Alternative 20th/21st Century Great Powers and Superpowers

Delta Force

Banned
By great power, I mean a country able to exert economic, technological, political, and military power on an international scale. This would include the great powers of the world wars, and France and the United Kingdom until some point in the 1950s/1960s. Superpowers are even more powerful and can do everything a great power can do, but generally get their way if they come into dispute with one. This would include the Soviet Union and United States, and arguably the British Empire until some point between the 1910s and 1956, when the Suez Crisis occurred.

Anyways, without getting too much into the definitions, with a 1900 PoD, are there any countries that could have risen to great power status? Are there any great powers (or perhaps countries that aren't great powers) that might even have been able to rise to superpower status?
 
With a 1900 POD? If you can keep the Ottoman Empire from falling/get them to gain some land, they could become a very powerful great power with all that oil money and population.
 

Buzz

Banned
The British can go full union with the Dominions with seats in Parliament. Canada had the potential, so with them as full equals they get full development.
It's kinda ASB, but get India in. Full British development and with them as equals would do wonders.

Same with an Axis victory in Europe, with the US building up Canada and India.

ASB, but the China joins the Soviet Union. Though sheer populations, it becomes a China union.

Or, an Axis victory. The US gets all of Latin America to join as a union
 
With a 1900 POD? If you can keep the Ottoman Empire from falling/get them to gain some land, they could become a very powerful great power with all that oil money and population.
Some big reforms would be necessary though. It had a small population, a low literacy rate (About 10% in 1923) and nowhere near industrialized. Maybe they can bind the Empire together through Pan Islamism.
 
If the pan-Arab movement successfully United most of the Arab world into a United Arab Republic, like OTL Egypt and Syria tried to do, that nation could definantly become a great power.
 
If Central Powers would win WW1 Germany and Ottoman Empire could be very powerful nations.

With good POD you can get united Scandinavia. It could be great power. Probably not easy with 1900 POD anyway.

South Africa could be very strong nation if there wouldn't be Apartheid and Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho would join to the country.

Egypt could be strong nation if it would have Sudan and it would be stable nation.

Greater Syria leaded by Hashemites could be great power. But it would need much good luck.
 
This has probably been said before but Canada easily has the potential to be a great power if it had a larger population base (we easily have the resources, wealth and tech base just not the numbers for this). It probably would be possible to increase the population enough to qualify by around 2000.

For some reason Canada ends up slightly more racially/religiously tolerant early on and places less stringent restrictions on immigration during the early half of the 1900s. Maybe the economy does better or we find some more major oil and mineral deposits earlier on and need more labour migrants. The government could more readily reach out to eastern Europeans such as Poles, Ukrainians or Russians when it was trying to settle western Canada to keep the west from being absorbed by the US. In OTL they were seen as a second choice when they couldn't get as many British and other western European migrants as originally desired.

Keep F. C. Blair from becoming head of the Immigration Department and allow immigration of Jews during the 1930s.

Somewhat further and a bit less likely would be if there were fewer restrictions on Asian and Black immigrants. Particularly if there was a less significant or even no Chinese head tax or if the government more readily allowed Indians to migrate (especially if they were well educated and spoke English). Removing all extra restrictions on Asians and Africans might be slightly ASB before WWII but it could feasibly be possible shortly after it. In OTL Canada removed most restrictions in 1962, but bans on Chinese immigration were repealed in 1947 and in 1951 Canada signed agreements permitting more immigrants from India, Pakistan and Ceylon. In a timeline where we were already a bit ahead on racial tolerance it wouldn't be that much of a jump to remove most restrictions a decade or so early.

The US ultimately maintains most of its OTL (mainly racial) restrictions on immigration, so Canada gets most of these migrants as a second choice.

Ultimately this results in Canada having a population of around 50 to 60 million by the end of the century, enough it can conceivably be considered a great power.
 
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Perhaps Latin America plays a more active role in the World Wars, leading to the rise of Colombia, Argentina and Brazil as great powers by 1991.
 
This has probably been said before but Canada easily has the potential to be a great power if it had a larger population base (we easily have the resources, just not the numbers for this). It probably would be possible to increase the population enough to qualify by around 2000.

For some reason Canada ends up slightly more racially/religiously tolerant early on and places less stringent restrictions on immigration during the early half of the 1900s. Maybe the economy does better or we find some major oil and mineral deposits earlier on. The government could more readily reach out to eastern Europeans such as Poles, Ukrainians or Russians when it was trying to settle western Canada to keep the west from being absorbed by the US. In OTL they were seen as a second choice when they couldn't get as many British and other western European migrants as originally desired.

Keep F. C. Blair from becoming head of the Immigration Deparment and allow immigration of Jews during the 1930s.

Somewhat further and a bit less likely would be if there were fewer restrictions on Asian and Black immigrants. Particularly if there was a less significant or even no Chinese head tax or if the government more readily allowed Indians to migrate (especially if they were well educated and spoke English). Removing all extra restrictions on Asians and Africans might be slightly ASB before WWII but it could feasibly be possible shortly after it. In OTL Canada removed most restrictions in 1962, but bans on Chinese immigration were repealed in 1947 and in 1951 Canada signed agreements permitting more immigrants from India, Pakistan and Ceylon. In a timeline where we were already a bit ahead on racial tolerance it wouldn't be that much of a jump to remove most restrictions a decade or so early.

The US ultimately maintains most of its (mainly racial) restrictions on immigration, so Canada gets most of these migrants as a second choice.

Ultimately this results in Canada having a population of around 50 to 60 million end of the century, enough it can conceivably be considered a great power.

There's an easier POD- avoid the Great War. Look at Canada's growth in the two decades prior to the war, if this trend lasts another 10 years Canada is going to have a HUGE boost in population (it would still be dwarfed by America, but less so than OTL).
 
There's an easier POD- avoid the Great War. Look at Canada's growth in the two decades prior to the war, if this trend lasts another 10 years Canada is going to have a HUGE boost in population (it would still be dwarfed by America, but less so than OTL).

Depending who you ask avoiding the Great War might actually harder (might be easier to write but less likely to happen). I admit I am not convinced it was 100% inevitable but it was pretty likely tensions between all the European powers would boil over at some point or they'd have been dragged in due to the convoluted alliances.

Perhaps Latin America plays a more active role in the World Wars, leading to the rise of Colombia, Argentina and Brazil as great powers by 1991.

Argentina actually has a pretty decent shot if it can avoid the string of military coups starting in the 1930s.

Some people argue Brazil could currently be considered a Great Power given its economic strength and population, even if its military might not be on the level usually required. Brazil's biggest advantage right now is probably that it doesn't have any major regional competitors that can match it.
 
I feel like Japan is a pretty obvious one (Lee-Sensei and I disagreed on another thread as to whether or not it could be a superpower), but it kinda was a Great Power OTL. I just throw it in because it's stint as a Great Power could have been a lot longer.

I'd say that Iran could potentially be a Great Power, if on the lower rung of them.

A more successful Nasserist UAR would be a Great Power, definitely.

Indonesia also has potential, as does Australia, if it was less inward-looking.

One could argue that South Africa acted like a Great Power in Africa OTL, which was facilitated by the lack of involvement in Southern Africa of other Great Powers.

If Congo-Kinshasa wasn't a basketcase, they would have been pretty influential.

Alternate superpowers? India and China are pretty much it, although they have significant geographic constraints on becoming so (although that didn't stop the Soviet Union).

Mexico could also have been a great power, but that requires a PoD well before 1900.
 
I feel like Japan is a pretty obvious one (Lee-Sensei and I disagreed on another thread as to whether or not it could be a superpower), but it kinda was a Great Power OTL. I just throw it in because it's stint as a Great Power could have been a lot longer.

I'd say that Iran could potentially be a Great Power, if on the lower rung of them.

A more successful Nasserist UAR would be a Great Power, definitely.

Indonesia also has potential, as does Australia, if it was less inward-looking.

One could argue that South Africa acted like a Great Power in Africa OTL, which was facilitated by the lack of involvement in Southern Africa of other Great Powers.

If Congo-Kinshasa wasn't a basketcase, they would have been pretty influential.

Alternate superpowers? India and China are pretty much it, although they have significant geographic constraints on becoming so (although that didn't stop the Soviet Union).

Mexico could also have been a great power, but that requires a PoD well before 1900.
People have made convincing arguments that Japan still is a Great Power.
 
Oh yeah, definitely. They have a bigger economy than most great powers. I think they don't really qualify because of a lack of military assertiveness, they don't often wade in on transnational issues that don't directly concern them, etc. Although that's more to do with will than with a lack of capability. They definitely have all the resources to be a great power, it's just that (and maybe this will change with Abe) they seem happy not to be one in the traditional sense.
 
Oh yeah, definitely. They have a bigger economy than most great powers. I think they don't really qualify because of a lack of military assertiveness, they don't often wade in on transnational issues that don't directly concern them, etc. Although that's more to do with will than with a lack of capability. They definitely have all the resources to be a great power, it's just that (and maybe this will change with Abe) they seem happy not to be one in the traditional sense.
Well, economic powers a big part of it too and Japans Armed forces are well equipped and trained. They're pretty solid. They also have the capability to build a nuclear arsenal. I get what you're saying, but Japans economy is over two times larger than the economies of Britain or France and it has the 10th largest population in the world. I'd count it as one.:)
 
Australia is the 12th largest economy and defence spender in the world, despite a small % gdp on defence. With a different attitude to defence and diplomacy in the postwar era Australia could be a power in the Southeast Asian region.
 
Mexico, a unified Korea, and a federalized Austria-Hungary would also have significant potential. Maybe an industrialized Egypt, too, although that might be harder.
 
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