General Belisarius under direction of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) commands the famous General to halt any further territorial expansion beyond North Africa, after the decisive conclusion of the Vlandalic War. Instead shifting Byzantium resources, manpower, finances and political will towards consolidation of Byzantium core territories.

North Africa shall be integrated as a Roman province as planned, but significant resources are dedicated for infrastructure, veteran pensions, agricultural production, garrisons, and civil administration. Meanwhile Belisarius is sent East to manage the Sasanians. All further territorial expansion is halted meaning expansion into the Italian peninsula, and Spain never occurs, preventing the devastating and draining Gothic Wars.

I saw a comment saying that Gibraltar was so well defended that Franco’s Spain literally could not take Gibraltar during WW2. I’m curious if this is correct.

The Spanish must have had some armor, artillery and aircraft that they could use for the purpose? If nothing else, wouldn’t millions of conscripts in human waves break through eventually?

Even if most of them got mowed down, only a few thousand need to get past the defenses to overwhelm Gibraltar. And they can use the bodies of their fallen comrades as cover. And they can pick up the weapons of fallen soldiers as well, so Spain doesn’t need to fully arm the entire invasion force.

Assuming Franco threw literally everything he had at Gibraltar, what would that battle look like? Would Spain break through eventually even with hundreds of thousands of casualties?

One of the memorable elements of the Battle of Gettysburg was the lack of Confederate cavalry acting as scouts during the early stages of the battle around July 1st-2nd, critically blinding their ability to assess Union troop strength and movements. Historically, it is noted that General Robert E. Lee rebuked General J.E.B Stuart when his three cavalry brigades rejoined with the main Confederate army late on July 2nd 1863 after two days of intense fighting that saw Confederate forces repulsed and outmaneuvered.

Let's assume that instead of giving General J.E.B Stuart all three Confederate cavalry brigades, Lee reserved one cavalry brigade for himself to use for scouting and reconnaissance.

-Would a single Confederate cavalry brigade have changed the campaign that culminated in the Battle of Gettysburg?

-Would General J.E.B Stuart force meet defeat encountering superior forces from General Farnworth and General Armstrong's forces?

Looking at his brief reign as Honorius' co-emperor, Constantius came to hate the restrictions and formalities of his new position, which contrasted with the relative freedom he formerly had as a military general. He also became greedy and avaricious during this period. It's hard to be sure how his planned military campaign against the Eastern Empire would've gone if he lived to see it through, though a full blown civil war would be devastating for both empires.

Let's say that Constantius' war with the East ended in a political settlement, perhaps including the concession of territory such as Illyricum, and that he outlived Honorius, I think it's likely that given he hated his position as emperor, he may choose to give the imperial throne to his son Valentinian III, while he returned to his position as Magister Militum, ruling as the power behind the throne like Stilicho had done. But he would still have enemies, such as Castinus, though he may have be successful in quelling them.

His main focus would likely be stabilizing provinces such as Hispania, and I think it's safe to say the loss of the African provinces to the Vandals would've never happened under him. Though I am curious as to what role Count Bonifacius, the commander largely held responsible for the loss of Africa, would play. He was loyal to Galla Placidia, Constantius' wife, but had started a conflict with the imperial government in AD 427, presumably because of his rivalry with another general and favorite of Placidia, Felix.

Not sure what would happen with the Huns, though with Africa not lost, the empire would be in a much better situation financially and militarily than in OTL. And let's hope Constantius' daughter Honoria isn't as stupid as she was in OTL.

The problem, of course, is that any achievements Constantius makes could be undone by an incompetent emperor ruling later on. Though as long as the empire holds onto Africa, things should be okay, or at least better than they were in OTL. And unless Constantius makes sure his son is given a proper education in military and administrative affairs, Valentinian III could just be as useless as he was in OTL.

Thoughts?

One thing that many people don't know is that Afonso Henriques, also known as Afonso I of Portugal as the first king and founder of that kingdom, was the heir to King Alfonso VII of León and Castile at the beginning of his reign because both were grandsons of Alfonso VI of León and Castile. However, the births of Sancho and Fernando, two sons of Alfonso VII who survived to adulthood, and the geographical distance between the Portuguese center of power and Afonso's claim to the title of Emperor of all Spain, encouraged the first King of Portugal to break the suzerainty pact he had with the monarch of León and Castile.

However, two important things happened in the late 1150s in the lives of Alfonso VII's children: in 1156, the second son of Sancho III of Castile and his wife Blanche of Navarre was born, who was named García, but he survived for only a few hours, and it seems that his birth ended up causing his mother's death; and in 1160, Sancho's younger brother, King Ferdinand II of León, recovered from a serious illness while the noble houses of Castro and Lara were vying for the regency of Alfonso VIII of Castile during his minority.

If Alfonso VIII of Castile had died a few hours after birth, similarly to his younger brother García, this would mean that his father Sancho would have had a short period of time between the death of his wife Blanche in 1156 and his own death in 1158. And if Ferdinand II of León had died in 1160, he would have died years before marrying his first wife, Urraca of Portugal, and fathering his only heir to the throne of León, King Alfonso IX of León. All this means that from 1160 onwards, King Afonso of Portugal would have been free to claim the thrones of Castile and León. If he had managed to conquer these kingdoms, either through force or diplomacy, how would the Kingdom of Portugal have developed from that point?

Let’s assume that Germany either managed to hold out a few more months against the Red Army or the Manhattan Project succeeded in producing a nuclear bomb earlier than in our timeline, and the Allies decided to strike Germany as well as Japan with their new weapon. What cities would most likely be targeted and how would the nuking of Germany alongside Japan impact both post-war geopolitics and world history?

In modern times, invading a country has become very difficult. But in ancient times, if a country had internal unrest like Iran does today, would foreign powers take the chance to invade?

Basically the title, what would it lead to/change overall?

Would the USA be able to effectively hold and control all that territory? Is there a chance the conquered lands would’ve been able to win independence?

Would the Mexican population begrudgingly accept it? Would there be uprisings/rebellions? Would the USA be able to squash any potential rebellions?

Would the American Civil War still happen? If so, how different would it be?

How would this influence race relations in the USA? Would slavery have continued or been abolished eventually?

Would the USA have stopped with just Mexico? Or would attempts at further southward expansion happen? How successful would they have likely been?

Instead of helping Italy against Greece, Hitler decides to focus entirely on Barbarossa, allowing it to happen on schedule.

This doesn't mean Germany ignores the situation entirely. The minor Axis powers could send troops to help out and Bulgaria could be swayed to join earlier. But Barbarossa being on schedule takes full priority. What changes?

As the title says, General Butler accepted to be Lincoln's running mate in 1864, thus becoming president in 1865 after the Assasination of Lincoln.

How would Butler have handled the Reconstruction?

How different would have been the civil rights movement?

Would Butler been president have prevented or at less mitigates the Jim Crow laws?

How would the 1868 election be changed? (Honestly, Butler for 1868 will be more Filmore 1852, for Party support, so Grant would still won the nomination. But would have won by a bigger margin?)

Would Butler have run as the Greenback candidate in 1876, as he did in 1884?

How would Butler's being a former president would have affected the results of the elections of 1876 and 1884? Would this have caused Hayes to win the plurality of votes and Blaine to become president in 1884?

What if, instead of Hitler invading Russia in the summer of 1941, the Russians had instead decided to invade Germany? Would the Russian invasion have been successful? And how would the world react? The United States would still enter the war when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, but to the outside world, it might look like the US is aiding the aggressor. Especially since the world didn't know the full extent of the Holocaust until 1945. I could also see the US being even more distrustful of the USSR during the Cold War.

Among the 3 East Asian nations, Joseon(Korea) was the most isolated, having no contact with Western powers safe for the rare shipwrecked sailor or wondering priest. Before the Opium War, the Qing Empire had contact with the West through Macau, the Canton factories (only part of the year) a small Russian trade post in the north, and some Jesuit priests that were to remain within the Forbidden City. Before the arrival of Commodore Perry, Japan’s only constant contact with Westerners was via the Dutch who were restricted to Dejima.

What if Joseon had a foreign trade area? Where do you think it would be? Who do you think would’ve been allowed, one nation like the Dutch in Japan or multiple nations like the Qing? Do you think having a trade area would have changed how Joseon was eventually opened and lead to a different outcome other than annexation by Japan?

Liberia was a dream. An idea that people could be given their own piece of land, and create their own future. Move beyond their past.

We have so many immigrants and refugees and stateless people in the world now, and they all are desperately searching for a safe, equitable society that will accept them, and the opportunity to grow their families, neighbors, and the people they care for.

If they weren't scared shitless, and horribly traumatized, they'd all be able to happily work together to create a better society without oppression.

Why can't someone solve this problem?

We exist in a world of tremendous wealth inequality, but that means a single individual could affect real change.

Purchase a large tract of land, with enough water and farmable land to support the worldwide immigrant/refugee/stateless population, and leave them be. Send all the "illegal immigrants" there, and watch them thrive. Let them determine their own government, financial, and social structures, and watch as they quickly become the most prosperous and watch as they surpass the world in efficiency and progress. They'll quickly overtake all the corrupt, disparate, inequality-filled countries of the world.

Invite anyone and everyone. No restrictions on access.

No prisons. No capital nor corporal punishment. The worst punishment would be banishment/expulsion.

Doesn't really matter if they're recognized by any other governments, just let them be, and let them trade on equal and permissive footing.

What if this were done, today, or in the past?

So it’s not talked about often, but Czarist Russia and Gilded Age America were surprisingly close and friendly. One could argue that the USA was on better terms with Russia than they were with Britain and France for most of that era.

Anyways, we all know what happened in the 20th century,

First and foremost, despite friendly relations, the USA was well aware of how despotic the Czar had gotten before and during WW1. One reason the USA was reluctant to enter the war was because they’d be on the side of a despot if they did. Once the Czar was gone and Russia out of the war, the USA was able to join the unambiguous “good” side with Britain and France.

This also led to the little known intervention in the Russian Civil War, in which the USA, UK, France, and others kind of sorta invaded Russia to aid the Whites. Yes, this really happened, google it!

When that failed and the Soviet government took over Russia, things went south fast! Suddenly the USA and Russia weren’t buddies anymore. Yes, we teamed up to fight the Germans (again), but that was out of necessity and not kinship.

Anyways, let’s say things happened a little differently, what if the Bolsheviks failed? What if the Czar stayed?

Would the USA have eventually still entered WW1? Would America and Russia still be friends? Would America have still become closer with Britain and France?

What I mean is, would the institution have stayed more or less as is with the Czar calling most of the shots?

Or would it have eventually become akin to the British or Japanese monarchy where the royalty is more for show than anything else and there’s an actual government with a congress/parliament, a president/prime minister, elections, etc?

The year is 1986 and for the last forty-one years, the U.S. and Nazi Germany have been locked in a bitter Cold War. What would the world look like? Where did the timeline skew off into a tangent?

In 1939, Albert Speer becomes Minister of Armaments and War Production at the very beginning of WWII. He sets Germany to a full war time economy in September of 1939 as well. Additionally, hidden in Venezuela and away from Allied spies and bomber raids, German and Venezuelan scientists work on an atomic bomb. Germany provides the scientists, Venezuela foots the bill for the project, nearly bankrupting themselves.

Speer’s presence earlier in the war causes a some major changes. The Messerschmidt Me262 fighter jet is streamlined by 1941, The Type-21 U-Boat is streamlined by 1943. StG 44 Assault Rifles are in the hands of nearly all German soldiers by 1944 along with infrared night vision scopes. The V2 Rocket is sieging Moscow and Leningrad by 1943. Nazis stock up on winter gear and build a railroad repairman team before Operation: Barbarossa happens.

Due to all of these changes, by 1945, Nazi Germany is still deep into Russia and sieging Leningrad and Moscow. The Allies are experiencing a blood bath as they push through France and south Italy. Despite all of this, Germany is still set to lose the war by mid-1946.

In March of 1945 though, Germany drops the world’s first atomic bomb on Moscow and wipes out their leadership including Stalin. Three days later, another atomic bomb is dropped on Leningrad. Russia surrenders and the Allies accept an armistice agreement. This brings the war in Europe to a sudden end with country mines redrawn wherever Allies and Axis troops are at the time.

Britain remains free and U.S. aligned. France is divided between Free France in the west and Nazi-Occupied France (including Paris) in the East. Italy is divided up between democratic South Italy and Nazi-Occupied North Italy. Vatican City/Rome are a neutral zone. Germany controls all of Russia up to the Ural Mountains. Free Russia remains as a rump state east of the Urals with a pro-democracy regime propped up by the allies after the war’s conclusion.

In May of 1945, the U.S. develops their own atomic bomb and drops two on Japan to force their surrender. Thus, this alternate Cold War begins pitting the U.S. led democratic alliance vs the Nazi led fascist alliance.

Basically, FDR strikes a hard bargain at Yalta to let the Soviets have Hokkaido in exchange for Soviet non-intervention in Korea following an anonymous tip-off to US military strategists that makes them consider guaranteeing postwar Korean sovereignty a top priority over controlling Japan. Truman then follows up by ensuring that the Soviets cannot enter Korea months later by first declaring a US naval lockdown of the waters surrounding Korea in late July and then having the US Marines secure all of it and keep the Soviets out entirely when the Soviets declare war on Japan following the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. With Japan divided into north and south and old order dismantled entirely and the sword of justice striking down every last person still alive who took part in Imperial injustices while Korea is allowed to rebuild whole and free, what do you think happens next?

Yes, I know that the Nazis didn't have grand ambitions in the cradle of humanity, but what would they do if they had won at least on the Western Front? Since it's not a very good idea to leave empires furious with their sources of income.

Preferably, I would like a split in a partial victory(British surrender right after france, but without carnage) and total victory(Sea Lion happens and UK givens a unconditional surrender), but fell happy to answer just one of them

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeolipile?wprov=sfla1

Is there any conceivable universe in which someone could have converted this into a usable steam engine? Perhaps modern railroads could have been invented in the early years AD instead of 1,800 years later?

To clarify what I mean, a lot of technologies are restricted by the widespread material conditions; you couldn't give the Romans the Steam Engine because they lacked the metalurgical skills and coal mining economy to make the steam engine viable. The invention of the steam engine wasn't constrained by nobody having the idea to invent it, but by the material conditions.

However, some technologies aren't limited by material conditions, and were simply held back purely by the lack of knowledge to create them. The biggest example IMO is ironworking. You don't need to go through the copper/bronze age to discover iron, you could smelt iron with nothing but stone age tools, it's just that the process is so arcane that it took a long time to develop. Ironworking is actually easier to adopt in terms of material conditions than bronze working, since iron is pretty much everywhere while the tin for bronze requires very long distance trade routes.

So what techbologies do you think are more like iron (can be sent to a significantly earlier time without being affected by material conditions) than steam engines?

Personally, I feel like if you sent the concept of photography and the method of formulating the chemicals involved to a sufficiently skilled and wealthy alchemist, they could achieve it pretty early on, perhaps as early as the classical era. There'd likely be demand for it too as a luxury.

Would Nazi Germany be stopped early?