History Main / AllNationsAreSuperpowers

*** And ''Comicbook/JonathanHickmansXMen'' revives the idea with Krakoa, the new mutant homeland which has become a superpower thanks to its trade in pharmaceuticals.

* Late Antiquity was kind of like this. The Romans, Han, Kushans, and Iranians had conquered (or otherwise subjugated via a client relation) basically everything they could possibly reach and contact at their tech levels, bar some minor states and tribes at the fringes. The the Han were only vaguely aware of the Romans and Iranians, and vice versa. As far as the vast majority of people living in Eurasia at the time were concerned, there ''were'' only one or two major powers, anything else being a statelet or only existing as the occasional bit of myth.

In any given show where there is some sort of global conflict, or speculative fiction of any kind, [[LawOfConservationOfDetail there will most often be only 2-4 countries involved,]] and each will be described as a superpower. Obviously, this isn't historically accurate; the Cold War, for example, was primarily between the US and the Soviet Union, but many other countries had a stake in the outcome (e.g. nations along the Iron Curtain, and places like Latin America and Southeast Asia where communism was making headway). If there are two factions they will fairly often be TheEmpire and TheFederation or TheAlliance or TheRepublic, though usually neither is portrayed as "good" in this setup (ala ''Anime/LegendOfGalacticHeroes'', or even ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}''), at its most extreme even factions that aren't sovereign nations may be treated with [[NGOSuperpower Superpower level resources]]. Of course, these "superpowers" are frequently HufflepuffHouse.

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* Averted in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance, where Begnion takes up almost half the continent, with Crimea (the good guys) needing to curry Begnion's favour to defeat Daein (the bad guys, which are around the same size as Crimea but with a better military). There are also lots of smaller [[{{Animorphism}} Laguz]]-run countries which don't pose much of a presence separately.

-->-- '''Emmanuel Goldstein'''[[note]]Actually written by the BigBrotherIsWatching regime[[/note]], ''The Theory and Practice of Oligarchic Collectivism'', a [[ShowWithinAShow book-within-a-book]] in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''

* The world immediately before the First World War came close to resembling this. The entire world was basically divided among a few great powers which held either direct imperial control or exercised effective control via treaties or other methods. It was a world in which basically all of South America, Asia, and Africa were under the control of either European colonizers, America, or Japan.

* The world immediately before the First World War came close to resembling this. The entire world was basically divided among a few great powers where the great powers held either direct imperial control or exercised effective control via treaties or other methods. It was a world in which basically all of South America, Asia, and Africa were under the control of either European colonizers, America, or Japan.

* The world immediately before the First World War actually resembled this. The entire world was basically divided among a few great powers, and, with few exceptions, the remaining places the great powers did not hold ''direct'' control (China, Iran, and Central and South America) they still exercised ''effective'' control via treaties or other methods of influence: Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States, with a few smaller empires: the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Japan. While that may seem like a long list, consider that there are close to ''two-hundred'' nations in the world today, and the world of 1914 was indeed a world of superpowers.

-->-- '''Emmanuel Goldstein'''[[note]]Actually written by the BigBrother regime[[/note]], ''The Theory and Practice of Oligarchic Collectivism'', a [[ShowWithinAShow book-within-a-book]] in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour''

* Averted in the VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius games, where Begnion takes up almost half the continent, with Crimea (the good guys) needing to curry Begnion's favour to defeat Daein (the bad guys, which are around the same size as Crimea but with a better military). There are also lots of smaller [[{{Animorphism}} Laguz]]-run countries which don't pose much of a presence separately.

* The world immediately before the First World War actually resembled this. The entire world was basically divided among a few great powers, and, with few exceptions, the remaining places the great powers did not hold ''direct'' control (China, Iran, and Central and South America) they still exercised ''effective'' control via treaties or other methods of influence: Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Austria, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and the United States, with a few smaller empires: the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Japan. While that may seem like a long list, consider that there are close to ''two-hundred'' nations in the world today, and the world of 1914 was indeed a world of superpowers.

* ''Xam'd Lost Memories'' seems to have things divided up between the Northern Government and a Southern alliance.

* ''Series/ValvraveTheLiberator'' averts this by having three main nations-Jior, ARUS, and Dorsissa, but the latter two are superpowers, wheras Jior (where the protagonists are from) is a peaceful weaker nation.

** Wakanda, a tiny African nation long hidden from the world, has had the cure for cancer for centuries and possesses the world's major source of [[{{Unobtanium}} Vibranium]]. Currently it is ruled by EmperorScientist and all-round badass King T'Challa, aka the ComicBook/BlackPanther, who serves on the world's premiere superhero team, and his [[PowerOfTheStorm weather manipulating]] Queen Storm of the ComicBook/XMen, and has favourable ties to the ComicBook/FantasticFour. This has changed in later years when Doctor Doom stole the stores of Vibranium and an attempt to retrieve it with the aid of the Fantastic Four, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Colossus, Nightcrawler and SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} forced T'Challa to render a good 95% of it inert, followed by the events of ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', which saw Wakanda ravaged by a Phoenix Force-empowered [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] and T'Challa annulling his marriage to Storm

** The tiny African island nation of Genosha ''used to'' be this, at least under SelfDemonstrating/{{Magneto}}, due to it being an open haven for the [[ComicBook/XMen mutant species]], meaning the vast majority of its population was comprised of superhumans, a bit of LaserGuidedKarma given that Genosha was formerly home to the worlds largest market for [[FantasticRacism mutant slavery]], and bear in mind Magneto obtained the island because he managed to single-handidly take the entire planets magnetic field hostage and could have caused global catastrophe ''on his own''- the world ''offered it to him''. We say ''used to'' because another ComicBook/XMen villain, Xavier's AxCrazy EvilTwin Cassandra Nova, sent an army of Sentinels to massacre 99.9% of the population, and it is currently an apocalyptic wasteland not really any good to anyone.

* ''VideoGame/EvilGenius'': World map is split between several FunWithAcronyms-named superpowers ("Pronounced as a word" type: S.M.A.S.H., H.A.M.M.E.R., etc.; what letters stand for -- is not explained). They have separate "heat" (grudge gauges), each has its own superagent, and part of villainous ascension involves sowing enough dissent for agents of different superpowers to start attacking each other on sight. Hierarchy of power is present, with geographically-based in Africa and South America superpower being the weakest and spoof Britain with its colonies being the strongest (complete with the peskiest, Film/JamesBond-ripoff superagent).

* In ''IlivaisX'', the American continents are under control of the Aztec Empire, and the vast majority of the Eurasian continent and Africa are under the Iberian Empire. The Gaia Forces, a neutral zone mostly descended from the space colonies, is allowed a buffer section of Russia and the entirety of Australia.

** Wakanda, a tiny African nation long hidden from the world, has had the cure for cancer for centuries and possesses the world's major source of [[{{Unobtanium}} Vibranium]]. Currently it is ruled by EmperorScientist and all-round BadAss King T'Challa, aka the ComicBook/BlackPanther, who serves on the world's premiere superhero team, and his [[PowerOfTheStorm weather manipulating]] Queen Storm of the ComicBook/XMen, and has favourable ties to the ComicBook/FantasticFour. This has changed in later years when Doctor Doom stole the stores of Vibranium and an attempt to retrieve it with the aid of the Fantastic Four, ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}, Colossus, Nightcrawler and SelfDemonstrating/{{Deadpool}} forced T'Challa to render a good 95% of it inert, followed by the events of ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', which saw Wakanda ravaged by a Phoenix Force-empowered [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]] and T'Challa annulling his marriage to Storm

* In the MarvelUniverse, several tiny fictional micro-nations/city-states are considered superpowers due to their extremely advanced science and technology, monopoly over a form of AppliedPhlebotinum, and resident superhero / villain heads of state. Other nations do not miss out either and several have their own secret research programmes designed to [[GeneticEngineeringIsTheNewNuke create or upgrade superhumans]] and their own resident team of superheroes.

* ''StarTrek'' is constantly introducing new species, who control anything from a single planet to a full blown stellar empire. However, the Alpha Quadrant is effectively divided between the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans with the Ferengi and Cardassians as major-minor players.

* Nuclear-war sim ''{{DEFCON}}'' does this with the world divided up into six equal powers. It works for game balance, but makes for frankly odd geopolitics: South America and Africa are united nuclear powers able to field bomber fleets, navies and [=ICBMs=] equal to North America or Russia. Then there's the rest-of-the-world Asian bloc, a unified empire of Japan, China, India, Pakistan, both Koreas, the entire Middle East and everything in between.

** The tiny African island nation of Genosha ''used to'' be this, at least under SelfDemonstrating/{{Magneto}}, due to it being an open haven for the [[ComicBook/{{X-Men}} mutant species]], meaning the vast majority of its population was comprised of superhumans, a bit of LaserGuidedKarma given that Genosha was formerly home to the worlds largest market for [[FantasticRacism mutant slavery]], and bear in mind Magneto obtained the island because he managed to single-handidly take the entire planets magnetic field hostage and could have caused global catastrophe ''on his own''- the world ''offered it to him''. We say ''used to'' because another ComicBook/{{X-Men}} villain, Xavier's AxCrazy EvilTwin Cassandra Nova, sent an army of Sentinel's to massacre 99.9% of the population, and it is currently an apocalyptic wasteland not really any good to anyone.

** The tiny [[{{Ruritania}} East European country]] of Latveria goes even further- it is considered a superpower pretty much because of the fact it is ruled by DrDoom, an even greater EmperorScientist than T'Challa, as well as a SorcerousOverlord, which is so advanced that crime, poverty and disease have been totally eradicated and the country is policed by super-advanced robots of Doom's own design. It is so ridiculously advanced that [=VR=] simulations of a hypothetical war between Latveria and the United States- which bear in mind is even more advanced than its real-life counterpart thanks to a monopoly on superhumans amongst other things- has Lateria win ''every single time''. This might have something to do with the fact that Doom has succesfully conquered the world already. Thrice (at least). And he surrendered it out of ''boredom''.