Alternate History NESes; Spout some ideas!

So? Which alternate histories appeal to you?

  • Rome Never Falls

    Votes: 58 35.8%
  • Axis Wins WWII

    Votes: 55 34.0%
  • D-Day Fails

    Votes: 41 25.3%
  • No Fort Sumter, No Civil War

    Votes: 32 19.8%
  • No Waterloo

    Votes: 33 20.4%
  • Islamic Europe

    Votes: 43 26.5%
  • No Roman Empire

    Votes: 37 22.8%
  • Carthage wins Punic Wars

    Votes: 51 31.5%
  • Alexander the Great survives his bout with malaria

    Votes: 54 33.3%
  • Mesoamerican Empires survived/Americas not discovered

    Votes: 48 29.6%
  • Americans lose revolutionary war/revolutionary war averted

    Votes: 44 27.2%
  • Years of Rice and Salt (Do it again!)

    Votes: 24 14.8%
  • Recolonization of Africa

    Votes: 20 12.3%
  • Advanced Native Americans

    Votes: 59 36.4%
  • Successful Zimmerman note

    Votes: 35 21.6%
  • Germany wins WWI

    Votes: 63 38.9%
  • Other

    Votes: 31 19.1%

  • Total voters
    162
I've got more then a fair share of mos tof the med seas peoples in it; a little spanish, a little greek, but mostlly Romano-Tuscan(as etruscan) Itallian; the Spanish, and assorted italliot back groud in easy to prove the greek not so much, other then it appears that soem ancestors of mine spent a few centuries haitus in Greece.

In any event,the cultures interest me a great deal besides; I sincerelly think of them as the top bench ,arcks of world culture, somthign that all natiosn shoudl aspire to be like in what those cultures did right, and learn from the lessosn fo what those cultures did wrong; eg, in romes case, take the ideal of individual freedoms, and of a a skilled government, but beware of corruption within the government, and of over ambitious politicians (and slavery one of the greatest evils man has known, and a huge barrier for progress besides)

Anyway, as for Minoan subjegation fo the mycenaeans; it seems that it wa shappenign in rela life; Minoan culture impacted Myceanena and classical greek culture in profound was, a lot of it in art and architiecture, as well as the standards of living; but more improtantlly, those acient ledgends of Thesues and the minotaur give fair evidence for Athens at one time being under Minoan rule...

Okay, basically, this is what happend;

1)at some point, Athens becomes a vassal, tributary state, or is just outright conqoured of the highlly unfied Minoan nation

2)the Minaons seem to make a good deal of floor frescos 9or so I've heard) of some sort of event in which they are amrching agiasnt a city, in which ships play a promient feature; because these date from a good while before the established dat eof the trojan war, it points to the minoans not being quite the peace lovers they are always made out to be; but a people who enjoyed the luxuries brought by having a skilled military and navy to the poitn where they control trade in the med sea, at least in the eastern portion; and hwile they are not war like, it still goes to show that they were proud of skilled military exercise agiasnt the vwery war liek Mycenaeans

3)The volcano at akrotiri blows up, this leads to tidal waves int he aegean sea, virtually breaking the Minoan base of power by wiping out many of its greater cities

4)evidence shows that at this time, the Minoans have a huge fasination tot he sea; evidence also indicates that the minoans were sacrificing children, erhaps in drastic effort to appease the sea- one shoudl not that the sacrificng od children was common place in the middle east at this time, and they were of course a major trading partner with the Minoans (the carthiginas continued the practice of shild sacxrifice until Rome conqured them, and it is even recorded int he bible that at one time the israleites practiced such a tradition, but it is also showed by way of narrative, that in thier tradition, thier god had them stop)

5)now this is where we can start appylign the myths;

a)we know that th ebull was a very sacred animal to the minoans;a symbol fo stregth and virility, it had much the same meaning in all cultures that had bulls.

b)we know that the minaos were quite proud oif soem sort of militarty expidition of thiers agiasnt the mainland Mycenaeans; Mino also had trade hegemongeny on the mainland

c)from Myth, we know that Athens, until the reign of thesus, had to pay King minos 14 youths to feed ot the Minotaur, a bull headed man

d)considering that masks to for preites to help represent that they were men devoted to thier god was ocmmon plac ein egypt and th emiddle east, it is not unthinkabel to assume that the Minoans may have done the same; it is possible that to represent the cult of the bull, a preist wore a bull mask/ helmet of sort

e)consider; we know the minaons sacrifced children, we are more then sure that Athens was under minoan domiantion, and if not athens, then a site close by, as few lands are as accessible in greece as athens is to a naval based attack; what if the Minoans had demended children from Athens, instrea dof form the native Minaon poipualce to please thier wants to appease the sea, to ensure another akrotiri didnt happen?

f)this, combined with general Mycenaean jealousy of the minaons positions int he world woudl have lead the mycenaenas to eventually declare war, and conqoure the Minoans, as happend in real life

conclusion
if the volcanic eruption at akrotiri ha dnot occured, the minaon civlization could wel have goen to dominate mainladn greece, and beyond, perhaps in a similer manner as i lead it to do in aaminions NES; the many Minoan colones and appernt trade alies, and vassal all over th emed sea leand themselvs well to inward pushes of cultural influence, colonization, and all out conqouest.
 
hmm child sacrifising kinda came from Phoenicia. Jews learned it from Phoenicia when they became "bad" to god... Abraham was going to sacrifise his son like Phoenicians.
Phoenicians were much better at sea than any civilization known. They reached Britian befor anyone else did, and I oens read that at around 350BC they reached America (Florida if i'm no mistaken). They also planned with the EGyptians to build a canal like suetz. (Never happand cause a Egyptian priests said this canal will be used by the enemies of Egypt and not EGypt! became true after several thousands years :lol: )

But unlike Minoans Phoenicia was never that united... they were allied city states... or somthing like that. Weren't the best with armies... but were magnifisant with navies. They coudl make a wondefull what if.
 
Thanx man. That's a start. But we need to factor in other nations as well, and what the expansion pattern for Minoa would be like.
 
the Phoenciancas didnt even have the oppertunity to becoem a naval power while th eminoans were domiant; it wa sonyl when the minoans failed to start comign to the middle east the the phoencians arose as a naval power; and evem then, there is some evidence that thhis may have been spawned formt he caanaities, possible Minoans themselves comign intot he area.

I also happen to think its likelly that the Phoencians, Cartgaginas, and, due to the presenc eof a pineapple in a roman fresco, perhaps even them too to the new world; thier ships were certianlly common wnough going down the west coast of arica for one to get blown off course for a tropical storm
 
As for Minoan Expansion;

I think, at least for the first quarter of their expansion, would have stuck to maritime colonies, such as Coastal Anatolia, Cyprus, Greece, Cyrene, and various other locations. But then what? And how would Minoa put up with Persian imperialism come the time of Persia?

OT: Xen, you have any links about the Romans/Phonecians/Carthaginians discovering the new world? I'm quite intrigued.:)
 
well The Phoenicians and Minoans were kidna at the same time? Minoa befor or after 1500BC? Phoenicia "rise" is after...

I kinda belive phoenicians came there... can't be it was undiscovered until the Vikings... too long (thousand of years.)

But Phoenicians (and Plishtim, a tribe in israel at that time) were sea people who came from the sea, reserechers say they are greeks. Maybe Minoans after their end?
 
I'll settle the "who first discovered America" bit right now. The nomadic tribes who walked across Beringia were the first ones to discover America.:p;)
 
also, the Romans built such a canal in egypt, but it fell into disuse during the era of the byzantgine empire, and eventually just got bogged down in sand completelly, a tleast that is what i have heard; little idea if its true or not though.

@Amen;

well, Crete for one, as well as the aegean ilands, most notable, Akrotiri; by traditon, it was during a famine that the people of akrotiri sent an envoy to the oracle fo delphi, and asked what they could do to alleviate the famine; they were told, essentially to found the colony of Cyrenica in north Africa

Cyprus looks like it was an itneresitng metling pot of cultures, and we know that at least a trone time, it wa sunder muycenaeans handfs, and lieklly the minoans as well

the Civilization of tartessos in southern spain is an interesting oddity; its very, very hellenic in its art and amrour styles, and the bull cult is very indicitve of the minoans; trade caches by the civilization show that they, even before the phoencians, had an active trade relation with the Irish, though this may have been through trade inbetweens, but it is commonlyl known, that withthe help of tribes in north western france, the tartesseians, mined the scilly islands for tin (ues, "scilly", and not "Sicilly")

from records int he bible, the city is connected, by the name of Tarshish/tharshish to both Crete, hoem of the Minoans, and the Phoencians, who by that time were encroching on the area with colonies
 
Amenhotep7 said:
I'll settle the "who first discovered America" bit right now. The nomadic tribes who walked across Beringia were the first ones to discover America.:p;)

not lieklyl actually; abotu a year ago I read a national geographic article detialign how native americans are lcoser to being, genetically speaking, ethnic europeans then ethinc asians... it may be that the first waves of human migratiosn intot he new world came from europe during the iceage, and that the berigian wave of migration is actually far more recent, at least comparitivlly then that...
 
@Xen

So you're saying Minoa would have expanded into:

-Southern Spain
-Cyrene
-the Aegean Region

At least, initially. Am I correct?
 
beware of Phoenicia.org; they sway history towards a phoencian bias then even i woudl be swingin it in favor of the Romans!

anyway, jst do google, or netscape searches for topics alogn the lines of "Romans int he new world" or somthign like
that
 
Xen said:
not lieklyl actually; abotu a year ago I read a national geographic article detialign how native americans are lcoser to being, genetically speaking, ethnic europeans then ethinc asians... it may be that the first waves of human migratiosn intot he new world came from europe during the iceage, and that the berigian wave of migration is actually far more recent, at least comparitivlly then that...

Yeah, I heard this too. I think what also happened was that some Ancient Europeans got on some rafts and hitched a ride on a current, then settled...where was it?... I think somewhere in Western Virginia?
 
Amenhotep7 said:
@Xen

So you're saying Minoa would have expanded into:

-Southern Spain
-Cyrene
-the Aegean Region

At least, initially. Am I correct?

essetntially, just look at a map of what the greeks themselves colonized, and that would be the itnital set up; the eturscans, as well as all people who contrinuted ot the "sea people"ncuriosn at the end fo the bronze age are lieklyl to be either allies, or tributary states, depending on how big they are; eg corsica is more then lieklyl goign to be a vassla, or even full blown possesion of a storn Minoa, Eturia would be more liklly to be an indipendent ally, due to the resources and man power it would have availible
 
erez87 said:
well The Phoenicians and Minoans were kidna at the same time? Minoa befor or after 1500BC? Phoenicia "rise" is after...

I kinda belive phoenicians came there... can't be it was undiscovered until the Vikings... too long (thousand of years.)

But Phoenicians (and Plishtim, a tribe in israel at that time) were sea people who came from the sea, reserechers say they are greeks. Maybe Minoans after their end?

Minoas are a mjor power until the very end of the bronze age, rigth when phoencia was expanding (due to the Minoan laps of pwoer)

and yes, it slikelyl thatthe reference int he bibel to the "golden calf" is a reference to cultural upheavil due to the popualrity of th eminoan relgion, due perhaps to Minoan refugees from thier homeland setteling the area; the bronze is really one fo the most interesting periods IMO, the bible is the history of a region; even more so then it is a holy book for three religions IMO, and while one must be careful, as ofcourse it woudl look to put the best light on the writers of the book, its still a very valuble tool when you look, and compare it to the other assorted facts and hsitories of the era, to find out what really happend
 
the "golden calf" If I understand from your english (i know only in hebrew) is the least explantion of an outside country. After Persia. It's the end of the bible in time prety much, it's the Greeks... Greeks as for Macedone and Alexander the great.
 
well, let me try to (as i dont know hebew- I should try to learn it one day really)

in the Torah, ther eis the story f Moses and the golden calf; this story can be taken litterally by the belivers in it, or, i look at the story as a sortof shorteing of events;

A)its known that origionally, the hebrews were as polythesitic as any around them, and of the tribes that made up the people fo israle, each had a distinct God that they worshiped above all others; its thought that one dominant tribe more or less jostled it, and its main dieties way into to beign toe forefront fo all the hebrew people gods, and eventually, was worshipped alone, as a single god by the ancient israelites.

b)my own thoughts are, that the story of moses represents the time when the hebrews were still nomadic tribes men, and the story fo the golden calf represents the influx of minoan belifes, which included a very improtant spot for the bull, and calf; the belfes were carried itnot he area by Minoan migrants, possibly fleeing the attacks of the mycenaeans upon thier homelands
 
ok that story.
Thats story is when the hebrews, after becoming jews and reciving the god's 10 commandmends walked 40 yers in the desert as punishment for making a golden bull (sounds like minoan...) anyway moses punishment for not beliving enough in god in some times (like the part when water came from the stone only on the second knok cause moses didn't belived enough) so his punishment was to never enter the lands of israel. (harsh) so when they preapered to enter israel (from the east, they walked in a wierd circle...) so moses punishment came. he saw the lands but than went in a golden calf to the sky... as par punishment. only than the jews hebrews entered israel and conquered it.
 
And another thing (I won't let this one die.:p)

What if there was no WWI? What if Germany thought it to not be worth it enough to war with England? What if it was just another Euro-Skirmish?...
 
jus make a bromze age bash IMO, along similer lines, at least in terms fo exploration, as my middle ages NES, that WILL one day start up
 
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