Madagascar- King Andriamasinavalona does not divide Imerina
Imerina was a small kingdom in the hills of central Madagascar ruled by Andriamasinavalona. His rule was seen as being a golden age of harmony, peace, prosperity and justice and he is remembered as being a kind and just king. However late in his reign he divided his kingdom into four for his four favorite sons to rule over and his nephew Andriambonimerina to succeed him as king. This was done as Andriamasinavalona believed that the kingdom would be better defended by four brothers working together than just one as sole ruler. However when he died in 1710 the kingdom of Imerina fragmented and took 77 years to be unified again. In this scenario he makes his most powerful son, Andriantsimitoviaminiandriana, his heir and makes his three other sons vassals of the heir. When Andriamasinavalona dies the new king manages to keep Imerina united so the 77 years of conflict never rocks Madagascar. The new king would make the nobles pledge allegiance to him and starts enacting decrees which he passed in our timeline such as having anyone fined to set fire to a neighbors house. He would also continue to expand Imerina which started under his father and with his brothers Imerina's boundaries in our 1810 would be acquired much sooner and by 1787 the entire island would be under Imerina's rule. Imerina had the best weapons on the island so the conquest would be easier without the 77 years of conflict. The kingdom's succession rule would also be different with the king's following Andriamasinavalona and nominating their nephew as heir in our timeline so in this one they would nominate the favorite son. Imerina's expansion would also bring together the vastly different cultures across Madagascar and in an effort to reduce unrest the kingdom allows religious tolerance. Imerina expanding to the sea at a faster rate would allow rich landowners, (most likely the royal family), would take advantage of the trade from the Ottoman Empire, Portugal and Dutch East India Company. Soon as spice, cotton, gold and silver is traded in the eastern coastal towns the local farmers earn mass amounts of money through trading coffee, vanilla and lychees. Eventually the royal family moves to Manakara. Soon the kingdom has a growing middle class outside the royal family and adopts western weaponry and even changes religion to Christianity to build relations with the French traders. Fearing western influence in Madagascar Queen Ranavalona I bans Christianity earning vast reprisals from the French. The French invades, replaces the queen withe her son and the French establishes a protectorate. In the 1890s following years of uprisings the French officially annexes Madagascar, (something done much earlier in our timeline), and like in Vietnam they rule through a puppet king/queen until independence in the 1960s following years of fighting.
Tunisia- Rome does not destroy Carthage
Following the Third Rome-Punic War the Romans captured the capital of the Carthaginian Empire in 146 BCE and burnt every building in the city as well as enslaving 50,000 city residents and if some sources can be trusted the Romans even sowed the soil with salt. The city soon became ruled from nearby Utica and today is a suburb in Tunisia's capital Tunis. In this scenario after taking the city the Roman Senate tells Scipio Aemilianus not to destroy the city and it is instead immediately made a Roman province. To keep Carthage from ever rising against Rome though Scipio Aemilianus and his force remains in the city to ensure that the army does not declare an independent Carthage as soon as Rome leaves. All slaves owned by Carthaginians are either freed or confiscated and given to retiring legionnaires. The Romans then start a process of 'Romanizing' Carthage by building temples worshiping Roman gods, creating Roman council buildings, making Latin the official language to be used by city officials and replacing Carthaginians with Romans. Roman rule would resemble their rule in Greece and Jerusalem with a Carthaginian 'King' being overseen by a Roman consul. The first consul would most likely be Scipio Aemilianus. Nevertheless Carthaginian and Carthage's religion would still be widespread, especially among peasants surrounding the city in arable lands, where the Carthaginian officials would adopt Latin to get higher up in society. Eventually Carthaginian would resemble a mixture of the original language and Latin, (like how Old English is a hybrid of Latin and Gaelic). Carthage would however try to rise up against Rome occasionally but these uprisings would be put down. Caesar for example would use Carthaginians to help him take Rome but when they try to reestablish independence after he becomes Emperor he would crush them under an iron boot. When Rome starts to collapse Carthage would finally declare independence as New Carthaginia; a new nation with a mixture of Roman style governance, a hybrid language of Latin-Carthaginian and a sizable population of Christian Vandals who fled to Carthage to escape persecution due to the Carthaginian religion allowing more diversity in the region. This would remain so until the area is conquered by the Umayyad dynasty and Islam is established as the main religion with a few people keeping the original religion. Modern day Tunisia would have Carthage and not Tunisia as the capital.
Greece- The Aetolian League, Sparta, Macedon and Achaean League unite against Rome
.jpg)
From 214-205 BCE Rome was at war with the Kingdom of Macedon, (most of present day Greece), and its ally the Achaean League while the Aetolian League, (another regional power), and Sparta allied with Rome. Eventually Rome managed to conquer the entirety of Greece. In this scenario Macedon manages to convince Sparta and the Aetolian League to fight Rome based on the older Greek alliance against the Persians, (made famous with King Leonidas and the 300 Spartans). The shared religion, government type, history and language convinces Aetolia and Sparta to turn against Rome in favor of their Greek brothers and sisters in Macedon. The united armies of Macedon, Sparta and the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues manage to easily defeat the Roman allies of Illyria, Elis and Messina who are quickly conquered by their neighbors, (the Achaean League making a land grab in Illyria and taking Elis). Soon Rome distracted by Hannibal calls a truce and the united front subdues the Attalid dynasty, (a Roman ally in west Turkey). With the Greek states victorious politicians and scholars have an idea: to unite Greece. With the public of the different Greek states rejoicing and the interaction between Greek hoplites during the war creating a more united front this allows Greece to unify. However it would be a very decentralized state with disagreements about who exactly would rule Greece and where the capital would be starting to emerge. It would be decided that the leaders of each Greek state would form a council that would meet at an ever changing city, (the most common meeting place being the more neutral Delphi), but the everyday ruling of the Greek states would be left to that state's particular leader. With the unified Greece great epics are written commencing the heroism and bravery of the Greeks compared to the Romans and the leaders of the states would be in as high regard as the Greek heroes of old such as King Leonidas of Sparta. Greece would compete with Rome in Egypt while seeking new conquests against the Seleucids in Turkey. However this unity would not last long with differences between the states becoming apparent and the different cultures between the varying states causing friction. After all Sparta was much different than Athens with Spartans promoting women much more compared to the Athenians. Soon the states would declare their own sovereignty with some closer to Rome declaring their alliance to Rome. When Julius Caesar takes power in Rome his armies with conquer the western Greek states, (close to hundred and fifty years later than in our timeline), and by the 1st Century CE Greece would be a Roman province.
Ethiopia- Ethiopian revolutionaries drive out the Italians
Throughout the Italian occupation of Ethiopia, (1936-1941), there was a guerrilla campaign against the Italian occupiers but they failed to drive them out until the Second World War. In this scenario following the Yekatit 12 Massacre, (where 30,000 people were murdered in revenge for an assassination attempt on Italian Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani in 1937), the Ethiopian population rise up against the occupiers. The exiled emperor Haile Selassie returns to his country to help lead the revolutionaries who rallies behind him for two reasons. The first is that he was a loved figurehead and the second was members of the Ethiopian aristocracy, (at least 125 people), were murdered during the massacre so it would be seen as him avenging himself. With such a wide scale revolt Mussolini sends more troops to put down the revolutionaries but his forces not used to guerrilla warfare find themselves constantly harassed despite their advanced weaponry. Local bandit revolutionaries such as Weldegabriel Mesazgi in the Mereta Sebene district become heroes and get widespread support. Mussolini would then pour in more resources to put down the revolutionaries, (funded by the Hitler regime), as volunteers from across the world flood to Ethiopia to help the revolutionaries in a scene similar to the Spanish Civil War. In 1938 another assassination attempt on Graziani succeeds making Mussolini pour more and more troops into the country. Soldiers indiscriminately killing civilians become more common as paranoia sets in seeing revolutionaries everywhere. When Mussolini's son is killed by a bomb on his plane in 1939 Mussolini pulls out of Ethiopia allowing Haile Selassie to return to Addis Addaba in victory.
Kiribati- Invaders from Tonga, Samoa and Fiji fail to come
Following 1300 CE invaders from Tonga and Samoa invaded the island chain of Kiribati and later invaders from Fiji came. In this scenario the invaders fail to arrive at Kiribati thanks to harsh weather in the Pacific which destroys the invasion parties. As a result the culture, language and even ethnicity of Kiribati would be vastly different. Like Vikings in Europe the invaders from Polynesia and Melenesia brought their culture with them and many stayed settled down in Kiribati. Many of them married people native to Kiribati which blended their cultures. Without this Kiribati would not have some of its culture imported from Tonga, Samoa and Fiji. To look at what Kiribati culture would be like we can look at its more northerly neighbor Micronesia where the invaders had less of an impact. It can easily be imagined that Kiribati would have a similar culture then to Micronesia. The language would also be different with Kiribati having much less Polynesian borrowings so we would have a much altered language as well. In regards to the ethnicity of Kiribati it would be less varied with the invaders now not being the ancestors to at least 1.2% of the population so the population could be very much different than today.
Sweden- Sweden is invaded during World War Two
During World War Two Sweden remained neutral throughout the war and was buffeted between both the Allies and Axis with Sweden offering thousands of Jews from Norway and Denmark refuge while being forced to give iron ore for the German war effort. In this scenario as Operation Barbarossa, (Hitler's invasion of Russia), takes place the Swedish government protests against the heavy amount of artillery and infantry going over their railroads so Hitler in one of his erratic moves decides to declare war on Sweden and the heavy amount of German troops in Swedish borders allows the Wehrmacht to easily defeat the unprepared Swedish army. Sweden only started rearming in 1943 so the unexpected invasion catches the army off-guard. The Swedish monarchy and parliament flees to Finland and eventually is smuggled into Britain. Many people from Sweden volunteered in the war so most likely the Swedish people would form a resistance movement against the occupiers and collaborative government put in place by Hitler. Unfortunately the Holocaust would come to Sweden. During the war almost all of Denmark's 8,000 Jews, (only 450 failed to flee to Sweden), as well as many Jews and refugees from Norway and Finland. With Sweden falling the SS would round up the refugees as well as any Jews that had lived in Sweden for all their life. In this scenario the numbers of those killed in the Holocaust would be terrifyingly higher. In 1944 the Soviet Union would invade northern Sweden leading Hitler to order a scorched earth policy and having SS agents to have railroads torn up. The Allies would oust the Axis from southern Sweden meeting with the Soviets in the middle but a secret meeting between Churchill and Stalin would give the Allies Sweden for Stalin to have a free hand in Poland. After the war Sweden receives much more in the Marshall Plan although the Swedish Communist Party would be much stronger with the people remembering that the Red Army helped liberate at least half the country...
Dominican Republic- The US annexes the Dominican Republic in 1869
Strangely when the Dominican Republic, (then called Santo Domingo), gained independence from Spain in 1865 two years later they requested that they join the USA in fear of being re-annexed by Haiti. When Andrew Johnson tried to do it in 1867 Congress blocked his proposal because of his refusal to work with Reconstruction policies and when Ulysses Grant tried to in 1870 but was rejected through anti-imperialism. In this scenario Congress agrees to annex Santo Domingo under Johnson for one of the reasons that Grant wanted to; it would strengthen Reconstruction by having an almost entire African-American state in the Union. However they have it annexed in 1869 when Johnson left the White House so Grant could take the credit. Surprisingly only the select few nationalists in Santo Domingo would be anti-US with them seeing the US being better than annexation from Haiti or Spain. However Grant would send troops to the area to ensure that no revolutionary ideas could spring up. Immediately US contractors would start building ports and naval bases in the area which would attract African-American workers from the southern states although tensions would emerge from the Spanish speaking natives and the new workers and riots would occur which would require the army to clamp them down. Slowly the people living in Santo Domingo would start learning English to get better jobs on the continental US. One of the final acts of Reconstruction would be to make Santo Domingo a state allowing more African-American Congressmen and the President of the Dominican Republic at the time, Buenaventura Baez, would be the first governor. By 1910 nationalism would die down but it would be the state where the ideas of black power originating with Marcus Garvey leading his supporters in the primarily African-American state. On the mainland civil rights would go at an easier rate with more Congressmen being in favor of civil rights laws so quite possibly laws such as the Dyer Bill, (which would have outlawed lynching if passed in 1921), could have been passed progressing civil rights.
No comments:
Post a Comment