Post by manbehindthecurtain on May 3, 2015 4:56:35 GMT
Let me get this off of my chest: I am a long-time fan of alternate history stories. I lurk and sometimes post on AlternateHistory.com, I was looking around soc.history.what-if as a kid, and I've even written one or two (bad) timelines of my own. So when I looked at the Divine Blood map and through the sourcebook.... I started having questions. Lots of them. Here are some: (note: OTL = Original Time Line/Our Time Line.)
- The Divine Blood sourcebook mentions US entry into the war in 1941 in one place and 1942 in the other (with MacArthur leaving the Philippines for Burma in 1942/3, respectively). Which is it? 1942 actually makes more sense, as it would help Nazi Germany last longer in Europe and would explain the decision to go with Montgomery's attack on Norway (since there might not be enough American troops in Britain yet, or they would be needed for North Africa/Italy instead).
- What is Mongolia's political status in the 1940s? In OTL it was already Communist, essentially a Soviet puppet state, but a Soviet puppet is unlikely to join the CRCMP unless the CRMCP aligns with Moscow, which it obviously didn't.
- May I assume that Sayyid Qutb (intellectual forefather of the Muslim Brotherhood and most modern radical Islamic movements) and Haj Amin el-Husseini (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the 20s-30s, pro-Axis Palestinian leader) either do not exist or had greatly curtailed/different careers in this world? What's the status of political and radical Islam in this world? What's politics like around the Persian Gulf states? What about Arab nationalist movements like Ba'athism? Did Saddam Hussein or someone similar come into power in Iraq? (I think it's safe to assume Assad never did).
- What is Egypt's political status? I think it's safe to assume Nasser never took power and that it is democratic and the big power behind the NAA (I prefer NANEA because Syria isn't in Africa
), but is it a monarchy or a republic?
- What % of the population of Palestine is Jewish? OTL before Israeli independence it was around 1/3rd or so, but a combination of Israel expelling Arabs and Arab states expelling Jews led to the state becoming mostly Jewish. (This is connected to why I presume that the Grand Mufti isn't around, as he helped greatly inflame Arab antisemitism in the 30s and 40s).
- What's Iran's political status? What was its government like post-WWII? The Shah, Islamic Republic, Tudehist/Communist, something else? What's the current political disorder related to?
- Is free India balkanized or one nation?
- What's Pakistan's political status? Is it unified (at least loosely) or Balkanized? Could have bitten off Kashmir when India collapsed and/or was invaded by Myanmar? Was there even a separate Pakistan to begin with or did India become independent as a whole state or already balkanized?
- It's obvious that the British Empire had different politics than OTL as early as the 1910s if not before. Ireland either remains under direct British rule or is a Dominion a la Canada. (Is Canada a Dominion? If not, then swap '1860s' for '1910s'). Did India leave before World War II and if so, what were the major political causes? When did Australia leave for good? Before WWII seems odd, I'd guess that they were a Dominion or Commonwealth until afterwards. Was there ever a Falklands War?
- If the Warsaw Pact existed, did NATO? How does the more conservative and paranoid UK affect NATO? (My theory is that Britain and France kind of swap places in terms of NATO hierarchy, with France closer to the US and Britain more 'go it alone').
- Does Myanmar have local rulers (vetted by Golden Dawn, of course, if not members) in charge of puppet states in its vast bulk, or is it all under direct rule? OTL that territory has more than a billion and a half people, of which less than 40 million are ethnic Burmese. I kind of like the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" idea with a rump China, Philippines, etc in the same role as Manchukuo was to Japan or Quisling's Norway was to Germany.
- Will Puerto Rico become a state soon? If the US granted Okinawa and Shandong statehood, why not PR?
- The US supported a socialist but non-communist 'free China' in the late 1940s, right at the start of the Cold War, and opposes a militarist regime (Myanmar) in addition to a Communist one (USSR/WarPac). Does this mean the US is more likely to support mildly leftist regimes in general, and less likely to support far-right ones? How does this affect Latin America and Africa?
- What are the major cultural changes like? Given how history differs pretty early on, and becomes radically different starting around World War II, cultural changes likely follow on. Think about how massive the lack of a Vietnam war would affect pop culture, music, etc as well as cultural attitudes.
- How does African decolonialization go? I assumed with Mozambique at least "a bit smoother", but that South Africa still had apartheid until 1994 as OTL. How's East Africa doing, including Somalia?
- What's Brazil like, demographically? How did Nazis get enough support among the local population that their regime managed to remain in power for decades? What's the rest of South America like?
- Is Czechoslovakia still 1 country or has it split? Also, in OTL the Czech Republic was one of the first post-Communist countries in Europe to really bounce back and westernize. How did it become the source of radical anti-western terrorism in this world? Wither Vaclav Havel?
- How many Eastern European countries are still communist? And same with the factions fighting in Russia? And are they competing doctrines? (e.g. Albania under Hoxha was very different from Yugoslavia under Tito, and both were different from East Germany under Honecker). Yugoslavia still seems to be together, or at least still has both Serbia and Croatia?
- Exactly how dis-unified is central Indonesia? Several weak states, a bunch of city states, ten thousand little nations each consisting of about 3 acres of land? Warlordism a la Somalia?
- How was international communism affected by a lack of Maoism? How different was the USSR compared to OTL?
- What's Cuba like? With a different Cold War, does it even ever go Communist?
- The Divine Blood sourcebook mentions US entry into the war in 1941 in one place and 1942 in the other (with MacArthur leaving the Philippines for Burma in 1942/3, respectively). Which is it? 1942 actually makes more sense, as it would help Nazi Germany last longer in Europe and would explain the decision to go with Montgomery's attack on Norway (since there might not be enough American troops in Britain yet, or they would be needed for North Africa/Italy instead).
- What is Mongolia's political status in the 1940s? In OTL it was already Communist, essentially a Soviet puppet state, but a Soviet puppet is unlikely to join the CRCMP unless the CRMCP aligns with Moscow, which it obviously didn't.
- May I assume that Sayyid Qutb (intellectual forefather of the Muslim Brotherhood and most modern radical Islamic movements) and Haj Amin el-Husseini (Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the 20s-30s, pro-Axis Palestinian leader) either do not exist or had greatly curtailed/different careers in this world? What's the status of political and radical Islam in this world? What's politics like around the Persian Gulf states? What about Arab nationalist movements like Ba'athism? Did Saddam Hussein or someone similar come into power in Iraq? (I think it's safe to assume Assad never did).
- What is Egypt's political status? I think it's safe to assume Nasser never took power and that it is democratic and the big power behind the NAA (I prefer NANEA because Syria isn't in Africa
), but is it a monarchy or a republic? - What % of the population of Palestine is Jewish? OTL before Israeli independence it was around 1/3rd or so, but a combination of Israel expelling Arabs and Arab states expelling Jews led to the state becoming mostly Jewish. (This is connected to why I presume that the Grand Mufti isn't around, as he helped greatly inflame Arab antisemitism in the 30s and 40s).
- What's Iran's political status? What was its government like post-WWII? The Shah, Islamic Republic, Tudehist/Communist, something else? What's the current political disorder related to?
- Is free India balkanized or one nation?
- What's Pakistan's political status? Is it unified (at least loosely) or Balkanized? Could have bitten off Kashmir when India collapsed and/or was invaded by Myanmar? Was there even a separate Pakistan to begin with or did India become independent as a whole state or already balkanized?
- It's obvious that the British Empire had different politics than OTL as early as the 1910s if not before. Ireland either remains under direct British rule or is a Dominion a la Canada. (Is Canada a Dominion? If not, then swap '1860s' for '1910s'). Did India leave before World War II and if so, what were the major political causes? When did Australia leave for good? Before WWII seems odd, I'd guess that they were a Dominion or Commonwealth until afterwards. Was there ever a Falklands War?
- If the Warsaw Pact existed, did NATO? How does the more conservative and paranoid UK affect NATO? (My theory is that Britain and France kind of swap places in terms of NATO hierarchy, with France closer to the US and Britain more 'go it alone').
- Does Myanmar have local rulers (vetted by Golden Dawn, of course, if not members) in charge of puppet states in its vast bulk, or is it all under direct rule? OTL that territory has more than a billion and a half people, of which less than 40 million are ethnic Burmese. I kind of like the "Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere" idea with a rump China, Philippines, etc in the same role as Manchukuo was to Japan or Quisling's Norway was to Germany.
- Will Puerto Rico become a state soon? If the US granted Okinawa and Shandong statehood, why not PR?
- The US supported a socialist but non-communist 'free China' in the late 1940s, right at the start of the Cold War, and opposes a militarist regime (Myanmar) in addition to a Communist one (USSR/WarPac). Does this mean the US is more likely to support mildly leftist regimes in general, and less likely to support far-right ones? How does this affect Latin America and Africa?
- What are the major cultural changes like? Given how history differs pretty early on, and becomes radically different starting around World War II, cultural changes likely follow on. Think about how massive the lack of a Vietnam war would affect pop culture, music, etc as well as cultural attitudes.
- How does African decolonialization go? I assumed with Mozambique at least "a bit smoother", but that South Africa still had apartheid until 1994 as OTL. How's East Africa doing, including Somalia?
- What's Brazil like, demographically? How did Nazis get enough support among the local population that their regime managed to remain in power for decades? What's the rest of South America like?
- Is Czechoslovakia still 1 country or has it split? Also, in OTL the Czech Republic was one of the first post-Communist countries in Europe to really bounce back and westernize. How did it become the source of radical anti-western terrorism in this world? Wither Vaclav Havel?
- How many Eastern European countries are still communist? And same with the factions fighting in Russia? And are they competing doctrines? (e.g. Albania under Hoxha was very different from Yugoslavia under Tito, and both were different from East Germany under Honecker). Yugoslavia still seems to be together, or at least still has both Serbia and Croatia?
- Exactly how dis-unified is central Indonesia? Several weak states, a bunch of city states, ten thousand little nations each consisting of about 3 acres of land? Warlordism a la Somalia?
- How was international communism affected by a lack of Maoism? How different was the USSR compared to OTL?
- What's Cuba like? With a different Cold War, does it even ever go Communist?