I'm not sure how long this will be but I'll get straight to the point - what does it take for a great power to become a superpower in a mostly cultural standpoint. Today, the United States of America has culture that is quite widespread throughout the world, even in countries that it has went to war with! Consider that even the Soviet Union, arguable the only country that has achieve very rough parity has never been quite able to to achieve the same influence, even with in it's sphere of influence outside Eastern Europe. Many communist or former communist countries today lack anything remotely Soviet or Russian to them besides military equipment and the odd petrochemical or so. With the rise of China and India, we look at one of the many fronts in which is a criteria to become a superpower - Chinese influence is limited to mainly foods (brought by immigrants and told to me totally different from real Chinese food), some movies (many of which are from Hong Kong or Taiwan actually), and sorts of that limited extent. India has a greater problem as it is quite ethnically diverse with different cultures and only Bollywood and Yoga coming to mind as a cultural overseas export.
The only possible explanation today Japanese culture is quite widespread in parts of the Western world and East Asia. Although Japan is not an absolute superpower in terms of military sense, it certain has much of it's culture spread through out the world. The fact that it's language is quite commonly taught in universities despite not nearly being on the scale of English, Spanish, French, or even Russian, it's sushi eaten in cookeries, it's anime books and shows as well as movies, music, and other forms of media being sold quite commonly, it's electronics being industry standards with names like Sony and Toshiba being extremely common in American living rooms at least and dominating media in general. I wish to 1up this phenomenon with another country.
The United Kingdom might fit the bill also but I have decided to leave it to the residents and other people living in many other nations within this board to decide.
Although the PoD would probably require one before 1900, I have decide to place it in this to examine the effects of a rival that can reach cultural parity with the United States. A few alpha stage candidates include:
1. Germany with it's cars.
2. France and Italy with it's food and fashion.
3. The "superpowers" listed above doing much better somehow.
4. Not a whole lot more I can think of.
Now of course I am simplifying this but please keep in mind that this is not a "FRANCE WINS 1940 AND RETAINS ITS EMPIRE FOREVER" or "NEUTRAL ITALY WW2" thread or a Japan-wank - those kinds of threads are fun and all but quite common but rather too straightforward and not always efficient. In France's example, its two most important colonies - Algeria and Vietnam retain comparatively little of France considering their central importance with their mother country's empire. Japan has definitely had more influence after losing it's colonial empire anyways and has done very well for it's scale so I see no reason why larger, more assimilated empires are the only path. In fact, I firmly believe that smaller colonial empires have a much better chance, as the density in which cultural assimilation over a few key colonies would be much more efficient that over trying to conform a third of a continent to your beliefs. Angola still contains Black Portuguese speakers right?
Obviously, the many paths will have a progressive snowball effect. Great movies will lead to foreigners interested in the language which will lead to the food which will lead to another thing. The only difficult part is how to get the ball really rolling.
TL DR? By today, what is the actual definition of being a cultural superpower and how can we have any nation reach that on the scale of the United States without reaching the other criteria of a superpower.
The only possible explanation today Japanese culture is quite widespread in parts of the Western world and East Asia. Although Japan is not an absolute superpower in terms of military sense, it certain has much of it's culture spread through out the world. The fact that it's language is quite commonly taught in universities despite not nearly being on the scale of English, Spanish, French, or even Russian, it's sushi eaten in cookeries, it's anime books and shows as well as movies, music, and other forms of media being sold quite commonly, it's electronics being industry standards with names like Sony and Toshiba being extremely common in American living rooms at least and dominating media in general. I wish to 1up this phenomenon with another country.
The United Kingdom might fit the bill also but I have decided to leave it to the residents and other people living in many other nations within this board to decide.
Although the PoD would probably require one before 1900, I have decide to place it in this to examine the effects of a rival that can reach cultural parity with the United States. A few alpha stage candidates include:
1. Germany with it's cars.
2. France and Italy with it's food and fashion.
3. The "superpowers" listed above doing much better somehow.
4. Not a whole lot more I can think of.
Now of course I am simplifying this but please keep in mind that this is not a "FRANCE WINS 1940 AND RETAINS ITS EMPIRE FOREVER" or "NEUTRAL ITALY WW2" thread or a Japan-wank - those kinds of threads are fun and all but quite common but rather too straightforward and not always efficient. In France's example, its two most important colonies - Algeria and Vietnam retain comparatively little of France considering their central importance with their mother country's empire. Japan has definitely had more influence after losing it's colonial empire anyways and has done very well for it's scale so I see no reason why larger, more assimilated empires are the only path. In fact, I firmly believe that smaller colonial empires have a much better chance, as the density in which cultural assimilation over a few key colonies would be much more efficient that over trying to conform a third of a continent to your beliefs. Angola still contains Black Portuguese speakers right?
Obviously, the many paths will have a progressive snowball effect. Great movies will lead to foreigners interested in the language which will lead to the food which will lead to another thing. The only difficult part is how to get the ball really rolling.
TL DR? By today, what is the actual definition of being a cultural superpower and how can we have any nation reach that on the scale of the United States without reaching the other criteria of a superpower.