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Description
I know this will annoy people who are expecting certain maps from me, but alas, my mind is like a magpie, seizing on shiny little trinkets with no concern for the larger picture. (I make myself feel better by telling myself Leonardo also got distracted by side projects a lot. )

Just a couple alternate-great-powers Europes in the era of Peak Colonialism, based on a post in this thread: www.alternatehistory.com/fo...… Alternate outcomes to the 100 years war and the power struggles of the Anatolian Turks in both.

Edit: decided to add a bit more exposition.

No specific PODs for these, just various minor divergences building up over time. Both are set at a time colonialism is at its peak and the scientific-industrial revolution has been empowering Europe for some time, but not embroiled it in mass industrial warfare as yet: similar technologically to our late 19th century. Shan't give an exact year since rates of technological progress aren't necessarily going to be exactly the same.

In the first world, history starts diverging in the 14th century: the Ottoman Empire fails to take off, and the 100 years war ends in a British victory, with the kingdom of France divided up between England and the kingdom of Burgundy. However, the English were never able to fully subdue the south, and with the dynastic conflict between the houses of Lancaster and York, which in our world is known as the "War of the Roses", a new French kingdom emerged centered in the south.

Two generations or so on, when the dust had settled, the house of York held Britain, the house of Lancaster was in exile in Normandy and Brittany, and the Burgundians had taken over the north of France. Over the next couple centuries, the southern French court tried to regain control over the north, but the house of Burgundy held on firmly, and backed their Lancastrian client state. The house of York managed to crush English parliamentarism and move the country in the direction of absolute monarchy.

The Kalmar Union stuck around, and eventually turned into something more centralized. Scandinavia got to the Americas first (a more divided Iberia took longer to finally expel the Muslims and has other fish to fry) by the northern route ("Hey, didn't we used to have a colony west of Iceland? Greenland or something? Whatever happened to that, anyway?") and managed to get a jump on the settler colony thing.

Without the Ottomans, Anatolia remains divided into multiple squabbling Turkish statelets, and the rump Byzantine empire survived a bit longer, only to be swallowed by an expanding Venetian naval empire. In time, the Greek parts of the Republic came to be even more important than the Italian bits, since with the unification of the rest of Italy under the Viscondi in Milan meant that Greek manpower and Greek naval bases were vital to keeping Venetian terra firma free from Milanese rule: a couple times the government was forced to relocate to Constantinople when Venice itself had Italian armies drawn up at the edge of the canals.

Without an Ottoman invasion, the eastern European inheritance quadrille continued, with various dynastic constellations of Hungary, Bohemia, Austria and Poland appearing only to fall apart a couple generations later. Finally, a Bohemian-Hungarian union managed to stick, and a Hungary undevastated by Turkish invasion and raids, joined to one of Europe's most developed nations, emerged as a power on the level of France or England in our world.

Central Russia has more and further Golden Horde troubles, allowing Novgorod to thrive and annex various chunks of territory that became part of Muscovy in our world, while expanding into Siberia north of the Horde, although it wouldn't reach the peak of its power till modern times, in which winter wheat and potatoes first allowed it to grow its agricultural base and manpower, while trade and manufacturing eventually created enough of an economic surplus to allow it to important what it couldn't grow or mine locally.

Britain has had a revolution - in fact, multiple revolutions since the absolute monarchy was overthrown (the first time: there was a restoration) seventy years ago - and the Burgundians invaded to put the king back on his throne (the second time the monarchy fell), but have only managed to achieve a stalemate against the armies of the Revolution, which hold the more heavily industrialized bits of Britain. (This is not entirely to the dissatisfaction of Burgundian ruling classes, which like having the British monarch under their thumb and find the Republican Menace a good threat to rally the population against and distract them from their own discontents with said elites).

The second timeline starts diverging in the late 1000s, after the Norman conquest, but before the Reconquista really started catching fire, with a more effective rallying of Iberian Muslim resistance under north African leadership. Eventually, a stalemate was established and under some forward-looking rulers a policy of "good fences make good neighbors" (an end to destructive raiding and counter-raiding: more-or-less-peaceful co-existence behind border fortifications). Northern Spain united, but with no place to go on land concentrated, like Portugal OTL, on the sea. By the time of the map, the United Crowns of Asturias, Aragon and Leon have a colonial empire which not as huge as that of Spain in our world has been less financially destructive (the economy was not devastated by an endless supply of silver or by using that silver to fight Turks and Protestants all over Europe and the Mediterranean) and remains fairly close to the home country under a series of Viceroyalties similar to our world's British Dominions and other colonies in the 19th century.

Cordova has seen the European tail wag the Maghrebi dog, with the ruling elites dominated by people born and bred in Al-Andalus rather than by north African Berbers, which does lead to occasional internal problems. Although it picked up a few minor bits of land overseas late in the colonial game, it has concentrated mostly on African affairs, and controls most of west africa north of the coastal jungles through a system of client states and protectorates.

Currently, Cordova's main headache is keeping Naples at bay: the extensive Angevin clan, which at one time had rulers on the thrones of nearly a third of Europe, still rule southern Italy, Provence, and large chunks of the Balkans and north Africa carved off the Karmanid Sultanate at its time of greatest weakness (the Karamanids, which used to rule most of what we would call Iran along with North Africa east of Tunis and the Balkans south of Hungary, have since rallied a bit, although they're still considered a bit of a Sick Man.) Southern Italy, their core territory rather than an appanage of distant Iberian rulers, has been run a lot more intelligently than in our world and is a lot healthier economically, and more densely populated, than southern Italy in our early 19th century. They also have some overseas colonies - Lombardy-Helvetia and Naples arm-twisted Cordova into accepting free navigation of the Straits a couple centuries back, and they've also recently managed to build a canal in Egypt.

The Jagiellon dynasty of Lithuania managed to continue to produce heirs, and have managed to hold onto and even expand their extensive holdings, although their power projection is limited due to the need to concentrate their military forces on keeping the Russian Holy Union at bay (the distinctly culturally foreign - no Peter the Great! Holy Russians are backwards, but have modernized in a slow, brute-force sort of way enough to be quite threatening. OTOH, they quite useful in keeping the occasionally shaky union of Jagiellon lands unified - can't secede, Russians will eat me. The *Cossack hetmanate, for instance, finds autonomy under the constitutionally limited Lithuanian crown distinctly more palatable than Holy Russian theocratic autocracy).

*Switzerland went more solidly Protestant, and avoided the political paralysis of our world. It expanded through alliances with south German peasant rebels and Protestant cities, also spreading through participation in the complex wars between "Free" (non-English) France, Naples, and the Papacy in northern Italy (the religion thing for a long time made the Italian territories more in the way of "protectorates", although a few bits of Alpine Italy did go Protestant in this world. A move to secularization starting in the 17th century eventually brought equality and full political participation to the Italian cantons.)

Helvetic Equatorial Africa, alas, will be almost as much a byword for ruthless colonial exploitation as the Belgian Congo in our world.

The biggest power of all is the UK of France and England, a hundred years war equivalent having finally been won by the English - with the result that some four centuries later, English is a language spoken by backwards country folks and eastern Irish, while the cities of England speak French - albeit with quite a few borrowed (and often mutilated) English words. (Indeed, French is a lot less "pure" than in our world - to use James Nicoll's phrase, it doesn't ambush other languages in alleys and go through their pockets for linguistic spare change, but it does borrow rather aggressively). Owning extensive territories in Africa and Asia and much of the Americas (although they did lose Mexique), they're number one with a bullet.

Description
I know this will annoy people who are expecting certain maps from me, but alas, my mind is like a magpie, seizing on shiny little trinkets with no concern for the larger picture. (I make myself feel better by telling myself Leonardo also got distracted by side projects a lot. )

Just a couple alternate-great-powers Europes in the era of Peak Colonialism, based on a post in this thread: www.alternatehistory.com/fo...… Alternate outcomes to the 100 years war and the power struggles of the Anatolian Turks in both.

Edit: decided to add a bit more exposition.

No specific PODs for these, just various minor divergences building up over time. Both are set at a time colonialism is at its peak and the scientific-industrial revolution has been empowering Europe for some time, but not embroiled it in mass industrial warfare as yet: similar technologically to our late 19th century. Shan't give an exact year since rates of technological progress aren't necessarily going to be exactly the same.

In the first world, history starts diverging in the 14th century: the Ottoman Empire fails to take off, and the 100 years war ends in a British victory, with the kingdom of France divided up between England and the kingdom of Burgundy. However, the English were never able to fully subdue the south, and with the dynastic conflict between the houses of Lancaster and York, which in our world is known as the "War of the Roses", a new French kingdom emerged centered in the south.

Two generations or so on, when the dust had settled, the house of York held Britain, the house of Lancaster was in exile in Normandy and Brittany, and the Burgundians had taken over the north of France. Over the next couple centuries, the southern French court tried to regain control over the north, but the house of Burgundy held on firmly, and backed their Lancastrian client state. The house of York managed to crush English parliamentarism and move the country in the direction of absolute monarchy.

The Kalmar Union stuck around, and eventually turned into something more centralized. Scandinavia got to the Americas first (a more divided Iberia took longer to finally expel the Muslims and has other fish to fry) by the northern route ("Hey, didn't we used to have a colony west of Iceland? Greenland or something? Whatever happened to that, anyway?") and managed to get a jump on the settler colony thing.

Without the Ottomans, Anatolia remains divided into multiple squabbling Turkish statelets, and the rump Byzantine empire survived a bit longer, only to be swallowed by an expanding Venetian naval empire. In time, the Greek parts of the Republic came to be even more important than the Italian bits, since with the unification of the rest of Italy under the Viscondi in Milan meant that Greek manpower and Greek naval bases were vital to keeping Venetian terra firma free from Milanese rule: a couple times the government was forced to relocate to Constantinople when Venice itself had Italian armies drawn up at the edge of the canals.

Without an Ottoman invasion, the eastern European inheritance quadrille continued, with various dynastic constellations of Hungary, Bohemia, Austria and Poland appearing only to fall apart a couple generations later. Finally, a Bohemian-Hungarian union managed to stick, and a Hungary undevastated by Turkish invasion and raids, joined to one of Europe's most developed nations, emerged as a power on the level of France or England in our world.

Central Russia has more and further Golden Horde troubles, allowing Novgorod to thrive and annex various chunks of territory that became part of Muscovy in our world, while expanding into Siberia north of the Horde, although it wouldn't reach the peak of its power till modern times, in which winter wheat and potatoes first allowed it to grow its agricultural base and manpower, while trade and manufacturing eventually created enough of an economic surplus to allow it to important what it couldn't grow or mine locally.

Britain has had a revolution - in fact, multiple revolutions since the absolute monarchy was overthrown (the first time: there was a restoration) seventy years ago - and the Burgundians invaded to put the king back on his throne (the second time the monarchy fell), but have only managed to achieve a stalemate against the armies of the Revolution, which hold the more heavily industrialized bits of Britain. (This is not entirely to the dissatisfaction of Burgundian ruling classes, which like having the British monarch under their thumb and find the Republican Menace a good threat to rally the population against and distract them from their own discontents with said elites).

The second timeline starts diverging in the late 1000s, after the Norman conquest, but before the Reconquista really started catching fire, with a more effective rallying of Iberian Muslim resistance under north African leadership. Eventually, a stalemate was established and under some forward-looking rulers a policy of "good fences make good neighbors" (an end to destructive raiding and counter-raiding: more-or-less-peaceful co-existence behind border fortifications). Northern Spain united, but with no place to go on land concentrated, like Portugal OTL, on the sea. By the time of the map, the United Crowns of Asturias, Aragon and Leon have a colonial empire which not as huge as that of Spain in our world has been less financially destructive (the economy was not devastated by an endless supply of silver or by using that silver to fight Turks and Protestants all over Europe and the Mediterranean) and remains fairly close to the home country under a series of Viceroyalties similar to our world's British Dominions and other colonies in the 19th century.

Cordova has seen the European tail wag the Maghrebi dog, with the ruling elites dominated by people born and bred in Al-Andalus rather than by north African Berbers, which does lead to occasional internal problems. Although it picked up a few minor bits of land overseas late in the colonial game, it has concentrated mostly on African affairs, and controls most of west africa north of the coastal jungles through a system of client states and protectorates.

Currently, Cordova's main headache is keeping Naples at bay: the extensive Angevin clan, which at one time had rulers on the thrones of nearly a third of Europe, still rule southern Italy, Provence, and large chunks of the Balkans and north Africa carved off the Karmanid Sultanate at its time of greatest weakness (the Karamanids, which used to rule most of what we would call Iran along with North Africa east of Tunis and the Balkans south of Hungary, have since rallied a bit, although they're still considered a bit of a Sick Man.) Southern Italy, their core territory rather than an appanage of distant Iberian rulers, has been run a lot more intelligently than in our world and is a lot healthier economically, and more densely populated, than southern Italy in our early 19th century. They also have some overseas colonies - Lombardy-Helvetia and Naples arm-twisted Cordova into accepting free navigation of the Straits a couple centuries back, and they've also recently managed to build a canal in Egypt.

The Jagiellon dynasty of Lithuania managed to continue to produce heirs, and have managed to hold onto and even expand their extensive holdings, although their power projection is limited due to the need to concentrate their military forces on keeping the Russian Holy Union at bay (the distinctly culturally foreign - no Peter the Great! Holy Russians are backwards, but have modernized in a slow, brute-force sort of way enough to be quite threatening. OTOH, they quite useful in keeping the occasionally shaky union of Jagiellon lands unified - can't secede, Russians will eat me. The *Cossack hetmanate, for instance, finds autonomy under the constitutionally limited Lithuanian crown distinctly more palatable than Holy Russian theocratic autocracy).

*Switzerland went more solidly Protestant, and avoided the political paralysis of our world. It expanded through alliances with south German peasant rebels and Protestant cities, also spreading through participation in the complex wars between "Free" (non-English) France, Naples, and the Papacy in northern Italy (the religion thing for a long time made the Italian territories more in the way of "protectorates", although a few bits of Alpine Italy did go Protestant in this world. A move to secularization starting in the 17th century eventually brought equality and full political participation to the Italian cantons.)

Helvetic Equatorial Africa, alas, will be almost as much a byword for ruthless colonial exploitation as the Belgian Congo in our world.

The biggest power of all is the UK of France and England, a hundred years war equivalent having finally been won by the English - with the result that some four centuries later, English is a language spoken by backwards country folks and eastern Irish, while the cities of England speak French - albeit with quite a few borrowed (and often mutilated) English words. (Indeed, French is a lot less "pure" than in our world - to use James Nicoll's phrase, it doesn't ambush other languages in alleys and go through their pockets for linguistic spare change, but it does borrow rather aggressively). Owning extensive territories in Africa and Asia and much of the Americas (although they did lose Mexique), they're number one with a bullet.