Thanks for the praise and for the Sino-Seal approval.
It has been a long time since we have seen a good Chinese alt-history.
Indeed. Just while researching this I kept bumping into other great Chinese and nearby PoDs. And that's just in the early 17th century!
Better yet, what if the Boxer Rebellion succeeded?
Gah.
a) Insane Panda was being sarcastic.
b) What everyone else said is more-or-less correct.
Most importantly, though, what do you mean under a Boxer victory? IMHO it wasn't possible as such, and noone that mattered even intended for the mto win. They did have some plans to slaughter all Europeans and blow up all railroads and telegraphs, but seriously, had Europeans not stopped them the Qing would have, after using them to wipe out some political opposition. Basically they were a reactionary version of the Red Guards, and about as viable. Only, they stood no real chance against any serious European opposition... An interesting opportunity might've appeared had the rebellion occured during an earlier world war, I suppose.
Still, a far better Late Qing althist would be a victory in the Sino-Japanese War, say had the Qing acquired Russian support. Then again, the British would probably have supported Japan more openly in that case... Now that would've been a nice little war, don't you think?
You know, I kinda see it hard to imagine Longwudi, being such an elderly man, go on making such widespread reforms. Of course, stranger things have happened in China.
I should've paid more attention to the birth dates while researching and brainstorming, but as you have said, stranger things have happened, and there are precedents for strong elderly rulers. Plus he has help, ofcourse.
I must say the "Civil War" itself was very interesting, reminded me of historical text of various other times of disorder during China's vast history.
Very glad to hear it.
What if Communism never rose in Russia/China?
Technically it rose in Germany, but you probably mean rising to actual power.
Really that's not a very good althistorical question at all; it is far better to post some more specific PoD. There are billions of billions of ways for the communist movements to never come to power in Russia and/or China, and the exact consequences depend on why exactly they would fail in this.
Still, presuming an early 20th century divergence, I'd imagine that the strongest and most influential communist movements would still be in Europe; not sure if any of them would come to power, ofcourse. It all depends on comparatively little details.
Hmmm how about an alt-history where the Christian's won the Crusade?
Once again, how the hell are they supposed to win? As Azale said, they took over the Holy Land, so they won. Holding out there would've been hard, but actually not impossible; it all verged on the control of Egypt (which could be either a base for Muslim flank attacks on the Kingdom of Jerusalem or a more-or-less secured Christian rear base, from which to reinforce and supply the Holy Land), and the Crusaders actually understood that, but ultimately failed for many reasons. Still, with the right leader and some luck, it is feasible at least. How about the Seventh Crusade?
