With a POD after the crucifixion of Christ, come up with a scenario where Christianity has more or less the same geographic distribution as Islam does IOTL. Bonus points if you come up with a scenario where "Christendom" is roughly along the same geographic lines as OTL's Islamic World while having a POD after Constantine converted to Christianity.
AHC: Have Christianity have the geographic range of Islam
- Thread starter Whiteshore
- Start date
Christianity never becomes the official religion of the entire Roman Empire, but does eventually become the official religion of some kind of Eastern Roman Empire?
Meanwhile, some kind of Christianity takes over in Iran?
Meanwhile, some kind of Christianity takes over in Iran?
I think the area of the Americas and Australia more than dwarfs the area Islam holds sway. Plus before the 20th century purge of Jews and Christians Islamic areas had much more Christians than Christian dominated lands had Islam faith members.
If you are trying to limit Christian land mass control to equal to what Islam holds then Islam would have to be the one to make global expansion first. Or China did confining both Christian and Islamic expansions to Asia.
If you are trying to limit Christian land mass control to equal to what Islam holds then Islam would have to be the one to make global expansion first. Or China did confining both Christian and Islamic expansions to Asia.
The challenge in question here is "find a way for Christianity to hold sway in the same regions that Islam is dominant in IOTL".
I kinda have one have Constantine only enact the edict of Milan and make the religion legal but not given preference Julian rules mainly stays in the west so he doesn't die in Mesopotamia and lives to refrom paganisim in the east Christianity grows and the western empire remians with it's various pegan Faith's and some chirstians mainly in Rome and the east becomes fully chirstian
Not hard, actually. Otl Christianity was dominant in North Africa and the Middle East before Islam. It just needs to be more successful in Iran and Central Asia and less so in Europe
Skallagrim
Banned
This is relatively easy to do. Christianity needs to win out in Persia, which is not an ASB premise, and then we have plausible butterflies that can prevent the rise of Islam. After all, if Arabia is surrounded by Christian powers, its influence is likely to win out. North Africa was already Christian before the Islamic expansion, as were Syria and Anatolia. Christian expansion into Indonesia and parts of India are hardly improbable if Persia gets converted.
The biggest challenge is somehow making the European bits of the Roman Empire (and, by extension, the rest of Europe) not Christian. I'd like to propose a scenario where the Christian alt-ERE, due to being allied with also Christian alt-Persia, manages to hold onto (or regain) all of North Africa up to Gibraltar, and similarly attempts a reconquest of the European sections of the fallen West. But the fairly autocratic rule from the East chafes in the West (which still contends that, being the seat of the original and real Rome, it deserves primacy). This sparks some kind of revolt, which has a religious component. Essentially, a successor state covering the European parts of the old WRE manages to secede from the ERE, and it embraces some radical offshoot of mainline Christianity as its state religion. Soon enough, said offshoot undergoes a series of further reforms, to the point that it ceases to be Christian, and is effectively as different from Christianity as Islam is in OTL (although presumably in different ways.) This new religion spreads to the rest of Europe, and later to *Russia.
Now we're set. Christianity covers, more or less, the region that is predominantly Islamic in OTL -- but doesn't cover the area that is predominantly Christian in OTL.
The biggest challenge is somehow making the European bits of the Roman Empire (and, by extension, the rest of Europe) not Christian. I'd like to propose a scenario where the Christian alt-ERE, due to being allied with also Christian alt-Persia, manages to hold onto (or regain) all of North Africa up to Gibraltar, and similarly attempts a reconquest of the European sections of the fallen West. But the fairly autocratic rule from the East chafes in the West (which still contends that, being the seat of the original and real Rome, it deserves primacy). This sparks some kind of revolt, which has a religious component. Essentially, a successor state covering the European parts of the old WRE manages to secede from the ERE, and it embraces some radical offshoot of mainline Christianity as its state religion. Soon enough, said offshoot undergoes a series of further reforms, to the point that it ceases to be Christian, and is effectively as different from Christianity as Islam is in OTL (although presumably in different ways.) This new religion spreads to the rest of Europe, and later to *Russia.
Now we're set. Christianity covers, more or less, the region that is predominantly Islamic in OTL -- but doesn't cover the area that is predominantly Christian in OTL.
So, basically a Christian Persia combined with a *Germanic Islam is the best way to get a scenario where Christendom has the same range as Islam IOTL?