-terror legislation, and many critics have said that the accused are presumed guilty until proven innocent. Tis got me thinking: what would have to hapen for this to be the norm in international (and presumably European) law? How...
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