Sneak Peak

This is an alternate history blog. However many things can affect history, including changes to the geology of the Earth. So far I have a few posts that delve a little into that area:
1) Great Lakes of Africa
2) Alternate Great Lakes of North America
3) Early eruption of a supervolcano

I've recently been playing around with continental drift and came up with a major change compared to those listed above. By not having the future continents of Australia and Antarctica break apart about 100 million years ago I've got a much larger land mass. I've moved it a bit further north than Australia is so the climate would be a bit nicer. I know it would have a larger affect on the surrounding area, but I've left much of the rest of the Earth alone.

I'm currently working on versions of the map for geography, weather patterns, and cultural migrations. It certainly would have had earlier and more regular contact with Asia due to its closer proximity than Australia. It would have larger areas of more temperate land and more easily utilized natural resources than Australia. It would be capable of supporting a much higher population, and with the additional contact with ancient India or China the exchange of ideas along with access to materials would allow for a more technologically advanced civilization.

The problem I'll be having is I'm constructing whole new civilizations from scratch for this alternate world. I'm wondering when something stops being an actual alternate history. In either case I plan on developing possibly a half-dozen posts developing the history of this continent and the world around it by late summer.

Do you have any thoughts or ideas on the development of this imaginary super-continent? If so please feel free to comment.

Campi Flegrei

7 April 1906 = Mount Vesuvius does not erupt as it did in the OTL. Changes deep underground move the magma and create new pressures in the area.

9 November 1943 = A massive eruption of Campi Flegrei near Naples, Italy takes place. Naples and other nearby settlements are erased. The resulting tsunami obliterates all of the warships in the Mediterranean. Earthquakes rattle the region adding to the chaos.

The resulting ash clouds and dimming of the amount of the Sun's light reaching the Earth's surface leads to major disruptions in human civilization. The combat on the Eastern Front dies down as dropping temperatures make the winter harsher than any in memory. Air operations are cancelled by many powers in Europe due to the ash. Bombs stop dropping on cities for a short time. Rome is destroyed, the Fascist government destroyed. Many other Italian cities are devastated and in chaos. Norther settlements come under direct Nazi control, southern ones are on their own.

1943 = Heavy snows and a late spring in England causes major disruptions in war operations. Fields across the Balkans and Ukraine as well as other regions are unable to produce crops due to late spring and heavy layers of ash. Russian offensives against Germany slow as the summer progresses. The need for increased food production and the terrible weather conditions force many armies to withdraw.

The Second World War takes a decade off as the various nations fight famine and disease. There is sporadic fighting but no major battles except for the Americans and Japanese in the Pacific.

1953 to 1957 = The Soviet Union is on the offensive again. While consolidating their hold on Europe and finishing the bulk of their genocidal plans the Nazis managed to stockpile considerable number of rockets and a few squadrons of jet powered aircraft. These weapons allow them to stall the Red Army and force Kruschev to the bargaining table in 1957. Britain is still in a terrible state, much of India lost in rebellion and extremely harsh winters have kept it economically depressed. They are in no position to help their Russian allies.

During this time period China has broken into three regions; Communist, Nationalist, and Japanese dominated.

1960s = The United States, along with Canada, Mexico and a number of other countries, forms the North American Treaty Organization to defend themselves against further aggression by the Third Reich. As politics shift in Europe, Germany forms the European Reich, giving more autonomy to some regions of Europe but retaining control of the European Council that makes up the Reich.

Global sea-levels have reached their low-point in the 1960s. They begin to recover as the volcanic winter beings to end.

1972 to 1975 = The Chinese War takes place as Red China and the Soviet Union attack Japanese Manchuria. The United States aids the Nationalist Chinese against the Reds and Japanese in a three-way war. Communist China collapses as Bejing is destroyed by a Germany nuclear weapon - the first time such a weapon is used in war.

1980 = The United States elects a more isolationist President after the high price paid in the Chinese War. In addition to war fatigue a major downturn in the economy creates a new depression.

In the 1990s NATO increases its military spending and introduces new amazing technologies. Britain is recovering from two decades of hellish winters and is becoming an economic bright-spot in Europe thinks to American support and intervention.

1996 = Der Führer dissolves the Euro-Reich and opens Europe to free multi-party elections. This action surprises some, but the decades of economic disfunction and political unrest finally forced some action on Germany's part. It was luckily a peaceful event, der Führer was a child during the volcanic winter and war years and did not want to be responsible for a nuclear war and winter.

1996 to 2006 = Numerous small-scale wars in the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

2000 = Alaska is admitted into the United States as the 50th State.

2014 = The world is in relative peace. A new Führer in Germany takes power on March 14. He appears ready to begin reversing some of the reforms of recent years and yearns for the re-acquisition of lost territories.

Some information on Campi Flegrei and its supervolcano:

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phlegraean_Fields

2) http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/italian-supervolcano-could-end-eurozone-crisis-the-easy-way-14271712/?no-ist

3) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1342820/Vesuviuss-big-daddy-supervolcano-Campi-Flegrei-near-Naples-threatens-Europe.html

Alternate Great Lakes

Sorry about the lack of recent posts. Work and feeling under the weather took up a chunk of time (and learning how to play EUIV). Right now I'm trying out my new desk treadmill system and walking at a zippy 1mph as I type and edit an image. Once I build some extensions for my desk it should be a cool set-up and help me stay in a shape other than round.

So for this latest update I'm looking at the North American Great Lakes. I live near one of them and I have to say it can be nice. Back in elementary school I was told the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes were created by the glaciers during the last ice age. Nice of them to do so given the general pain in the butt glaciers made life for early humans.

So I got to thinking: What if the lakes ended up looking a bit different. Some different variations in the ice sheet or other factors I should really research could have given us different lakes than the ones were are accustomed to. So here is a sketch I made of one possibility. I'll next have to dig up some old maps from National Geographic and refine the shapes of these with a better eye on actual geological factors.

might be a little difficult to see but I enlarged the analog of Lake Ontario and have it exit down the Mowhawk Valley then Down the Hudson Valley instead of the St. Lawrence River. I also picture large swamps where Illinois would be.

What do you think? What sort of changes in the eventual European colonization would happen? How wold local tribes and nations be different?

Alternate Geology

There was a post on the Alternate History Online Facebook group earlier this month on a plan nearly a century ago that would have included the damming of the Congo river to create a pair of large lakes in central Africa. That got me thinking back to a novel by Philip José Farmer, Hadon of Ancient Opar. One of the things in that book was a map of the fictional Africa of that story - showing two giant fresh water lakes in the center of the continent.

I sketched my own version of that map using a map of Africa that included contour lines. I never got around to using it in my old GURPS Alternate Earths role-playing game campaign, but I have since scanned the sketch and colored it a bit. Here is is:

This map is upside-down since it was originally going to be for an ancient Africa, about the same time period as the early dynasties of Egypt. That being the case I put south at the top of the map since water flows down and the source of the Nile was in the south.

This opens up an idea of alternate geology being a trigger for an alternate history. Not only can a different outcome of an important event create a divergent timeline, but a few misplaced mountains, slight change in the speed of continental drift, or other geologic events could have an even greater effect on the course of human history.

Right now I'm going through my old notes for the civilizations I was going to put around those lakes. Some of the names and cultural notes need some updates, but I think I can create some very interesting scenarios.

What other major geological changes do you think would be interesting? How do you think they would change our history?