AHC: Largest-scale reconquest possible

Create the largest reconquest (by population or territorial extent) possible.

The reconquest could be by a nation, a government in exile, a wandering band of people, anything. Just as long as a group expelled from a country before is able to take it over once again.
 
Mao Zedong loses all his political capital during an even worse Great Leap Forward, with disorganization at all levels of the Party and Army. Khrushchev senses an opening to cut him loose and denounce his revisionism as responsible for the famine.

Meanwhile, a KMT patrol absent-mindedly strays onto Xiamen Island. The PLA and Party officials surrender without a fight. Chiang Kai Shek sends more token patrols to "accidentally" wander into the mainland. Within days it's clear the PLA rank and file, and many officers, are too demoralized to fight.

A year later, Chiang Kai Shek has accomplished his goal of retaking the mainland with surprisingly little resistance. The Soviets send a token amount of aid to Mao, and the CIA privately contemplate ousting Chiang, yet every victory gains more political power to him.

Borderline ASB, but the CPC's stunning rout of the KMT was also rather unlikely.
 
Depends what you mean by "expelled" so you mean their land is occupied or all of them are kicked out?

Depending on what you mean Russian expansion against the Mongols is pretty damn extensive.
 
Yeah, the Russians went from being pwned to literally, bit by bloody bit, conquering all of the post-Mongol states and expanding across Siberia, and finally making the now-reduced Mongolia their bitch, along with much of post-Mongol Central Asia.
 
Very little of that was reconquest though - the Russians may have been under the yoke of the Horde, but they were never really expelled as a people, and the Mongols were content with leaving polities that pledged vassalage alone.

I'd say a post Alexius I comeback for the Byzantines that extends beyond the 1030 borders into Palestine and Sicily.

Or - possibly - Jalal ad-Din rebuilding his father's empire. That would be pretty impressive.
 
Very little of that was reconquest though - the Russians may have been under the yoke of the Horde, but they were never really expelled as a people, and the Mongols were content with leaving polities that pledged vassalage alone.

I'd say a post Alexius I comeback for the Byzantines that extends beyond the 1030 borders into Palestine and Sicily.

Or - possibly - Jalal ad-Din rebuilding his father's empire. That would be pretty impressive.

Yeah exactly, but in generally "expelled as a people" is a pretty rare thing to happen over large areas anyway so it's hard to answer this WI.
 
Perhaps the Soviet Union during WW2. Say they lose Leningrad and Stalingrad and Moscow turns into a third such battle. You could end up with the Soviets being pushed to the Caspian in the south and Archangelsk(if it's accessible by land this far west) in the north. They take it all back in '44 when Italy is being overrun and France is invaded.
 
Mao Zedong loses all his political capital during an even worse Great Leap Forward, with disorganization at all levels of the Party and Army. Khrushchev senses an opening to cut him loose and denounce his revisionism as responsible for the famine.

Meanwhile, a KMT patrol absent-mindedly strays onto Xiamen Island. The PLA and Party officials surrender without a fight. Chiang Kai Shek sends more token patrols to "accidentally" wander into the mainland. Within days it's clear the PLA rank and file, and many officers, are too demoralized to fight.

A year later, Chiang Kai Shek has accomplished his goal of retaking the mainland with surprisingly little resistance. The Soviets send a token amount of aid to Mao, and the CIA privately contemplate ousting Chiang, yet every victory gains more political power to him.

Borderline ASB, but the CPC's stunning rout of the KMT was also rather unlikely.

Frankly, I think it would be difficulty to demoralize the PLA to the extent that all of them would simply surrender to any GMD soldier who turns up. If you get heavy infighting with a large faction in support of the GMD, then it's more reasonable.

The CPC's rout of the GMD, on the other hand; wasn't really nearly as unlikely; due to the massive support of the USSR, the excellent propaganda and intelligence campaigns, and by the end of the war, the overwhelming numerical support caused by the aforementioned propaganda campaign.
 
Columbus doesn't find or any thing worthwhile in Spain or doesn't return. Spain expands south into North Africa before stopping near Egypt.
 
Well, in a Peshawar Lancers type scenario, much of the American West could be lost to the surviving horse tribes like the Comanche since they wouldn't be dependent on agriculture the comet winter has...severely impaired.

You might see a complete collapse of the white population depending on how severe the comet winter is. Comanche Texas?
 
Well, in a Peshawar Lancers type scenario, much of the American West could be lost to the surviving horse tribes like the Comanche since they wouldn't be dependent on agriculture the comet winter has...severely impaired.

You might see a complete collapse of the white population depending on how severe the comet winter is. Comanche Texas?

Haven't read those books, but I think tribes such as the Comanche might be affected depending on the effect of a neo-ice age on the bison herds. Bison are pretty adaptable, but if their numbers are reduced by starving farmers, the Plains Indians will also suffer from a loss of food.

OTOH, they could probably make a pretty easy move to horse pastoralism from hunting bison since they already have big herds. As long as grass grows, their horses can survive and if wheat/maize agriculture fails, they will be in a very good position to not only reconquer their territory but expand it.
 
True, I hadn't anticipated an uptick in buffalo hunting by starving whites.

However, depending on how much damage the comet impact has inflicted, the white farmers might not have the military backing needed to protect them from Indian attacks. During the Civil War, for example, the Comanches and other horse tribes devastated west Texas and other areas because the military power needed to deter them was elsewhere.
 
Columbus doesn't find or any thing worthwhile in Spain or doesn't return. Spain expands south into North Africa before stopping near Egypt.

OTL Spain is really already a huge reconquest (might or might not be the largest OTL one, but if not the actual record is probably something ridiculously obscure), so this would presumably be close to the limit.
No other ideas that hadn't been already mentioned, unfortunately :(
 
Yeah exactly, but in generally "expelled as a people" is a pretty rare thing to happen over large areas anyway so it's hard to answer this WI.

Well, even in the sense of being subject to the Mongols and thus the wars against the Mongol yoke qualifying - most of the Russian expansion we're talking about is going beyond anything Kievan Rus ever controlled.

Which is not to make it less amazing if you find that sort of thing amazing, but it isn't reconquest to take lands you never had before.
 
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