There are challenging achievements in the game, such as:
- Become the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire as Spain.
- As Byzantium, restore the old borders (i.e., stop and reverse the Ottoman conquest in the 15th century)
- As France, own Vienna, Berlin and Moscow.
You can picture the maps that this produces. Also, it's a great way to learn about history.
This one actually happened under Charles V (Charles I of Spain).
He was also a Hapsburg, so he was already half way there on both sides of the family since they were both the same side to start with.
One of the biggest you tubers recently got outed following a white supremiscit rant - and that is one of the bigger "smells" around the community - histories of "what if the Nazis won and what if the South won US civil war" can spring not from curiosity but yearning.
I personally enjoy WhatIfAltHist as a channel, partly because he is fairly front and centre about his own political (rather centrist and boring) (small p) views.
The big takeaway I have found is that I learn something interesting about our real timeline history and about our real geopolitics - how England supported the creation of Portugal through the middle ages, or the extent Tamerlane changed Europe by killing everyone. And just how contingent the world is.
So yeah it's a fascinating area, tread carefully, I have only dipped my toes in, but it can be very eye opening.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Years_of_Rice_and_Salt
> The Years of Rice and Salt is an alternate history novel by American science fiction author Kim Stanley Robinson, published in 2002. The novel explores how world history might have been different if the Black Death plague had killed 99% of Europe's population, instead of a third as it did in reality. Divided into ten parts, the story spans hundreds of years, from the army of the Muslim conqueror Timur to the 21st century, with Europe being re-populated by Muslim pioneers, the indigenous peoples of the Americas forming a league to resist Chinese and Muslim invaders, and a 67-year-long world war being fought primarily between Muslim states and the Chinese and their allies. While the ten parts take place in different times and places, they are connected by a group of characters that are reincarnated into each time but are identified to the reader by the first letter of their name being consistent in each life.
> The novel explores themes of history, religion, and social movements. The historical narrative is guided more by social history than political or military history. Critics found the book to be rich in detail, realistic, and thoughtful. The Years of Rice and Salt won the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 2003. In the same year it was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, a Hugo Award, and a British Science Fiction Award.
I must admit I have a morbid fascination with alternate histories of the Cold War and all the terrible things that almost happened in that period but for the good judgement of people on both sides of that conflict. We were so close on so many occasions to utter oblivion...
[NB I'm in the UK - which would, like most of Europe, come out rather badly had the nukes started flying].
https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/1983:_Doomsday
It's one of the most massive collaborative world-building projects of its kind.
It's also the basis for a lot of creative works. DeviantArt not only plays host to a ton of alternate historical maps, but flags and other graphics.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sobel_North_America.... (457 × 429 pixels)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Man_In_The_High_Cast... (Max 1,428 × 638 pixels)
https://hypotheticalhurricanes.fandom.com/wiki/Typhoon_Hagup...
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azimuthal_equidistant_projecti...
