Alternate History

Modern day South Africa is in a mess! The hopeful Rainbow Nation of Nelson Mandela has succumbed to corruption and incompetent governance. The ruling ANC party under Jacob Zuma has become complacent, while great social inequality and poverty persists. Extremist and populist fringes like Julius Malema's EFF are now on the rise and seem to be setting the agenda for the country. The nation is clearly still struggling to overcome its historical legacy of apartheid, segregation and brutal oppression. Under former minority rule, the black majority has been systematically disenfranchised and exploited as cheap labour force. But what if South Africa had instead been at the forefront of civil rights from its very inception and apartheid had never been introduced? With the the entire populace empowered in building its society from the get go, could South Africa have become a modern African superpower? ------------------------- Also please check out my guest appearance on KhAnubis' channel, where I talk more about how South Africa could have ended up with just four official languages instead of the current eleven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j942bn29qnw ********* CREDITS ********* MUSIC: Intro: "The National Anthem" - Coleske (UMG) http://www.coleskeartists.co.za/ Ambient: http://freesound.org/people/frankum/ Outro: http://freesound.org/people/frankum/ FOOTAGE: 0:00-0:11 Audio clip from 2003 movie “Stander” (Newmarket Films) 0:11-0:24 Footage from "Fruits of Fear" documentary - http://www.aamarchives.org/ IMAGES: 14:09 Image taken from website of Botswana Investment & Trade Center https://www.gobotswana.com/ DOCUMENTATION: 1. "Poverty on the rise in South Africa" http://www.statssa.gov.za/?p=10334 2. "ANALYSIS: Why South Africa’s murder rates today are not higher than ever" By Anine Kriegler & Mark Shaw https://africacheck.org/2016/07/22/analysis-why-sas-murder-rates-today-arent-higher-than-ever/ 3. "World Economic Outlook, April 2016 : Too Slow for Too Long" https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2016/12/31/World-Economic-Outlook-April-2016-Too-Slow-for-Too-Long-43653 4. "Language and National Unity in a Post-Apartheid South Africa" Eric P. Louw (1992) - Critical Arts http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Critical%20Arts/cajv6n1/caj006001004.pdf 5. "Language Policy and National Unity in South Africa/Azania" Neville Alexander (1989) http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/language-policy-and-national-unity-south-africa-neville-alexander 6. "Bantu Babel. Will the Bantu languages live?" Nhlapo J (1944) - Cape Town: The African Bookman COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: Any unlicensed copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.

So what if the Vikings had stayed in North America after all? This is the continuation of the alternate history scenario I featured in an earlier video. It is based on Jared Diamonds ideas put forward in his book "Guns, germs and steel" where he postulates that geography had put many indigenous peoples at a disadvantage once European colonists arrived, especially the Native Americans or Indians of the Americas. For starters, the natives had limited access to useful livestock like horses and cattle. They also missed out on innovations like iron metallurgy and the wheel, to name a few. To make things worse, they had no immunity to imported diseases like smallpox decimating entire populations. The Norsemen or Vikings settlement in North America, or present day Eastern Canada, could have injected not only Eurasian technologies into the Americas, but also inoculated them with immunity to smallpox, thanks to the cowpox they could have brought over. This would have made a major impact on many indigenous cultures and civilizations like the Eastern Woodland culture, the Mississippian culture, the Mesoamerican Maya and Aztec civilization and the Incas of South America. The original Norse Americans would be mostly confined to the North East of North America. Once European colonial powers would eventually arrive they would find a completely different situation from that in our own timeline. ********* CREDITS ********* REFERENCES: "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" - Jared Diamond (1997) - ISBN 9780393317558 IMAGES: Mississippian culture copper plaques: Herb Roe (2012) http://www.chromesun.com North Dakota Native Prairie: Rick Bohn / USFWS https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmtnprairie/32811662233 Maps of the Americas based on materials from: http://www.johomaps.com/ Northwest view from Old Mine Road (Delaware): Nicholas A. Tonelli https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Flickr_-_Nicholas_T_-_Span_(1).jpg MUSIC: Ambient music & Outro: http://freesound.org/people/frankum/ COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.

We are used to seeing South America as an almost entirely “Latin”-speaking continent with Spanish and Portuguese dominating as official languages. However, with some small tweaks of history, large swaths could have been speaking Dutch! One example is Brazil, which briefly was in Dutch hands mid 17th century. But not many are aware that the Dutch also could have taken the entire southern quarter of the length of South America! Introducing the Republic of Patagonia. The alternate country of Dutch Patagonia is the result of a different outcome to a historic event that took place in 1643: The death by disease of Dutch explorer Admiral Hendrik Brouwer. Some time before that, the Dutch had just successfully made a bridgehead on the west coast of the South American continent being equipped in Dutch Brazil. Lured by reports of silver and even gold in heaps, they had successfully captured the island of Chiloé from the Spanish. To achieve this, Brouwer had negotiated with the Mapuche natives to secure their cooperation. His aim was to create a settlement on the ruins of the Spanish city of Valdivia on the mainland. Valdivia had been abandoned earlier during uprisings of Mapuche and other native tribes. In this alternate timeline, the settlement persists. The now surviving Brouwer kept his men in check and smoothed things over with the Mapuche, resulting in a partnership lasting for centuries. CREDITS: Ambient music: http://freesound.org/people/frankum/ Sound effects: http://freesound.org/people/webbfilmsuk/ (Marching boots) http://freesound.org/people/ylearkisto/ (Ancient Battle Mix) COPYRIGHTS: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.

During the recent turbulent US presidential elections, the stakes were as high as they could get. And across the political spectrum, stories went around of the consequences of electing one candidate over the other. So let’s go through some scenarios of what could have been and what still may come to pass. Let’s speculate and imagine, probable or highly unlikely, positive, business as usual or worst case scenario. CREDITS: Ambient music: Ambience composition by Georgeke - http://freesound.org/people/Georgke/

In 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. This event was to become the first foothold for a lasting presence of European settlers. It led to the eventual transformation of the population of the entire two continents. However, Columbus himself was preceded with 5 centuries by a small band of Norse Vikings. The intense hostility from the locals reportedly discouraged the Vikings from continuing their American adventure.c But what if the Vikings were not kicked out of North America? What would have happened to the Americas instead? Here’s one scenario! CREDITS: IMAGES: - commons.wikimedia.org - pixabay.com “Vikings” on history.com http://www.history.com/shows/vikings/pictures/season-2-episode-10-the-lords-prayer/vikings_season2_episode10_gallery_5 - “Winding Path” by Daniel McDermott https://www.flickr.com/photos/7716310@N03/3499499024 - “David and Goliath 2008” (Settlers of Catan gameplay) by Matej Batha https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nepomuk_280_-_Osadn%C3%ADci_z_Katanu.jpg MUSIC: - Intro "Electropulse" by TechSmith - Ambient: Floating Synth Melody at 130 BPM C major loop music by Lemoncreme https://www.freesound.org/people/Lemoncreme/sounds/231578/ - Outro: "Medieval Introduction song" by Tristan Lohengrin https://freesound.org/people/Tristan_Lohengrin/sounds/319781/ SOUND EFFECTS: - "Cracking/Crunching, A.wav" by InspectorJ on Freesound.org https://freesound.org/people/InspectorJ/sounds/333818/ - “Ancient, old time battle mix” by YleArkisto on Freesound.org https://freesound.org/people/YleArkisto/sounds/258207/ COPYRIGHTS: Any copyrighted material used in this video is done so for purposes of education, review and/or satire and thus covered by "Fair Use". No ownership is claimed for any such materials other than my own.