AHC: Have another major civilization rise up in Eurasia

Your challenge is to have a civilization that is viewed in its ATL's present-day to be on par with civilizations like Early Dynastic China, and the Roman Empire.

Bonus points if it's somewhere unexpected.
 
Your challenge is to have a civilization that is viewed in its ATL's present-day to be on par with civilizations like Early Dynastic China, and the Roman Empire.

Bonus points if it's somewhere unexpected.

I've always felt like Iran should really be treated like this, and as a successor of the early Mesopotamian stateless.
 
Your challenge is to have a civilization that is viewed in its ATL's present-day to be on par with civilizations like Early Dynastic China, and the Roman Empire.

Bonus points if it's somewhere unexpected.

Maybe a Tocharian Empire evolve somehow and dominates central Asia ?
 
Doesn't Persia count?

If not, how about a further surviving Maurya Empire? Have the kings following Ashoka be of better quality and it could easily have thrived. Hell, I believe it was at one point the most populous empire of its day? (may not be the case, that just rings a bell for some reason)
 
Your challenge is to have a civilization that is viewed in its ATL's present-day to be on par with civilizations like Early Dynastic China, and the Roman Empire.

Bonus points if it's somewhere unexpected.

A monocultural Indian state covering the Ganges plains would be my best bet
 
yeah, a continous persia or a mono-cultural India (doesn't even have to be all of India, but at least regularily waxing out to all corners
 
1- A Persia that never falls to Macedon and/or the Arabs

2- An India that manages to remain mostly politically united after either the Mauryans, the Guptas or maybe even Harsha

3- An Arab Caliphate that manages to remain politically united for much longer then OTL

Any one of those could result in a civilization that could be considered at least on par with China or Rome. To be honest, I think a case could be made that Persia and India are already on par with China or Rome, given their longevity and distinctiveness.

I also don't think the scale of the impact of the Arab Caliphate can be rationally denied. Really, the Arabs left just as much a cultural and political mark on this world as Rome or China.
 
I'd say that ancient Persia and Classical India IOTL would definitely count. Unless you really meant "state/empire" when you said "civilization".
A lasting Kushana state centered in Afghanistan/Central Asia/NW Pakistan would be interesting.
Pre-Islamic Yemen has a chance: it would never reach the level of power projection of Han China or Rome for obvious reasons of scale, but it could have a pretty serious cultural reach as a sailing and trading powerhouse in the right circumstances (unless you buy into Jan Retso's idea that early Islam was to a large extent precisely Himyar's Revenge, in which case you could argue that ancient Yemen qualifies IOTL, as Islam essentially inherited a lot from it; but even then, the memory of it has not been preserved, and that level of cultural continuity is questionable anyway).
 
A monocultural Indian state covering the Ganges plains would be my best bet

The difficulty would be creating a "monoculture" for India to posses, maybe if Sanskirt was used as more than just an upperclass/sacred language, and spread amongst the commoners it could have replaced regional languages, at least in areas above the Deccan.
To be honest I don't think a monoculture is needed, look at post-roman Europe. All that's needed is a longer lasting Maurya empire, with more of an everlasting prestige, at least in the Subcontinent.
 
Would the Khanate of Juan-Juan (otherwise known as the Rourane Khaganate) count?
 
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How is Rome equal to China when the latter still exists and the former died?
Many aspects of Roman culture did transition to other cultures.

But main explanation, for example, in my 10th grade world history class here in the U.S., we talked about Rome more than China. Mistakenly or not, we just did. (this was way back in school year 1978-'79, which doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess it is)
 
The difficulty would be creating a "monoculture" for India to posses, maybe if Sanskirt was used as more than just an upperclass/sacred language, and spread amongst the commoners it could have replaced regional languages, at least in areas above the Deccan.
To be honest I don't think a monoculture is needed, look at post-roman Europe. All that's needed is a longer lasting Maurya empire, with more of an everlasting prestige, at least in the Subcontinent.

Wasn't Sanskrit originally just the language of the Indo-European invaders, which then split up into the various modern north Indian languages?

A longer-lasting Mauryan Empire would probably fulfil the OP's requirements. It would help if it lasts long enough for it to be seen as the classic empire, so that later states deliberately adopt its trappings and try to present themselves as its successors, much like with OTL's Roman and Han Empires.
 
How is Rome equal to China when the latter still exists and the former died?

Which China? Han? Ming?

Plenty of groups claimed to be the successors to Rome (Constantinople, the Germans, the Ottomans, the Russians), but they didn't control the same geographical area; in some cases they didn't even overlap it. Those who claimed succession in China controlled China the geographical region, they weren't all direct successors to the previous regimes.

Because of the nature of the canal system that connected China when compared to the Mediterranean that connected Rome, it seems more likely that a single polity could control the whole thing. You don't need to invest in maintaining the Mediterranean to make use of it, you just need to maintain your own ports and your own shipyards. The canals have to be maintained against sediment, the locks have to be manned, they are so useful that they become an essential way to feed cities, and they can be sabotaged in times of war (far more effective than piracy at blocking trade). The economy of China breaks down when it is divided into independent polities, the economy of the Mediterranean doesn't.

Had North Africa remained Christian, I think it's likely that we could have seen a second flowering of Rome (or Constantinople-as-successor), one that again dominated most of the Mediterranean. Had Spain remained Muslim, and/or had the Ottomans conquered Italy, there is a chance they could have united the Mediterranean littoral, and there is a chance they would have called or considered themselves successors to Rome.
 
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