Alexander lives - map challenge

Lets say Alexander doesn't die at Babylon.And lets give our man a long and healthy life, say, 20 maybe even 30 years more. Map out the world at his alternate death. Is it larger than before? Is it basically about the same but more consolidated? Or has it already broken down into civil war...



In b4 entire world colored blue.

Your map has an error. Alexander ruled over Cyreinaca at that point.

Anyway, its not an Alexander wank, but its not a total disaster for him either....

Basically, it presumes he lives some 30 more years. Most of the first 15 years time is spent consolidating the empire and seizing the little enclaves outside his rule in Anatolia and Greek lands. He rules from Babylon, or some other city in Mesompotamia, structuring it, essentially, as a new Persian empire. Naturally, this causes resnetment in Greece, as Alexander is essentially seen as just another Persian, who tricked them into handing themselves over to Persia. Alexander, however, is rather ignorant of this resentment, and predictably becomes hungry for further conquest. And so he masses much of his army, and his son leads it into India(Alexander, to his great frustration, is to ill to lead it). It is quite succesfull, but why this is happening the Greeks rebel. By the time of his death some ten years later, he has moved his capital to a rebuilt Persepolis, renamed Alexandria, seeing as the loss of Greece and gains in India have shifted the "centre of gravity" of his state East.

Light blue is the rebelling Greek state.

Very interesting, i like it, it goes with his trend of adopting more foreign ways and ignoring greek ones. Its kinda ironic that in trying to defeat persia he became persian.

Here's mine.

Alexander slowly recovers from his alcholism and related health-problems, but he never again charges into battle. He chooses (or builds) a city in Mesopotamia as his capitol, and it quickly becomes a trading center for most of his empire. Repeated raids by barbarian tribes trims his border in Central Asia, and an elite force of Persian and Greek volunteers is raised to protect the Alexandrian Empire.

However, by the time Alexander's about forty five, his legions (and their descendants) living in Persia are becoming more and more crabby, and revolt. Persia splits off and Alexander moves the capitol and government to Greece. Greece slowly centralizes and expands (slightly), and becomes more autonomous from Alexander's Empire. The same schtick happens in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and by the time of Alexander's death, four different strong and centralized kingdoms dominate the corpse of his empire.

(Note: My monitor's colors are messed up, so I have no idea what the map's going to look like.

Alexander lives for another 40 years and wankage occurs.

In mine, titled Oikoumene, Alexander lives 14 years longer, to just three months shy of 47. I conducted a search here on AH.com, counted up the opinions of everyone on how long Alexander would live if not assassinated, and came up with that number.

For the rest of 323-22 BC, Alexander the Great remains off the war-path, instead dealing with angry Macedonians, consolidating his power, paying off his soldiers and organizing new armies to hold down his large Empire. He plays the Shahanshah role.

In late 322 BC, however, word is received that a rebellion had begun in Alexander's Indian satrapies, led by a prince named Sandrocottus (Chandragupta Maurya). Alexander gathered his armies once more, including more Persians and less tired Macedonian veterans, and arrived in Alexandria-in-Arachosia by mid-321 BC. There he quickly re-instated Macedonian authority after a battle in Taxila and other skirmishes along the Indus. Sandrocottus had turned and fled from the Alexandrian frontier, turning on the Nanda Empire, which, though heavily armed, was corruptly led and taken easily.

By 320 BC, word was received that the northern and central Greek cities, led by Athens, had erupted in rebellion against Macedonian oppression. So too had Cappadocia and other client states. Alexander led his armies back west to re-assert his power. By 319 BC his empire had absorbed rebellious states along the Black Sea, while he also oversaw the execution of many rebellious leaders throughout Greece, and the annexation of Epirus. Craterus had been building a navy, for use in an Arabian Campaign, as well as a future war against Carthage. Alexander decided to experiment with his new ships by launching a war of conquest against Sparta, who he viewed as responsible for fueling the Greek rebellion, as well as Crete, Cyprus, and Bithnyia. This took a full three years.

Alexander and his armies took another hiatus from 316 to 314 BC. He was getting older and more eager to consolidate his empire for his seven year old son and heir. He facilitated a new naval building program, the building of large temples throughout his empire, as well as continued experiments in mixing his European and Asian citizens. He brought populations from the East, mostly children and women, farther to the West, while sending soldiers and their families to his cities in the East. It wasn't very popular, and Alexander did not put as much effort into it as he would have liked.

While he had planned on launching a campaign to conquer Arabia, Alexander was delivered news that his satraps in India had begun conquests of their own against the Nanda Empire, which had been weakened by an attempted invasion of Sandrocottus, which nearly succeeded in toppling the empire. The weakened empire was ripping by its seams, and its large, formidable military that Alexander feared against going against had splintered. Alexander gathered his armies in the west, mostly Greeks, and journeyed once again to the east, depositing many of his soldiers throughout his acquisitions in the East, and exchanging them for Persian soldiers.

By the time Alexander arrived in India by 313 BC, his satraps had already made several gains. He congratulated them, but would later replace them for fear that their popularity would work against him. He finally launched himself against the Indians, and in the vacuum of power and disdain against the Nanda, his conquests were easy. He established large Indian satrapies over his gains, which was largely completed by 311 BC.

In his stead, Craterus had launched a campaign against Arabia, launching his ships against the states and bare populations along the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Alexander would return to Babylon by 310 BC to view his accomplishments.

A bout of weakness had dehabilitated Alexander the Great by his return to Babylon. For the next year, he would become more and more sickly. As such, by the time of his death in April, 309 BC, Shahanshah Alexander had already moved pieces around to ensure the legacy of his empire. New lords and officials were shuffled around, there was a large, final population exchange between Greeks and Persians, temples were ordered to be built, his son was proclaimed to become heir to his empire, with Craterus as his regent until his son reached the age of 20 (in the year 303 BC).

Alexander left his empire in one piece.

Plausible?

I'd say its possible, and i really like Alexander vs Chandragupta, should make for some awesome battles and encounters. Maybe of his sons fights hannibal too, that would be epic

Very nice Hnau. I'd say it's plausible.

Hnau, your scenario does indeed seem plausible. Your description makes Alexander seem a bit more managerial than most historians depict him, but one could see him taking those actions for different reasons. I like the idea about population exchange.

The question is really whether the Empire would long survive. Rome and Carthage will be major threats, as will the Huns or any similar Steppe power that can cut the Empire in two. In a satrapy system, the Empire will remain susceptible to decay and all sorts of infighting, particularly with such a great extent. I would hope to see at least some effort to extent the Royal Road and to re-dig the Pharaoh's canal. Particularly the later, since it gives the potential for naval access to almost the entire Empire and thus more commerce between the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf. Without this, Alexander's heir will perenially have two active fronts (the Med and India, if not the steppe and Afghanistan).

Of course none of this makes your scenario implausible. I would ask, why is there a naval campaign against Sparta? To ferry the army from the Levant? Also, I wouldn't think you mean a simultaneous campaign in Greece since such action might provoke another general revolt. To ensure the long term stability of Greece, I'd say some kind of greater political reform would be necessary, but that in turn would cut against Alexander essentially building a new Persian Empire (rather than a Graeco-Persian one).

My reasoning was that Alexander wished to whet his Mediterranean navy on a target that wouldn't have many repercussions, hence, unconquered Greece, Crete, etc. The Greek Revolt ITTL (delayed OTL Lamian War) gives him reason to consolidate control over the region. And I believe Alexander's successor in the Lamian War did change the political system of Greece, stripping it of their democracy and shifting politics to an oligarchy.

I believe that Alexander would be frustrated at this 'simple naval war' against such small territories, finding it more difficult than land wars, and wasting three years in the process of both conquering his targets and putting down revolts in Greece.

I too would think that Craterus or Alexander IV would be wise to rebuild the canal, but I doubt it will come to that. There will be a short time where Craterus will consolidate his regency by re-organizing the nobles and armies according to his desire. I believe that the Indian satrapies will take on more and more de facto autonomy, with a Greek upper class blending into the Indian upper class, the caste system destroyed or severely wounded at best with the introduction of Greek philosophy, and a slow war of conquest to unite the sub-continent. Meanwhile, the First Punic War will be fought between the Macedonian Empire and Carthage, with largely the same outcome for Carthage, while Rome benefits from the peace. The Macedonian Empire will likely war against Rome, pushing at its southern Italian colonies, causing Rome to ally itself with Carthage in a Second Punic War that could signal the death-blow to the Empire. Greece has a deadly, long-pressurized revolt after the long years of war, which will lead Egypt, Asia Minor + Persia, and India to become successor states, with Macedonian Arabia reclaiming its independence.

Thoughts?

Constantinople said:

Alexander lives for another 40 years and wankage occurs.

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I officially hate you no not really

Hnau said:

In mine, titled Oikoumene, Alexander lives 14 years longer, to just three months shy of 47. I conducted a search here on AH.com, counted up the opinions of everyone on how long Alexander would live if not assassinated, and came up with that number.


Alexander left his empire in one piece.

Plausible?

Click to expand...

Detailed, and probably the best here This should really, REALLY be made into a TL.

I am actually going to to an AAR/timeline on this soon enough, so I'm afraid I cannot post a map at this point. I do like Hnau's thoughts on this, although mine will be significantly different in some respects. But, again, to object specifically would be to reveal too much.

I'll post a timeline, so as to allow others to put forward their propositions.