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Description
Another Ottoman-wank! This one is based on a recent time travel/alternate history novel, so SPOILERS ahead.

Taking a break from speculating on a planet with apes in to finish a map from the “in progress” limbo: an Ottoman-wank based on the AH/Time travel novel “Empire of Lies” by Raymond Khoury, in which an ISIS member stumbles across what’s essentially a Naked Time-Travel magic spell (I kid you not) and travels back in time (covered with tattoos of valuable information) to do a Guns of the South for the 17th century Ottoman Empire. He dies before he can really cement Islamic global dominance, having to skip ahead to the future to get a medical problem taken care of, and when returning in a hurry fails to take into account a ground level difference of roughly fifty feet.

So, science and technology get a boost from knowledge imported from the future, but then get set back by the destruction of much of Europe and the fact that the 17th century Ottoman empire is a tough place to get a full scientific-industrial revolution going, even if you don’t die a lot sooner than you expected. The result by the early 21st century is essentially a null result, with technology only a little more advanced than OTL if at all.

Those European powers with American colonies fled abroad, although Britain, which had a relatively relaxed history of dealing with the Ottomans, managed to pull off a “fully self-governing loyal vassal” agreement that made flight unnecessary, although they built up their colonies as a fallback. (Only for said colonies to revolt against the “corrupt and un-Christian rule of king George, that puppet of the Turk.” Well, you can’t win them all. The Ottomans took a long time to consolidate their rule over continental Europe, and never really got around to invading the Americas (there’s only so much on modern naval technology you can tattoo on one buttock), so things eventually stabilized with a cold war of sorts between the Americas and the Ottoman-dominated Old World (although once the European settlers in the Americas got to the point where they felt fairly safe from cross-Atlantic invasion, they promptly started fighting amongst themselves).

Today, a rather overextended Ottoman Empire is turning sharply in the direction of authoritarianism, the liberalizing and reforming rule of the former Sultan is being replaced by reaction and oppression under his conservative successor, with the support of religious hardliners and authoritarian types alarmed by popular agitation for greater regional self-rule and greater use of “consultation.” Things have not been improved by an economic pinch caused by a sharp decline in oil sales abroad, thanks to the Christian Republic of America’s successful technological push to entirely free themselves from foreign oil dependence through a mix of renewables, solar power, and atomic power. (Technology which they are gratuitously sharing with the Russians and even the heathen Chinese, although the Chinese don’t import a lot of oil anyway) The brutal repression is leading some Muslim nations to look askance at Ottoman dominance, and terrorism is on the rise within the Empire (although it’s hard for outside observers to tell what is actual resistance to the regime and what is false flag operations meant to blacken the reputation of dissenters).

All this is observed with much self-satisfaction by the Christian Republic, which has been predicting a return to “tyranny” on the part of the Ottomans for a while. And the Republic is a democracy - as long as you’re white and an evangelical protestant Christian. (Other sorts of protestants are tolerated. Catholics are denied the vote. Jews can damn well stay in Ottoman territory, and Muslims are Beyond the Pale).It’s also sort of on the racist side - slavery ended earlier than in our timeline, but black people still don’t have the vote unless they can demonstrate at least ¾ white ancestry [1] - they’re considered both genetically challenged and potential Moorish Sympathizers (most of black Africa is Muslim, and there are a lot of black Ottomans walking around like they were equal to white people).

The Dutch Union is the Christian Republic’s Protestant Little Buddy (less than half of American citizens think being Dutch Reformed means you’re hell-bound) if a bit dubious in their excessive tolerance of Jews and even polytheists. Relations with Brazil are at least correct, even if they’re dirty half-black Catholics: there’s still some ties from the old Portuguese-British alliance and they have no territorial disputes.

Relations with New Spain are, as always, terrible, although the government buys a lot of discounted cutting-edge weapons from the Christian Republic to help fight the Communalists, using Brazilian intermediaries for deniability. (Even in polite society, one is expected to spit when one mentions the CRA).

(A lot of that and what is on the map is speculative, since the book focuses mostly on Ottoman France and the 17th century past, and little detail is given about the rest of the world, although Russia and China still exist in some form as independent states, and the Christian Republic is roughly described).

[1] An innovation of a Christian-Technocratic president big on "rational" Race Science, and strongly opposed by the One Drop crowd.

Description
Another Ottoman-wank! This one is based on a recent time travel/alternate history novel, so SPOILERS ahead.

Taking a break from speculating on a planet with apes in to finish a map from the “in progress” limbo: an Ottoman-wank based on the AH/Time travel novel “Empire of Lies” by Raymond Khoury, in which an ISIS member stumbles across what’s essentially a Naked Time-Travel magic spell (I kid you not) and travels back in time (covered with tattoos of valuable information) to do a Guns of the South for the 17th century Ottoman Empire. He dies before he can really cement Islamic global dominance, having to skip ahead to the future to get a medical problem taken care of, and when returning in a hurry fails to take into account a ground level difference of roughly fifty feet.

So, science and technology get a boost from knowledge imported from the future, but then get set back by the destruction of much of Europe and the fact that the 17th century Ottoman empire is a tough place to get a full scientific-industrial revolution going, even if you don’t die a lot sooner than you expected. The result by the early 21st century is essentially a null result, with technology only a little more advanced than OTL if at all.

Those European powers with American colonies fled abroad, although Britain, which had a relatively relaxed history of dealing with the Ottomans, managed to pull off a “fully self-governing loyal vassal” agreement that made flight unnecessary, although they built up their colonies as a fallback. (Only for said colonies to revolt against the “corrupt and un-Christian rule of king George, that puppet of the Turk.” Well, you can’t win them all. The Ottomans took a long time to consolidate their rule over continental Europe, and never really got around to invading the Americas (there’s only so much on modern naval technology you can tattoo on one buttock), so things eventually stabilized with a cold war of sorts between the Americas and the Ottoman-dominated Old World (although once the European settlers in the Americas got to the point where they felt fairly safe from cross-Atlantic invasion, they promptly started fighting amongst themselves).

Today, a rather overextended Ottoman Empire is turning sharply in the direction of authoritarianism, the liberalizing and reforming rule of the former Sultan is being replaced by reaction and oppression under his conservative successor, with the support of religious hardliners and authoritarian types alarmed by popular agitation for greater regional self-rule and greater use of “consultation.” Things have not been improved by an economic pinch caused by a sharp decline in oil sales abroad, thanks to the Christian Republic of America’s successful technological push to entirely free themselves from foreign oil dependence through a mix of renewables, solar power, and atomic power. (Technology which they are gratuitously sharing with the Russians and even the heathen Chinese, although the Chinese don’t import a lot of oil anyway) The brutal repression is leading some Muslim nations to look askance at Ottoman dominance, and terrorism is on the rise within the Empire (although it’s hard for outside observers to tell what is actual resistance to the regime and what is false flag operations meant to blacken the reputation of dissenters).

All this is observed with much self-satisfaction by the Christian Republic, which has been predicting a return to “tyranny” on the part of the Ottomans for a while. And the Republic is a democracy - as long as you’re white and an evangelical protestant Christian. (Other sorts of protestants are tolerated. Catholics are denied the vote. Jews can damn well stay in Ottoman territory, and Muslims are Beyond the Pale).It’s also sort of on the racist side - slavery ended earlier than in our timeline, but black people still don’t have the vote unless they can demonstrate at least ¾ white ancestry [1] - they’re considered both genetically challenged and potential Moorish Sympathizers (most of black Africa is Muslim, and there are a lot of black Ottomans walking around like they were equal to white people).

The Dutch Union is the Christian Republic’s Protestant Little Buddy (less than half of American citizens think being Dutch Reformed means you’re hell-bound) if a bit dubious in their excessive tolerance of Jews and even polytheists. Relations with Brazil are at least correct, even if they’re dirty half-black Catholics: there’s still some ties from the old Portuguese-British alliance and they have no territorial disputes.

Relations with New Spain are, as always, terrible, although the government buys a lot of discounted cutting-edge weapons from the Christian Republic to help fight the Communalists, using Brazilian intermediaries for deniability. (Even in polite society, one is expected to spit when one mentions the CRA).

(A lot of that and what is on the map is speculative, since the book focuses mostly on Ottoman France and the 17th century past, and little detail is given about the rest of the world, although Russia and China still exist in some form as independent states, and the Christian Republic is roughly described).

[1] An innovation of a Christian-Technocratic president big on "rational" Race Science, and strongly opposed by the One Drop crowd.