AHC: Weirdest possible powers

Think of any relatively unknown nation and transform them into any of the following:
1. Regional power
2. Great power
3. Superpower (bonus)
 
Have some small European states form colonies, there's a starter. A couple of ideas:

-Independent Sardinia acquires Tunis between 1830 and 1850
-Naples acquires Tripoli before unification

Of course, you'd have to delay Italian unification. Perhaps, if these two things were to ever happen, you could see two opposing camps...

Or, have Muhammad Ali's Egypt at its biggest extent, and have it survive. This could lead to some interesting foreign policy for the next several decades, especially if combined with the first two points.
 
Bengal saw the beginnings of industrialization before the British takeover, and was close to/on top of coal reserves which could be exploited. It isn't unfeasible they could become a small-hitting world power ala Italy/Belgium
 
The Mississippians survive European diseases, rebound eventually, and manage to carve out an organized state along the southern part of the river. I'm no expert on them, really, but they're often considered among the most sophisticated pre-Columbian civilizations, so that's something.
 
Bolkiah Empire from Taiwan to Kalimantan comprising OTL Philippines and Borneo..they have lots of reserves of gold..
 
Chile fails to conquer the Mapuche lands in the 19th century, and eventually recognizes an independent Mapuche state (possibly as a buffer state between Chile and Argentina). Mapucheland industrializes and becomes the only Native-dominated state in Latin America. Possibly inspires Indigenous movements in Boliva and Paraguay as well.
 
Bengal saw the beginnings of industrialization before the British takeover, and was close to/on top of coal reserves which could be exploited. It isn't unfeasible they could become a small-hitting world power ala Italy/Belgium

East and west Bengal have a combined population of 240 million nowadays: even with an early demographic transition cutting that in half, an industrial nation of 120 million would be a fairly heavy hitter. (Think of South Korea with nearly three times the population...)
 
Cyprus, Hungary, Georgia, Armenia, Jerusalem, Oman, Hyderabad, Ethiopia, Nubia, Lanka, Malacca, Borneo, Ayutthaya etc are good candidates for a relatively lesser known fiefdom to achieve a higher status of power.
 
Seconding Malacca; they were the primary controllers of the Malacca Straits in the 1400's and they were never really put to submission until the early 20th century (that is, if you count the success of their descendants, the Johoreans).

I would also want to throw the Duchy of Courland as another power that would've got it more if they went on the colonial gig earlier than OTL.
 

SunDeep

Banned
Well, I suggested an independent Ireland scenario in a different thread where Prince John's (of Robin Hood fame IOTL) first visit to Ireland proves more successful, and his planned coronation as the first king of Ireland goes ahead. As the next in line to the throne of the House of Anjou after the death of Richard the Lionheart, you could well see King John bringing the holdings of the House of Plantagenet together under the rule of his Irish Kingdom ITTL, eventually leading to OTL's British Empire, the largest Empire in history and an undisputed Great Power(/Superpower, though the term wasn't yet in popular use), becoming TTL's Irish Empire instead.
 
From my map with regards to the Avar PoD, here is what I can think of with regards to regional powers:

- A different formation of Croatia that settles in the Po River valley that controls portions of OTL Croatia, southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

- Old Great Bulgaria (Kubrat's domains) replacing the Khazars as the dominant steppe based empire that consists of an alliance between the Turkic and East Slavic tribes,.

- A different territorial evolution of Serbia that controls Moesia.

Avar World.PNG
 

Cryostorm

Monthly Donor
Navarre lasts until the age of exploration and turns Protestant during the Reformation. Under threat from Catholic Spain and France the Basque population undergoes the greatest migration since the Seljuk Turks and takes over the Island of Puerto Rico, under the name of Euskalia. From there the nation of Euskalia slowly takes over the Caribbean with help from the British in exchange for preferential trade rights and a policy of incorporating the natives instead of exterminating them. After a couple of centuries Euskalia controls the entire Caribbean, the Venezuelan and Guyana regions, Florida and the Yucatan Peninsula, maintains the third largest fleet after Britain and France, and is a key component in British domination of the North America and Portuguese control of South America. They are also friends with the native people in the Mexico and Inca regions who they helped gain independence in an effort to weaken Spain, the great enemy in Euskalia's eyes.
 
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