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Originally Posted by erneiz_hyde
1) Hmm...OK, that was interesting.
2) Let's move on to another: What if Harald of Norway won and succeeded in taking the England throne?
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1) After some rethinking, I don't think the rise of taifas was preventable. Lessening ethnic tensions will require different way of how the conquest of North Africa by the Caliphate would've played out and I think it's another topic to discuss. So is Umayyad's appetite for Jizya, which was one of the primary reasons why Al Andalus became typically known as enlightened beacon of tolerance of early medieval era and appealing to its fanboys like us
I think the best option would be to eliminate Asturias, since it both acted as the remnants of "free christian spain" and an outpost of European Christendom which attracted volunteers after the doctrine of Crusades was born (to which Asturian contribution was important). With its absence, when taifas would inevitably emerge after some kind of a political crisis, there will be no christian entity with ideological pretensions to take the advantage to expand. The only thing left is for those taifas to later gradually reunify under the strongest of them after series of conquests.
Alternatively, you can have the muslims conquering southern France in order to extend the buffer.
2) Taking aside the doability of the scenario (I just mildly doubt it, because I don't know enough), if he managed to won English throne, I guess the country will possibly remain anglo-saxon and more oriented to Northern Europe, instead of to France. William of Normandy was a major turning point in England's history, without which english language won't have so much Latin influence in it. And instead, we'd call it "inglisc" or something similar sounding....
EDIT : I think you should check
this thread.
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And now, it's my turn to ask, to Sumeragi. About the thing you told me some days ago regarding MacArthur being proxy of Japanophile lobby in US that allowed post-war Japan to rebound spectacularly as we know it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sumeragi
There were two main lobbies in the US: The "conservative" (misinformed) Japanophiles, and the "liberal" New Dealers. The Japanophiles had a large web of connections through the Japanese Quackers (many of whom were the wives of important families), and thus mistakenly believed that Japan would become truly democratic even if the old system was maintained. At the same time, many of the Republicans wanted something resembling their vision of what a country should be like, and as a result MacArthur was both the ringleader of the exorcism and also the victim of manipulation by the Japanese ruling class into helping maintaining the same rigged system that started the march towards war. It wasn't until the death of the Showa Tenno that the solid hold of power by the elites was broken, with the political chaos of the early 1990's being the result.
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That's the only one of your post regarding pro-Zaibatsu plot that aimed to retain the power of post-War Japan that I found on the "other place". It's still too dark to me about MacArthur's place in the whole scheme. What you're saying to me is basically he was "the link" (a rebellious one at that) between japanophille lobby in US and Japanese elite, instead of a replacable spare part of an established shielded mechanism that would force their agenda any either way, which is what I got from your post above(which calls for explanation about the standing of Japanophile lobby in US vis a vis differing interests). I'm aware about his overlt self-assuredness and all, including his self-confessed unmatched understanding of oriental thinking, and that seems to factor. I also know that, while he was in general suspicious towards powerful bussinessmen, he had a few associates himself among them. Was it them ? Would you mind to tell me about how the story went behind the creation of him as the Japanophile's proxy ? Or maybe you can reference me a title or two that covers up this particular question ?
Best regards,
Suryaningrat