History Main / AlternateHistoryWank

* In a way, '''Poland''' after the first set of ''The Cross Time Engineer'' novels, although [[spoiler:it would be more accurate to say, "Conrad Stargard's Army Empire"...]]

* Possibly the UrExample is ''Napoléon et la conquête du monde 1812-1832'' by Louis Geoffroy in 1832, which - as the title suggests - had '''UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte''' act slightly differently in the 1812 invasion of Russia with the result that he conquers the entire planet by 1832. Never mind that Napoleon was ''dead'' by 1820 (and that he died of cancer, so military success would not have prevented this).

*** "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 the Spanish Civil War turned out in favor of the Republicans?" "What if Poland or France stopped the blitzkrieg?"

It should be noted that the success of a nation or cause is not, by itself, an indicating factor, even if that nation or cause was largely unsuccessful in RealLife. Indeed, exploring what might have happened had unsuccessful groups or ideologies been more successful is arguably the whole ''point'' of Alternate History. An Alternate History where, say, Romania becomes a central dominating power of Europe is not in and of itself an Alternate History Wank simply because there are some hypothetical conditions where such a scenario might have plausibly come about and been maintained, and an author might examine such a scenario in a realistic and likely fashion.

In the parlance of AlternateHistory fandom, a "Wank" is where a single nation, culture, political theory, or philosophy is singled out and advantaged, typically disproportionately at the expense of its contemporaries; the term is a crude reference to [[ThisIndexTouchesItself the idea of the nationalist masturbating over his nation's fictional triumph]]. Perhaps the British Empire has not just kept the American colonies, but expanded deep into Latin America as well. Maybe the Greater United States rules our world's Canada and Mexico. Maybe Rome, the Mongols, or ThoseWackyNazis managed to win it all and now [[TakeOverTheWorld dominate the globe]]. In short, the point of divergence that created the {{alternate history}} has also created a "Republic Of MarySue" of one sort or another.

In the parlance of AlternateHistory fandom, a "Wank" is where a single nation, culture, political theory, or philosophy is singled out and advantaged, typically disproportionately at the expense of its contemporaries; the term is a crude reference to the idea of the nationalist masturbating over his nation's fictional triumph. Perhaps the British Empire has not just kept the American colonies, but expanded deep into Latin America as well. Maybe the Greater United States rules our world's Canada and Mexico. Maybe Rome, the Mongols, or ThoseWackyNazis managed to win it all and now [[TakeOverTheWorld dominate the globe]]. In short, the point of divergence that created the {{alternate history}} has also created a "Republic Of MarySue" of one sort or another.

* 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. It's ultimately irrelevant to the games themselves because after fifteen years of the Resource Wars, eleven years of the subsequent Sino-American War, and then the Great War lasting about [[NukeEm two hours]], there's [[AfterTheEnd not a whole lot left of either power]].

In the parlance of AlternateHistory fandom, a "Wank" is where a single nation, culture, political theory, or philosophy is singled out and advantaged, typically disproportionately at the expense of its contemporaries; the term is a crude reference to the idea of the nationalist having {{A Date With Rosie Palms}} over his nation's fictional triumph. Perhaps the British Empire has not just kept the American colonies, but expanded deep into Latin America as well. Maybe the Greater United States rules our world's Canada and Mexico. Maybe Rome, the Mongols, or ThoseWackyNazis managed to win it all and now [[TakeOverTheWorld dominate the globe]]. In short, the point of divergence that created the {{alternate history}} has also created a "Republic Of MarySue" of one sort or another.

[[caption-width-right:350: The red part is all the [[TheEmpire Domination of the Draka]]. The blue part is the [[TheAlliance Alliance for Democracy]].]]

[[caption-width-right:350: The orange part is all the [[TheEmpire Domination of the Draka]]. The blue part is the [[TheAlliance Alliance for Democracy]].]]

* A rare in-universe example occurs in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-140 SCP-140]] from the Website/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 gruesome HumanSacrifice, utilizing 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 expand their history further.... but when the Cult of the Scarlet King attempted to restore Daevite Empire in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6140 SCP-6140]] by burning every last copy of SCP-140, [[spoiler:they end up ''subverting'' this trope as their actions brings back the modern-day Republic of Daevastan, a peaceful Central Asian nation with prominence in horticulture. The old Daevite Empire was overthrown by a slave revolt, and never become the EvilEmpire described in the text. SCP-140 was really a RealityWritingBook made by the author Thomas Bruce, who used it to transform the peaceful Daevites into monstrous, inhuman conquerors [[PsychoticManchild because he found it more interesting]]]].

** The CSA itself is the same way, it's built on such a silly amount of historical fallacies that it's nearly impossible to take seriously. Though it makes rather silly RuleOfCool assumptions such as having Lincoln attempt to escape the CSA's forces by the Underground Railroad, it pales in comparison to having the CSA annex the entire North, along with large parts of South America to form a "tropical empire". And then there's the whole thing about a slave-owning society surviving into the modern day without collapsing into a third world country. Despite the CSA being isolated from the rest of the world and culturally stagnant, its economy still runs fairly well.

* ''WebOriginal/AtlasAltera'' could be considered a wank for the concept of ethnolinguistic diversity itself, but also for all the stateless nations today — this world has dozens of Australian Aboriginal and Native American states, not to mention the rest of the world (in total, there are over ''one thousand'' countries in the world). At least one language from every language family has a state of its own.

* 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.

[[caption-width-right:350: The orange part is all the [[TheEmpire Domination of the Draka.]] The blue part is the [[TheAlliance Alliance for Democracy.]]]]

* ''WebOriginal/AtlasAltera'' could be considered a wank for the concept of ethnolinguistic diversity itself, but also for all the stateless nations today — this world has dozens of Australian Aboriginal and Native American states, not to mention the rest of the world. At least one language from every language family has a state of its own.

** 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 ''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.

* This appears at first to be the case in FyodorBerezin's ''Red Stars'' duology, where a parallel world is discovered where the '''[=USSR=]''' is dominant thanks to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler delaying Operation Barbarossa (thanks to British interference in Greece), causing UsefulNotes/JosephStalin to attack first and crush Germany within 2 years. Subverted in that this is a CrapsackWorld, where democracy is non-existent, and the two superpowers take potshots at each other with H-bombs. [[spoiler:Our Russia and US decide to destroy that world and likely succeed]].

* A rare in-universe example occurs in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-140 SCP-140]] from the Website/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 gruesome HumanSacrifice, utilizing 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 expand their history further.... but when the Cult of the Scarlet King attempted to restore Daevite Empire in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6140 SCP-6140]] by burning every last copy of SCP-140, [[spoiler:they end up ''subverting'' this trope as their actions brings back the modern-day Republic of Daevastan, a peaceful Central Asian nation with prominence in horticulture. The old Daevite Empire was overthrown by a slave revolt, and never become the EvilEmpire describe in the text. SCP-140 was really a RealityWritingBook made by the author Thomas Bruce, who used it to transform the peaceful Daevites into monstrous, inhuman conquerors [[PsychoticManchild because he found it more interesting]]]].

* A rare in-universe example occurs in [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-140 SCP-140]] from the Website/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 gruesome HumanSacrifice, utilizing 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 expand their history further.... but when the Cult of the Scarlet King attempted to restore Daevite Empire in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6140 SCP-6140]] by burning every last copy of SCP-140, [[spoiler:they end up ''subverting'' this trope as their actions brings back the modern-day Republic of Daevastan, a peaceful Central Asian nation with prominence in horticulture. The old Daevite Empire was overthrown by a slave revolt, and never become the EvilEmpire describe in the text. SCP-140 was really a RealityWarper made by the author Thomas Bruce, who used it to transform the peaceful Daevites into monstrous, inhuman conquerors [[PsychoticManchild because he found it more interesting]]]].

In the parlance of AlternateHistory fandom, a "Wank" is where a single nation, culture, political theory, or philosophy is singled out and advantaged, typically disproportionately at the expense of its contemporaries; the term is a crude reference to the idea of the nationalist having {{A Date With Rosie Palms}} over his nation's fictional triumph. Perhaps the British Empire has not just kept the American colonies, but expanded deep into Latin America as well. Maybe the Greater United States rules our world's Canada and Mexico. Maybe Rome, the Mongols, or ThoseWackyNazis managed to win it all and now [[TakeOverTheWorld dominate the globe]]. In short, the point of divergence that created the {{alternate history}} has also created a [[MarySuetopia "Republic Of Mary Sue"]] of one sort or another.

* 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 gruesome HumanSacrifice, utilizing 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 expand their history further.... but when the Cult of the Scarlet King attempted to restore Daevite Empire in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6140 SCP-6140]] by burning every last copy of SCP-140, [[spoiler:they end up ''subverting'' this trope as their actions brings back the modern-day Republic of Daevastan, a peaceful Central Asian nation with prominence in horticulture. The old Daevite Empire was overthrown by a slave revolt, and never become the EvilEmpire describe in the text. SCP-140 was really a RealityWarper made by the author Thomas Bruce, who used it to transform the peaceful Daevites into monstrous, inhuman conquerors [[PsychoticManchild because he found it more interesting]]]].

[[folder:Film]]

* 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 gruesome HumanSacrifice, utilizing 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 expand their history further.
** When the Cult of the Scarlet King attempted to restore Daevite Empire in [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6140 SCP-6140]] by burning every last copy of SCP-140, [[spoiler:they end up ''subverting'' this trope as their actions brings back the modern-day Republic of Daevastan, a peaceful Central Asian nation with prominence in horticulture. The old Daevite Empire was overthrown by a slave revolt, and never become the EvilEmpire describe in the text. SCP-140 was really a RealityWarper made by the author Thomas Bruce, who used it to transform the peaceful Daevites into monstrous, inhuman conquerors [[PsychoticManchild because he found it more interesting]]]].

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 world's second most spoken native language nowadays is that of a diminutive square of land like Spain. 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 a single 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 case of this trope (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/WorldWarII,[[note]]at which point India was the only colony that actually turned a profit anyway[[/note]] the Spanish Empire was engaged in bloody, damaging wars since its beginning to its very end, 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.

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 case of this trope (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/WorldWarII (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.

* In the ''{{Literature/Temeraire}}'' series, '''Imperial China''', '''the Incan Empire''' and '''the Tswana''' [[spoiler:who manage to drive all would-be colonists out of Africa]]. Even [[spoiler:'''Napoleonic France''']] gets in on the action, becoming the premier European power and managing to [[spoiler:''invade Britain'']]. Justified in that the presence of rather sentient dragons helps level the playing field around the world and mitigate some of the trends that would have caused the massive age of imperialism in our world.