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Alt History ideas, rec and general discussion thread

While Hitler was obviously going to invade the Soviet Union anyway, it is true that the performance of the Red Army in the Winter War was a significant factor in convincing the Nazis that winning that war would be easier. That's where the whole 'kick in the door and the whole rotten edifice would come crashing down' thing came from.
 
Are there any decent ones where the July plot doesn't immediately crash and burn and the Western Allies laugh in the face of the unbelievably delusional terms offered by the plotters?
 
king of hybrids said:
Are there any decent ones where the July plot doesn't immediately crash and burn and the Western Allies laugh in the face of the unbelievably delusional terms offered by the plotters?
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Twilight of the Valkyries: A 20 July Plot TL (Redux)

PREFACE Twilight of the Valkyries was written back in 2016 out of a deep curiosity regarding the 20th July Plot, a famous point of divergence which I felt had immense potential in terms of stories that could be told or scenarios that could be devised. It was inmensely enjoyable - if a bit...
www.alternatehistory.com
 
WI: Booth's pistol misfires and in the ensuing struggle, Lincoln throws Booth off the balcony, breaking his neck? Sic semper perfidis!
 
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WI: On a midsummer night in 1450, a large meteor strikes a mile off the coast of Portugal, causing a massive tsunami that wrecks the country's ports, smashing its ships against its own shores. It is followed up then by an meteor storm over all of Europe for the rest of the season, with meteors big enough to leave a crater the size of a 12 inch plate hitting the continent every hour.

Will this downpour of rocks from Heaven devastate Europe? Or will they manage to survive despite these intense conditions?
 
What if Washington was killed during the 1755 Braddock Expedition? Who could the Continental Congress have chosen for its commander-in-chief in 1775 other than John Hancock? Which general would have performed the best?

A search around AH.com gave the following candidates: Gates, Lee, Schuyler, Greene, Ward, Arnold, Putnam, or Knox.
 
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Without Washington's statue as hero of the Seven Years' War you probably have a revolving door of commanders, a slightly extended command of Artemas Ward until ill health and the toils of the New York campaign get him to retire and move laterally back into Massachusetts government, a short interregnum where Charles Lee thinks he finally got his moment only for his self-destructive feuding and insistence on micromanaging the whole war effort to doom his reign, then the fucking meme of Horatio Gates trying to step over Lee, then throwing the ball to like Israel Putnam out of a dearth of other options.
 
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I seem to recall George Washington's favored successor if something happened to himself was Nathanal Greene and I am generally inclined to suspect he would indeed likely be the best candidate.

Benedict Arnold was paranoid, vindictive and prone to self-serving bouts of corruption. He also seems to have not been very popular with either the troops or other officers no matter what side he was on which of course would likely have led to issues.
 
Alane1 said:
I seem to recall George Washington's favored successor if something happened to himself was Nathanal Greene and I am generally inclined to suspect he would indeed likely be the best candidate.

Benedict Arnold was paranoid, vindictive and prone to self-serving bouts of corruption. He also seems to have not been very popular with either the troops or other officers no matter what side he was on which of course would likely have led to issues.
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Almost certainly Greene, yes.
I doubt much would change, other than perhaps a one-term rather than two-term precedent.
 
We'd have the Apotheosis of Nathanael Greene instead of Washington. /changes
 
I seem to recall though that Greene had wanted to raze New York to the ground rather than let the British take the city which would have likely had some historical knock on effects if lets say of some of the early US cities ended up getting destroyed.
 
Other than accepting the offer of a crown, is there anything Washington could have done that prevented the nigh-deification of (select members of) the Founding Fathers?
 
The concept of certain people being founders and or fathers of the country was firmly already in place by the early 19th century in spite of some of said surviving founders trying to discourage such things and getting ignored even if the exact phrasing founding fathers wouldn't be used until the early 20th century.
 
With the lack of Washington, who could possibly be elected the first president? Neither Greene nor Knox wanted a political office. Some people have noted Artemas Ward's postwar ambitions.

(Also, I give it a 50/50 chance Arnold doesn't defect in this case. Depends on whether he gets posted to Philadelphia.)
 
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I sort of half suspect if Arnold didn't defect, he would been forced out or suffered a 'friendly' fire incident just from his sheer ability to make enemies both among his fellow officers, in the ranks and among revolutionary politicians.

Washington had been one of the very few people on any side of the revolution who actually liked Arnold much less trusted him.
 
John Adams, perhaps. He was politically inclined, well spoken, well lettered and decently respected; and of course he was the second president.
 
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I think the POD given is too early to tell, but if Washington keeled over between Yorktown and the Convention, I think the constitution and government would be very different. America's President is very powerful - the analogy is not a Prime Minister, but a King. He's a checked, term-limited, elected monarch. And in part it's so powerful, because everyone knew that the George Washington, who everyone trusted, would have the job. Without him, I think we see a much weaker executive.
 
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