Native Americans did collect honey, like the Mayans of the Yucatan for example. However, the European honeybee is an extremely productive insect compared to its wild North American relatives-I don't know if that's a product of being domesticated and bred, or if that's what caused its...
That's a good question. North America has bees, but nothing that produces wax and honey on the scale of the European honeybee IIRC.
That said, since they're reusing the wax tablets, it maybe won't take that much, especially since very little of the population is 'professionally' literate.
The Sao Francisco is a long river that flows from the southeast to northeast region of Brazil, linking the southeastern mountains to the northeast coastal plain via the dry cerrado and even dryer caatinga environments. Historically, it was navigable for much of its length, making an important...
The only way I see the Bantu adapting to the region's climate is by abandoning farming entirely (a difficult proposition) and taking up pastoralism. Thing is, the Cape Khoisan already had pastoralism (in fact, pre-colonization they regularly provisioned European ships with livestock IIRC)...
North Sea Empire, Danelaw, the [insert dynasty here] Empire, Scandinavia (if the conquest does not include parts of England and/or Germany and is limited to just the Scandinavian peninsula), Danskjavelheim?
While the communities were somewhat suspicious of each other, they did have some cultural interchange and cooperation in the alt-history mystery The Yiddish Policeman's Union where the state of Alaska was turned into a territory for Jewish refugees.
Perhaps in an alternate version of that...
I don't see why he wouldn't have become successful in South Africa, although he probably would not have been able to gather the venture capital that he did in the US to launch himself to billionairehood. Still, Elon Musk is a heck of a salesman and has a wealthy background that could help...
A little bit of OTL Arizona is cotton-suitable, but I think the push west by slavocrat raiders is based more on wishful thinking than a sober analysis of the land's potential.
I agree-Catholic Churches still portray the Archangel Michael using a sword or a spear, I don't see why it would be any different for a modernized polytheist religion. Although walking into a cathedral and seeing the Archangel strapped with a .45 might not be out of place in some parts of the...
European empire probably fails in outright conquest. Japan is in the Eurasian 'disease belt', has a lot of rugged terrain guerillas can retreat to but also has a high population, and rival European empires are probably going to try to sabotage the would be conqueror. As a result, whoever tries...
I like that the manual focuses on supplies. I do wonder how different the question of supplies is when you have red deer as your traction animal, as opposed to oxen or mules.
Maybe in a scenario where the conquest of Mexico and Peru fails? Then we have would-be conquistadors potentially settling this region instead, and as a land-rich and slave-poor colony, the Pampas would see agricultural and ranching development from the initial conquistadors that draw in more...
You don't even need to go as far as putting in a new dynasty-there were advocates for opium legalization in the Qing dynasty.
There are alternative ways to deal with the trade imbalance than banning the opium trade. I couldn't find the source, but IIRC one official suggested that the Qing...