Superpowers

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Superpowers is a featured timeline, which means it has been identified as one of the best alternate histories produced by the alternate history community. If you see a way this alternate history can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, please say so on this page's talkpage.

A Superpower is a state which dominates its immediate geopolitical area and has its own global sphere of influence. The first civilization to have power on this scale was the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the Ist Millennium BCE. At that time, Persia owned territories on all three Eurasian continents and its position on the silk road made it the commercial mediator between the Romans and Chinese. Years later, the Romans themselves became the primary Old World power. They were followed by the mighty eastern Mongol empire. In Our reality, no superpower was a world leader for more than a few centuries as every one eventually collapsed under its own weight. Now this alternate history explores a possible world where three minor divergences allow some empires to persist, creating a world ruled by Superpowers.

Introduction

2000 AD Superpowers Map — The world at the present time

This timeline has three points of divergence from Our reality, making it a third degree alternate history. Each one occurs at its own point in time and on its own continent. The PODs are as follows:

173 AD: During his tour of the Greek Provinces, Marcus Aurelius meets a promising young boy named Gaius Correlus Sulla. Endeared by the child's intelligence, Aurelius adopts young Gaius and declares him the successor to the imperial throne over Commodus, the emperor's biological son. Sulla becomes Caesar in 180 CE and with a clearer mind than Commodus, prevents the Empire's tumble into centuries of unrest that would have ended in its collapse.
394 AD: Quich'en Ch'onle Mayapan is born in a family from the mighty Mayan city-state of Calakmul. Mayapan grows into one of the greatest minds in history, and unites the Mayan city-states by 452, thereby creating the greatest empire ever seen in the New World.
1185 AD: Genghis Khan successfully protects his wife Borte from Merkit raiders and the legitimacy of her son Jochi is never in question. The father and son grow closer than they otherwise would and Jochi is named the sole successor of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty when Genghis Khan dies.

The theoretical purpose of this timeline is to imagine the difference that a single person can make in history. Two cases place a genius at the helms of countries in periods of great potential, and a third gives a growing nation a leader necessary to maintain its cohesion as one. If there is any plausible theory behind this timeline it is that good leadership is a game-changer. It can be the difference between leading a countryinto prosperity or plunging it into ruin.

Superpowers

Introduction

Contents

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