Alternate History Wank: Difference between revisions

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== Literature ==

* '''The Angevin and Polish empires''' of Randall Garrett's [[Lord Darcy]] mysteries. The stories are set in an alternate timeline where most of the Northern Hemisphere is divided between two great ruling powers: the Anglo-French Empire, which extends over most of Western Europe (except Italy) and the Americas and is ruled by the Plantagenets; and the Polish Empire, which has conquered virtually all of Eastern Europe. The timeline splits in 1199, when Richard the Lion-Hearted ''doesn't'' die from the crossbow bolt at the siege of Chalus-Chabrol, but recovers, repairs his ways, and goes on to be a great king... Oh, and did we mention that these books take place in the 20th century, and that both empires are still going? Sure, it doesn't look anywhere near modern, but that's just because they use [[Magitek]] instead of normal tech.

* '''The Domination of Draka (South Africa)''' in S. M. Stirling's series on [[The Draka]]. The premise is that a colony in OTL's South Africa gains independence from Britain around when the United States of America did in our timeline, upholds [[Complete Monster|horrific ideals]] within its borders (including slavery), and manages to take over the world by the end of the series (Yes, sadly the image chosen for this very page was ''just the beginning'' of the wankitude). This is handled in such a way that it made the [[Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)/Literature|Wallbanger page for literature]] -- the civilized nations of the world [[Idiot Ball|just ignore the threat of a large, slave-holding, militaristic empire until it's too late]]. Let's just say that one [[Fix Fic]] that was intended to make [[The Draka]] less of a [[Villain Sue]][[Mary Suetopia|topia]] ''still'' started in the mid-20th century with [[Anthropic Principle|them having almost all of Africa and a good chunk of the Middle East...]]

* '''The Roman Empire''' in the Slaveworld novels. The empire never fell, sparing the world from [[The Dark Ages]], resulting in a [[Crap Saccharine World]] free from pollution and [[And I Must Scream|social unrest]].

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* Possibly the [[Ur Example]] is ''Napoléon et la conquête du monde 1812-1832'' by Louis Geoffroy in 1832, which - as the title suggests - had '''Napoleon''' act slightly differently in the 1812 invasion of Russia with the result that he conquers the entire planet by 1832.

* The '''Confederate States of America''' in ''[[How Few Remain]]'' by [[Harry Turtledove]]. Having defeated the Union in the civil war, they extend their border to the Pacific, defeat the United States a second time and then abolish slavery, all in the course of a year. However, the trope is effectively averted in the rest of the series, which demonstrates the disadvantages the country would suffer (inferior industrial base and population available for the army compared to the USA, for example) and sees the Confederacy getting crushed in the First World War.

** Actually, the USA lost the Second Mexican War because Britain and France came to the Confederacy's aid, but would only do so if the CSA banned slavery. That's why it happens so quickly. Also, it's mentioned by several characters that the Americans in Canada can only really watch the more important areas.

** And yet later played rather straight with the '''US''' {{spoiler|conquering and occupying all of Canada save Quebec (which becomes a satellite) in [[WW 1]] and later the whole of the old CSA in WWII}}.

*** {{spoiler|Although the latter half of that is possibly justified, since aside from the annexation of Canada this would roughly restore the pre-Civil War United States boundaries, and it's clearly established that the United States sees the CSA as legitimately part of the USA anyway.}}

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** Ming-3 is merely one example of this trope in the ''GURPS Infinite Worlds'' setting, which is loaded with such examples. '''Aztec Earth''', '''Roman Earth''', '''Japanese Earth''', '''Islamic Earth''', the list goes on. One other notable example is the self-explanatory [[Stupid Jetpack Hitler|"Reich-5"]].

*** For the curious, Reich 1 has the US and Germany fighting a pre-nuke [[World War III]] in 1951. Reich-2 has [[Love Dodecahedron|a five-way rivalry between the US, Germany, Japan, Russia and Britain]], Reich-3 has '''the Axis''' preparing to wipe a besieged "Fortress America" off the map, and Reich-4 has the victorious '''Nazis''' trying to maintain order [[After the End|after they beat the US in the 1950s and "won" a Pyrrhic nuclear war with Japan in 1979]]. Reich-5 has the same divergence point as [[The Man in the High Castle]], but has managed to become ''even worse''. Oh, and thanks to a blunder by Homeliners, one of their Stupid Jetpacks is now alternate history-hopping.

** We also have a minor [[Deconstruction]] in [[Multiversal Conqueror|Centrum's]] universe: There, [[The House of Normandy|Prince William the Aetheling]] didn't die in a ship crash, allowing him to unite the British Isles and start the empire far, far ahead of schedule, effectively skipping the [[High Middle Ages]] and going directly to [[The Renaissance]], with the '''Angevin Empire''' leading the whole way. The ''cultural ideals'', however, did not evolve to fit with the tech level, with their feudalistic leanings eventually leading to a [[World War III|full-scale nuclear and biological war]]. By the time the survivors somehow managed to pull their act together, they've evolved into a completely different society as a backlash.

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* ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' fell hard into this trope. Guardia, a kingdom that stood for a ''thousand years,'' defeated Magus and his army, and is now defended by Crono, Marle, and Lucca who are mighty time traveling heroes... is taken down by '''Porre''' on the southern continent, in the span of less than 15 years.

** We don't really know the extent of the changes caused by their time travel. It might very well be that the elements from ''[[Chrono Cross]]'' gave an unfair advantage over natural magic from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]'', especially when trained in their use by Dalton. If they had elements at all. We also don't know the order some of the events happen, so Lucca's death could very well have happened prior to the war ever starting, and Crono & Marle (and maybe Lucca) would not likely have the capabilities to stand up to a total army, especially if they had superior training in their abilities.

* A lot of ''[[Europa Universalis]]'' [[After Action Report|After Action Reports]] take this form. This subsequently applies to other [[Paradox Interactive]] grand strategy games such as ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' or ''[[Victoria an Empire Under The Sun]]''. It really depends on the player's ultimate aims and skill, however. And sometimes the AI inadvertantly makes the unlikeliest nations into powerhouses (a unified, westernised India by the mid-16th century, for example)

* A lot of ''[[Europa Universalis]]'' [[After Action Report|After Action Reports]] take this form. This subsequently applies to other [[Paradox Interactive]] grand strategy games such as ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' or ''[[Victoria: An Empire Under The Sun]]''. It really depends on the player's ultimate aims and skill, however. And sometimes the AI inadvertantly makes the unlikeliest nations into powerhouses (a unified, westernised India by the mid-16th century, for example)

* Similar to the [[Paradox Interactive]] grand strategy examples, ''[[Rise of Nations]]''' Risk-esque "Conquer The World Campaign" often results in this trope.

* In ''[[Empire Earth]] II'', the African campaign is set in the not-so-distant future and concerns a new energy source that can hold a lot of kinetic energy which allows '''Kenya''' to become a force to be reckoned with.

* All of the ''[[Total War]]'' games have this as the campaign objective.