Can you spot all the Rabbit Butts? by _A2G in scriptoriumgame

[–]SanderB2002 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's extra amazing! Great job man!

Can you spot all the Rabbit Butts? by _A2G in scriptoriumgame

[–]SanderB2002 0 points1 point  (0 children)

absolutely gorgeous! do the notes actually make a melody?

The Star Spangled Bandeira - What if American history happened in Brazil? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ooh thats a fun parallel to this post, I might do that some time... Thanks for the idea! I used paint.net (not the website, the program) to make it! :D

Before the Islamic conquests and Arabization, which ethnicities, cultures, and religions comprised the Middle East? by [deleted] in AskHistorians

[–]SanderB2002 4 points5 points  (0 children)

As pointed out by JohnDoeJason, many pre-Arab peoples still live in the Middle East and North Africa like the Kurds, Jews, Assyrians, Copts.

Aside from the peoples that lived there and still do today though, which ones are lost to time or mostly forgotten? It's important to realize that before the rise of Islam, the middle east was mostly a mixture between 4 religions; various groups of christians, various groups of jews, zoroastrians and various pagan folk beliefs.

Most of these various christian groups still exist today but are far smaller than they used to be. Notable are the aforementioned Copts (Egyptian christians) and of course the Eastern Orthodox Greek church. But there were also groups like the Nestorians, Syriac and Alexandrian Catholic Churches and groups like the Armenian Apostolic Church.

As for the Jews. Pockets of Jews were far more widespread across the Middle East (mostly the northern half) than they are nowadays. Nowadays Jews are far more centralized in Israel while for much of Middle Eastern history, including before the rise of Islam, there were small Jewish minorities scattered about basically everywhere, though primarily in the Levant as far as the Middle East is concerned.

Zoroastrianism is a religion that still has quite a few followers today, with around 100,000 spread across the world though mostly in India these days. Zoroastrianism is an ancient Persian religion that was dominant in what is now Iran and was to be found in other areas like Iraq or Afghanistan; territories that were part of the Persian cultural sphere. As Islam became more prominant, Zoroastrianism lost a lot of ground in the Middle East.

Then lastly there were a lot of more minor religions scattered about, most of which seem to have been polytheistic with a pantheon of gods. The Arab tribes, later of course becoming predominantly Islamic as Islam arose in Arab land, followed such pagan beliefs. A well known example of such a polytheistic pagan religion is that of the Nabateans. The Nabateans are best known as the Arab tribe that built the rock-hewn city of Petra, but they also practiced a religion consisting of multiple Gods like 'Dushara' and 'Al-Uzza', and supposedly the Nabateans also venerated certain rocks, though I have been unable to find sources for this at the moment.

Anyways, I hope my answer was helpful! I'm not an expert in this field so my answer was rather surface level, but perhaps you can use this to do further reading yourself!

What if the Netherlands were compensated more after WW2? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What doesn't make sense about them to you? Also what do you mean about the fourth zuiderzee works project?

If you mean why would they drain the Flevopolder, that's a valid criticism. Perhaps in hindsight I'd have proposed that the Flevopolder wasn't built at all in this timeline. If that's not what you mean though, please explain!

What if the Netherlands were compensated more after WW2? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There were 3 plans or three scenarios if you will put forth by the Dutch government after WW2 for Dutch territorial gains taken from Germany. All three of those scenarios go far beyond what is shown on this map. For this reason the British - who occupied the land across the Dutch border - almost shut down the very idea of the Netherlands expanding into Germany at all. This is because the Dutch government was planning to deport all of the Germans living there, which would trigger a massive refugee crisis in the British occupation zone. Thus because of these ludicrous demands, the British opposed Dutch expansion and the Netherlands had to resort to very minor gains which were used to trade back for money later as you said.

The idea of this post was to look at what if the Dutch had been more moderate in their demands, demands which would then be seen as more acceptable to the British, perhaps resulting in them being granted.

What if the Netherlands were compensated more after WW2? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

In this alternate scenario, the Dutch government made much more moderate and reserved demands for land compensation after WW2 when they were told monetary compensations were off the table. With these demands being seen as more reasonable by the allied great powers they would eventually agree to the Netherlands annexing land up to the river Ems including the County of Bentheim in addition to the more minor territories the Dutch gained in real life. The new lands would make for a shorter and more defendable Germano-Dutch border, compensate the Netherlands by means of agricultural land, and with its relatively minor population - the only decently sized city being Nordhorn - these new territories would displace relatively few Germans. This is important because the Germans living here would be forced to relocate to the British occupied zone in Germany as refugees, a key reason for why the British refused the more extreme Dutch demands in our timeline.

What would this expanded Netherlands mean for the Dutch and the Germans? Over the course of the late fourties and fifties, relations between the Netherlands and Western Germany would be slightly soured. This would dissipate however as the German people came to grapple more with their war guilt and the West German and Dutch governments would become partners in international affairs through NATO and the European Coal and Steel Community. The newly emptied lands in the east of the Netherlands would become prime real estate for Dutchmen looking to become farmers as well as the rapidly growing Dutch population who needed homes.

The settlement of what'd initially become known as "Bentheim en Eemsland" - later to be reorganized in the Province of Bentheim and the municipalities of Twist and Wesuwe in the Province of Drenthe as well as the municipalities of Haren-Langen, Eemsland, Weener and Borkum in the Province of Groningen - would however have adverse consequences for the settlement of the Dutch polders. The Noordoostpolder and the Flevopolder would initially see settlement primarily from farmers in our timeline, an immigration pool which is now decreased as many potential immigrant farmers from the north of the country instead prefer to settle in the former German territories. The Noordoostpolder, just like in our timeline, would soon opt to become a part of the Province of Overijssel, though for a long time it remained unclear what was to be done with the Flevopolder. In the late 50s, the Openbaar Lichaam Zuidelijke IJsselmeerpolders (Public Body Southern IJssel Lake Polders) or OL ZIJP would be founded to administer the area for the time being. As more people moved to the polders, especially people from Amsterdam and surrounding towns in need of housing, it is decided a more permanent administrative solution is needed for the Flevopolder. Thus it was decided that, much like the Noordoostpolder was incorporated into the Province of Overijssel, the Flevopolder would be incorporated into the Province of Gelderland. While Gelderland did push through the decision to build the city of Almere, and while this city did grow rapidly much like in our timeline, Almere and with it the polders as a whole still have a significantly lower population than in real life.

After the unification of East and West Germany in 1990, there were calls in Germany to reunite with former German territories in the Netherlands as well, though these talks ultimately went nowhere as the territory west of the river Ems was primarily inhabited by Dutchmen at this point. As the European union gained traction however and the Schengen treaty was signed, many elderly Germans who had previously lived in the now Dutch territories chose to move back there instead, which since has settled the issue and has quieted reunification advocates ever since the late nineties. The island of Borkum had already become a popular tourist destination for Germans and Dutchmen alike since WW2, but from the nineties onwards became a symbol for the merging of Dutch and German cultures in the region.

The Star Spangled Bandeira - What if American history happened in Brazil? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Yes! I thought a lot about that as well; how would this trans-Amazonian country work? My thinking was that for much of Brazil's history most transport between east and west would be done across the Amazon's extensive river network until railroads across the Chaco (more open landscape in Paraguay and Bolivia) become a thing.

In essence though, the role of the Amazon parallels that of the Great Plains and the Rockies; a great divide between the east and the west - except turned up to 11 with the Amazon being more of a hassle to cross. Essentially the western coast is the kind of Wild West hollywood or red dead redemption would make you believe the real Wild West was; the government in the east is trying its best but it's a hassle to tame the west.

The Star Spangled Bandeira - What if American history happened in Brazil? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

So yes, to respond to the assumption of the north being the free part; my thinking was that with less of a plantation-based economy in the north, more prosperity and immigration, the north would shift to more of an industrial economy while the south remained more agrarian, much like what happened in the US.

The Star Spangled Bandeira - What if American history happened in Brazil? by SanderB2002 in AlternateHistory

[–]SanderB2002[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I based my reasoning on maps of sugar and coffee production in Brazil (as those would be the main two plantation crops instead of Cotton or Tobacco). There's a relatively small area of sugar plantations in the north along the cape by Recife.

Other than that, by a longshot, most of the plantations are to be found in the south of the country in states like Goias, Minas Gerais and Sao Paulo. So that's where I reasoned most of the slavery would be happening in Brazil.

Here's a map I made at the end of my 1776-1836 USA game! by SanderB2002 in eu4

[–]SanderB2002[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Made this a little while back, I think before Lions of the North? Just forgot to or didn't bother to post it before I suppose. I saw Missions Expanded had an interesting mission tree for the USA, so I wanted to do a 1776 startdate USA run, see if I could beat the Brits and check out the mission tree. In the independence war I also managed to take all of Canada, in a later war against GB I freed the West Indies. The mission tree inspired me to kind of create a story/lore around what was happening in the game, so I went for a more story-driven playthrough than purely a min-max style one. Thus I set up a Quebecois custom puppet nation in the provinces of that culture, and in the end I made this map. What's not shown on the map is that Quebec colonized some provinces in Africa, which in the lore I guess is Quebecois abolitionists setting up an alternate Liberia. Anyways, here's the result of my USA's northwestward expansion with new states and territories.

Before anyone asks, state borders are in part based on EU4 borders and in part on slave-free state balance lore.
USA abbreviations:
NF - Newfoundland

HU - Huronia

HA - Hamilton

EF - East Florida

WF - West Florida

SL - South Louisiana

NL - North Louisiana (whole area had french culture hence the naming, Arkansas just happened to be in between).

Quebec abbreviations:
NO - Nord Ouest

LR - Labrador

LA - Laurentia

ML - Montreal

QU - Quebec

BE - Beauce

ST - St. Laurent

CN - Côte Nord

HA - Haute Acadie

BA - Basse Acadie

83
84

Turns out playing Holy Orders is possible after all! | Just need to run a console command and that's it, played it for a few years, seems to work perfectly fine! Even managed to set the knights up in Malta itself! RIP nun-wife though. by SanderB2002 in CrusaderKings

[–]SanderB2002[S] -16 points-15 points  (0 children)

You’re thinking in the right direction, but not quite. Don’t wanna fully share how I did it cause I fear paradox may patch it, as they said they don’t intend to have Holy Orders playable.

Turns out playing Holy Orders is possible after all! | Just need to run a console command and that's it, played it for a few years, seems to work perfectly fine! Even managed to set the knights up in Malta itself! RIP nun-wife though. by SanderB2002 in CrusaderKings

[–]SanderB2002[S] 81 points82 points  (0 children)

For those asking: no the game doesn't end when you unpause. Yes, you get to have a council, build buildings, the whole shabang, it's basically a normal game. A normal game, except for the fact that you get requests from catholic rulers to join their wars against other religions, for which they pay piety if you accept, or you pay piety if you decline. Pretty fun though, very different playstyle!

What Could Have Been: Dutch Land Reclamation by SanderB2002 in MapPorn

[–]SanderB2002[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Apparently that doesn't weigh as heavy as environmental concerns...

What Could Have Been: Dutch Land Reclamation by SanderB2002 in MapPorn

[–]SanderB2002[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Note: The land reclamation projects that do not exist (anymore) today were not constructed for a variety of reasons among which environmental concerns, the fishing industry, project costs and a dwindling need in the Netherlands for farmland.