Alternate history

[kengr]

A few ideas I came up with too late for the fishbowl.

More pre-Columbian contacts between the New World and the old world. Enough that the New World peoples wouldn't be swept by epidemics when Europeans started to colonize the New World.

This would have made a *huge* difference because there'd be a lot more natives to object and fight back.

Another: The Ming Treasure Fleets under Admiral Zheng He kept going and sailed up the west coast of Africa. they'd either meet the Portuguese explores headed down the west coast, or they might make it all the way to Europe.

Since this would likely happen before Columbus was even *born*, it'd have major effects on how and when Europeans got to the Americas.

It'd also have a lot of major effects on both Europe and China.

This one involves slightly alternate geography. If the rift between Africa and Asia ran just a bit differently, there'd be a navigable strait between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

This would have affected interactions between Egypt and peoples on the other side of the strait. It'd also have made a sea route to India and beyond a viable alternative to the Silk Road.

Comments

[stickmaker]

In the background of the world I'm currently writing in the "Western Lands" were discovered by Europeans about two centuries later than in our world. Some things carry through, however. The Chinese were silver-hungry for centuries, and there is silver ore in the mountains of northwestern South America. The Spanish still used slave labor - mostly native - to mine and refine silver to trade for Chinese pottery and fabrics.

"The only nation to turn an undeniable large profit from the exploitation of the Western Lands is España. While they follow the same destructive path as most of the looters, they also manage to reap greater benefits. Their real triumph comes when they establish trade with China. From ports on the western shores of the Southern Continent they sail west to trade Western Lands silver for silk, porcelain and other treasures of the Orient. These in turn are sold for huge sums in Europe and Africa."

Slavery was officially banned centuries earlier, but greedy people ignored the law. They also created what are essentially pyramid schemes to fund further exploitation. Families, banks and entire nations eventually go bankrupt in this looting. Some of them multiple times.

I have about 50k words on this world's history. (Hey, it beats writing. :-^)

[kengr]

A few ideas I've played with but not written anything for:

A world where the Americas haven't been discovered or settled. Or at least there's no evidence of anything but Native American cultures in the Pacific Northwest. (Involves a "gateway" someone discovers that connects our world and that world. Stuff like moon phases and planetary positions match so it's the same date on both sides. But only natives on the other side)

A *very* alternate history, (probably *too* alternate) where one tribe(?) back in prehistory developed a few cultural "quirks. Essentially they did the youngsters go wandering before settling down bit that many do, and then extended that to build up a vast trading network over the millennia.

This is where their other "quirk" comes in. They were not only good at "making friends" with other groups they encountered, they were good at noticing and learning techniques the others had that they didn't and bringing them home.

This results in them advancing faster than other cultures, but realizing it's a bad idea to act much different than the others.

Alternatively, the got contacted by aliens, and given writing, the scientific method and a few other things.

Either way they've been not quite lurking around the edges of things and mostly observing and trading but occasionally interfering.

One recent thought was Church scholars (any time from late first millennium to the present) asking what records they might have about Jesus. Their answers will be frustrating, because he'd only be a bunch of side notes along with all the *other* prophets/madmen running around at the time, and their people in the area wouldn't have witnessed any miracles, but at least they have much of the gossip/rumors written down.

One of the few bits I've actually written:

"You have to abide by the old treaty. We both know that this new one is just a sham you bullied and bribed a few chiefs into..."

The Indian Commissioner looked at the man in uniform in annoyance. "You can't expect a bunch of savages to keep us from land we need. They aren't even making decent use of it!"

The Republic attache just *looked* at him. And the commisioner suddenly realized that to someone from the Republic, the United States might look like a bunch of savages.

They mostly just traded with the rest of the world. But they'd been doing that since before the founding of Rome. How much before, they'd never say. But occasional offhand comments, and things found in the middle east had educated men saying that they might have been around before Egypt.

Everyone knew that they knew things the rest of the world didn't. Though they rarely demonstrated it. Unless you crossed them.

Some said they could have ruled the world. But on the few occasions when someone had been brave or foolish enough to ask them about it, they'd give the questioner the sort of look you'd give an idiot child and patiently explain that all they wanted was trade. Though they sometimes muttered something about it not being worth the trouble.

In any case, when one of their representatives "suggested" that a government might be out of line in their dealings with another, it was often best to listen. Like it or not, they could make their displeasure known.

Nothing as overt as attacking you. Oh no. They only did that to people foolish enough to attack their ships or trading posts.

Yet another idea I had was that an area in Mongolia and an area in the Dakotas "swap" every full moon. They actually are at the same latitudes, and there are areas where the climate will match ok.

Haven't worked out locations (want the terrain to not be *too* different) or exact size. Figure they need to be reasonable spots to camp (so you get a whole group and (mostly) avoid stranding folks) but not huge.

This would lead to "interesting" cross-contamination of cultures. Picture the settling of the Plains if the Indians had been studying under the Mongols for a few centuries...

And influences (at least on the American side) would likely have spread a lot farther.

It also gives a reason for the Native Americans to be fairly resistant to the diseases the Europeans brought in our timeline. So there'd be a lot more natives, and they'd have much higher tech.