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  1. Alternate Geography Listverse Article

    This is self-promotion to an extent (though at this point I gain no economic benefit from it), but I did want to show off that I managed to get paid for an alternate history article focusing on alt-geography and climate scenarios. Was kinda curious to see what feedback people have on the ideas...

  2. A Chinese Patent System

    While I have lost the link, I remember reading an argument by a Chinese scholar that one of the reasons that the Sung proto-industrial revolution experienced by the Sung Chinese didn't develop into a full-blown industrial revolution was due to a lack of the requisite legal framework that could...

  3. No Japanese exodus from Korea after independence?

    Before independence, there were some 650,000 Japanese living in the Korean peninsula. In 1945-46, this population was forcibly deported from both North and South Korea, an ethnic cleansing that achieved little notice overseas. These consisted of a major part of the economic and administrative...

  4. A longer Shang and ancient Chinese monotheism

    I was reading about how the defeat of the Shang by the Zhou (despite apparently superior Shang numbers) led to the eclipse of the previous Shang cult of Di, and it's replacement with the vaguer concept of Heaven (as well asthe concept of the Mandate of Heaven that was so important throughout...

  5. WI: Warring States period after the Ming?

    This is a scenario which has been covered somewhat in timelines before, but I thought I would like to prompt a more generalist discussion to try and work out the possibilities of such a state of affairs. The general idea is that the Ming financial woes and internal rebellion lead to a collapse...

  6. A Greco-Abrahamic Equivalent of the Chinese Philosophical/Religious Tradition?

    I've had this idea sitting in my brain for awhile, but haven't done much with it. I'm not even sure how to properly articulate it. My understanding of the Chinese religious tradition (Buddhism notwithstanding), is that for the most part official society was based on a largely but not entirely...

  7. WI: The Long Low Steam Age

    This is about the Aeolipile. Now, before you jump all over me, I am aware that there is little to no chance of Hero's invention kick-starting an industrial revolution or doing much more than party tricks. What I am instead suggesting is this: the devices are a little bit more popular than OTL...

  8. West Africa without the Atlantic Slave Trade

    In a few scenarios, mostly maps, I have played with the concept of European age of discovery and expansion either not happening or being pre-empted by others, and one area I am not sure what to do with is West Africa. The slave trade had such large political and economic effects on the region...

  9. Maaga, or the darkly cracked mirror of the Vedas

    I recently made a map and a description of a world defined by the emergence of a evangelistic religion in northern India, contemporous to Buddhism and Jainism. This initially was inspired by some speculations of whether Jainism could have taken Buddhism's place, but went on a different tangent...

  10. A Warring States period after Ming

    Though China tended towards unification under a single dynasty, it did have it's periods of disunification. Now, I'm not too worried about the exact details, but image a scenario in which the Ming collapse results not in a Manchu dynasty but rather another period of disunity. On a...

  11. A PKD-inspired modern religion

    I was thinking recently about L. Ron Hubbard and the creation and success of Scientology in the modern world, and although I have my misgivings about its practices it is interesting to see a modern religion inspired by the works of a science fiction author. So I began thinking, what if Philip...

  12. Islamic Goryeo?

    It is often noted that the spread of Islam in Southeast Asia was largely thanks to the voyages of Islamic traders who introduced the faith to the region. It eventually out-competed Buddhism and Hinduism in much of the region, but as far as I know this was a largely natural and mostly non-violent...

  13. The Cobalt of Korea

    In the Joseon dynasty, the production of white porcelain was restricted by law due to economic reasons: there was a severe shortage of cobalt. Cobalt was used as a blue dye to decorate white porcelain, and there was no natural sources of it on the Korean peninsula. Cobalt was imported into Korea...

  14. Spread of Islam if met by Persian and Byzantine resistance?

    While Islam has a reputation of being a religion spread by the sword, in some areas, such as Africa and southeast Asia, it largely spread through trade links and cultural interaction. Now suppose that the incredible good timing that the Arab armies of Islam had in overwhelming the Persians and...

  15. The Geum Dynasty

    Early 17th century Korea was a shell-shocked land, having barely recovered from a seven year struggle with the Japanese. The Imjin Waeran (임진왜란 | 壬辰倭亂) had seen all of Korea’s eight provinces suffer the rape and pillage of the armies of Hideyoshi. The population was reduced and disease stalked...

  16. Most successful DPRK?

    I have some ideas about this myself, but I want to throw this out to the gallery to get a gauge on some of the opinions. And thus I present a challenge. With a PoD after September 9, 1948; create the most prosperous and successful Democratic People's Republic of Korea as possible without...

  17. Ridley Scott's Man in the High Castle miniseries

    http://io9.com/5658586/ridley-scott-goes-back-to-philip-k-dick-for-the-man-in-the-high-castle Looks potentially very interesting indeed. I really love miniseries as a medium, and I think they are ideal for this kind of material. The map on that link looks like it could possibly have originated...

  18. Tobacco never banned in Ming/Qing China?

    In history, real-world and alternate, a recurring question arises regarding the balance of trade between the West and China. How to find a good to trade with the Chinese for their tea, manufactures and other goods? In OTL, the British resorted to opium. In my current timeline, I am exploring an...

  19. Successful Sataspes: A Persian Circumnavigation of Africa?

    I found a reference to this fellow Satapses: Could Sataspes have been successful? The Benguela current would be a very big obstacle, but I have come across a phenomenon known as the Benguala Nino. Thought to be a result of anomalous atmospheric conditions in the western tropical Atlantic, it...

  20. Hulegu Khan converts to Islam?

    The Ilkhanate maintained traditional Mongol religious tolerance for a long time, practiced human sacrifice on at least one occasion (Hulegu's funeral), then tried to pull for Tibetan Buddhism for awhile before finally deciding to convert to Islam to bring the ruling Mongols closer to the...
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