for shits and giggles, If the Roman Empire were still around today

[charlie and algernon]

I was bored, so I made a map of what I thought the world would look like if the Roman Empire never collapsed and so there were no Dark Ages and Middle Ages. If the Norsemen were the only ones to make the trek to the New World and allowed the indigenious peoples to keep their territories in the south. If the Romans recognized the futility of taking ALL of Africa.

[Radical Activist]

1. dont you think

that they would have taken more of central europe? seems like the sahara would have made a natural border too.

[charlie and algernon]

2. They never really made it that far even at their height

Perhaps Rome tried to take Germania but the Norsemen came to the Germans' aid to drive the Romans back, esp if they thought having the Romans on so much of their border would be a threat to their soveriegnty.

[Chovexani]

3. This is pretty neat.

Wonder if I could convert that to a Civilization scenario.

[charlie and algernon]

11. that'd be cool

I never bought any of the civilization or age of empires games, but I was always intrigued that you could start out as the Romans and take them through to modern times.

[Solon]

4. Is the Confederation the Iroquois Confederation, or something else?

The only real objection I have is that I don't think the Confederation would have taken over most the territory that is now the lower 48 states of the United States, I would imagine they would limit their size to everything east of the Mississippi river, the Plains tribes probably would have formed their own, independent nation in the West. Just saying! I like the map though!

[charlie and algernon]

10. i really didn't know what to do with the US

I kinda think that it may have started off as you said with several or many independent nations, but eventually form into something like the European Union. It would probaby depend how much noise the Romans or Norsemen made, if at all, on the continent.

[Blue-Jay]

5. O.....Kay...

[Solon]

6. Its called Allohistorical fiction, or Alternate History...

In other words, some event, significant or not, had a different outcome than what happened in real life, an overplayed example would be that D-Day failed. You then try to extrapolate what would have happened after such an event. Its an intellectual exercise that requires quite a bit of knowledge about real history, historical politics, and geography. Generally most of it is crap, and many Points of Divergence, such as the one I mentioned, are used way to often(another one would be the South winning the Civil War). But then again, that's true of any genre of fiction.

[Chovexani]

7. I like Anno Dracula

Mostly because it's just so cracktastic. :D

[Solon]

8. I like the Kushiel Trilogy...

its very, uhm, interesting, a Point of Divergence that involves Jesus's son being the founder of a major Religion in Europe, a religion that isn't nearly as, uhm, uptight as Christianity, which itself only evolved as a small sect of messianic Jews.

[hunter]

9. The U.S. and Western Europe are Version 2 of the Roman Empire.

In comparison to Version One Rome we are updated with the power of coal and oil and a much improved monetary system. This is all neatly wrapped in a cloak of democracy that disguises the bloody minded imperial ambitions of the beast underneath.