The Alphabet of Alternate History: C

Guest post by Dale Cozort.

Dale Cozort returns with another edition of The Alphabet of Alternate History. If you haven't read it already, check out the letter B.

Cambodia/Vietnam War causes a China/Soviet Clash: On December 25, 1978, Vietnam launched a blitzkrieg war against the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. The offensive took most of Cambodia by January 7, 1979, leaving only a few pockets of resistance and some guerilla fighting. The rapid collapse of the Cambodian regime apparently took China, which was allied with Cambodia, by surprise. The Chinese reacted too late to keep their ally from getting pushed out of most of Cambodia, but on February 17, 1979 they invaded northern Vietnam to take the pressure off the surviving Khmer Rouge forces and allow those forces to regroup. They succeeded to some extent in that goal and Khmer Rouge guerilla resistance remained an annoyance for the Vietnamese for many years.

At the time military commentators did a lot of speculating on what the Soviet reaction to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam would be. Would the Soviets respond to the Chinese invasion of Vietnam by invading China? It was a plausible, if unlikely, route to a war between great, nuclear-armed powers and the world watched carefully.

Complicating the situation, top Chinese leaders had just finished a highly public and very friendly tour of the US, raising the suspicion among the very paranoid Soviets that the Chinese might have sought and gotten US support before they invaded Vietnam. So as a worst case scenario, the Chinese invade Vietnam, the Soviets invade China, the US intervenes on the Chinese side and we end up with World War III.

That wasn't very likely given the high cost of war between nuclear-armed powers, but let's see if the situation can be ramped up a little closer to that outcome than what historically happened. Note that this is obviously not a desirable outcome, just a possible one.

What could have kept the Khmer Rouge regime from folding as quickly as it did? For one thing, it made a mistake when it pitted it's roughly 73,000 man army in a conventional defense against a Vietnamese invasion force of 150,000 men with a lot more firepower. The Khmer Rouge lost over half their army in the very early going. Cambodia didn't have a lot of space to trade for time and they were probably afraid the Vietnamese would establish a 'liberated zone in any part of the country they were able to grab. At the same time, the Khmer Rouge needed to not sit in front of the sledgehammer and get smashed by it. The Chinese were rushing arms to upgrade the Khmer Rouge army and had up to ten thousand advisers working with it.

If more of the Khmer Rouge army had survived the initial assault and been able to mount a more protracted resistance, the Chinese would have had more time to bring the Khmer Rouge up to a higher level and launch the invasion of Vietnam to preserve the Khmer Rouge as a conventional force rather than a guerilla one.

The stronger the Khmer Rouge/Chinese were, the more chance that the Soviets would have to get involved. On the other hand, Soviet involvement wouldn't have to be direct. The Soviets had more sophisticated weapons than the Chinese at that time and would probably have just supplied the Vietnamese with a larger quantity and quality of weapons rather than getting involved directly.

If Vietnam got in too much trouble and weapons shipments couldn't get them out of it, the Soviets might have decided that a limited set of border skirmishes would emphasize the danger of pushing further to the Chinese leadership, in which case things get very dangerous, but the Chinese army wasn't modern enough and didn't have good enough logistics along the Chinese/Vietnamese border to pose too much of a danger to the Vietnamese, given Soviet arms continuing to flow to the Vietnamese. Plus, the Chinese weren't out to conquer Vietnam, just distract the Vietnamese from Cambodia and they were careful to signal the limited nature of what they were doing.

Bottom line: This thing turning into even a limited Soviet/China war was unlikely. It would have also required that the Khmer Rouge remain more powerful longer and that was one regime that needed to go into history's ash heap as quickly as possible. At the same time, people at the time were concerned about a wider war, and that kind of confrontation was a significant, though unlikely possibility.

A China ruled by neither Nationalists or Communists:

What actually happened: After the Manchus were overthrown in 1911, China fragmented, with warlords taking over various provinces and ruling them, or in many cases misruling them as essentially independent countries. The Chinese warlord era and its many wars is potentially fascinating, but is extremely complex and made more difficult by the many unfamiliar names of the factions and personalities, many of them sounding a lot alike to Western ears.

I'll try to simplify this as much as possible without giving you the wrong impression. You should be aware that there were other significant players in the huge, many-sided battle to decide who reunified China.

With that in mind, in the early 1920s through late 1924, you can visualize the competition for China as primarily a three-sided affair. The Fengtian clique controlled Manchuria, headed by the guy westerners called the Old Marshal. At this point, the Old Marshal was supported by the Japanese, though that support was loose and provisional. He also had White Russian military advisers and mercenaries, exiles from the Russian Civil War.

The rival Zhili clique ruled much of the rest of Northern China, including Beijing. It controlled much of the surviving Chinese bureaucracy, was recognized as the official government of China by the British and the US and had an impressive military reputation. It was the strongest surviving faction of the now-splintered Beijing army, a comparatively well-trained and well-organized army that had been built up by the Manchu dynasty after the disastrous war with Japan, and which then turned on the Manchus and played the role of kingmaker for a few years before splintering into warlord factions.

Further south, Sun Yat Sen's nationalists, then a coalition of Nationalists and Communists, were gaining strength with the help of Russian weapons and advisers, but had little influence in Northern China.

The Manchuria-based Fengtians and the Beijing-based Zhili fought two major wars. The first was in 1922 and the Zhili won rather easily. They chased the Fengtians back to Manchuria but weren't strong enough to challenge them in their stronghold.

The Zhili spent the next couple years consolidating their power in Northern China. They seemed unbeatable and likely to be the group that finally reunited China.

The Fengtians had other ideas though. They spent the next two years preparing for round two and they prepared well. Their leadership included an economic genius who brought the economy under control and sent it booming, with a stable currency and a great deal of growth. The Fengtians poured money from that growing economy into their military, expanding their army from 100,000 men to as many as 300,000, equipping them with tanks (French FT-17s) and buying over a hundred, maybe as many as three hundred aircraft--fighters and bombers. They also built up local military production, producing mortars and well as other artillery, ammunition and an impressive number of rifles. They didn't neglect logistics, building roads and railroads to give their military more mobility.

Finally, in late 1924, the Fengtians tried another go at the Zhili. In spite of the Fengtian build-up, the struggle seemed to be developing into a stalemate. Then the Fengtians played their hole card. The Zhili commander nearest Beijing suddenly switched sides and captured the capital, along with much of the Zhili leadership. There is some evidence that the Japanese provided an enormous bribe to motivate him to switch sides. The Zhili pulled some of their best troops off the front line to retake the capital. The Fengtians took advantage of the confusion and demoralization to take the offensive. Other warlord groups that had previously stayed neutral jumped in on the Fengtian side.

The remaining Zhili fought hard, but forty thousand of their troops were trapped and forced to surrender. With a few months, Zhili power near Beijing was broken.

At that point, the Fengtians seemed to have won. Manchurian forces were going to conquer and reunify China again, though with Chinese leadership this time.

Fortunately or unfortunately, that didn't happen. The warlords that the Zhili had suppressed made a comeback. The remaining Zhili reformed under new leadership, diminished, but still powerful. The general who had betrayed the Zhili formed his own faction and soon was fighting against the Fengtians. A Fengtian commander revolted against the clique and joined an anti-Fengtian coalition. The war kept dragging on, with the Fengtians increasingly overstretched and the Manchurian economy struggling to pay for that oversized army.

Finally the Fengtian economic genius resigned, recognizing that there was no way to keep the economy going with the huge drain from the war. His replacement quickly tanked what was left of the economy trying to make the Manchurian economy pay for far more war than it could afford.

The series of wars was very destructive and the many betrayals gradually delegitimized all the factions. Chinese public opinion, which had to some extent looked to these factions as possible leaders of a united China, was appalled at the costly, pointless struggles. They started looking at the Nationalists and Communists as possible unifying forces. Beijing became a much less important prize as the bureaucracy dispersed and the factions fighting for it neared bankruptcy. In 1926 and again, more successfully, in 1928, the Nationalists moved north. They destroyed the remaining Zhili and pushed the Fengtians back to Manchuria, badly defeating a Fengtian army.

In June 1928, the Japanese assassinated the Old Marshall, head of the Fengtians, when he fled from Northern China and headed back to Manchuria. That was the start of the successful Japanese effort to take over Manchuria and turn it into a puppet state.

Unfortunately, the Nationalists were only able to take Northern China with the help of warlords that allied themselves with the Nationalists, but had agendas of their own. Those warlords were nominally Nationalist, at least when they weren't revolting against the central government, and wore Nationalist uniforms, but central government rule remained more fiction than reality in Northern China through 1937, when the Japanese invasion made the point moot.

What Might Have Happened: The Zhili and the Fengtians were both a cut above the run of the mill Chinese warlords. The Fengtians could probably have survived indefinitely as rulers of a de facto independent Manchuria. They just weren't capable of conquering or at least of holding and ruling, the bulk of China. The Japanese were far more of a threat to their power base than the Zhili were. A slightly more paranoid (toward the Japanese) leadership, or a revolt at a strategic time could have kept the Fengtians at home, at least in 1924. Could the Old Marshall's ambitions been channeled into building a strong, unified, independent Manchuria? Could he have become suspicious enough of Japanese intentions in Manchuria that he stayed out of the rest of China's politics?

Would a strong, unified Manchuria have been enough to keep Manchuria out of Japanese hands? Maybe. The Japanese coup that took Manchuria was the work of a renegade faction of the Japanese military, which became strong in the Japanese military when the coup succeeded easily and brought Manchuria's wealth into Japanese hands cheaply. The easy victory encouraged Japanese militarism and led to the Japanese taking bigger and bigger bites out of China until the loss of territory forced Chinese factions together and pushed Japan into a war they couldn't win and couldn't get out of without disastrous loss of face.

But what about China? If the Fengtians had stayed in Manchuria, could the Zhili clique have eventually unified China? Probably not. They were too prone to splintering themselves, as the war with the Fengtians in 1924 illustrated. The urge to split off and compete for power militarily seemed to be in the air in China in the 1920s and 1930s, with a bewildering array of factions competing, some of them little more than bandits and some of them reasonably competent groups who governed their areas well and worked to bring them economic growth.

The Zhili did, at least initially, stand for attempting to reunify China through negotiations rather than force, so it is possible that they might have been able to come up with some kind of unification of at least the core of China.

With the Fengtians out of the way, the Nationalists would have been the main competition, at least early on. At first, the Nationalists were a coalition of Nationalists and Communists, supported by the Soviet Union, which trained and equipped the Nationalist army early on. That coalition splintered, with the Communists purged and the survivors forced to take refuge in remote areas. The non-Communist Nationalists splintered for a while after the purge, with rival Nationalist governments in Nanjing and Wuhan for a while in the mid-to-late 1920s.

With the bewildering number of factions and the tendency toward factionalism, encouraged by the Japanese who wanted to keep China weak, Chinese politics of the warlord era is very hard to predict. Would the Nationalists still have splintered, then come back together with a powerful and intact Zhili faction still in control of the Chinese bureaucracy at Beijing? Would the Nationalists been able to launch a successful Northern Expedition without the costly and chaotic wars that wracked northern and central China in the years before that expedition? Who, if anyone, would have unified China?

Charles I Wins the English Civil War? I'm dipping into waters I'm not horribly comfortable with here. If I step in it too badly, I hope British AH fans step in to correct me. Based on my reading, it looks as though the Royalists had a shot at winning the English Civil War fairly conclusively in late 1642 to early 1643. After that, power shifted more and more to the Parliament's forces and a Royalist victory became less and less likely. At one point in early 1643, the Parliament's sole remaining army in the field, demoralized by previous defeats, was nearly surrounded and cut in half by the Royalists, but managed to survive and force a stalemate. What if Parliament had lost badly there, losing the bulk of their army and demoralizing Parliament's forces further. Charles mops up remaining opposition over the next few months, and the English Civil War is, at least temporarily, over.

What happens next? Is Charles able to consolidate support, or do his actions spark another rebellion? What does he do to rebellious members of Parliament? Does he reconstitute Parliament with those members who remained loyal to him or neutral? Does he try to diminish the role of Parliament? Abolish it altogether? Replace it with a less powerful body?

If Charles remains in power, what impact does that have on the colonies? New England's Puritans built their colonies partly in reaction to what they saw as royal misrule. They would undoubtedly resist royal rule, at least passively. They would also probably gain a large number of refugees, some of them even fugitives from royal retribution.

Much of the English fleet supported the Parliament. Would it continue to do so as Charles reasserted his authority? Would part of the fleet flee to the New World to continue the fight?

What impact would all this have on the Thirty Years War, then raging in Europe? England had continental interests and dynastic ties. Would it get sucked into fighting on the continent more than it was historically?

Canada Bigger (or Smaller): The War of 1812 is a war most Americans would prefer to forget, with the possible exception of the Battle of New Orleans, which happened after peace negotiations were pretty much wrapped up. Britain fought the war on the cheap, with most of its resources focused on the Napoleonic Wars in Europe until the fall of Napoleon. In spite of that lack of resources, Britain held chunks of American territory through much of the early part of the war, especially around Detroit, and when the British regulars were released from the Napoleonic wars, they did rather well against the US.

The war ended up as a stalemate, with no significant territory changing hands. What if significant amounts of territory had changed hands at the end of the war? If the British had held onto control of Lake Erie, they would have probably held onto Detroit and the vicinity. They were attempting to build a British-dominated Indian state in that area, with the help of Tecumseh and his Indian allies. So, the Brits still control Detroit when Napoleon falls and releases British resources for North America. The Brits want to wind the war down, but on as good a terms as they can get. The US military is doing better after a dismal first couple years, but with British power flowing to North America, they might be forced to give up on some then thinly populated border areas to come up with a peace agreement.

On the other hand, if the Napoleonic wars had been prolonged, Britain might have lost some Canadian territory to the resurgent US forces. After his losses in Russia, Napoleon was probably doomed in the long run, but he raised new armies and won some victories even after that. Change a few details (one key prematurely blown bridge) at the Battle of Leipzig and Napoleon might have been able to fight on for several more months. His defeats in late 1813 tended to build on each other, as German allies defected and elements inside France began preparing to switch side.

De-Icing Project-Sea Level Panama Canal: Okay. Let's toss in a wild one. So your standard issue reasonably benevolent Alien Space Bats stop by Earth orbit around 1490, look around the planet and say, “You know, this is a planet that may really take off soon—have an industrial revolution, get into space and all that good stuff. One problem though: Their planet is trapped in a cycle of recurring ice ages and spends most of its time with much of the continent most likely to do an industrial revolution under ice sheets.”

They analyze the potential danger. Earth is in a climate pattern that has two relatively stable conditions: ice age advances and interglacial periods like the one we're currently in. Variations in the Earth’s orbit and tilt determine which of those climates it falls in, but there is a caveat: Through most of the Earth’s cycle, the climate will remain in whichever state it is already in. Why? Ice ages feed on themselves by reflecting more sunlight back into space. Interglacial tend to maintain themselves because more of the sun’s energy sticks around to heat up the place.

So there are a few points in Earth’s cycle where we’re going to go into an ice age whatever the pre-existing climate and a few points where we’re going to warm up into an inter-glacial pretty much no matter how much ice there was to begin. Then there are the ambiguous times, the ones where climate will stay in whichever state it’s in until something knocks it out. Sometimes it takes a lot to knock climate out of the stable zone. Sometimes it doesn’t take much.

The benevolent ASBs calculate that we’re in ambiguous times—that a big enough volcano (a Yellowstone Super-eruption or one as big as the one that happened around 70,000 years ago could push us over into an ice age. So could a big enough meteor—not a planet-buster or a dinosaur-killer, just a fair-sized meteor that tossed enough crap into the stratosphere that we didn’t get summers for a few years, long enough for ice to build up and increase the Earth’s albedo. Ice age climate would, according to their calculations, abort the budding industrialization.

So what is the ASB solution? Sea level passages between North and South America and Eurasia and Africa to allow ocean currents to flow near the equator rather than near the poles as they currently do. That warms up the oceans and makes ice ages very difficult.

Okay, being the skeptical types that you are, you’re undoubtedly thinking that I’m mostly looking for a contrived way to get a sea-level Panama passage at the time of European exploration. That’s totally—true. That’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m also hand-waving away the probability that truly benevolent ASBs would probably look at proposed sea level passages and realize that they would totally change Earth’s climate, probably posing more threat to the budding industrialization than ice ages. Hand wave: maybe the ASBs are from a warmer planet and find the possibility of ice ages abhorrent and warmth the natural order of things.

In any case, the ASBs press a button with the tips of their wing-fingers and vaporize enough land to create sea level straits in Panama or Nicaragua and maybe where the Suez canal is in Egypt. These passages are deep enough and wide enough to accommodate quite a bit of ocean current and incidentally, a lot of ships.

Presto. We now have our Europe going out into the world and finding a different geography, one where you really can get to Asia by ship heading west, though the trip is too long to really be practical. Maybe while they’re at it, the ASBs cut a canal through Baja California. Not really necessary, but it changes the geopolitics of northwestern Mexico a lot.

If the ASB geo-engineering works, the oceans will gradually get warmer, warming the planet. The warming would have limits. We’ve been about where the warming would go to back in the Pliocene. Eventually Greenland’s glacier would mostly disappear, causing a considerable sea-level rise. From old and possibly faulty memory, sea level would go up about 20 feet. The less stable West Antarctic ice sheet would go into a cycle of collapsing and rebuilding, further raising sea levels during the collapses. The larger East Antarctic ice sheet would mostly remain stable. West Antarctica would be a huge cold island during the period when it wasn’t ice covered. I could see it being one of the last colonized places on Earth. As to how long these changes would take: I honestly don’t know. If it took hundreds of years for the ice sheets to collapse, then we might not see Europe being able to use the new lands. If it took a shorter time, suddenly Greenland and some of the arctic islands become prime real estate, probably competed for by the European powers.

Of course this would totally change what crops can be grown where, destroy polar bears as the kind of species they currently are, though based on recent studies they’re adaptable enough that they may survive, and allow diseases like the nasty African malaria to extend into Europe. Actually, given enough time, Europe’s climate would eventually be able to support both monkeys and apes, though it would be a trick for them to get there given the sea level passage between Africa and the Middle East. Maybe they would come in from India once a rain forest corridor was established. And, of course, pretty much every port city in the world would be flooded, and a huge number of islands would vanish entirely. An interesting world, but probably not a nurturing place for industrial revolutions.

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Dale Cozort is a novelist, editor of Point of Divergence, the alternate history APA, and a long-term Chicago area fan and writer. Check out his website, blog, Facebook and Twitter profiles.

One Way to Divide Canada: Ethnicity

Guest post by Rebecca Stirling.

Around three years ago, Sir Matt Mitrovich himself promised “more maps on the balkanized North America trope”. But of course, the post this came from only covered the US. The post was about dividing the United States up by ethnicity, and I wondered what would happen to Canada (and Mexico) if the same thing happened to them. Seven months later, I saw a map of Canadian ethnicities and I remembered this. Of course, it would be a hard task, so I did it in one night and didn’t think about it again. The original map I used was this one, on DeviantArt:

This map covers the largest ethnic group of each county, but it doesn’t mean it has the majority in the region. For most Canadians of German ethnicity, their families came over to the Americas much earlier than other colonists. For the rest of Canada, it’s mostly either English or Native Americas. This is because immigration wasn’t a major source of income and population for Canada, compared to the US’ vast melting pot of immigrants and ethnicities. Most of the European population came out of colonization, which wasn’t even too strong in itself.

The native lands are sparsely populated, even though they cover a lot of land. The Northwest Territories, about the size of the Confederate States of America, only has 20,000 people. The Ungava region of Quebec, known for its curious lack of French folk, only has around 15,000. The only time that English overran these regions was during the Yukon Gold Rush, when miners came to the north in thousands. If it wasn’t so cold, then the Canadian government would probably have been able to spread the European settlements farther north. Using the map above, I decided to make a map of the countries that would come out of dividing Canada up by ethnicities. This is what I created:

Crazy, right? I mean, it’s not complete border gore. Well, maybe. It’d be pretty hard to have happen, no matter what the point of divergence. There are probably ways to have something like this happen, maybe to some degree. Instead of independent nations, they could all be provinces of some sort of a crazy Canadian Federation. Perhaps, in this TL, Canada became communist, devolving the former provinces to be based on ethnicity. Or, maybe colonial Canada had a more open government, forcing more immigration and then giving them autonomy. Maybe this world is a dystopia, with a The Man in the High Castle-type thing going on. Perhaps Nazis divided up Canada with the intention of showing the US who’s boss. Who knows? There’s a lot of stupid reasons as to why it could happen, but the truth is there’s no plausible way for it to happen.

While this map probably wouldn’t be possible, there are still many popular secessionist groups in Canada. For example, the Republic of Madawaska was a de-facto independent state for years, until it was reabsorbed into New Brunswick. The referendums in Quebec also demonstrate this and the fact that they so narrowly came close to succeeding proves that the premise of this map is slightly possible. Even so, secessionist movements sadly don’t align to be this way, making the map as invalid and implausible as nearly all the other balkanized Canada maps. If you have any more maps of a Balkanized America, makes sure to send them to Matt at ahwupdate at gmail dot com. Thanks for reading this, and have a great day!

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Rebecca Stirling is an Alternate History writer from New York. When not slacking off, she draws random shit and makes terrible maps. She’s also extremely single, probably due to the fact that she is an Alternate History writer. Check out her DeviantArt, or her newest timeline.

Weekly Update #202! Nazi Treasure Train, Tyler Bugg and Darren Total War.

Editor's Note

For those who don't know, I joined Patreon a couple of weeks ago. If you haven't already, please consider becoming one of my patrons. I am offering rewards that range from exclusive content, early access to posts and the chance to tell me what to write about next. Additionally I have several milestone goals, the first being the return of the Flag Friday series. I have revised the amounts on those to make them more realistic, so please check them out when you get the chance.

Fair warning, I need to finish my abstract for the Sideways in Time edited collection and thus I may not post on one or more days. Thanks for your patience and hopefully I will have something really cool to share with you in 2016.

And now the news...

Headline: Two Men Believe They Have Found a Lost Nazi Treasure Train

There is an old rumor that the Nazis had collected a horde of treasure from pillaging Wroclaw, but when the Red Army was approaching the city in 1945, the Germans sent an armored train in to take all the valuables out. After the war, however, no one could find this train and the loot it held. Eventually the existence of this train was dismissed as nothing but a rumor.

That all changed when two men came forward last week saying they have found the train, but won't release the location until they are promised a 10% cut of whatever it holds. Although this is not alternate history, the story nevertheless blew up across the Internet and got people (including myself) comparing it to an Indiana Jones plot (although Operation Condor is more appropriate in hindsight).

Whether this train really is the legendary Nazi treasure train remains to be seen. There is still a lot of skepticism about the men's claim, but the fact that they have attorneys and are demanding a reasonable amount seems to confirm that at least they are taking it seriously. Some may wonder why they don't just hand the location over without demanding anything in return, but let's be honest. When they are old, frail and penniless, the satisfaction of finding someone else's stuff won't pay the bills.

Alternate Historian of the Week: Tyler Bugg

This week's featured alternate historian is Tyler Bugg. For those who don't know, Tyler is the author "From Enigma to Paradox" which appeared in the Substitution Cipher anthology. Additionally, Tyler has contributed several articles to The Update on topics ranging from FDR, Napoleon, Canada and the Titanic. He even came up with an entire backstory for the alternate history photos I use in the blog's promotional material. He is really a creative guy and I highly recommend you check out his work.

For example, he wrote a two part series on everyone's favorite fictional war: America vs. Canada (see part 2 here). Check it out on his blog, (Alt)History Inc., and see if his scenario is better than Turtledove's depiction of the scenario in Timeline-191.

Video of the Week: TACTICS! - Barbarians at the Gates! by Darren Total War

As I may have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of the Total War series of games, which combined real time tactical battles with grand strategy. It is a fun series and I got as far as Empire: Total War (where I spent many enjoyable hours conquering Europe as the Maratha Empire) before I had to stop playing. A combination of a full time job and a busy writing schedule prevented me from devoting the time to computer games like I used to.

Thankfully, we now live in the Age of YouTube, which means that even if I don't have the time to play the games myself, I can still watch other people play them. For example, lets watch Darren Total War provide commentary on his recent multiplayer battle where he led Tylis against Carthage on a Barbarian city settlement:

Yeah it may not be exactly alternate history, but being able to play out realistic battles with Classical era nations is a tool that more alternate historians need to utilize. More importantly, Lets Plays like this is what makes YouTube great.

And a honorable mention goes to...me! If you can forgive me for a little self-promotion, I highly recommend you check out me recent Trope Talk video on airships:

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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: Ursalia by Rubberduck3y6

As perfect as many of you see me as, even I make the rare mistake. For example, when I saw Rubberduck3y6's map of an expanded United States I thought it looked well done, but I otherwise was not impressed by the lack of story, so I didn't mention it in last week's Map Monday. Nevertheless, when I saw his companion map for the nation of Ursalia, I just had to talk about it this week:

Like his last map, Ursalia lacks a story, but its the questions I have about its history that really intrigues me. Did this form out of the Hudson Bay Company's territory that the British maintained after losing the more populous parts of Canada to the USA? What is the culture of Ursalia like and do the Métis and Aboriginal Canadians have a greater role in this society? Is Ursalia part of the Commonwealth (if it exists in this TL) or is it a republic? So many questions. I would love to see a more fleshed-out scenario.

I end today's Map Monday by recommending the website Brilliant Maps, which has posted some awesomely weird maps lately, like what if the Mongol Empire reunited or Europe according to the Vikings in 1000 AD. 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: Some North America Or Other, 2014 by Bruce Munro

Bruce Munro makes his return to Map Monday (the last time was in July with "Mumby's Broken America") with his map "Some North America Or Other, 2014" (or "Canada Wankery"):

This map is set in a world where France holds onto Quebec and thus a French Canada covers the Great White North. The reason I picked this map, however, was because I was thinking of a similar scenario just the other day about whether France could have won the Seven Years' War/French and Indian War. Looking at some of the comments to my question does bring up some plausibility issues for Bruce's scenario, but it still is an interesting look at a more French North America. I won't say too much about the art style, since "Munroist" style maps are recognizable at AlternateHistory.com.

Honorable mention this week also goes to Bruce Munro's cover of Miserism's map of a steampunk world featuring a surviving Cordova. With so much steampunk being set in Victorian England, its a nice change of pace to get a different culture emphasized. 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.

Canada and Russia Spar Over Geography

What an amazing world we live in when trolling over social media is reported by major news outlets. With the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine raising tensions between the great powers, Canada has this great response to Russia's claims that paratroopers captured in Ukraine weren't helping insurgents, they just got lost. To help Russian soldiers in the future, Canada posted this map on Twitter:

Seems pretty clear cut, don't you think? Not to be outdone, Russia responded with a map of their own:

This one colors in the Crimea as Russian territory and Abkhazia/South Ossetia as disputed territories, something not recognized on most Western maps. I have to admit Russia produces better quality maps than Canada.

All in all its weird to see countries snipe at each other (figuratively speaking) over social media. What if we had Twitter during the Cuban Missile Crisis? Would that have made matters better or worse?

God forbid if World War III finally happens because of an Internet troll.

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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.

Interview: Bruno Lombardi

Check out my chat with Bruno Lombardi. He is one of the authors featured in Altered America, the new alternate history anthology by Martinus Publishing.

Welcome to The Update, Bruno. Tell the readers about yourself.

Remember that one guy in university who everyone agreed was really bright but was also really, really unfocused? The guy who could get straight B’s in courses by writing a 15 page paper the night before it was due? The guy who switched his major more often than most people switch jobs? The perennial ‘professional student’?

Yeah—that was pretty much me during most of the 90’s.

It wasn't a complete loss, mind you; I ended up with a double major in psychology and anthropology, with a certificate in addiction studies thrown in for good measure. I also ended up with an amazing collection of friends, as well as an equally amazing collection of stories and adventures and experiences. After bouncing around in the ‘real world’ for a while, I ended up by pure dumb luck getting a job working as a civil servant for the Canadian government in September 2001. Been working in various positions in the civil service since then.

What got you interested in alternate history?

My first introduction to alternate history was the 1988 novel Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson. It is an alternate history describing the world as it would have been had John Brown succeeded in his raid on Harper's Ferry and touched off a slave rebellion in 1859, as he intended. Been following the genre ever since.

As a Canadian, do you know of any popular what ifs in Canadian history?

Two big ones.

What if the War of 1812 Went the Other Way?

What if in 1776, when Ben Franklin went to Canada to make an alliance, the Canadians decided to join the War for Independence?

How did you find out about Altered America?

Several of my short stories have been published in various anthologies by Martinus Publishing and he’s well aware of my interest in alternate history. So when he came up with the anthology idea, he literally gave me a personal heads up about it.

What are your stories in Altered America about?

I have two short stories in the anthology.

The first one is "A single decision", which involves a slightly different 9/11. It’s based on a real incident where the military was planning to send up fighter jets to intercept the hijacked planes. However, due to various circumstances, none of the fighter jets were able to be armed. Nevertheless they were still planning to send up unarmed fighter jets. However, by the time the decision was made, all of the jets had already crashed. In my story, the decision is made a little quicker.

The second story is "The Road was lit by Moon and Star". In that one, the Apollo 11 landing ends in a catastrophic disaster, killing Armstrong and Aldrin. So now the hopes and dreams of the first successful manned Moon landing rest with Apollo 12, and Commander David Daniel Thomas Patton. The story is a bit experimental in writing style, as it’s told with multiple flashbacks and flashforwards, chronicling his journey, in every sense of the word, to the Moon.

Are there any other stories in the anthology you would like to recommend?

I was privileged to have a sneak peek at several of the stories before they got into the anthology. Many of them are good but Jason Sharp’s "The Shining Path" is very well-done. It follows a Hunter S. Thompson-like writer in 1970’s US-occupied Quebec.  As both a fan of Hunter Thompson and a Quebecer by birth, it obviously resonated with me on several levels.

What are the names of your other stories published by Martinus?

Quite a few. Here's a link to all my published stories (so far). Oh - and yes, I have a novel coming out in just a few weeks. See the link for more details.

Do you have any other stories in the works?

Several things are in the works. The first is a novel titled The Coin. It’s a bit of a different take from my usual style, much ‘darker’ and serious. The basic premise is that the thirty pieces of silver that were given to Judas to betray Jesus have become, essentially, both evil and sentient. The novel has two parallel plots; the first follows the pieces of silver—and the people they've interacted with—through the last 2000 years of history. The second is centered on a young man who can best be described as a ‘nice but slightly messed up loser’ trying to get his life back together again and opening up a bed and breakfast in a small town in present-day Newfoundland. I’m not giving anything away when I tell you that there’s a connection between him and the coins.

I also have several short stories in the works, including a steampunk story set in late 19th century Malaysia.

What are you reading right now?

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay. Absolutely fantastic novel set in eight-century China. It has, literally, a bit of everything; magic realism, political intrigue, history, battles, romance, everything. I can’t recommend it enough.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

Just keep at it. Always, always, always just keep writing. I've had many people ask me over the years where I get my ideas and it always astounds me when I get asked that question, because there are stories going on all around us all the time! If you’re an aspiring author, then just open your eyes and look around you at all the stories occurring around you. And then just write them down.

Friday Flag: Greater Canada

For the inaugural Flag Friday post, I bring you the work of Sean Sherman, originally posted on his blog Other Times. Sean has been kind enough to allow me to repost his Flag Friday post's here on The Update. Support an alternate historian by subscribing to his blog! - Matt

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The flag for this version of Canada was created at a time when various British holdings in the Caribbean were being annexed into Canada. The blue with the white wavy lines represent the oceans that connect the vast nation. The maple leaf which dominates its center represents the people of the original territories. The flag is a bit wider than most others in the world to show the vast scope of the nation's lands.

Please be sure to check out the original post to learn more about this version of Canada.

Do you have a flag you would like us to consider for Flag Friday? Email us at ahwupdate at gmail dot com.

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Sean Sherman has been a fan of alternate timelines ever since seeing Spock with a goatee.  By day he is a CPA, at night he explores the multiverse and shares his findings over at his blog, Other Times.

6 Common Mistakes Every American Revolution Alternate History Makes

Although American Civil War and World War II histories dominate the English-speaking world, stories about a stillborn United States are still quite common. Whether it happens because the Thirteen Colonies lose the American Revolutionary War or else the political upheaval that led to their independence is avoided through diplomacy, all the timelines lead to a world where North America from the Arctic to the Rio Grande remains under the Union Jack.

While these timelines have merit, both professional and fans authors often make the same mistakes, historical misconceptions and omissions again and again. To prevent this from happening in the future, here is a list of common mistakes found within American Revolution what ifs...

Florida

At some point, whatever government is created for British North America, they will want Florida. Sometimes they just take it or other times they buy it. Either way Florida will stop being Spanish not long after the POD. Except why would they need Spain need to hand it over in the first place? This is a mistake I find again and again with alternate American Revolution timelines and it needs to stop...now.

Here is what history tells us: at the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years War, Florida was ceded to Britain and was split into West and East Florida. The two Floridas remained loyal to Britain during the Revolutionary War, but in the end were ceded back to Spain after they had sided with the rebellious colonists. Much later West Florida rebelled against Spanish rule and was annexed by the United States, while East Florida was ceded to the United States in 1821.

In a timeline where Britain retains control of the Thirteen Colonies, Florida would have remained British because Spain would either have no war to join or else would have been on the losing side. The two Floridas would be components of whatever government is created for British North America and might even have special status in those versions that had a war since they had remained loyal. So please stop making this mistake before I start tearing my hair out.

Louisiana and the Great Plains

As British North America grows in these timelines it expands westward and (usually around 1803) decides it wants the port of New Orleans and the rest of the Great Plains. This proves quite simple since they usually just take it from those dastardly French (curse them!). But why would the French be there in the first place?

This does not happen as often as the Florida problem, but still often enough I feel I should address it. As we know, France ceded New Orleans and the Great Plains to Spain, who added it to the Viceroyalty of New Spain (a.k.a. Mexico) at the end of the French and Indian War/Seven Years War. The territory remained under Spanish control until 1800 when France took back the territory under Napoleon who dreamed of building an empire in the Americas. A slave revolt in Haiti caused the Emperor to scrap those plans and instead sell the territory to the young American republic.

Having Louisiana become French again in a timeline where there is no United States assumes a lot events of OTL will still happen as scheduled, including the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon. Even if they did happen (which I will discuss later) it is hard to believe that Napoleon would want such a huge tract of land only lightly populated by Europeans that was surrounded on the north and east by the British. Most likely he would look elsewhere for his overseas empire and leave the land to the Spanish. Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that the British Americans wouldn't want the strategic port of New Orleans, but it is still possible the land we know today as the "Louisiana Purchase" might be part of Mexico in one of these alternate timelines.

French Revolution and Napoleon

Speaking of the French, who incidentally were big supporters of the rebels, they end up in these timelines never spending all that cash propping up the Americans and thus never have the ton of debt that brings the French Revolution upon the royal houses of Europe. Enlightened monarchies continue to govern the world with democracy being nothing more than a quaint Ancient Greek custom and a young Corsican artillery officer dies of old age without anyone ever knowing his name

Of course, when has history ever been that simple? France's support of the Americans was just one of many causes that brought on the French Revolution and the lack of a Revolutionary War won't hand wave them away either (and its not like the monarchy would take all the extra money they saved to help the lower classes). Even a failed rebellion could still be disastrous for Louis XVI's rule if he still decided to intervene. The events and names might be different, but the French Revolutions could still happen and the chaos caused could allow a man like Napoleon to rise to power.

I admit one of the unwritten rules of alternate history is that nothing is inevitable, but we still need things to be plausible. A POD around the 1770s is not enough time to butterfly away an event that happened in 1789. In all likelihood, instead of defending New Orleans from the British, we could see Andrew Jackson take Orleans while leading an army of Red Coats. We have to remember that a good alternate history has to plausible and certain PODs will effect some historical events, but not others.

Canada

In these timelines, the great Dominion of British North America stretches from sea to shining sea. Members of Parliament gather in the capital, Georgetown (named after the great King George III), to celebrate another year as the most important member of the Empire. No one notices the politicians from the far northern provinces, but it is not like these men from the lightly populated, snowy wilderness have ever contributed anything significant to the Commonwealth. Right? RIGHT?!?!

One of the greatest flaws of American Revolution alternate histories is that they tend to be written by...well, Americans. These authors, however, remain surprisingly ignorant of the OTL British North America, or to put it another way, Canada. These timelines gloss over the northern half of British North America as almost if it doesn't matter and instead read more like an American history where everyone speaks with a British accent. This is especially important with timelines where recognizable historical figures still make cameos, but you rarely see Canadian VIPs in positions of importance.

While I will admit that the center of power might shift to the south in an enlarged British North America, how can one of the world's largest economies and most cultural diverse OTL countries not have an impact at all in a world where America remained under British rule? The city of Toronto alone is the fourth largest city in North America, which would make it the third largest city in a British North America (beating out my hometown of Chicago) and making it a significant region in politics. I guess what I am trying to say is that ignorance of Canadian history is not an excuse for your implausible alternate history.

Native Americans

Another group who is ignored in these alternate histories (and history in general for that matter) are Native Americans. In timelines where the Thirteen Colonies stay British, their history tends to parallel OTL history, that is if the author decides to mention them at all. Essentially they remain non-entities in these universes.

Now the Native Americans were treated rough by most Europeans, but the British did try to normalize relations with the tribes with the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which established the Indian Reserve that stretched from the Great Lakes to West Florida. The proclamation was controversial to the colonials and was one of the causes of the American Revolution. Most Native Americans east of the Mississippi sided with the British during the Revolutionary War and after the war were eventually driven west and forced to settle in reservations far from their ancestral homes.

In these alternate histories, however, it is unlikely the British would radically change their policy to Native Americans if they maintained control of the lands east of the Mississippi. In fact we might see the British grant autonomy to the most powerful and loyal tribes, much like the princely states of India of OTL. This policy might even be carried west if British North America expands that far leading to an ethnically diverse North America where Native Americans exercise more political power than they did in OTL. That sounds like a much more interesting alternate history to me.

The British Empire

Above is a political map of the world of The Two Georges, with the British Empire in red. Despite some loses in Africa, the British Empire is excessively larger than it was in OTL. In fact, most American Revolution alternate histories lead to an enlarged British Empire. But how plausible is it for the British Empire to be this large?

In a world where the Thirteen Colonies stay British, the Crown would need (if I can quote the late Warren Zevon) lawyers, guns and money to maintain their rule. If they are spending these resources on British North America, they would not be able to spend it elsewhere. Consider how different the history of Australia would be. Before the American Revolution, thousands of criminals had been sent to the Americas by the British. After the loss of the Thirteen Colonies, the British found replacement colonies in Australia. In a world, however, where they never lost their original penal colonies, there would be less interest about settling Australia and thus all or some of it could have been gobbled up by another Europe power.

The same can go for other important British colonies as well. A world without the French Revolution and/or Napoleon (if they for some reason do not happen) would not give the British the excuse to take South Africa from the Dutch. Plus considering the economic potential of the lands that make up the OTL USA and Canada, it might not be India that will gain the title of "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire. In fact this same economic potential might even give some alternate leaders the motivation to try and break from the empire and could potentially cause an earlier collapse of the British Empire.

Conclusion

All of the above are either outright mistakes, historical misconceptions or overlooked people/ideas that are common to American Revolution alternate histories. The best way to avoid them, in my humble opinion, is to do your research when you set out to create your timeline. Remember, as Mark Twain once said: "It's not what you don't know that kills you, it's what you know for sure that ain't true."

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update and a blogger on Amazing Stories. His new short story "Road Trip" can be found in Forbidden Future: A Time Travel Anthology. 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.

Weekly Update #63

Editor's Note

I know I say this every week, but we really do have a lot of good stuff coming down the pipeline.  Besides our usual recurring posts, we have a new guest contributor, the winner of the Four Pictures Writing Contest, a review of Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp and a preview of the next book in my reading list.

Don't want to jinx myself (I am knocking on my desk as I write this), but at our current rate of page views, it looks like we can break last month's record and maybe even surpass 10,000 page views in one month!  Thanks to all of our fans and new readers for making this possible.

And now the news...

More Canadian Alternate Histories

With Tyler's profile on how Canada is portrayed in alternate history being so popular, I decided to share some counter-factual articles on the Great White North that came to my attention last week.

The first two deal with the War of 1812, yet come to different conclusions.  Jesse Greenspan on History.com posted an article discussing the reasons for America's failure to conquer Canada during the war.  After listing the mishaps by American soldiers during the beginning of the war, Greenspan goes on to quote John R. Grodzinski, a history professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, who said “[h]ad [the invasion of Canada] in 1813 been better coordinated, the British really would have been stretched thin and might have collapsed." If this is true the war might have ended with Britain cutting its losses and ceding parts or all of Canada.  Would this be a good thing for the United States?  Part of the reason the war in north went worse then expected was America's misplaced belief that the Canadians would welcome them as liberators? How would Canadians take to being occupied by a foreign country?  More importantly, how would politics in the United States handle the influx of so many potential free states?  Could the American Civil War happen earlier over a crisis involving the first Canadian free state to enter the Union?

Compare Greenspan's article to Gaelen Foley's article about a British victory in the War of 1812.  In it she speculates that if the United States lost the war, the country would have been annexed by Britain, absorbed into Canada and the last surviving founding fathers executed.  American culture would have disappeared, but on the plus slavery would have ended without the American Civil War.  Though the article provides a nice counterpoint to the one above, it is not very plausible.  The idea that Britain was interested in annexing a country the size of the United States over a maritime dispute is unlikely.  Foley also ignores American designs on expanding north in Canada, which likely would not exist had America lost the war because there would be no reason to form a confederation if the threat from Canada's southern neighbor disappeared.  Meanwhile here line that "[m]aking a slave of an American is just about the worst thing you can do to us" is very patriotic, but will likely not go over well with the millions of Americans whose ancestors were enslaved by other Americans during this period.

Finally we have the 10th province of Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador, which on July 22, 1948 (then the Dominion of Newfoundland) voted on whether to become independent or join Canada.  In OTL, the dominion voted by a close margin to join Canada, but what if they did not?  Frank Jacobs at The New York Times explains that more was riding on the vote then what you would expect.  Due to the dispute with Quebec over Newfoundland's border, their were fears that the question of Newfoundland sovereignty would encourage Stalin to meddle in North American affairs.  Could there have been a Newfoundland missile crisis?  Luckily, Ottawa, Washington and London were keen to avoid such a scenario and encouraged the locals to vote for confederation.  Just goes to show you that the seemingly insignificant and forgotten events of history could cause drastic changes to our history if the outcome went different way.

Submissions Wanted

Here at Weekly Update, we like to encourage writers out there to take their ideas out of the Internet and put them into print.  To help you do that I would like to share two upcoming chances to be published:

• Here Be Monsters is looking for unpublished works of fiction in any genre under 10k words to be submitted by July 30th.  Authors will receive $30 and a free copy of the anthology.
• The New York Review of Science Fiction is accepting features and reviews for future issues.  Complete submission guidelines can be found here.

Need some advice on how to write?  Check out this insightful and humorous article by Chuck Wending called "25 Bad Writer Behaviors".  Sadly I do a couple of these behaviors, so I highly recommend that you read it before you make the same mistakes again.

Things to do

Step away from your computer and go see what is happening in the real world:

July 16-August 11: Thieftaker author DB Jackson is out on a book tour.  See this page to find where and when he will in your town.

July 17, 21 and 26: See "Flight of Fancy" a steampunk ballet in Washington, DC.

July 18, 20, 24, 26, 22 and 28: See a steampunk retelling of Wizard of Oz in Waterloo, Iowa.

July 19: The next meeting of the Steampunk Club at the Hammond Public Library in Wisconsin.

Going to Worldcon this year?  I plan to go to see the Sidewise Awards be presented.  Before you go, read this beginner's guide to Worldcon, written by this year's guest of honor Mike Resnick.  Have fun!

Links to the Multiverse

Articles

NCAA Football 13 Heisman Mode Inspires What-Ifs And Daydreaming by Jason Kirk at SB Nation.

Steampunk Soars Into Mainstream By Marianne Kushi at NBC San Diego.

What If?: A Brief Alternate History of Oregon Football by Nathan Roholt at Fish Duck.

Writers Anonymous by Geoffrey Wilson at Write Unboxed.

Interviews

John Joseph Adams at SF Signal.

Harry Turtledove at Del Rey.

Books

Parallel Worlds: The Grass Isn't Always Greener, But it is More Fun by John Denardo at Kirkus Reviews.

Book Report: Agent of Byzantium by Harry Turtledove (1987) done by Musings From Brian J. Noggle.

Spying for the angels in a post-steampunk world by Gwenn Ansell at Mail & Guardian.

Comics

Triumph Chronicles Steampunk Adventures of Bombastic Lord Cockswain by Hugh Hart at Wired.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – Century: 2009 – review by James Smart at The Guardian.

Films

Alex Proyas To Direct Adaptation Of 'Hellboy' Creators 'Joe Golem And The Drowning City' by Cain Rodriguez at Indiwire.

Going out: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Rianne Hill Soriano at Her Word.

Television

Review - Zipang, Episode 1 by Sebastian Breit at The War Blog.

Games

EU Heads Up – Dokuganryu Armour, Steampunk, nDreams Sale Bundles, Tron Sale and much more by Alpha Zone 4.

US Heads Up – Steampunk Collection, Weddings, Raves and much more by Alpha Zone 4.

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Matt Mitrovich is the founder and editor of Alternate History Weekly Update, a volunteer editor for Alt Hist and a contributor to Just Below the Law. His fiction can be found at Echelon Press, Jake's Monthly and his own writing blog. When not writing he works as an attorney and enjoys life with his beautiful wife Alana.

The Maple Leaf (Not Quite) Forever: Canada in Alternate History

Guest Post by Tyler Bugg.

As a proud Canadian, I can’t help but look forward to see how the second largest nation on Earth does in alternate histories. However, I’m usually left with a sinking feeling, mostly because my home and native land seems to be a favorite stomping ground, and always toward the top of the “To Conquer” list in American dominate AH’s, or an unlucky pawn in different British Empires and the rest of the world, and, if the Nazi’s won the Second World War, you can be sure of one of two things: a) it’s the refuge of a fleeing British Monarchy and government, or b) yet another colony of Hitler’s. Well, maybe that would be better than the United States of North America, I dunno.

Often times, the nation is a fraction of its current, gargantuan size, composed of only the original provinces of Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec (unless the latter broke away), or, rarely, even larger. The War of 1812, the Oregon Crisis (54° 40° or Fight!), the Trent Affair, and plan old Manifest Destiny are popular POD’s, though, of course, the butterflies and Bats from Space that are Aliens would cause damage for any POD around the world…

I don’t mind too much, as its all fiction. But it seems to me that when Canada is involved, there are three categories that it can be divided into:

1. “Greater Canada”: This is primarily a “Canada wank” TL, where the Thirteen Colonies that became America instead joined Canada to become a massive, continent spanning Dominion of the British crown, or simply that Canada invades the US and, somehow, improbably, wins (though, listening to this song, you may think we’re one step away from following in our former Colonial Master’s shoes) Of course, these TL’s are rare, although I would consider Harry Turtledove’s The Two Georges as a “Greater Canada” TL (even including an RCMP analogue, the Royal American Mounted Police!)

2. “Lesser Canada”: Canada doesn’t stretch into the Great Plains, much less British Colombia and often times Quebec will be independent. Basically, only OTL Ontario would be “Canada”, as the Maritime Provinces might have either become part of the US, or simply remained colonies of the British Empire. I made a “Lesser Canada” in my major Timeline “French Trafalgar, British Waterloo,” the rest of OTL Canada becoming the republics of Assiniboia (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, North West Territories and Nunavut) and Alyseka (Russian Alaska, BC and Yukon), only later to have my “lesser Canada” become “No Canada” after a Civil War a la Spanish Civil War, replaced by, you guessed it, Quebec.

3. “WTF is Canada?”: No change, most likely because the writer either doesn’t think Canada is that important: just another nation on the list, right beside Nepal, Sierra Leone and Tibet that exist; or simply, isn’t interesting and says that the butterflies have no effect north of the 49th Parallel, even if the US became a Neo-Nazi, Commie Hippie, tree hugging dystopia. This, sadly, is the most often seen one, especially on the Alternate History Wikia, the one place I frequent more often than anything else counterfactual historically related.

One of the most notable Canada’s in Alternate History is, once again, from Harry Turtledove. While Mr. Turtledove does add Canada in many of his stories, such as an angry Union attacking the defenseless nation after the succession of the Confederacy in The Guns of the South, one of the most inhospitable territories conquered by the Race (and later given back!) in the WorldWar and Colonization series, the largest involvement in a Turtledove story is in the Timeline-191 (or Southern Victory) series. Six of the multitude of viewpoint characters are either from the north or spent some time there, from farmer/saboteur Arthur McGregor (from my home province of Manitoba, no less!), and his daughter Mary, to American pilot/lawyer Jonathon Moss, whose wife and daughter are killed by a bomb sent to them by Mary. Having a setting in Canada, especially the contrast between the resistant English settlers of the west, and the Quebecois in the east, given their own nation under American “protection” is a nice touch, and one that, as a Canadian, makes me wonder “What if the US did march on Canada?”

Either way, Canada is mostly an unimportant player in Alternate History, mostly due to its proximity to the US, and a much, much smaller population (as of right now, Canada is only a breath away from 35 million: the US is well passed the 300 million mark) and the general feeling Canada is either a “Polite American” or “America’s Hat.” Of course, I can’t say too much bad about the United States, if for the fact that I’m only 20 miles from the border…

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Tyler “Tbguy1992” Bugg is a Canadian History Student currently on summer break, and, if he can find time in between video games (ALTERNATE HISTORY video games, mind you), work and such, he tries to write. If he could find a job writing for a video games company for an Alternate History story set in Canada, the world will most likely stop turning for a moment while everyone comprehends it.