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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grue" data-source="post: 3954942" data-attributes="member: 11989">Heh... it's a hard one to wrap the noggin around.  For one, to bring them up to steam age technology some of the classic (heh... romanticized) notions of Celtic culture will have to be altered or dropped.  19th century technology is the story of money and finance.  You might have a impossible string of Celtic geniuses who come up with some great inventions\discoveries but without finance they'd only be toys..  curiosities too expensive to widely adopt, and almost certainly no impetus to invent them in the first place.Assuming you don't want Celtonia to be some backwater hinterland, I think you'd pretty much have to weaken or destroy the clans by developing urban centers and also instilling a reasonable belief in the rule of law.  Wide scale complex financial and trading relationships don't happen if a merchant can't reasonably expect that his contracts will be honored... that everyone is (relatively) subject equally under the law so the merchant doesn't have to worry as much that he'll get screwed over by some local priest or king.  That would also mean weakening the warrior caste somewhat....no more raiding the neighbor's cattle (for honor and profit) and no more feuding. Still scratching my head a bit of how to get there without turning them into Romano-Celts (the German tribes were heavily influenced by Rome as was nearly everyone else they came in contact with).  As a first step in the alternative Celt history, I'd whack Rome in the Punic Wars.  Carthage levels Rome.  Maybe Hannibal gets some help from a Celtic tribe or two.  To prevent a Carthaginian Empire from replacing a Roman one I'd probably just have them splinter up after a few rebellions and revolts (Carthage was more of a sea\trading empire anyway).I would also keep Christianity a subset of Judaism and maybe a fringe cult with the Greeks.  That could also have the effect that Mohammed and the Calphs never happen.  Otherwise Islam would most likely tear through a more fractured Europe... the Balkans may hold out (doubtful without Constantinople in the way), but without Roman influence I doubt you get another Charles Martel to block the march into France.  Even with super Celts as a replacement, the East is going to outweigh Europe both in population and economic figures for a bit (or alot) longer than our own timeline if Rome is taken out of the picture.I would found the proto-Celtonia by using a Great Leader who gets the idea of conquering the neighbors and somehow figuring out a way of keeping it together after his death.  Maybe changing the priesthood a bit to become his bureaucracy of sorts.  Offhand investing the druids to keep his laws (and not arbitrate them) and formalizing at least a faction bards to keep and protect knowledge (or histories at least).  From there I think the Celts may develop up some bickering city-states, then maybe a kingdom, then empire (to spread the system around a bit and solidify it into the culture), then successor kingdoms, and finally nation-states.</blockquote>

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