alternatehistory.com

There's an interesting book titled Rome and China, which reiterates the point that the Classical Roman state and the first Chinese empires were quite similar in many aspects. They both claimed universal empire; they were both centered on a relatively easily unifiable core area, the Mediterranean and the North China Plain; they both expanded into barbaric peripheries, Western Europe and South China; they even collapsed in similar ways, with the North or the West occupied by barbarians while the South or the East retained traditionalist regimes. But these similarities do not last, because the Sui reunify China while the Mediterranean continues to fracture.

So here's the AHC:

1. Have China never be unified after the 4th century.
2. Have the Mediterranean be unified for most of the time after the 6th century.
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