Superpowers

This is a featured alternate history!

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 country which dominates its immediate geopolitical area within a global sphere of influence. The first civilization to wield power on this scale was the Achaemenid Persian Empire in the 1^st millennium BCE. In its heyday, Persia owned land on all three Eurasian continents and was positioned on the silk road as a commercial mediator between Rome and China. Years later, the Romans themselves became the primary Old World superpower. The Mongols followed shortly with their dominance of the entire Eastern World. In Our reality, no superpower maintained dominance for more than a few centuries, as every one eventually collapsed under its own weight. This alternate history explores a possible world where three minor divergences allow some empires to persist, creating a planet ruled by Superpowers.

Introduction

2000 AD Superpowers Map — World of Superpowers in the present day (*2000 CE*)

This timeline diverges from Our reality at three separate points in history; each event occurs at its own point in time and in a unique part of the world. The PODs follow as:

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 Maya city-state of Calakmul. Mayapan grows into one of the greatest minds in history, and unites the Maya 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 speculative goal of the timeline is to imagine what change can be made by a single person. Two divergences in the scenario give the helms of a country to a genius in a period of great potential and a third gives a growing nation a leader who suffices for maintaining internal cohesion. If there is a plausible theory underlying the events of this timeline it is that good leadership can change the game. The right person can make the difference between plunging a country into ruin and leading her into prosperity.

Superpowers

Introduction

Contents

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