Remember, Remember the 6th of November?

Guest post by Tony Morgan.

On November 5th 1605 a major terrorist atrocity was prevented in England. If this had not happened the King would have been killed, Parliament and his government destroyed and the modern world would be a very different place.

Fascinated by the parallels between the England of 1605 and today – concerns over Europe, terrorism and government surveillance – I have written an exciting new alternate history based novel, REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 6TH OF NOVEMBER, which explores the events of the so-called Gunpowder Plot and asks two questions – what if things had turned out differently and do we ever learn from the mistakes of history?

November 5th is a hugely important date in the calendar of the United Kingdom. Each year, the evening is filled with smoke from our bonfires and fireworks light up our skies. We call it Bonfire Night or Guy Fawkes night but what is it all about?

These events mark an annual celebration, not for what Guy Fawkes did but for what he was prevented from doing. On the eve of the Opening of Parliament, Fawkes was found hiding beneath the building, watching over an arsenal of gunpowder. The plan was to detonate this in the morning and destroy the building with the King, his sons and government inside.

Fawkes and his fellow plotters, led by the charismatic Robert Catesby, were Catholics, outraged at Protestant King James I’s policies of persecution of their religion, particularly as they believed he’d promised a more tolerant approach. Following Fawkes’s arrest, he was tortured and the other conspirators rounded up. Many were killed during the ensuing pursuit and in a bloody gun battle. The survivors, including Fawkes, were placed on trial for treason and eventually hung, drawn and quartered, a particularly brutal form of execution, in London.

But what if they had been successful? Would our world have been different? The answer is a categorical yes, and in many ways. In our reality, King James lived on for another 20 years. He was eventually succeeded by his son, Charles, who led the country into a divisive and bloody civil war, which eventually led to his own execution. If James and Charles had been murdered as intended by the plotters, could the English civil war have been avoided?

King James oversaw early English expansion into North America, as part of an embryonic British Empire. He actively encouraged the Protestant “plantation” of Ireland, sowing the seeds for centuries of sectarian hatred and violence. If he’d died in 1605, both activities may have turned out very differently. What would have been the impact on the history of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada, the US and so many other countries?

Of course, we can’t know for sure. The future would have depended on what happened next, immediately after the explosion of Parliament. Who would have taken control of England? Would the country have been able to remain strong and independent or would it have been invaded and subsequently controlled by Spain or France? All these factors would have been critical determinants for our own present day way of life.

If you’re interested in finding out more about the real events of November 1605 and exploring one view of how things may have ended differently, read REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE 6TH OF NOVEMBER and support two very good causes, as all profits made in 2016 are being donated to charity – and please let us know what you think.

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Tony Morgan is 51, a Welshman living in Yorkshire in England in the UK. He has taken a gap year from work at the age of 50 to explore a range of interests, including writing two alternate history based novels. He returns to his day job in IBM on 7th November 2016.

Map Monday: The Kingdom of Great Britain (in the Guiana) by Birdperson

I am sucker for royal exiles (hence my video on the topic) so I immediately latched on to "The Kingdom of Great Britain (in the Guiana)" by Birdperson, a new member of AlternateHistory.com. Lets take a look at it below:

Although the events of the scenario take place in the 17th century, the story implies an earlier point of divergence involving the House of Lancaster not becoming extinct in the male line in the 15th century. Anywho, there is a republican revolution in Britain and Margarete, niece of the deposed king and heir-apparent, flees to their colonies in "Meridia" and establishes a kingdom-in-exile. For 15 years she rules this colonial nation before dying of fever and the colonies are reintegrated back into republican Britain.

First up the map looks great (and you can see a full sized version here). I am assuming its an Inkscape map and for what is Birdperson's first MotF entry it is a strong attempt. One nitpick: the Genver Delta colony at the bottom right should have been differentiated a little better. Since there are two Britains in this timeline, it could have said Republican British instead of just British, but like I said, its a nitpick.

Honorable mentions this week go out to two maps by Rebecca "Upvoteanthology" Stirling: "The Hindian Empire" and "The semi-independent Kingdom of Arraillur, in 1450".

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Flag Friday: Flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and Japan by Reesetelford9

Last week I featured a flag that I speculated was from a timeline where the United States had annexed Japan. Now lets take a look at a flag from a timeline where Japan was annexed by Britain:

This is the "Flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain, Northern Ireland, and Japan" by Reesetelford9. It is a relatively simple design. Just the red sun in the center of the Union Jack. The fun thing about the Union Jack, however, is that it combines elements from the flags of three other nations: England (the red cross of St George), Scotland (the white saltire of St Andrew) and Ireland (the red saltire of St Patrick). Thus for the red sun of Japan to be there, Britain must have annexed Japan at some point and brought it into union with the rest of Britain.

How did this happen? Most likely with the help of alien space bats, but probably at some point the British got rid of the Japanese emperor and gave the title to one of their monarchs. The Japanese people assimilated (and the British adopted many Japanese customs) and despite the racial barriers, Japan decided a closer union with Britain was better then leaving it (unlike most of Ireland since Reesetelford9 references Northern Ireland in the name of the flag).

Nevertheless, if you still think the addition of Japan to the United Kingdom is implausible, just see what The Onion did to the Georgia state flag.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger for Amazing Stories, a volunteer interviewer for SFFWorld and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not exploring alternate timelines he enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Flag Friday: British California by Keperry

Making California British is a popular past-time of alternate historians. The common ways to do it is to either a) have the American Revolution fail and then have British North America expand to the West Coast or b) have Britain seize the territory from Mexico in a timeline where North America has balkanized. Of course there could be a dozen other scenarios where a British California can exist, but those are the two divergences I personally see the most.

I say the above because I have no idea what the scenario is for this flag:

This is the flag of British California and is designed by Keperry. It doesn't come with a story so I can only speculate. That being said, I like the red field. It reminds me of the early versions of the Flag of Canada when it was still a dominion. Perhaps that is the scenario we are going for. One where California is actually a province of Canada, which actually happened in a favorite web original timeline of mine that is sadly no longer available online. Don't even remember the name even, but I know it involved Babbage creating his Analytical Engine so if anyone knows what I am talking about, please share the link...wait I'm supposed to be talking about the flag. Anywho, its good looking, simple and I got to be nostalgic. Good times.

For more flag goodness, see what could be the new flag of Australia, because I just can't stop talking about former and fictional British colonies.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Flag Friday: The Flag of Bowie by Ferdeederdeetrerre

So what can an alternate history blogger who is serious about staying on-topic do to remember David Bowie, one of the most creative and influential artists of the 20th century? Hell, I may even be downplaying Bowie's impact with that introduction. In Zachary Lipez of Vice's article on Bowie he had this to say: "without him, there would be no punk, no glam, no post-punk, no hair metal, no goth, no Brit-pop, no new wave, no freak folk, no new romantics, no (as we know it) blue eyed soul, no (as we know it) art-pop."

Did Zachary goo to far or is on to something about Bowie impact on history? Was he really a "great man of history"? Who knows how the world would have been different if Bowie had used his talents for something evil...like politics. Maybe he would have conquered Britain...

This is "The Flag of Bowie" by Ferdeederdeetrerre, which was posted to Reddit on the day the world learned of Bowie's passing. You can tell that the design takes inspiration from the cover of the Aladdin Sane album. There really isn't a story that goes with the flag, but one person in the comments did say it reminded them of this flag from AlternateHistory.com...which is based on the flag of the British Union of Fascists, hence my politics comment.

Before this goes any further, no I am not saying Bowie is a fascist, but I thought I would be a bad alternate historian if I didn't point out the similarities of the two flags. What I can say is that when I first saw the flag, I could think of no better way to express my remorse for the passing of the man who gave us "Space Oddity" and my favorite take on the Serbian inventor, Nikola Tesla, during his role in The Prestige.

I'm not sure how to end this, but I think Simon Pegg said it best: "If you're sad today, just remember the world is over 4 billion years old and you somehow managed to exist at the same time as David Bowie."

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: Europe, If Britain Had Won WW2 by Facthole

Have you ever wondered what Europe would look like if the evil British Empire had won World War II? Well the site Facthole has got you covered:

This is "Europe, If Britain Had Won WW2" and before you run to the comment section to denounce this map for its implausibility, relax, its a joke. The website Facthole seems to be a satirical news site of the Onion variety. Although I can't confirm it, I would guess this map was created in response to all the buzz about Amazon's The Man in the High Castle, which is ironic since the original novel did have its own alternate history where Britain defeated Germany and became a superpower locked in a Cold War with the US. I really can't comment too much on the scenario because the description is rather short, but you get the idea that this Cold War features the Imperial West led by Britain and the Communist East led by the Soviet Union. Not sure what ideology the "Allied Nations" subscribe to.

To be honest I don't even know the name of the of the alternate cartographer, but my guess is it would have to be "Eddie Con Carne", the editor-in-chief of Facthole. To be fair to Eddie, or whoever the creator, its actually a rather well-done map. The colors are subtle and its hard to criticize the border choices or the names of the nations because the map is not meant to be taken that seriously. In fact I have seen a lot worse alternate history maps that were posted unironically, so I'm not bothered by the "British Holy Roman Empire". Although I don't understand why the names of Portugal and Turkey had to be cut off like that, it is still an amusing map that had some skill behind it.

Honorable mention this week goes out to "Peru-Bolivia Confederation: Return of the Relentless Mountains" by Zalezsky.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a Sidewise Awards for Alternate History judge. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the day when travel between parallel universes becomes a reality. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Interview: Tom Black

For years I have been saying that the alternate history you find on the Internet is as good as or even better than what you can find from traditional publishers. So when I heard that Tom Black and other members of AlternateHistory.com were starting a publishing house, called Sea Lion Press, for web original alternate histories, I was overjoyed and immediately reached out to Tom for an interview. Here is what we talked about:

Who is Tom Black?

Tom Black (left) and Jack Tindale

I am a proud resident of Croydon, South London. I have lived there my whole life (apart from three years studying History at the University of Leeds) and currently work as the general manager of the Croydon Citizen news magazine which I co-founded in 2012. In addition to writing alternate history, I write plays and occasionally perform with DugOut Theatre. I'll be 25 in September.

What got you interested in alternate history?

When I was about 13 years old, I was a big player of WWII Online, the cult MMOFPS set in the Battle of France. Someone on the forums began talking about Worldwar, Harry Turtledove's series about aliens invading during WWII. That sounded cool to me, so I got hold of the first book (it was in my local library, something that still astonishes me) and very soon found myself hooked. After Worldwar, I moved on to Turtledove's Timeline-191 books, and began looking for other ways to explore alternate history. Soon I was playing Hearts of Iron II (I was briefly part of the team for the Kaiserreich alternate history mod for that game) and posting on the ParadoxPlaza forums, mainly about alternate history. From there, I saw AlternateHistory.com get talked about more and more, and so I decided to post my first major timeline, "The People's Flag", on there. It was an attempt to flesh out the very complex and highly implausible backstory of the Kaiserreich mod. It therefore wasn't very plausible, but it was an awful lot of fun to write. By then, I was studying History full-time at Leeds, and I was hooked to AH. The rest is (alternate) history.

You are a member of AlternateHistory.com, correct? How would you describe the place to someone who has never been there?

I go on AH.com more than I go on Facebook. It's introduced me to some of my closest friends, and has a community that has not only helped me grow as a writer and as a historian, but also been there for me in low moments in my life. I've been a member for five years, and I would describe it as an online forum full of alternate history discussion, debate, exciting new writing and often very witty humour. It also has a political and non political chat section, both of which generate fascinating discussions that enrich my life and have introduced me to different viewpoints I otherwise wouldn't come across.

What inspired you to create Sea Lion Press?

It all happened very quickly. A few months ago, I was talking to Jack Tindale over a pint and remarking that there really is a lot of very good writing on AH.com that a lot of people would never get to see. It's hard to get non-forum users to read through stories on web forums. It's also not the best medium for it.

I got a Kindle about six months ago, and was quickly impressed with how readable ebooks are. After realising Andy Cooke had already had success with some self-publishing on Amazon, I put two and two together and decided that the best way to bring AH.com (and alternate history in general) to a mainstream audience was to set up a unified publishing house that could develop a name for itself and thus help its authors. I passionately believe that there are a lot of potential readers of AH out there who like the sound of it but wouldn't know where to begin: history is just so broad, and everyone has different areas of expertise.

So that's how it came about. The plan is now to make it bigger and bigger, publishing stories about any period, any place, any theme. The only requirement is that the stories are well-written to the extent that a mainstream audience will not object to paying for them. The hope is that over time, Sea Lion Press will introduce new readers to the many worlds of alternate history, in addition to generating a little bit of income for those of us publishing our books through it (every author gets 100% of their royalties, Sea Lion Press doesn't currently take a cut as there's no real costs for us to need to absorb). It doesn't matter that none of us will grow rich from this - it's already immensely satisfying to make even a small amount of money from something we all do as a hobby. If my hobby can buy me a pint of cider every once in a while, that's a great bonus.

When will you open up Sea Lion to unsolicited submissions?

I hope to do this very soon. The response to the Press' launch has been extremely heartening, and I would love to bring more and more authors on board. However, simple time and workload are the obstructions at the moment. I won't bore you with the details, but obviously a bit of work has to go into each book we publish. Right now, I'm at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (working with DugOut Theatre, who I mentioned above) and am also juggling my day job at the Citizen. There's no way I would have time to read through unsolicited submissions at the moment.

Thankfully, spreadsheet wizards like Andy Cooke have helped me put in place some processes and documents that will make it easier to produce books at a faster rate. While I wouldn't like to be much more specific than 'very soon', I think we will open our doors to unsolicited submissions after the next wave of publications. That's currently meant to happen in September.

What can you tell us about your Sea Lion stories: "Shuffling the Deck", "For Want of a Paragraph" and "Zonen"?

They're three very different kinds of AH, which is why I chose them as my own contributions to our first wave. "For Want of a Paragraph" is probably the most accessible, at least in terms of style and form. Its subject matter is supremely geeky - the rulebook of the Labour Party and the slow downfall of Gordon Brown - but it is told as a traditional narrative, with viewpoint characters and so on. I recommend it to fans of The Thick Of It, The West Wing and House of Cards.

"Zonen" is written in the style of a long-form journalistic article, about a narrator travelling around present-day Denmark and Germany to learn about the Danish Zone of Occupation in post-war Germany. It's a more personal tale than anything I've written before, and was really an attempt to explore how a potentially big change can lead to very few major changes over the years in the history books - but still big impacts on individual people's lives.

"Shuffling the Deck" is simultaneously the geekiest and the most light-hearted of my three currently available works. I co-wrote it with Jack Tindale based on a premise of re-ordering Britain's post-1945 Prime Ministers. Their reputations are also altered as a result, so we end up with Anthony Eden becoming the hero who won WWII, Ted Heath dominating 1980s politics and reshaping the economy, and Harold Macmillan remembered as bumbling do-nothing. It's very much aimed at political geeks and people who like the more 'parlour game' aspects of alternate history, but it does also make some interesting observations about circumstances being more important to historical events than the great man theory.

Any other upcoming stories that will be published under the Sea Lion label soon?

At time of writing, we're about to publish Andy Cooke's "The Fourth Lectern" and "The Fifth Lectern". These explore a very different British political scene from 2010 onwards. You can find them on our website already.

In our next wave of books, in September like I said, we'll be publishing at least half a dozen. There's a couple more by me, including "Meet The New Boss", which explores a Soviet satellite Britain. I'm very excited to revisit that one during the editing process. There's also two more from Ed Thomas, author of the tremendously popular Fight And Be Right. His works "A Greater Britain" and "The Bloody Man" (which we're splitting into volumes) are part of the second phase. Jack Tindale's "La Isla Blanca", in which the Spanish Armada annexes the Isle of Wight, is coming too.

As for new authors, we've got Steven Digena's "Bombard The Headquarters!", a novella about Lin Biao successfully assassinating Mao in 1971. Other far eastern work we've got in phase two includes the first volume of Paul Hynes' Decisive Darkness series, in which Japan doesn't surrender in 1945, and we have another very exciting major project about China in the pipeline.

We're also going to publish a collection of short vignettes, tentatively titled Ten Prime Ministers Britain Never Had. These will be by various authors, old and new, and have been selected for their inventiveness, imagination, and entertainment value. We think this will be a popular work with our more mainstream audience.

Our website is updated regularly, and we have a 'coming soon' page there - I recommend bookmarking it!

Sea Lion Press appears to be very British-centric with its alternate history library. Is this intentional or do you plan to expand into other areas of history?

The name 'Sea Lion Press' and our first wave of titles are deliberate choices, made to attract attention in the British book market, where there is a small but growing alternate history genre reaching mainstream consciousness. From an artistic perspective, this decision is also in part because of the 'British renaissance' of timelines on AH.com in the last few years: there have been a lot of British political TLs written, and many of them are the kind of well-written timeline that made me think 'these really are worth publishing for a wider audience'. There's also the simple fact that I and many of our authors so far are British ourselves, and so we have written about what we know.

However, we are by no means going to stay solely British (indeed, we've already published books about Russia and Denmark). As I said above we have books about China and Japan coming up, as well as some American work. Other timelines we plan to publish in the near future are global in their scale, featuring dozens of countries. Alternate history is an international topic, and we are taking deliberate steps to include something of interest to everyone, be they a Sinophile, a Westminster geek, or a lover of Latin America.

Are you working on any new projects at the moment?

Alongside my regular writing partner Jack Tindale, I am currently working towards finishing "The UK Presidential Election", a novella set on an election night in a British republic. And before you ask, yes, the country is still called the United Kingdom. You'll have to read it to find out why! That should be finished in a month or so. I have some silly shorts planned after that, but for now my focus is mainly on getting Sea Lion Press up and running. And of course, Jack and I are steadily rewriting "Agent Lavender", our AH 1970s spy thriller, and getting it ready for publication.

What are you reading right now?

Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, and Dominic Sandbrook's White Heat, a history of Britain in the 1960s. The latter on Kindle, the former in dead tree format. They're very different, but both excellent.

Any advice for aspiring writers and publishers?

For writers: join a writing community. They can take many forms (web forums, real life meetings, college classes etc), but I found myself writing a lot more regularly and trying out new things once I began regularly posting on AH.com. It's incredibly useful to have an audience - and it is not hard to find one - that wants to read what you produce and is happy to provide feedback. I would also repeat the old adage of 'read, read, read'. It almost goes without saying that the more you read, the more your own writing style will mature.

As for publishers: just do it. I was astounded by how easy it was to get Sea Lion Press off the ground. If you're the kind of person who can see a project through, you will be able to put together something like this. Find a genre you're passionate about, build relationships with people who are writing that kind of thing, and just do it. Set up a website, come up with some house styles, find a friend who can handle the graphic design and you'll be up and running in no time.

What If Wednesday: The British Republic, No Iraq War and the Hong Kong Diaspora

For this What If Wednesday, I have THREE short scenarios for all of you based on news articles I shared with you last week. Lets begin with...

#1: What if Napoleon turned Britain into a republic?

Last month Martin Kettle complained on The Guardian of liberalism and democracy's defeat after Napoleon lost the Battle of Waterloo. While criticizing the anti-liberty forces that came to power after Napoleon's final defeat, he also shared this tidbit from Napoleon himself regarding what would he have done if he had successfully invaded England:

I would have hastened over my flotilla with two hundred thousand men, landed as near Chatham as possible and proceeded direct to London, where I calculated to arrive in four days from the time of my landing. I would have proclaimed a republic and the abolition of the nobility and the House of Peers, the distribution of the property of such of the latter as opposed me amongst my partisans, liberty, equality and the sovereignty of the people.

As great as this sound to British republicans, I am not convinced Napoleon would have done this. He had tendency to put his family into positions of power rather than establish republics. Even if he really meant to create a republic in Britain, to do so after a victorious Waterloo was extremely unlikely, but I have already said as much elsewhere. If Napoleon had successfully invaded and conquered England, he would have likely put some family member or willing stooge up as king, but this king would only survive on his throne as long as Napoleon was alive. After Napoleon died I expect his empire would have collapsed around him. Now perhaps the rebellious British may welcome back the Hanoverians, but then again they could easily form a republic instead, much like the French did after Napoleon III was overthrown. Then again there are probably more plausible points of divergence for a British republic than any involving Napoleon.

Once again thanks to Bill Weber for recommending this article to me. Don't forget to check out his contributions to The Update.

#2: What if the United States does not invade Iraq in 2003?

Maybe this what if is a little too soon to speculate on, but God knows we hear people do it on the Internet all the time. A recent example is from Robert Farley who speculated on The National Interest about what would happen if the United States had not invaded Iraq in 2003. Among other things, Farley argued that without the Iraq War the Middle East may have been more stable with Hussein's Iraq acting as a buffer to the influence of Iran, the United States would have been free to focus fully on Afghanistan (maybe even destroying the Taliban in the process) and the US could have had access to more advanced military technology than it does today.

That all being said, Farley's article is more thought experiment than counterfactual as he doesn't have a specific point of divergence, instead relying on "saved game" analogy from the computer game Civilization. Thus Frank P. Harvey's argument in his book Explaining the Iraq War that presidents tend to follow the foreign policy of their predecessor regardless of what they said on the campaign trail, means that simply starting over won't cut it. The United States will invade Iraq if all the circumstances that led to it still happen, thus the choices Bush, Gore or whoever else is in the White House could make would be severely limited. In fact, Frank said in an interview I conducted with him that perhaps the only way to avoid the Iraq War was to somehow avoid 9/11 as well.

That is pretty much all I am going to say about that scenario, since the issues stemming from the Iraq War and the 9/11 terrorist attacks are still touchy subjects. So lets move on to our last, and most bizarre, what if...

#3: What if the UK settled 5.5 million Hong Kong Chinese in Northern Ireland?

Owen Bowcott of The Guardian reported that in 1983, at the midst of The Troubles, someone in the British government suggested settling the then 5.5 million inhabitants of Hong Kong in Northern Ireland before it reverted back to Chinese control in 1997. If this sounds like a joke...it was, or at least that was how it was treated through the official channels. It was simply an attempt at some levity by people trying to resolve an extremely difficult situation. Then again, what if someone did take the plan seriously?

To be honest, it is completely unlikely the plan as is would have been carried out. Moving a population of 5.5 million people to an area that today only supports 1.8 million people sounds like utter madness. My guess is the plan would be paired down simply to generous aide packages to any Commonwealth country that would take in any Hong Kong Chinese who wanted to leave. Would all 5.5 million choose to go? Probably not, but enough might go that China might not bother with the "one country, two systems" and today Hong Kong would be far less capitalist and democratic. That being said, Hong Kong is an important part of China's economy and if some or most of its population immigrates to the Commonwealth nations, China's present day economy in this alternate timeline could be weaker.

And what about the Chinese populations that settled in the Commonwealth? How would they effect their new homes and how would the original inhabitants take to their new neighbors? I have no idea, so I will leave that speculation to someone more knowledgeable than myself. If you have any ideas or comments for any of the above what ifs, please let us know in the comments.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Was the American Revolution a Mistake?

With Americans preparing to celebrate their independence tomorrow, the inevitable counterfactual about what would happen if the Thirteen Colonies never left the British Empire was bound to appear. The one that seemed to catch many alternate historians attention was Dylan Matthews' "3 reasons the American Revolution was a mistake" on Vox. In it Dylan argues the world would be a better place if the Americans were still taking orders from London, but is he right?

To Dylan's credit he does actually cite sources for his argument and he admitted that no one can be entirely certain what can happen when you start changing history. Nevertheless, I am not entirely convinced the world would be a better place without the USA (see Without Warning for a modern take on what I just said). To prove this I will like to address Dylan's three main reasons for why the world would be a better place without the American Revolution: "slavery would've been abolished earlier, American Indians would've faced rampant persecution but not the outright ethnic cleansing Andrew Jackson and other American leaders perpetrated, and America would have a parliamentary system of government that makes policymaking easier and lessens the risk of democratic collapse."

Lets start with slavery. There shouldn't be any doubt in one's mind that slavery was a bad thing. Regardless of what the most virulent Confederate apologist will say, slavery lasted longer than it should have in America. Thus a common argument against the Revolution in our timeline is that slavery in America would have ended earlier with the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833. Dylan argues that if the Americans never rebelled, slavery in America would have ended around the same time. Its not a bad argument and certainly many alternate historians have factored in an earlier end of slavery in a still British North America.

That being said, I though Dylan dismissed the power of the southern colonies in his alternate history to quickly by just assuming London would ignore them. For example, what if the American Revolution was avoided because the British actually did allow the colonies to send representatives to Parliament? In this situation, the southern colonies could argue against abolition and even delay the passing of the Slavery Abolition Act. When the act is eventually passed, it could lead to a violent rebellion, much like the election of Abraham Lincoln led to the South seceding and starting the American Civil War. Thus the American Revolution could still have happened and may have been successful in this world still if other European powers sided with the rebels. Even if a violent revolt didn't happen, the implied argument that the freed slaves would have less discrimination in a British North America is rather week when you consider that the former British dominion of South Africa didn't get rid of its racial segregation until 1994, while in America it can be argued the last of the overtly racist laws were repealed in 1968.

Again that is just one scenario out of many and Dylan's argument regarding Native Americans having better treatment under a British North America is his strongest point. While some may find its debatable whether Canada treated its native peoples better than the United States and certainly both countries have horrible histories when it comes to their relations with the tribes, I still felt Dylan did a good job at arguing Native Americans would have a better experience under a British North America. I myself argued as much in my article on common mistakes found in American Revolution alternate histories, suggesting that we could say a North America dotted by native states much like the princely states of India. Today the closest we come to such an entity is Nunavut, which again is another point in favor of Dylan's argument.

I still, however, have some nitpicks. It bares mention that regardless whether the rebels were defeated or the Revolutionary War was avoided altogether, the American's negative reaction to the Royal Proclamation of 1763 will need to be addressed. For Dylan's vision to work out the Royal Proclamation would likely need to be repealed or just ignored. Considering the number of treaties, like the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, that opened up westward settlement long before the American Revolution, its likely that a still British North America won't stop America's drive to the Pacific. This doesn't necessarily mean Dylan's argument is null, but it just means that when push comes to shove, the British government could easily side with the colonists and history plays out as it did once again.

We now move from Dylan's strongest point to his weakest: that America's system of government would be better if we stuck with Britain. Its true that there is a lot of supporting evidence that suggests a parliamentary system is the best form of democracy, but Dylan ignored many of the criticisms, such as the possibility of abusing the election calendar and not being able to directly elect a Prime Minister. On top of that, even today some British citizens aren't happy with their version of democracy. All that aside, what really makes this argument weak is that Dylan describes the United States government as a presidential democracy and even criticizes our system because: "The US is saddled with a Senate that gives Wyoming the same power as California, which has over 66 times as many people."

What Dylan forgets is that the United States is a federation, built by in part by states who did not want to become overwhelmed by their more populous brothers. The states of the United States are all equal members who retain power often ceded to the central government by provinces or other types national sub-divisions found in other countries. This system means that people won't be discriminated against by the federal government simply based on their geographical location. Thus richer and more populous states can't simply ignore the rest of the country when championing their proposals. Yes it can make for an ineffective form of government, but also avoids issues found in the British system. For example, Scottish and Welsh MPs can vote on matters effecting only England, but English MPs can't vote on matters only effecting Scotland and Wales. There is also something to be said by how long the United States Constitution has lasted compared to other governing documents of history, showcasing how flexible this short document has been with the changing times.

So while Dylan does make some good points, he nevertheless falls into trap that many do when they try to create a "better world". He strives so hard to turn history in the path he wants to take it that he ignores the more plausible directions it could have gone in favor of his overall message. His article is not bad when it comes to social commentary, but its value as alternate history is minimal.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Map Monday: Aztec/Chinese Britain by Anekcahdep

Just like the Weekly Updates, how I write Map Mondays will be changing as well. They still will read the same and I will be making the final decision on what are the best maps of last week, but now I am taking your opinion into account as well. I will post maps that catch my fancy on Facebook and Twitter, so don't forget to follow me there if you haven't already. I share a lot of other stuff on social media that I don't always feature on The Update so that is another reason to follow me as well.

Anywho, once I see what people have to say about the maps I share I will make my decision on what map deserves the Map Monday crown. So congrats to Anekcahdep for his map of Britain divided between the Chinese and Aztecs:

I wish I could come up with a better title for the map, but Anekcahdep wasn't forthcoming about what he called it. Even the file name was just the map contest it was created for. Regardless, in this timeline Mohammed was never born and thus the Middle Ages never ended for Europe. The rest of the world, however, progresses rather rapidly and eventually China and the Aztec Empire begin to divide up the world, including the bickering states of Britain and Ireland. The Aztecs get Ireland, Scotland and northern England, while the Chinese take Wales and the rest of England.

What I like about this map is that it features a fun scenario that you don't see very often in alternate history. Timelines where Europe is divided up between non-European empires gives us a lesson in what colonialism is like that can't always be taught in the history books. If you want to read other timelines that show Europe being gobbled up by alternate imperialistic powers, check out Easternized World on the AltHistory Wiki.

Honorable mention this week goes out to SoaringAven's Ukrainian Crisis. If you want to submit a map for the next Map Monday, email me at ahwupdate at gmail dot com with your map attached and a brief description in the body of the email.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Preview: The Darkest Hour by Tony Schumacher

Tony Schumacher is sending me a review copy of his new book The Darkest Hour. Check out the description from Amazon:

A crackling, highly imaginative thriller debut in the vein of W.E.B. Griffin and Philip Kerr, set in German-occupied London at the close of World War II, in which a hardened British detective jeopardizes his own life to save an innocent soul and achieve the impossible—redemption.

London, 1946. The Nazis have conquered the British, and now occupy Great Britain, using brutality and fear to control its citizens. John Henry Rossett, a decorated British war hero and former police sergeant, has been reassigned to the Office of Jewish Affairs. He now answers to the SS, one of the most powerful and terrifying organizations in the Third Reich.

Rossett is a man accustomed to obeying commands, but he’s now assigned a job he did not ask for—and cannot refuse: rounding up Jews for deportation, including men and women he’s known his whole life. But they are not the only victims, for the war took Rossett’s wife and son, and shattered his own humanity.

Then he finds Jacob, a young Jewish child, hiding in an abandoned building, who touches something in Rossett that he thought was long dead.

Determined to save the innocent boy, Rossett takes him on the run, with the Nazis in pursuit. But they are not the only hunters following his trail. The Royalist Resistance and the Communists want him, too. Each faction has its own agenda, and Rossett will soon learn that none of them can be trusted . . . and all of them are deadly.

So say tuned for the review to be posted either here or at Amazing Stories.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Timeline Thursday: Let's all go down the Strand - Images of 1984 reboot by Will Ritson

A really quick Timeline Thursday because I have been slacking on posting. A while back Sean Korsgaard reviewed "Images of 1984 - Stories from Oceania" by Will Ritson. It is an AlternateHistory.com timeline centered around a world where the events of Orwell's 1984 actually happened, but it uses the fan theory that states Oceania is only confined to Britain and the rest of the world is fine.

It was a great dystopia that turned Britain into North Korea. Characters from the novel interacted with famous historical people of the time including Oswald Mosley, Eric Blair and billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch as Britain evolves into Oceania and eventually is liberated in the 21st century by a coalition of foreign powers.

Well the doubleplusgood news is that Ritson has begun work on reboot to "Images of 1984" which he is calling this time: "Let's all go down the Strand - Images of 1984 reboot". Much like the original, this timeline hinges on Mosley reuniting with the Labour party in 1931, thus avoiding tainting himself with fascism. The timeline was only rebooted a few weeks ago, but already it has wet my appetite for more "Images of 1984" updates.

The story is not told in a straight narrative. Through brief snippets that jump around three centuries, Ritson drops hints about how Oceania came to be, what was happening in the background during 1984 and what post-Oceania Britain is like. Not all of them seem to make sense at first read, but they give glimpses about what future plot lines that may emerge in later updates.

That is where the bad news comes in. Ritson so far has only posted sporadically with several days between each one. The current break is about a week old as I write this and there is no guarantee when the next one will come out. Still the reboot is a quick read that I think will get you excited for me. You can always read the original to satisfy your craving.

Long live Big Brother!

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. Check out his short fiction. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Does the Sun Set on the British Empire?

Guest post by William Weber.

My previous guest post, Rethinking the War of 1812, highlighted the use of structured scenarios and less plausible outcomes in exploring counterfactual histories of our “strangest war.”  In reading Charles Emmerson’s 1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War, a tour d’horzion of many of the world’s metropolises 100 years ago, I was surprised to find a similar discussion of the future of the British Empire (p. 435-6).

Emmerson first notes that Richard Jebb’s The Britannic Question, published in 1913, presented two structured pairs of possible outcomes.  The first outcome, the fading ‘Colonial Dependence’ and a future ‘Britannic Alliance’—his preferred option—of self-governing ‘Britannic’ states, focused on the question of sovereignty.  Jebb’s second pair consisted of two versions of ‘Imperial Federation,’ one without and one with racial equality.  In the latter, India enjoys a stature equal to that of Australia and Canada. Jebb wrote that which path would occur—perhaps a combination, perhaps none—remained to be seen.  Collectively, these scenarios paint optimistic futures where the “Sun Never Sets” on the British Empire.

Emmerson then writes that other authors at the beginning of the 20th century presented more dire, but ad hoc scenarios.  He cites a 1905 pamphlet, entitled The Decline and the Fall of the British Empire, purporting to be published in Tokyo a hundred years in the future, in 2005.  In this future world, Russia rules India, and Germany governs South Africa.  Egypt has gained its independence, Canada has joined the United States, and Australia is a Japanese protectorate. In this pamphlet, supposedly published for the edification of Japanese imperial strategists, the Britain of the future is an empire in decline, and perhaps finally extinguished.  “As Babylon and Assyria have left us their monuments, Egypt her pyramids, Carthage her Queen, and Rome her laws, so too England has bequeathed to posterity Shakespeare and her world-wide language. The history of the British Empire has become a lesson for mankind, the story of her fall a reminder to living Empires of those ‘subtle influences’ which are ever present, that quicken the germs of national decay, and transfer the sovereignty of the earth.”

These “subtle influences” included: the rise of the city over the countryside, the loss of Britons’ maritime skills, the growth of refinement and luxury, the absence of literary taste, the decline of the physical form of Britons, the decay of the country’s religious life, excessive taxation, false systems of education and, finally, the inability of the British to defend the empire.  All of these problems existed in 1905, and it only took a small effort of imagination to extrapolate forward a century to conclude that Britain’s empire was not guaranteed to last forever.  Such pessimistic projections judged that the seeds of its fall had been planted and, to mix metaphors, perhaps the rot was beginning to set in. Hence, these scenarios present the opposite outcome where the “Sun Inevitably Sets” on the British Empire.

A century later, Jebb and his contemporaries have left a rich treasure trove of counterfactual histories to explore and develop.  Their alternative futures at the beginning of the last century could be used as counterfactual histories of the last 100 years. Those interested in imaging and extrapolating from these works might want to consult two newer, but equally sweeping volumes: John Darwin’s After Tamerlane: The Rise and Fall of Global Empires 1400-2000, and Jane Burbank and Frederick Cooper’s Empires in World History: Power and the Politics of Difference.  Both explain how empires worked and why they persisted in a variety of geographic and cultural contexts.  Rich stuff for fashioning counterfactual tales.  

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Bill Weber is the author of Neither Victor nor Vanquished: America in the War of 1812 (Potomac Books, 2013).

The UK Without Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, the "Iron Lady", was laid to rest today. For those who don't know, she was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and the Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British Prime Minister of the 20th century and is the only woman to have held the office. She passed away last week.

Elected in 1979, Thatcher introduced a series of political and economic initiatives intended to reverse high unemployment and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an ongoing recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasized deregulation, flexible labor markets, the privatization of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Thatcher's popularity during her first years in office waned amid recession and high unemployment, until the 1982 Falklands War brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her re-election in 1983 and again in 1987. Her support for a Community Charge was widely unpopular and her views on the European Community were not shared by others in her Cabinet. She resigned as Prime Minister and party leader in November 1990.

Reaction to her death has been mixed. Some remember her fondly, including The Update's Sean Korsgaard who called her a "true titan of the west". Meanwhile, others cheered her passing and announced the "wicked witch" was dead. I don't pretend to be an expert of British politics and I have no interest in sharing my personal feelings, because that is not the point of this article. The point of this article is to ask a simple question: what would the world be like without her?

Turns out several people have attempted to answer said question. Some argued against the great man (or woman in this case) theory of history and stated that even without Thatcher in 10 Downing Street, history would not have changed much. Paul Krugman believes she should not be given too much credit for Britain's economic boom in the 90s and in his article for BBC News, historian Dominic Sandbrook said:

Even if she had never been prime minister, many of the changes she came to represent, from privatisation and deregulation to the death of heavy industry and the rise in unemployment, would almost certainly have happened anyway, only more slowly.

Others disagree, giving Thatcher credit for helping turning around Britain sagging economy. James Pethokoukis of Ricochet argued that if the Labour Party had won the 1979 election it would have prevented the economic boom the British economy experienced in the 1990s. Pethokoukis, however, did throw out the possibility of Labour transforming when forced to deal with a poor economy in the 80s, but others were not willing to concede to the march of history. Philip Hensher at The Guardian and Dominic Sandbrook at the Daily Mail both painted stark counterfactual visions of a Thatcher-less Britain more reminiscent of Eastern European socialist dictatorship (minus the Falklands).

Even before her death, Thatcher has figured into many alternate histories. Amateur alternate historians referenced her in such works as the 1983: Doomsday shared universe and Images of 1984 - Stories from Oceania. It is published alternate history, however, where we get a good look at timelines where Thatcher never became prime minister. "Knight of Shallows" by Rand Lee predicted the Falklands crisis going nuclear without Thatcher and Simon Heffer argued in his essay "The Brighton Bomb Kills Margaret Thatcher" that the loss of Thatcher could have prevented the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Whether you believe history would be the same, better or worse without the Iron Lady likely depends on your political leanings. My brief research into the reactions over her death have convinced me that conservatives are more likely to promote a darker version of history without her, while liberals argue history would either stay the same or change for the better. The United States has similar issues with Ronald Reagan, but I think the likely outcome can be found somewhere in the middle. As we are borne on the great river of history we sometimes ask individuals to take the helm and lead us to our destination. Although the destination might be inevitable, how we get there often depends on those few individuals we ask to carry the burden of command. Their decisions, ideals and dreams help mold, for better or worse, the drama of human existence.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a blogger on Amazing Stories and a volunteer editor for Alt Hist magazine. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and The Were-Traveler. When not writing he works as an attorney, enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana and prepares for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Review: Dominion by C.J. Sansom

Guest post by Alison Morton.

A tough and powerful word, but an appropriate title for C J Sansom's new book. Famous for his Shardlake Tudor series, here Sansom brings us to 1952 in an alternate, authoritarian Britain which made peace with Hitler in 1940. Not formally occupied, Britain is nevertheless dominated by the Nazi regime. Its home-grown "milice" - a vastly expanded and violent Special Branch working hand-in-hand with the Gestapo dispensing brutality from the basement of the German Embassy at Senate House - patrols the dismal and dirty streets.

Germany is still fighting a bitter, savage war against Russia, the British press, radio and television are filled with propaganda and British Jews face ever greater constraints.

The hero, David Fitzgerald, is a civil servant hiding his Jewishness and trying to preserve his marriage which is collapsing under the pressure of his secret life as a spy for the Resistance. The antagonist, Gunther Hoth, a Gestapo policeman hunting Fitzgerald and his Resistance colleagues, is neither stupid nor inexperienced and almost becomes a sympathetic character. This is no "Dick Barton" adventure with clear-cut lines.

Dense with detail that makes its portrayal of everyday life so vivid, the action starts slowly, but by the end, the tension is almost unbearable. Real events like Great Smog of 1952 are woven in to ramp up the threatening atmosphere and clever details about the alternate 1950s are grafted onto real ones, such as British Corner Houses replacing Lyons Corner Houses (Joe Lyons was, of course, Jewish).

The characters are beautifully, often painfully, drawn and fleshed out with past histories full of awkward relations, tiresome colleagues, happy and painful childhoods. Complex, sometimes very frightened, the characters are always human. Their dialogue mirrors this as well as driving the story forward.

Although interacting with the characters' story, the overarching political plot does not reply upon their actions. The seeming important secret is of negative importance. In one way, this is unsatisfactory, in another it emphasises how the actions of ordinary people do not impact or contribute to the bigger one. In this book, that would have been too pat.

Part adventure, part espionage, all encompassed by terrific atmosphere, this is an exciting, but moving account of people who become heroic but remain very human.

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Alison Morton writes Roman-themed thrillers with an alternative history setting and hopes to publish the first of a trilogy early next year. She muses on writing, Romans and alternate/alternative history at her blog.