Top 5 Posts from August 2016

Most viewed map from August 2016.

Well summer is winding down so lets take a look again at what you all thought were the best articles in the waning days of the season:

1) World War II Was a Team Effort, Deal With It by Dale Cozort.

2) Technology in Alternate History by Rvbomally.

3) Map Monday: Colonization of Europe, 1855 by Falkanner by Matt Mitrovich.

4) New Releases 8/16/16 by Matt Mitrovich.

5) Map Monday: And Mighty Be Her Powers by SRegan by Matt Mitrovich.

* * *

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, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: Colonization of Europe, 1855 by Falkanner

Alternate colonialism/imperialism scenarios are always a guilty pleasure of mine...and most alternate historians given how many of them I see every week. Still this one in particular was good enough that I had to showcase it on Map Monday:

This is the "Colonization of Europe, 1855" by Falkanner. The timeline is admittedly a little implausible. The point of divergence appears to be that increased contact with Europeans leads to the African states actually modernizing instead of being torn apart by the slave trade. Meanwhile Europe is torn apart by religious wars and an increasingly militaristic Roman Catholic Church. In the chaos the Ottoman Empire, Morocco, Mali and the Kongo all gobble up parts of Europe.

Although I do find the idea of Africa countries modernizing so quickly and conquering parts of Europe to be the work of ASBs, I nevertheless still like the spirit of the idea. It is an ironic alternate history that can easily allow for some fun historical parallels. The map itself is also well done, with the soft colors that I like and the scenario leaves me interested in learning more about what happens next.

Honorable mentions this week go out to "American Britain, 1976" by shiftygiant and "Rebels and Draka" by RoyalPsycho.

* * *

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, Tumblr and YouTube. Learn how you can support his alternate history projects on Patreon.

Map Monday: The Baaid Maghreb by thomas.berubeg

Alternate American colonization timelines are one of my favorite kinds of timelines. I enjoy it when people speculate about different cultures settling different areas of the Americas then what happened in OTL. So I naturally gravitated to this map by thomas.berubeg when he posted it for one of AlternateHistory.com's many map contests:

This is actually just one of many maps Thomas included in his short scenario: "The Age of Exchange (The Far Maghreb)". In this alternate timeline, the Viking colony of Vinland is more successful, leading to an earlier die off due among the Native Americans. Although contact is eventually lost with the colonists after the Little Ice Age, knowledge of the New World is more widespread leading to the Sultan of Morocco to send an expedition to rediscover the continents in 1421, sparking a Muslim colonization of Middle America and the conversion to Islam by many of the more advanced Native American states who had recovered from Old World diseases.

This world has Muslim Mesoamericans, English knights in the South and a lost colony of Vikings, what more could you ask for? On top of that the map itself is well done and I liked the use of the Arabic script. If you haven't already, go check out Thomas' scenario.

Honorable mention this week goes out to Rick Noack's upside down map quiz on The Washington Post. 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.

* * *

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.

What would Eurasia look like if it had been colonized and chopped up like North and South America?

Guest post by Daniel Bensen.

I can't say why. Maybe it was the Gondwanans or those pesky Martians, or some other invader entirely, but what we get is the polar opposite of the native-run North America you know and love.

Yellow is religion, Blue is language, red perceived ethnicity, Purple culture, Green trade. Looking at them all superimposed, it's easy to see the sad history of Eurasian colonization.

They came from the sea, expanding inland from coastal fortifications down rivers and sweeping across plains. Their early colonies in Southeast Asia were slow to expand, giving the natives some time to mount a resistance and force concessions. As their technology developed, however, the invaders moved faster, spreading across plains and forests, forming unstoppable cultural/economic superpowers. United as the earlier colonies were not, these states grew much larger, transforming vast tracts of land into a form that could support their burgeoning population.  The natives were killed by war, disease, starvation, and eventually simply outbred. Soon, aside from some mixed populations in Southeast Asia and some relics hiding in the desert, tundra, and mountains, all that remained of the original Eurasians were place-names, some words for animals and plants, and a few quaint local customs.

This project comes from Dan's to-be-published novel, The World's Other Side. Find out about his other projects on his website. Also find him on Twitter and Deviant art.

* * *

Daniel M. Bensen is an English teacher and writer in Sofia, Bulgaria. He is currently preparing for publication his time-travel adventure/romance Groom of the Tyrannosaur Queen.

Preview: Victoria II: Heart of Darkness

Got some goodies for you on the upcoming expansion pack to Victoria II. The second expansion to the Victorian era grand strategy game, Victoria II: Heart of Darkness, will be released on April 16th on all major digital download portals for $19.99. Features that come with the expansion include:

• A new colonization system with a focus on the mad scramble for Africa.
• A new naval combat system with a new system of gun ranges, maneuvering into positions for battles and powerful battleships join the other classes of ships to bridge the gap to Dreadnoughts.
• International Crises with calls on the Great Powers to mediate and compromise, with war always being the last resort.
• A newspaper system keeping you abreast on changing situations with 60 newspapers, both historic and otherwise.

If you are still on the fence about buying it, check out the first of many video developer diaries. This one is brought to you by project lead Dan Lind who introduces the upcoming expansion’s newspaper system, as well as the new feature International Crises:

You can also check out highlights from the live stream below:

Paradox describes the new International Crises system as being "where the colliding desires of rival empires get settled by Great Power mediation and where smaller powers can manipulate their friends to support their own local ambitions." Interesting, but what is gameplay like? O good, there is a trailer for that as well:

As a bonus to those who pre-order Heart of Darkness, select retailers will be offering Victoria I Complete—a gold edition of the original title that started it all—for free. Other retailers will offer 75% off Victoria titles, including Victoria II and Victoria II: A House Divided, with any pre-order of Heart of Darkness. Visit the Victoria II website to see a complete list of retailers.

* * *

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.