Top 5 Posts from February 2016

February was a short month, but there was still enough time for some great articles. Here are the top 5 most viewed articles from last month:

1) Map Monday: The European Continent in 1960 AD by DPKdebator by Matt Mitrovich.

2) Map Monday: 2016 Turtledove Award Nominees by Matt Mitrovich.

3) The Audio File: Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Apex Magazine and Far-Fetched Fables by Sam McDonald.

4) Book Review: Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld by Matt Mitrovich.

5) Map Monday: The Truest Republicans by Rvbomally and Mumby by Matt Mitrovich.

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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: The Truest Republicans by Rvbomally and Mumby

Rvbomally and Mumby both make a return to Map Monday with their "The Truest Republicans" map:

Designed by Rvbomally, but based off a scenario created by Mumby (who also helped with the map), it features a world where the United States followed a different economic philosophy. In this timeline, Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Party dominate early American politics, turning the United States into an industrialized mercantile empire. American soon becomes a rich, but corrupt, colonial powerhouse that violently crushes any dissent, until they lose a global war and suffer a nasty revolution. The United Republic of American Peoples is now trying to create a pure agrarian society that reminds me of Pol Pot's Cambodia. Nasty stuff really.

What I like best of this map is the theory that early America represents Thomas Jefferson's vision of society, while modern America represents Alexander Hamilton's vision. This is a timely map, especially since the musical Hamilton is currently blowing up on Broadway. Plus I like political economic histories, which can be more interesting at times then timelines created by alternate outcomes to battles.

Finally the map looks nice, with soft colors and unique borders. Good job to both alternate historians.

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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.

Top 5 Posts from May 2015

In terms of page views, May wasn't one of our best months, but we still had a lot of great articles. Lets take a look at the Top 5:

1) The Audio File: The Drabblecast by Sam McDonald.

2) Historians talk about Rome all the time, but what if Ancient Egypt never fell? by Rebecca Stirling.

3) Map Monday: League of the Defiant by Zalezsky by Matt Mitrovich.

4) Weekly Update #190 by Matt Mitrovich.

5) Map Monday: Dutch's America by Bruce Munro and Mumby by Matt Mitrovich.

Glad to see some of guest contributors take the top spots.

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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: Dutch's America by Bruce Munro

Last week introduced me to one of the most bizarre, yet still ingenious, scenarios ever crafted by an alternate historian. The year is 1950 and this is the world that Dutch made:

This scenario, originally written by Bob Mumby and turned into a map by Bruce Munro, is actually based off the video game Red Dead Redemption and presents an alternate history of that game's story that seems to center on the game's protagonist, John Marston, making some very different decisions. In this timeline the main bad guy from the game, Dutch van der Linde, led a "anarchist/anti-urban western revolt" that broke the United States and saw much of the west and south become part of the "American Popular Union". This Smith-esque North American Confederacy, however, soon turns into a military dictatorship that uses its ideology to enrich its leaders and punish those who oppose it. Meanwhile the rest of the world becomes divided into various blocs each defined by a different ideology.

Its maps and scenarios like these that really highlight the creativity found among alternate historians. If I had one major complaint, however, its the excessive annotations on the map. I realize that is part of Bruce's style, but even I though it was rather much. Nevertheless, still a really good map that shows no fictional world can't be diverged into something even more fantastical then it already was.

Also if this post looks different to you from when it was first posted, its because it is. I learned on Tuesday that it was actually Bob who came up with the original scenario and I would like to take this time to apologize for not noticing and remarking on his contribution earlier.

Don't forget to check out the map of male circumcisions and the GDP of the Roman Empire from Brilliant Maps. Plus you can check out the most popular cartoon character from each country. 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.

Map Monday: Mumby's Broken America by Bruce Munro

So I may need to find a different map maker to idolize. I certainly post way too much about Bruce Munro, but what can I say? He makes a lot of interesting maps. This one, although created by Bruce, the underlying scenario was written by another AlternateHistory.com member. It is titled "Mumby's Boken America":

The scenario was originally written by Mumby, which was in turn inspired by another member's challenge to write a rationalized version of a game of Risk. This balkanized North America features a world where the Thirteen Colonies went their own way after their war of independence and eventually stabilized into four different states, each with its own unique government. Flash forward to 1920, a major war has just ended and the Carolina jugernaut has been broken. Western and southern North America is a mess and their are plenty of flash points waiting to spark another major war.

I especially like this map for the African colonies. Without a large federal government, the states probably would have pursued such an avenue of expansion, especially the ones cut off from the West. I applied the same logic when I contributed to "Out of One, Many" on the AltHistory Wiki.

Honorable mentions go to Newcastle's Independence Eve marketing campaign and this bogus map of ISIS's territory goals. If you want to submit a map for consideration 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.