Empires that never were
- Thread starter Gancio The Ranter
- Start date
So, a Mughal Empire in the Iranian Plateau? I think that's what Babur had originally intended until the field of battle determined otherwise.
How about the possibility of an earlier Zulu Empire that has its' start dating from the late 1500's that would extend along the eastern (Indian Ocean) coast from present day southern mozambique to the Xhosaland/Transkei area(s)? They would/should also have present day Lesotho (a very mountainous area) and everything from Lesotho to the Indian Ocean. So when the Voortrekkers & English arrive, they encounter a thriving, highly centralized, and very well disciplined, Iron-Age Empire much more developed and somewhat akin to the early 2nd Century Roman Empire than what they originally encountered. Just my thought on the topic.
Crazy Boris
Banned
I’m not sure if the Zulus could rise to that power that far back. The Mthethwa’s dominance kept the Zulu as a fairly minor isizwe until the Zwide offed Dingiswayo and Shaka was able to take advantage of the power vacuum, and that was like 200 years after the Zulu were already established within the Mthethwa’s sphere. (Not to mention a lot of what made Shaka so successful are things he learned from Dingiswayo)
In the late 1500s, the Zulu were a barely established clan within Bantu society. Even the Mthetwa had only just started to exercise their power in that time period. Only way you could possibly speed the Zulus up technologically would be if they came upon a group of shipwrecked Portuguese at the Cape of Good Hope and acquired firearms. Even then, they'd need to learn about gunpowder and how to manufacture it, and while they did possess some knowledge of iron-forging, they never reached the industrial scale necessary to manufacture firearms (they could barely manage the manufacture of the spear points and blades).
Having said that, if such an event were to take place, it IS plausible that there would be a Zulu Empire ranging from Lesotho to the Mozambique coast. If, in addition to firearms tech, the Zulus acquired the knowledge of shipbuilding and navigation, then they could even sail to Madagascar. Their nearest rivals would be Mutapa and Kongo.
With the likelihood that they could still expand into India as far south as Delhi and the Ganges Valley.
Mercian empire? Offas succesor last longer and is just as competent as hes father instesd of the instability that killed off mercias supremacy we see it continue its supremacy and eventually form the British empire
Himyar doesnt fail to the Marib dam or the Himyar-Byzantine-Sassanid-Axsum war. Dhu Nuwas doesnt commit war crimes in Najran.