Questions tagged [alternate-history]
For questions that ask what might have happened if history had taken a different path.
685
questions
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56 views
Creating Genetically Engineered Individuals
Let's say I want to make a genetically engineered being, who doesn't have iron-based blood, and is an improvement on humans across the board: strictly stronger, more resilient, greater lung capacity, ...
0
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5answers
132 views
What would be some changes in regards to courtship to a society where men are conscripted for three years into the military? [closed]
Let's say there's a major or constant level of warfare with an external enemy is a modern developed society. Think like modern day Korea or Israel. As a result of this level of warfare men are ...
-2
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0answers
61 views
What kind of education would telekinetic children get in a modern country? [closed]
In this case I'm assuming a low level telekinetics that can do anything they can see. People with Telekinetic skills are not discriminated against too much but they make up a small portion of the ...
17
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2answers
3k views
If the Roman Empire in the Year 90 AD Found a Living Tyrannosaurus Rex, What Creature in Their Mythology Would They Most Likely Mistake It For?
I'm writing a story where a group of mischievous aliens teleport iconic creatures to inappropriate time periods. (Dimetrodons in colonial Germany, Pterodactyls in the medieval Ottoman Empire, ...
2
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2answers
149 views
Can I have an otherwise High Medieval society, if they are in perpetual Bronze Age?
I may have been too ambitious with one property of my advanced Mesoamerican civilisation. The very summarised background (which you can take as given; don't frame challenge this) is that after a wise ...
10
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4answers
2k views
Could the Troubles in Northern Ireland and England have ended in reunification?
I am trying to plot the background of an alternate history story revolving around an Irish-British teenager living in a post-Troubles London where tensions are much higher. Unlike our timeline, the ...
11
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7answers
2k views
How powerful could a person with superpowers/group of superhumans be without greatly affecting world history?
One of the major problems I've always had with the MCU and the DC universe is how powerful many of the beings or people are whilst the World is still almost the same as ours.
It was as if the writers ...
10
votes
8answers
5k views
What could be the the consequences in this world if nuclear bombs didn't release radiation anymore?
In an alternative earth, or just a few decades from now, someone was able to make a breakthrough in nuclear bombs. Developing a way to make the radiation be nullified by its extreme chain reactions or ...
7
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6answers
792 views
Television without primary colors
As humans, we're incredibly lucky that we only see in three primary colors. It makes the development of color displays quite easy. We only need to squeeze three subpixels into a single pixel!
What if, ...
9
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9answers
4k views
What would it have taken for navies to control air forces historically?
So the idea of space navies is extremely common in science fiction, with the navy as the branch that is more or less dominant. Generally speaking they have marines under them and there is rarely an ...
7
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4answers
199 views
How would the cold war continue- in space?
The cold war never ended in 1990-94, and the Warsaw pact still exists, as does the prominence of communism in eastern europe. It’s now 2030, and both sides have colonies on the moon and are ...
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votes
3answers
181 views
What would have happened if the USA never dropped atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki? [closed]
If the USA never dropped the bombs on Japan, how different would have japan looked today?
Would it look like Taiwan or would it look like Europe?
What would have been Japan's technological innovation? ...
2
votes
4answers
261 views
What could have caused a three-way cold war?
I was working on a story project some years ago which featured a highly alternate near future in which, among other things, a 3-way cold war had spread across the solar system. There were many other F&...
4
votes
4answers
222 views
What would an until-recently waterworld look like?
So, suppose a world that, for most of its biological history, was a water world, with minimal dry land. Starting from the Cambrian Explosion analogue, the world stays like this for roughly 460 million ...
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3answers
151 views
If the Vikings grew horns, what would their helmets look like?
Imagine all the Scandinavians started sprouting horns, much like their stereotypical image, out of their heads. Now, how do they redesign their helmets to match a horned head?
Note that your helmet ...
2
votes
5answers
179 views
How would centaurs fight British musket infantry squares of the 18th - 19th century (aside from using artillery)?
How would centaurs fight British musket infantry squares of the 18th - 19th century (aside from using artillery)?
The centaurs would have the same technology as the British, more or less. Would they ...
5
votes
4answers
175 views
How much trouble would a great depression era rural county have with settling a late cretaceous Montana/Wyoming?
I have a very specific setting in mind that can be pretty much summed up as "Wild West with Dinosaurs". However, I'm still trying to figure out the details of just how the people native to a ...
0
votes
2answers
200 views
How can Hong Kong be brought into the Commonwealth of Nations?
Between 1927 and 1949, a civil war in China was fought between the Nationalist ROC-led government led by Chiang Kai Shek, and the Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. These two forces put their ...
1
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3answers
168 views
In the modern era, how could I have a very bad recession comparable to the Great Depression?
In my world (modern day Earth, but at a higher technology level with national AI systems being commonplace across the world, cybernetics limbs being an option, and autonomous weapon systems being ...
52
votes
18answers
6k views
Could you design a fighter plane for a centaur?
It's the Great War, and all the nations are having a good time of it, painting their biplanes flashy colours, as they shoot into their own propellers!
But over in the corner, lonesome and dejected, ...
5
votes
3answers
134 views
Could a pre-modern civilization make a gas canister with rough valves and pressure regulation?
I wanted to have a gas cylinder that would hold up to about 10 litres of gas (oxygen, mainly) at 20 atmospheres of pressure. Or, if that's impossible, 7 atmospheres would suffice.
The setting is pre-...
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2answers
112 views
Could you develop Electrolysis with Pre-Modern technology?
Electrolysis was a popular idea for how mermaids would generate oxygen for their guests. This leads to another question: Is it possible to perform electrolysis with pre-modern technology?
Electrolysis ...
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1answer
103 views
What smallest single change after 1949 would've relocated Canada's financial capital to Quebec, rather than Toronto?
Inspired by Toronto's unaffordable real estate prices and What single change in history would allow to make the German city of Munich be in modern France?. I haven't visited Canada in a while. But I ...
3
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3answers
134 views
Alternative Pre-Modern Rocket Fuel to Gunpowder: Can you make a naphtha rocket?
In a pre-17th century world without gunpowder, can rockets still be developed? Could you perhaps make a naphtha rocket?
RP1 is made from highly refined kerosene, which has been about since at least ...
4
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5answers
241 views
What smallest single change would've produced a financial hub in Republic of Ireland, rather than London?
Inspired by Brexit that can boost Dublin’s finance hub, says Central Bank of Ireland's report and Duff & Phelps's Global Regulatory Outlook (GRO) report.
Ireland and UK are similar because English ...
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4answers
1k views
School system for primitives
What is the most basic type of civilization which can sustain a school system where children spend 12 to 14 hours each day in school where they learn and develop attributes instead of culuture.
A ...
4
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3answers
169 views
How can I redirect Great Britain back to Catholicism after the English Reformation?
I, Mary the Magnificent, am the greatest and most successful queen in the British Empire. I grew up in luxury as a member of the valiant Tudor family. Unfortunately, Europe had taken a dark turn some ...
2
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2answers
111 views
What Effect Will This Pseudo-magic Substance Have On Early Humanity?
This world is like ours, but with the addition of an enhancing substance that comes in different colors and is found in rare (and small, no bigger than a fridge) meteorites that have been landing at (...
3
votes
3answers
144 views
Defense of Atlantis?
In my alternate timeline, the original Atlantean civilization perished around 1,500 BCE. Around 1000 BCE, humans once again find Atlantis, this time with 10,000 Greek outcasts fleeing from persecution ...
3
votes
1answer
134 views
Proto-German name for Plant People
I was considering calling plant people in a setting, "skoagraz," which is a combination of the words for forest (skogaz) and flood (agraz).
Flood seemed a good word to imply inclusiveness, ...
0
votes
1answer
55 views
What if Ukraine joined EU and NATO before 2004? [closed]
I wonder what would Ukraine look like today if their development took a different shape after 1990.
Wikipedia: "Ukraine was initially viewed as having favourable economic conditions in comparison ...
2
votes
5answers
158 views
What kind of catastrophe could wipe out a country's human population without harming its ecosystems?
In the backstory of my universe, China ceased to exist as a country sometime around the 2010s as a result of the CCP trying to meddle with alien technology in an attempt to accelerate its efforts at ...
3
votes
4answers
237 views
Modern-day Roman Empire [duplicate]
Before asking the question, let me give you some background. I am a big fan of Roman history, everything from the gladiators of the Colosseum to the writings Seneca, and the other day I was thinking ...
1
vote
2answers
171 views
What is the best place to rebuild humanity [closed]
Imagine that time goes back, no apes smarter than chimpanzees appear, and then in year 2020,
100000 random humans with all the knowledge we have now spawn naked in one area.
In what region of the ...
21
votes
14answers
5k views
What point(s) of departure would I need for space colonization to become a common reality by 2020?
As of 2020, colonizing outside of Earth and into the other bodies that orbit our sun--planets, moons and even asteroids--is all talk and no do. Sure, we have stations like the International Space ...
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2answers
92 views
What elements are needed so that successor states are influenced by an original state, judging by historical precedent, and for how long?
For starters this obviously has many variables so it would be difficult to provide concrete answers on the level of 1+1=2. Thus I'm including our historical precedent element so it won't be total ...
5
votes
3answers
164 views
A Rabid Black Death, Part I: How Virulent Would it Be?
Our first record of rabies, the infamous foaming madness disease, dated all the way back to 2000 BC. The foaming at the mouth and excessive aggression are among the most recognizable symptoms of ...
5
votes
2answers
203 views
Importing Asian Technology and Political Support into Mesoamerica
This is the year 1400 CE. I am a prince in my early teens, belonging to the Zapotec civilization, Mexico. I always get recurring dream that in less than 4 generations, hostile people from far away ...
19
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14answers
5k views
Would a Pre-Columbian America with its own plagues still be vulnerable to Old World diseases?
Most of the Native Americans in our history were killed by smallpox, measles, etcetera, and this video makes a good case for why: though the Americas had cities of their own, they lacked many options ...
2
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0answers
91 views
How does gunpowder-magic reshape the world after its discovery in the year of the Water Pig 3600 Huángdì era? - The (re)unification of China [closed]
Let's assume a postulate from this answer happens:
small explosions cause small leaks [in the Manasphere]. So cannon fire causes Mana to leak in for a while. - Darcy Thomas
Let's assume this is true....
2
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0answers
61 views
How to Make Columbia from Bioshock a Reality [duplicate]
This is Columbia, the city featured in the video game Bioshock: Infinite. It stands out in that this city floats in Earth's atmosphere. How? Some sci-fi handwavium called "the Lutece Particle&...
16
votes
18answers
8k views
How plausible is it for nuclear power to be invented but not nuclear weapons?
I don’t need a super detailed answer here, so this is definitely going to be pretty opinion-based. For context, let’s say you have a world where WW2 was ended by an all-American superhero punching ...
3
votes
4answers
392 views
What plausible history allows a society to adopt Dark Age weaponry and reject “modern”-ish weapons?
Let's consider some highly civilized/organized, free-thinking world akin to the Medieval/Dark Ages:
Technology is fairly rudimentary, reduced to — for the most part — two-handed swords, halberds, and ...
12
votes
7answers
960 views
Would it be possible for Tsar to escape execution and form a great power elsewhere?
I imagined the scenario for a story where the USSR still forms and will later fight in a Cold War with the USA. However, I am imagining a scenario where the tsar escapes, goes with some loyal ...
7
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5answers
291 views
Uses for a 1950s-era nuclear-powered land vehicle?
I have heard of the Chrysler TV-8 design, an amphibious armored vehicle powered by an onboard nuclear reactor...basically a nuclear-powered tank. The TV-8 never made it off the drawing board; the ...
12
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12answers
4k views
The internet without computers - 1940s era
Alternate 1900s
Imagine that we are in an alternative Earth in the early to mid 1940s. There has been no World War 2. In this world there are analog computers used rarely in laboratories for ...
asked Aug 19 '20 at 18:44
chasly - supports Monica
45.1k12 gold badges134 silver badges280 bronze badges
17
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11answers
2k views
Could a world without borders and immigration restrictions exist? [closed]
I’ve heard a few people imagine an alternate history where people are completely free to live in whatever country they choose to. Countries/city states would have to maintain a high standard of living ...
4
votes
2answers
144 views
How do I write a fictional alternate history to handwave in a higher predilection for firearms among world cultures?
I'm not a fan of the word "handwaving" it just makes me sound like I'm bullshitting something I want into my story with various excuses. Essentially I want to have all of the world's ...
7
votes
2answers
126 views
How do I strike a balance between real-world inspiration and purely fictional design, especially for alternate cities? [closed]
My primary question comes from a fledgling animator's perspective. I'd like to capture the general look and feel of a lot of South Florida's cities, while also combining it with my urban-fantasy/...
19
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4answers
3k views
How would human civilisation develop with little iron?
Imagine a planet that's identical in pretty much every aspect (including Homo Sapiens) to our own current Earth, with only a single exception - the continental crust has, for whatever reason, much ...
