Least favorite alt-history story?

[Max Sinister]

That book by that pro-IQ wannabe eugenicist Volkmar Weiss (years back on, you know which site) also was bad. Guy had the nerve to copy whole dialogues from 1984, only changing the subject.

 

[Jared]

That book by that pro-IQ wannabe eugenicist Volkmar Weiss (years back on, you know which site) also was bad. Guy had the nerve to copy whole dialogues from 1984, only changing the subject.

"If you want a picture of the future of self-publishing, imagine a plagiarised boot stamping on a writer's face - forever."

 

[Matt]

"If you want a picture of the future of self-publishing, imagine a plagiarised boot stamping on a writer's face - forever."

But enough about Fifty Shades of Grey.

 

[SpanishSpy]

 

[Time Enough]

Well, that’s a hot take. I like this doesn’t assume that said two countries would likely have still practiced Imperialism because both had plans for expansion.

 

[varyar]

Well, that’s a hot take. I like this doesn’t assume that said two countries would likely have still practiced Imperialism because both had plans for expansion.

I'm sure no other countries would have filled the void here, either. Look around. Nobody else was doing an imperialism back then, and nobody wanted to.

 

[Tovarich]

I'm sure no other countries would have filled the void here, either. Look around. Nobody else was doing an imperialism back then, and nobody wanted to.

Hey, don't look at us to pick up your slack on the old imperialism. We had our hands full with that 1/3 of the globe's land (plus all of the oceans) we'd already swiped.
It's not as if we didn't teach you how to do it before sending you out into the world all independent. You had the skill set but were too busy prick-teasing France to put in an honest day's thieving and oppressing.

 

[SpudNutimus]

Hey, don't look at us to pick up your slack on the old imperialism. We had our hands full with that 1/3 of the globe's land (plus all of the oceans) we'd already swiped.
It's not as if we didn't teach you how to do it before sending you out into the world all independent. You had the skill set but were too busy prick-teasing France to put in an honest day's thieving and oppressing.

I mean, we kinda, you know, did do thieving and oppressing from day one, just not overseas. You think that Louisiana Purchase was just empty when we got it from France?

 

[ChrisNuttall]

Well, that’s a hot take. I like this doesn’t assume that said two countries would likely have still practiced Imperialism because both had plans for expansion.

To be fair, both the US and CSA would be weaker (in some ways) and less able to expand overseas. The UK got so much of the world because it had fewer concerns at home, unlike France or Germany.

Chris

 

[Time Enough]

To be fair, both the US and CSA would be weaker (in some ways) and less able to expand overseas. The UK got so much of the world because it had fewer concerns at home, unlike France or Germany.

Chris

But they still would try and gain an Empire though, which the post in questions guess probably won’t be the cause of America in this world because there split. Additionally the CSA would try and establish an Empire by hook or crook because it was a tiny nation built on an unstable slaveocracy foundation. If they wanted to survive, they would have try some Empire building as ghoulish as that sounds.

 

[Hendryk]

Additionally the CSA would try and establish an Empire by hook or crook because it was a tiny nation built on an unstable slaveocracy foundation. If they wanted to survive, they would have try some Empire building as ghoulish as that sounds.

Trying to make up for domestic dysfunction by expanding outwards is seldom a recipe for success.

It's probable that the rump Union would get back on its feet soon enough and complete its march to the Pacific, but in my opinion the CSA would be too unstable to engage in foreign adventurism. The planter elite would be too worried about slave revolts to go filibustering overseas.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

Trying to make up for domestic dysfunction by expanding outwards is seldom a recipe for success.

It's probable that the rump Union would get back on its feet soon enough and complete its march to the Pacific, but in my opinion the CSA would be too unstable to engage in foreign adventurism. The planter elite would be too worried about slave revolts to go filibustering overseas.

Not to mention their new subjects would hardly be lilly-white Southern gentlemen. If they snatch Cuba and/or Nothern Mexico, they're going to pick up a lot of Cubans and Mexicans who aren't going to like being treated as low-class even if they're not considered slaves.

Come to think of it, would they help the French in Mexico? Or try to snatch land for themsleves?

 

[Skaven]

There's certainly many scenarios where a balkanized United States would lead to a reduction in the power of imperialism, but I don't see how you get to that from a successful CSA. Maybe if a reconquered-in-two-generations south turns into an enormous Ulster like people speculated would happen in TL-191, but even that's a stretch honestly.

 

[ChrisNuttall]

There's certainly many scenarios where a balkanized United States would lead to a reduction in the power of imperialism, but I don't see how you get to that from a successful CSA. Maybe if a reconquered-in-two-generations south turns into an enormous Ulster like people speculated would happen in TL-191, but even that's a stretch honestly.

About the only thing I can think of is that the US drew in European forces, if it really fell apart, and the experience put them off it for a few decades. Not very likely, though.

If the US is weaker, though, the UK might be able to keep China as an 'independent' preserve rather than have France, Germany, (etc), trying to chop bits off China ... still, it's a stretch.

Chris

 

[Warthog]

To be fair, both the US and CSA would be weaker (in some ways) and less able to expand overseas. The UK got so much of the world because it had fewer concerns at home, unlike France or Germany.

Chris

"If you want to avoid civil war, become an imperialist " Cecil Rhodes

 

[MachiavelliJr]

Trying to make up for domestic dysfunction by expanding outwards is seldom a recipe for success.

It's probable that the rump Union would get back on its feet soon enough and complete its march to the Pacific, but in my opinion the CSA would be too unstable to engage in foreign adventurism. The planter elite would be too worried about slave revolts to go filibustering overseas.

I could definitely see the kind of filibustering you got in the 1840s-50s continuing and expanding in the CSA. If there's been serious fighting in the ACW you've got a lot of poor white veterans in an economy which is doubling down on slave-worked plantations. Promising them a chance to become planters somewhere else might look very attractive, and it's not like the Union can hate the CSA any more than it already does. Whether any of the filibusters get anywhere is an entirely different question and I'd tend to lean towards "probably not".

 

[Warthog]

I could definitely see the kind of filibustering you got in the 1840s-50s continuing and expanding in the CSA. If there's been serious fighting in the ACW you've got a lot of poor white veterans in an economy which is doubling down on slave-worked plantations. Promising them a chance to become planters somewhere else might look very attractive, and it's not like the Union can hate the CSA any more than it already does. Whether any of the filibusters get anywhere is an entirely different question and I'd tend to lean towards "probably not".

This is a traditional solution to the "poor white" problem.

 

[SpanishSpy]

The Republic of Virginia

Charles Bateman unwisely attempts to write racism and slavery out of the history of Virginia.

neverwasmag.com

Here's a rather abysmal work of AH I got as a review copy. The author is going to be mad at me but frankly he deserves it.

 

[lordroel]

The Republic of Virginia

Charles Bateman unwisely attempts to write racism and slavery out of the history of Virginia.

neverwasmag.com

Here's a rather abysmal work of AH I got as a review copy. The author is going to be mad at me but frankly he deserves it.

Think Texas had more change and would be better to go as a single country then Virginia who would be crushed by the Union if they went alone.

 

[OwenM]

Seceding but not joining the CSA does feel sufficiently out there that even without the moral implications of how he's doing it it's a bit weird to just use as a starting point for something happening immediately after without seemingly justifying why at all