History Main / AlternateHistoryWank

Therefore, there can be some disagreement about what, precisely, constitutes an Alternate History Wank. Some maintain that for a timeline to qualify as a Wank it has to be fundamentally implausible or even invoke AlienSpaceBats ''after the point of divergence''; for example a timeline where, say, Romania becomes the central dominating power of Europe because aliens arrive on the planet and attack all the other countries in Europe while inexplicably leaving Romania alone. For others, the timeline just has to show [[CreatorsPet clear signs of favoritism]] towards the author’s preferred nation; for example, a timeline where Romania becomes the central dominating power of Europe because the military leaders, diplomats, and politicians of the other nations inexplicably [[IdiotBall become complete idiots]] when dealing with Romania, which conversely is blessed with leaders who are tactical geniuses and never make a wrong move, ever.

In either case, however, it is usually quite clear upon reading the timeline that regardless of the in-universe justifications that are being offered, the only real reason the empire that is the centre of the Wank is doing so well is that the author obviously prefers them and is overtly arranging things to work out in their favour. As such, there are several common results or indicators that suggest that a Wank might be taking place. Firstly, in keeping with the above points about favouritism, the reader might get a sense that the nation in question is BornLucky: everything always goes its way, when an issue turning against it just once would have disastrous consequences. In our Romania example, it might be that {{Contrived Coincidence}}s always seem to be working out in Romania’s favour, otherwise seemingly intelligent people completely fail to spot Romania’s obvious plans until it’s too late, and so forth.

** Literature/TheBritwankEmpire ('''Great Britain''')

* The Marvel's multiversal [[ComicBook/CaptainBritain Captain Britain Corps]] has a member (Centurion Britannus from Earth-4100)in which '''the Roman Empire''' never fragmented. Separately, it also has a world where '''the Nazis''' won WWII, with Kaptain Briton.

* The '''[[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany Kaiserreich]]''' AND '''the [[{{Eagleland}} United States of America]]''' in Robert Conroy's ''1901'', accompanied by gratuitous (and historically inaccurate) use of AllGermansAreNazis tropes and general StupidEvil by the Germans. In 1901, any European nation attempting to fight America would be instantly set upon by the other Great Powers of Europe; by this point, the alliance systems that led to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI were already largely in place, and such a clear violation of American historical neutrality, even after the US's war with the decaying remains of the Spanish empire, would be an easy pretext for war-not to mention that Germany's navy at the time was substantially weaker than the Royal Navy (which was easily the most powerful Navy on the planet and would remain the largest until 1944), precluding the sort of overseas invasion that Conroy portrays. Conroy seems to have a thing for [[{{Eagleland}} Plucky 'Murica]] [[AmericaSavesTheDay fighting back from the brink of destruction to destroy the Enemies of Freedom (tm)]].

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' two-part episode "Storm Front". A successful German invasion of the U.S. East Coast probably would have needed all of the ''Wunderwaffen'' [[StupidJetpackHitler Vosk]] was working on. It's mentioned that the Third Reich controls all of continental Europe, the British Isles, much of Africa, Moscow, and the East Coast. This is actually lampshaded by the ''Generalmajor'', who says there's a lot of talk that Germany has advanced too far, too quickly.

** Interestingly, this is [[spoiler:the original history]] in-universe, and [[spoiler:[[RealLife our real-world history]]]] comes about as a result of time travel. [[spoiler:...And is later changed by more time travel.]]

** Note, however, that this was based on ExecutiveMeddling. The original plan for ''Homefront'' was for the invading army to be from ''China,'' only to be changed at the last minute because of its political implications, which required a timeline giving them a lot of lucky breaks.

** Note, however, that this was based on ExecutiveMeddling. The original plan for Homefront was for the invading army to be from ''China,'' only to be changed at the last minute because of its political implications.
** In Homefront 2, the point of divergence is moved back to 1972 (though it may actually be farther back, given that the intro cinematic says that North Korea was already technologically superior to the US at that time). A North Korean starts the computer revolution out of his garage, creating Silicon River and making the North Koreans the world leader of technology. By 2004, the [[EvilInc APEX corporation]], this universe's equivalent of Apple, is the sole supplier for America's [[BreadEggsMilkSquick phones, tablets, and military equipment]]. After bankrupting itself in the Middle East for 2 decades, America is essentially annexed by North Korea after APEX shuts off all of America's military equipment through a backdoor they had installed.

* The real-time strategy ''VideoGame/AztecWars'' is set in a world where an Aztec chieftain one day got an idea to conquer the entire world... and proceeded to easily do just that, apparently managing to utterly steamroll Africa and Europe. Of course, it probably helps that they have a host of military units unknown in our timeline, including fireball-toting priests and {{Spider Tank}}s.
* A mild example in the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. The Soviet Union never became a world superpower in this universe, and so China became the communist opponent to the United States in the Cold War, which wouldn’t end until the Resource Wars kicked off in 2051, during which China invaded Alaska and the US annexed Canada as a result.

** In the ''Great War'' mod for ''VideoGame/NapoleonTotalWar'' (set on World War One European front), winning the campaign requires to do much than how it historically went (for instance, conquering German territories as France while in OTL's Great War the Entente never breaches in Germany's territory).

[[folder: Literature]]

* ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'' might qualify as this. The point of divergence is 1945: '''Russia''' drops The Bomb on Berlin, instead of the USA dropping it on Japan. As a result, dominance in the Cold War shifts in their favor, and they remain strong enough to slowly take over the rest of the world, with the US being the last free nation until the Soviets invade in 2003.

Note also that there is a certain degree of TruthInTelevision here; certain nations or causes ''have'' apparently been BornLucky or have become implausibly dominant global powers, and certain periods have essentially been dominated by one particular group or cause. The United States in particular is sometimes said to embody the closest thing to this in RealLife: Bismarck is often ([[BeamMeUpScotty falsely]]) quoted as saying "there is a special providence that protects fools, drunkards, and the United States of America." At the height of the British Empire, 20% of the world’s population was governed by a small island off the coast of Northern Europe. The achievements of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat might seem like the stuff of implausibly fanciful tales had they not actually happened. The unification, and in some sense, the creation, of the nation and the idea of China was, in some sense, the work of one man, UsefulNotes/QinShiHuangdi. And the Mongol Empire lasted for over 150 years and, at its height, spanned 20% of the surface of the world. However, what separates these situations from a typical AlternateHistoryWank (aside from the fact that they really happened) is that not everything was perfect for them; the United States hasn’t always had good fortune, with [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar the civil war over slavery which killed about 800,000 people]] being a particular nadir, the British Empire was at times fiercely hated and resisted by a large number of its subjects and eventually fell after the country went bankrupt during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 World War 2]] (at which point India was the only colony that actually turned a profit anyway), Alexander had his screw-ups and personal failings and his empire disintegrated after his death, ''every'' pan-Chinese Empire fell apart at some point, and the Mongol Empire was too big to administer effectively and split into 4 separate khanates before eventually collapsing.

* ComicBook/YTheLastMan sees '''Israel''' becoming a world power after a mysterious plague kills all the world's males, due to [[UsefulNotes/IsraelisWithInfraredMissiles their]] [[ActionGirl extensive inclusion of women]] [[BadassIsraeli in the military]].

* A mild example in the ''VideoGame/Fallout'' series. The Soviet Union never became a world superpower in this universe, and so China became the communist opponent to the United States in the Cold War, which wouldn’t end until the Resource Wars kicked off in 2051, during which China invaded Alaska and the US annexed Canada as a result.

** To be fair, the filmmakers intent was to examine the legacy of the Civil War and racism in modern American society rather than depict a plausible alternate history.

** "What if Mosley took over the UK and made it fascist?" "What if France and the UK rebuffed Germany's early expansion?" "What if Stalin never completed the Great Purge?" "What if Japan never invaded China?" "What if Portugal or Spain joined the war?"

* '''The Roman Empire''' yet again. In Roma Eterna, the failure of the Jewish Exodus from Egypt, as well as a convenient victory over some barbarians, lead to a world where Rome remained divided and never fell. The Americas were fortified by a Dane, which prevented Rome from capturing them. Mohammad gets offed before he can give rise to Islam -- by a Roman who thinks he'll create the Caliphate.
* '''The Roman Empire''' again again [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment again]]. In the ''Romanitas'' series of books by Sophia [=McDougall=], the survival of Emperor Pertinax leads to Rome controlling Europe, India, South America, half of Africa, and most of North America. Japan controls the whole of Oceania, South East Asia, and parts of Siberia. China is reduced to a buffer state between the two. There's also an independent Africa that broke away from Roman control.

* '''"Libertarianism"''': ''The Probability Broach'' by L. Neil Smith.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' is a weird case. ''Britannia'' rules half the world, but not the British Isles, because Revolutionary France successfully invaded said isles and forced the Britannian aristocracy to flee to their North American colonies. Meanwhile, Japan, despite being a Britannian colony, seems to have been one of the last non-superpower countries and its independence is treated as central to world politics, thanks to its large deposits of [[MineralMacGuffin Sakuradite]]. The series' portrayal of Japan may or may not count as the BornLucky element of this - they aren't the dominant power, but the revolution that overturns the three-color-map-world status quo starts in Japan when a banished Britannian prince decides to help the Japanese rebels, who held out longer than any other colony, so at first, it could seem like they are, but when you look closer, the series is actually quite critical of Japan and a lot of elements of the country's behavior.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' games take place in a World War II where the Nazis get their hands on [[StupidJetpackHitler vastly more advanced technology than the Allies]]/[[{{Ghostapo}} occult powers from another dimension]]. ''[[VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder The New Order]]'' goes one step further and has them well on their way to completely taking over the world.

** We don't really know the extent of the changes caused by their time travel. It might very well be that the elements from ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' gave an unfair advantage over natural magic from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', 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. Though how Porre, a single small town in ''Chrono Trigger'', would even have the manpower to raise such an army remains an open question.
* A staple of most of ''Creator/ParadoxInteractive'''s Grand Strategy games.

* The ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysofEurope'' mod for ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIron IV'' plays with this -- it is done straight before and during World War II for the Axis powers (mostly because it [[AnthropicPrinciple hard to pull off a crushing Axis victory without it]]), but the moment the Axis won, the timeline stops giving them breaks (at least for Germany; what has been hinted about Japan thus far suggests they're doing better), to the point that some slight wankish moments later on (such as Spain and Portugal uniting into a fascist Iberian Union) are direct counter-reactions to how badly Germany screws things up and the Reich appears to be on the brink of collapse by the start-date -- 1962, less than two decades after [=WW2=] ended.
* ZigZagged with ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'', which started out as a strong subversion, but as the development of the mod progressed, it turned into bigger and bigger '''Imperial Germany''' wank. After the Kaiser refused to reenact unrestricted submarine warfare after the sinking of RMS ''Lusitania'', the USA does not get involved, leading to the failure of the Entente offensive in the west. Paris falls and the German Empire wins World War I in 1921 with a strategic stalemate against Great Britain. Then the mod goes just silly, as the battered and barely holding together Germany first sends expeditionary forces to Russia and does what the Entante couldn't - allowing White and Tsarist victory. ''Then'' they launch expedition to China and fight a massive war there with both local warlords and Japanese. At the end of it all, Germany controls one way or another half of Europe (via puppet states), almost all of Africa, Malaya, Indochina, most of China... By 1936, the German Kaiserreich is the foremost power in Europe but it has a desperate manpower shortage, it has failed to prevent hostile [[ChummyCommies syndicalist]] revolutions in France and Britain, its colonial empire is highly unstable and it suffers under a huge stock market crash immediately from the game start. Other events can see [[{{Irony}} a right-wing Russia backstabbing Germany]] [[DealWithTheDevil by siding with the Internationale]] to reverse the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, and a Second American Civil War resulting in a syndicalist victory. It's surprisingly likely for the [[CharacterTitle country that lends the mod its name]] [[DecoyProtagonist to be destroyed in only the first 5-10 years]].
* Similar to the Creator/ParadoxInteractive grand strategy examples, ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations''' Risk-esque "Conquer The World Campaign" often results in this trope.

* ''VideoGame/FreedomFighters'' might qualify as this. The point of divergence is 1945: '''Russia''' drops The Bomb on Berlin, instead of the USA dropping it on Japan. As a result, Russia takes over the world.

* Winning the Soviet campaign in either ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'' or its expansion pack, ''Yuri's Revenge'', leads to the '''Soviet Union''' conquering the known world.

* A rare in-universe example occurs in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-140 SCP-140]] from the Wiki/SCPFoundation. The object in question is a RealityWritingBook detailing the history of a civilization called the Daevites. When the book was first found, the Daevites were destroyed by Qin Kai in the 3rd century BCE. However, when the book comes into contact with a fluid that can be used for writing such as ink or human blood (which is, naturally, the most potent writing fluid), the text changes to state that the Daevites recovered from their defeats and rebuilt elsewhere and eventually return to glory, and it is currently written that the civilization was destroyed by Genghis Khan, about ''1400'' years later. This on its own would not be remarkable compared to many other objects in containment except for the fact that these changes in the written history are [[{{Retconjuration}} retroactively applied]] to the world, with corresponding archaeological sites appearing. Each time the book has such an ''expansion event'', their history gets closer and closer to modern times. This is especially bad because the Daevites are ObviouslyEvil, performing [[HumanSacrifice gruesome human sacrifice]], utilize BlackMagic, and are a HumanSubspecies with much longer lives and therefore often superior intelligence to standard humans. Furthermore, they have infiltrated our society and are actively working to [[OhCrap expand their history further]].

* All of the ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' games have this as the campaign objective.
** Correction: All world-scale strategy games have this as a campaign objective. It is made worse in the ''VideoGame/TotalWar'' games by the fact that many large and historically powerful factions ''start'' the campaign with imperial overstretch; they have too much land to protect with too few troops, their treasury does not allow for rapid buildup, and they are often at war with many other nations straight away. It is invariably easier (if slower) to win the campaign by starting as a small and insignificant nation, directly invoking this trope.
** It may be worth pointing out that the ''Total War'' series started out with ''[[VideoGame/ShogunTotalWar Shogun]]'', which was set on a much smaller scale, and the conquest of the whole map was perfectly historical (Tokugawa Wank?). It became weird when the same mechanic was translated onto Medieval Europe, then made slightly more sense in [[AncientRome the ancient Mediterranean]].
*** Then made even ''less'' sense with ''VideoGame/EmpireTotalWar'', where you can conquer the world with the Maratha. While it's true historically that the Maratha were able to conquer most of India from the previously-reigning Mughal Empire and their navy was strong enough to keep the British and the Portuguese out, they were eventually handily beaten by the Brits, resulting in the British-controlled India.
*** The ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarShogun2 Shogun II]]'' "Fall of the Samurai" DLC not only allows you to replay the [[UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration Boshin War]] and, for example, restore the Shogunate, you can also TakeAThirdOption and declare your faction a republic and conquer Japan all on your own (this is loosely based on the Republic of Ezo, which was quickly crushed by the Emperor).
*** In the ''Great War'' mod for ''VideoGame/NapoleonTotalWar'' (set on World War One European front), winning the campaign requires to do much than how it historically went (for instance, conquering German territories as France while in OTL's Great War the Entente never breaches in Germany's territory).

This treatment is really popular for famous empires, though "bad guy" empires tend to be the most popular for wank status. For every "Rome never falls" timeline there seem to be at least three "USSR and/or Nazi Germany takes over the world". Another way this trope comes about is when one historically significant person is suddenly killed or spared in this alternate timeline, leading to changes that are, at best, questionable. Such as "if UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar was not assassinated, Rome would develop steam powered technology and bring the barbarians to their knees". And that is a relatively ''tame'' example.

Therefore, there can be some disagreement about what, precisely, constitutes an Alternate History Wank. Some maintain that for a timeline to qualify as a Wank it has to be fundamentally implausible or even invoke AlienSpaceBats ''after the point of divergence''; for example a timeline where, say, Romania becomes the central dominating power of Europe because aliens arrive on the planet and attack all the other countries in Europe while inexplicably leaving Romania alone. For others, the timeline just has to show [[CreatorsPet clear signs of favoritism]] towards the author’s preferred nation; for example, a timeline where Romania becomes the central dominating power of Europe because the military leaders, diplomats and politicians of the other nations inexplicably [[IdiotBall become complete idiots]] when dealing with Romania, which conversely is blessed with leaders who are tactical geniuses and never make a wrong move, ever.

Another indicator is that individual nations tend to be assimilated into large multinational single-state power blocs, with the end result in extreme cases being that [[SpaceFillingEmpire the entire world is divided between two or three super-empires]] -- all of which tend to be dominated by one main national or cultural group (which, perhaps not coincidentally, is usually that which [[CreatorProvincialism the author finds it easiest to identify with and / or write about]]). This tends to result in a situation where, as with the page image, the map of the world can essentially be shaded with two or three colours. In our example, while it might plausibly be possible for Romania to become a dominant European power, a scenario that results in a world where the entire part of the map incorporating Europe, Asia and the Middle East is a monolithic entity with no internal borders, which is shaded one colour on the map and all of which might as well be simply called ‘Romania’ makes it likely that a Wank is taking place. Such empires might also be implausibly long-lasting, with little or no sign of the kinds of stresses that tend to vex large empires in real life (such as supply lines, internal opposition, regional differences, etc.).

Note also that there is a certain degree of TruthInTelevision here; certain nations or causes ''have'' apparently been BornLucky or have become implausibly dominant global powers, and certain periods have essentially been dominated by one particular group or cause. The United States in particular is sometimes said to embody the closest thing to this in RealLife: Bismarck is often ([[BeamMeUpScotty falsely]]) quoted as saying "there is a special providence that protects fools, drunkards, and the United States of America." At the height of the British Empire 20% of the world’s population was governed from a small island off the coast of Northern Europe. The achievements of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat might seem like the stuff of implausibly fanciful tales had they not actually happened. The unification, and in some sense, the creation, of the nation and the idea of China was, in some sense, the work of one man, UsefulNotes/QinShiHuangdi. And the Mongol Empire lasted for over 150 years and, at its height, spanned 20% of the surface of the world. However, what separates these situations from a typical AlternateHistoryWank (aside from the fact that they really happened) is that not everything was perfect for them; the United States hasn’t always had good fortune, with [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar the civil war over slavery which killed about 800,000 people]] being a particular nadir, the British Empire was at times fiercely hated and resisted by a large number of its subjects and eventually fell after the country went bankrupt during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 World War 2]] (at which point India was the only colony that actually turned a profit anyway), Alexander had his screw-ups and personal failings and his empire disintegrated after his death, ''every'' pan-Chinese Empire fell apart at some point, and the Mongol Empire was too big to administer effectively and split into 4 separate khanates before eventually collapsing.

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' is a weird case. ''Britannia'' rules half the world, but not the British Isles, because Revolutionary France successfully invaded said isles and forced the Britannian aristocracy to flee to their North American colonies. Meanwhile, Japan, despite being a Britannian colony, seems to have been one of the last non-superpower countries and its independence is treated as central to world politics, thanks to its large deposits of [[MineralMacGuffin Sakuradite]]. The series' portrayal of Japan may or may not count as the BornLucky element of this - they aren't the dominant power, but the revolution that overturns the three-color-map-world status quo starts in Japan, when a banished Britannian prince decides to help the Japanese rebels, who held out longer than any other colony, so at first, it could seem like they are, but when you look closer, the series is actually quite critical of Japan and a lot of elements of the country's behavior.

* '''The Angevin and Polish empires''' of Randall Garrett's Literature/LordDarcy 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 Lionheart ''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 Roman Empire''' again again [[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment again]]. In the ''Romanitas'' series of books by Sophia [=McDougall=], the survival of Emperor Pertinax leads to Rome controlling Europe, India, South America, half of Africa and most of North America. Japan controls the whole of Oceania, South East Asia, and parts of Siberia. China is reduced to a buffer state between the two. There's also an independent Africa which broke away from Roman control.

* The '''[[UsefulNotes/ImperialGermany Kaiserreich]]''' AND '''the [[{{Eagleland}} United States of America]]''' in Robert Conroy's ''1901'', accompanied by gratuitous (and historically inaccurate) use of AllGermansAreNazis tropes and general StupidEvil by the Germans. In 1901, any European nation attempting to fight America would be instantly set upon by the other Great Powers of Europe; by this point, the alliance systems that led to UsefulNotes/WorldWarI were already largely in place, and such a clear violation of American historical neutrality, even after the US's war with the decaying remains of the Spanish empire, would be an easy pretext for war-not to mention that Germany's navy at the time was substantially weaker than the Royal Navy (which was easily the most powerful Navy on the planet, and would remain the largest until 1944), precluding the sort of overseas invasion that Conroy portrays. Conroy seems to have a thing for [[{{Eagleland}} Plucky 'Murica]] [[AmericaSavesTheDay fighting back from the brink of destruction to destroy the Enemies of Freedom (tm)]].

** It gets much worse as the series progresses. The first book portrays Britain as a middle-ages style monarchy rather than the parliamentary democracy it actually was by this stage, with military technology and tactics 50 years out of date and all British characters presented in a ridiculously stereotyped fashion and portrayed as inhumanly stupid, evil and prone to rape and pillage to a degree which would make the Vikings proud, while of course Americans are portrayed as all utterly heroic, enlightened and invincible (they also instantly adopt 21st century views on race and gender). Additionally Canadians are shown as poor brainless slaves of the British Empire yearning for the US to annex them (which the US promptly does for their own good).

** Also played straight with '''Imperial Japan'''. Although it's treated as a WildCard and isn't given a lot of focus, Japan seems to come out on top all the time. [[spoiler: They're probably the only country that gains more than it loses from both world wars. By 1945 they control most of South East Asia and are in a position to seriously threaten Australia and India and to demand that Russia hand over parts of Siberia.]] Some of the viewpoint characters speculate that the Cold War analogue in this time line will involve [[spoiler: the USA and Germany trying to prevent Japan from acquiring nuclear weapons.]]

* The '''British Empire''' (and the other imperial empires) in ''Literature/TheTwoGeorges'', although it's played with. With the obvious exception of North America, the British Empire and its dominions aren't that greatly different from what they were at the height of the British Empire anyway, and it's often suggested that the Empire has gradually become more like the OTL-Commonwealth, except with Britain remaining more influential. Technological development has been much slower than in OTL, however, because of the distinct lack of World Wars - the real life 'Pax Britannica' of the 19th century has lasted right through to the end of the 20th.

** Interestingly, this is [[spoiler:the original history]] in universe, and [[spoiler:[[RealLife our real world history]]]] comes about as a result of time travel. [[spoiler:...And is later changed by more time travel.]]

* ''Atomic roulette'' by Andrzej Pilipiuk has '''Polish Second Republic'''. A time traveller goes back to the 30s, provides the Polish government with all possible knowledge about the war to come (as one of the characters notes, the sole map of deployment of the German army before the Invasion of Poland was more than enough) and ''all possible know-how for the next century''. By the early 60s Poland is the leader in modern technology. The action takes place somewhere in 2000s, where it's the only superpower in the world, Germany is a rump state with industry on the level of some African country, France and Britain as "punishment" for their inactivity against Germany were razed and now have food revolts and constant shortages on a daily basis, America is lagging behind with technology and industrial development (courtesy of Polish spies) and a sizable chunk of Africa is painted red and white (going as far as the Polish army stabilizing Somalia and succeeding). It also won against a [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar rebellion]] in Polish Indochina. Oh, and there are no atomic weapons in this world aside from Polish ones, as everyone involved in the Manhattan Project or any atomic research was murdered by Poles. Hell, thanks to the time traveller's data, they killed everyone involved with development of anything important, making research of any other country lag behind considerably, while Poland itself leads in very futuristic techs (red mercury, AI research and stuff like that). A wank to end all wanks.

** The first episode had Russia as the dominant world power, after capitalism fell. The RealLife Domino Theory is referenced and, apparently, became reality in that world.

*** For the curious, Reich 1 has the US and Germany fighting a pre-nuke WorldWarIII in 1951. Reich-2 has [[LoveDodecahedron 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 [[AfterTheEnd 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 ''Literature/TheManInTheHighCastle'', 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.
*** The Caliph, or "Islamic World", is a notorious example. The Islamic Golden Age not only never ended, but got turned into a higher gear. ''Then'', in 796, printing press was developed, speeding things up even further. So while the nominal date of this particular parallel was only 1684 when Homeline agents arrived for the first time, the technological level is just pure science fiction, exceeding Homeline by centuries of development, with the ''contemporary'' level being reached somewhere around 1100s. In fact, the technology of Caliph is so advanced, both Homeline and Centrum try to steal as much of it as only feasible, as the world of Caliph is at a verge of global war that can potentially wipe it out entirely.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' games take place in a in World War II where the Nazis get their hands on [[StupidJetpackHitler vastly more advanced technology than the Allies]]/[[{{Ghostapo}} occult powers from another dimension]]. ''[[VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder The New Order]]'' goes one step further and has them well on their way to completely taking over the world.
* ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' 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 ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' gave an unfair advantage over natural magic from ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'', 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. Though how Porre, a single small town in ''Chrono Trigger'', would even would have the manpower to raise such an army remains an open question.

* ZigZagged with ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'', which started out as a strong subversion, but as the development of the mod progressed, it turned into bigger and bigger '''Imperial Germany''' wank. After the Kaiser refused to reenact unrestricted submarine warfare after the sinking of RMS ''Lusitania'', the USA does not get involved, leading to the failure of the Entente offensive in the west. Paris falls and the German Empire wins World War I in 1921 with a strategic stalemate against Great Britain. Then the mod goes just silly, as the battered and barely holding together Germany first sends expeditionary forces to Russia and does what the Entante couldn't - allowing White and Tsarist victory. ''Then'' they launch expedition to China and fight a massive war there with both local warlords and Japanese. In the end of it all, Germany controls one way or another half of Europe (via puppet states), almost all of Africa, Malaya, Indochina, most of China... By 1936, the German Kaiserreich is the foremost power in Europe but it has a desperate manpower shortage, it has failed to prevent hostile [[ChummyCommies syndicalist]] revolutions in France and Britain, its colonial empire is highly unstable and it suffers under a huge stock market crash immediately from the game start. Other events can see [[{{Irony}} a right-wing Russia backstabbing Germany]] [[DealWithTheDevil by siding with the Internationale]] to reverse the Brest-Litovsk Treaty, and a Second American Civil War resulting in a syndicalist victory. It's surprisingly likely for the [[CharacterTitle country that lends the mod its name]] [[DecoyProtagonist to be destroyed in only the first 5-10 years]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Homefront}}'', [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture while not technically alternate history at the time of release]], qualifies anyway. The backstory involves the current '''North Korea''' uniting with South Korea, and in just 15 years, becoming powerful enough to conquer half of the continental United States. Not forgetting Japan, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Myanmar, Brunei, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.

*** The ''[[VideoGame/TotalWarShogunII Shogun II]]'' "Fall of the Samurai" DLC not only allows you to replay the [[UsefulNotes/MeijiRestoration Boshin War]] and, for example, restore the Shogunate, you can also TakeAThirdOption and declare your faction a republic and conquer Japan all on your own (this is loosely based on the Republic of Ezo, which was quickly crushed by the Emperor).

* On ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'', the heroes accidentally let Julius Caesar get his hands on a modern history book that warns him about how he dies. Somehow, Caesar avoiding his assassination results in a 21st Century where, not only does the Roman Empire still exist, but has [[TakeOverTheWorld taken over the world]].

* ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'': Grantville, a small, coal-mining town turns into the ultimate Type 1 {{Eagleland}} wank, when it starts to meddle in the matters of 1630s Europe and reforms as '''United States of Europe'''. The fact the book turned into a collaborative series leads to the point where every single citizen of Grantville got elevated [[ADayInTheLimelight one way or another]] to the status of MagnificentBastard under various writers.

Note also that there is a certain degree of TruthInTelevision here; certain nations or causes ''have'' apparently been BornLucky or have become implausibly dominant global powers, and certain periods have essentially been dominated by one particular group or cause. The United States in particular is sometimes said to embody the closest thing to this in RealLife: Bismarck is often ([[BeamMeUpScotty falsely]]) quoted as saying "there is a special providence that protects fools, drunkards, and the United States of America." At the height of the British Empire 20% of the world’s population was governed from a small island off the coast of Northern Europe. The achievements of UsefulNotes/AlexanderTheGreat might seem like the stuff of implausibly fanciful tales had they not actually happened. The unification, and in some sense, the creation, of the nation and the idea of China was, in some sense, the work of one man, UsefulNotes/QinShiHuangdi. And the Mongol Empire lasted for over 150 years and, at its height, spanned 20% of the surface of the world. However, what separates these situations from a typical AlternateHistoryWank (aside from the fact that they really happened) is that not everything was perfect for them; the United States hasn’t always had good fortune, with [[UsefulNotes/AmericanCivilWar the civil war over slavery which killed about 800,000 people]] being a particular nadir, the British Empire was at times fiercely hated and resisted by a large number of its subjects and eventually fell after the country went bankrupt during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWar2 World War 2]], Alexander had his screw-ups and personal failings and his empire disintegrated after his death, ''every'' pan-Chinese Empire fell apart at some point, and the Mongol Empire was too big to administer effectively and split into 4 separate khanates before eventually collapsing.