Alternative History as Gameplay: Civ 6 and EUIV

I hadn't seen anyone talk about this yet so I thought I'd do a bit of a "beginner-friendly"  dive into how Alternative History gameplay shakes out in these games and how we can read into them.
I've always been bugged a bit by how Civ presents its content, despite being a borederline lifelong fan of the series, so hopefully I've done it some justice here. That's all I can really hope for.

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Intro: 00:00
What are these games: 00:51
What is "What If": 5:18
Caveats: 9:07
Defining a Nation: 12:00
The Player and the People: 15:10
Atrocity: 28:17
What If and Turnabout: 33:40
What is Victory?: 36:06
Symmetry and its Consequences: 40:50
The Enlightenment: 43:10
Conclusion and "Credits": 50:33
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Sources for things:
China stuff:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journa...

Fairbank– Fairbank, John K., ed. The Chinese World Order: Traditional China's Foreign Relations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1968. Page 9


Columbus
https://www.theguardian.com/world/200...
Expel
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/histor...
Wizard
https://davidmattingly.com/fantasy/