| November 15 |  |
Editor says, what if first born son Şehzade Mustafa had succeeded Suleiman the Magnificent? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s). This story was published in the December 2012 edition of Changing the Times Magazine.
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In 1485, on this day John II, King of Portugal approved Christopher Columbus's plans to equip three sturdy ships, granting one year's time to sail out into the Atlantic and search for a western route to the Orient, and return.
Escape to the AmericasBut instead the Genoese Explorer discovered the Americas. And it was to this New World Continent that Christians began to flee to in huge numbers through out the course of the new century. Because the new Sultan Şehzade Mustafa [1] continued the great work of his father Suleiman the Magnificent in comprehensively beating the people of the book.
Within three centuries, Islam had engulfed Western Europe. America was a common Christian Home, with the notable exception of Orthodoxes and "Hidden Christians" [2]. Long before the Fall of Constantinople - in fact ever since the Fourth Crusade - they had consistently maintained "Better the Sultan's turban than the Cardinal's hat!".
Entry posted by Todayinah Editor
© Alternate Historian, 2004-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Generals Source: Wikipedia Labels: David Petraeus, Paula Broadwell, General, America, West Point. Editor says, in this article we explore an idea with co-authors Eric Oppen and Mike McIlvain.
[1] Mustafa was executed after a conspiracy
[2] a mirror image of the so-called hidden Jews who went to the Americas to escape the Inquisition.
~ What happened to Constantinople(a.ka. Istanbul) in this timeline?
~ @Chris: It fell just as in OTL; the POD was after 1453.
~ Interesting to consider things if the shoe was on the other foot. Also, could the convivencencia of Moorish Spain, that period of mutual peace been extended in some ways in that region with possible hidden Christians, Jews, and Muslims in the Iberian Peninsula -- and beyond? There might not have been a World War II in Europe, or some other things that happened. But, some other things might have happened, too? This one invites a lot of guessing.
~ Requires some massive change in Ottoman style of warfare.
~ Cannot see even the most competent Ottomans overcoming the power projection problem (they might get chunks of Italy, but even direct rule of Hungary was probably a mistake in the long term). More to the point Christians would not have been expelled or converted en masse, especially considering the odds of a compliant Latin cleric getting appointed to the Papacy if the Ottomans take Rome.
~ The problem is that the Ottoman style of warfare had major campaigns led by the Sultan in person with the main forces Jannisaries, artillery park etc. returning to the capital for each winter. This greatly limits the range of the campaigns and shortens the campaigning season.
~ I like Mr. Braungart's suggestion of a Crusade to win back the Old World (Rome particularly?) Conquistadors setting themselves up as the ruling class over the old Aztec & Incan lands, using the gold to invade across the Atlantic rather than attempt to control the Lowlands.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
