Help coming up with a sequence of events which leads to a 'Great Khanate' encompassing China, India, the Middle East, and more forming by 1980?

So, I’ve been working on a timeline for a while now and I’ve run into a serious roadblock, namely; not having the slightest clue what I’m doing.

The basic idea I’m working off of is I want a timeline based very loosely off of the Eugenics Wars from Star Trek, with WWIII in the 1990s between NATO+Warsaw Pact and the Great Khanate. The problem is, while I have a decent enough understanding of NATO nations and to a lesser degree the Warsaw Pact, my knowledge of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa is pretty non-existent. So here’s where you guys and girls come in.

I want some help coming up with a somewhat plausible chain of events that lead to China, India, and a lot of the Middle East and maybe some of Africa merging into the Great Khanate, a totalitarian and somewhat fascist confederation, by the late 70s, with the first major POD being after 1940. I have attempted to create a very basic map showing the state of the world in 1993 just before the start of the war, with the axis in dark grey and the allies in every other colour, though I based it very heavily off of another Eugenics War map I found and I have very little idea how realistic it is. But it should give you the basic idea:

Map 2.png


I also drew up a very basic timeline of events, which I am almost certainly going to scrap and start again from scratch because the GK forming so quickly does not make any real sense, plus in this draft it forms in 92 not 78, which I've come to think is far too late for it to be able to carry out the decade-long military build-up it needs before WWIII.

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1930s


1938 xxx

As part of a secret program to create super soldiers, scientists in Nazi Germany begin experimenting with several newly-discovered chemicals in an effort to manipulate the genetic structure of various test subjects.


1939 September 1st

Nazi Germany launches an invasion of Poland. The British send them an ultimatum that is rejected. WWII starts.

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1940s


1941 February to December

Thirteen Essex-class aircraft carriers are ordered by the US.


1941 May 24th

The Battle of the Denmark Strait. The British battlecruiser Hood is sunk. The battleship Prince of Wales is damaged and forced to retreat. The German battleship Bismarck is damaged by aircraft from Ark Royal and later sunk by fire from several RN battleships.


1941 December 7th

The Attack on Pearl Harbor. The American battleships Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah are all total losses. More ships would be damaged and not return to service for as many as 3 years. Japan and Germany declare war on the US.


1942 June 4th to 7th

The Battle of Midway. The American aircraft carrier Yorktown and destroyer Hammann are sunk by torpedoes from the Japanese submarine I-168. The Japanese aircraft carriers Kaga, Akagi, Sōryū, and Hiryū are critically damaged by planes from the American carriers and are scuttled.


1942 August (general)

The US orders an additional ten Essex-class aircraft carriers.


1942 September 15th

The American aircraft carrier Wasp is sunk by the Japanese submarine I-19.


1942 October 25th to 27th

The Battle of Santa Cruz. The American aircraft carrier Hornet is badly damaged, but attempts to scuttle her fail and she is captured by the Japanese as US forces withdraw. American intelligence does not realize this and assumes she was sunk until after the war. The Japanese rename Hornet to Suzumebachi.


1943 June (general)

Three additional Essex-class aircraft carriers are ordered by the US.


1943 December 26th

The German battleship Scharnhorst is intercepted and sunk by a RN task force. Despite the threat of U-boat attack, the British warships remain in the area to rescue the survivors.


1944 June 6th

D-Day. Allied forces perform combat landings at Normandy and begin pushing the Germans back through Western Europe.


1944 October 23rd to 26th

The Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese lose 2 fleet carriers, including Suzumebachi (the former Hornet) who is sunk by planes from the American aircraft carrier Enterprise after being misidentified as Tahio-class.

The forces of Taffy 3 make a successful last stand against the approaching Japanese battle group after the bulk of the US capital ships are diverted by Halsey, pushing the Japanese to retreat North to escape through the San Bernardino Strait.

However, Halsey’s ships form TF34 with Iowa, New Jersey, 3 light cruisers, and 8 destroyers, and turn to steam South, meeting the Japanese forces at the strait and engaging them in a massive duel. Kongō and Nagato are sunk, Haruna would sink the next day, and Yamato just barely escapes heavily damaged. Iowa is critically damaged and would later sink in a storm while returning to Hawaii.


1945 December (general)

In light of the loss of Iowa, and the massive battleship-on-battleship fight that just happened, it is decided to complete the Iowa-class battleships Illinois, Kentucky, and the Alaska-class large cruiser Hawaii.


1945 March (general)

Soviet forces advancing through former Nazi German terrotory stuble across vaious labs involved in trying to manipulate the human genome. The work is quickly compiled and sent back to the motherland for study, where a similar program would eventually be set up.


1945 March 19th

American carrier aircraft from Enterprise, Yorktown, and Intrepid raid Kure. Despite stiff resistance by local defenses, the American naval aviators damage sixteen Japanese ships, including the battleship Yamato.


1945 March 26th

Operation Iceberg, the Allied invasion of Okinawa, is launched. In response, the IJN begins planning out Operation Ten-gō. A Surface Special Task Force consisting of the battleship Yamato, the light cruiser Yahagi, and eight destroyers is planned to be formed.

Their mission is to fight past the US Seventh Fleet, destroy as many American troop ships as they can, beach themselves, and serve as shore batteries until they are destroyed, in which case the survivors will join Japanese troops in Okinawa and continue fighting.

However, Yamato is unable to leave Kure due to damage from the Battle off San Bernardino Strait and the earlier air attack. Instead, the aviation battleships Hyūga and Ise are hurriedly repaired and sent to Tokuyama to be sortied in her place.


1945 April 6th

Operation Ten-gō begins.


1945 April 7th

The US Navy annihilates the Surface Special Task Force. American air power sinks Yahagi and three out of the seven destroyers. Hatsushimo and Yukikaze escape with survivors. The aviation battleships Hyūga and Ise are engaged by the American fast battleships Massachusetts, Indiana, South Dakota, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Missouri. They are badly damaged but in turn manage to damage South Dakota.

Hyūga is eventually sunk. Ise’s surviving crew surrenders, planning to scuttle the ship with the American prize crew aboard, but quick-thinking by the American boarding teams save her.


1945 May 8th

Victory in Europe.


1945 August 6th to 15th

Atomic weapons are deployed by the United States against the Empire of Japan. The Soviet Union begins the invasion of Manchuria. Japan unconditionally surrenders to the US.

Yamato is later captured by US forces in Kure. General McArthur is impressed by the sight of the massive battleship, and has her brought up to Tokyo Bay for the surrender ceremony.


1945 September 2nd

The Japanese Instrument of Surrender is signed aboard the deck of the American battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. WWII ends.


1946 January (general)

Enterprise is deactivated and mothballed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City, New York. She is decommissioned a month later.


1946 July 1st to 25th

Operation Crossroads is launched. Among the ships there are Yamato, Ise, Prinz Eugen, Saratoga and Ranger.

Only one clear photograph of Yamato exists from the Baker shot, showing her stern lifted completely out of the water as she jackknifed up to 55 degrees, before flipping over and crashing back down sideways, breaking her back and sinking.


1947 xxx

Soviet scientists succeed in reverse engineering the Nazi genetic modifcation program’s secrets. Work begins on trying to replicate them in human subjects.


1948 xxx

New Jersey, Missouri, Alaska, Guam, and Hawaii are deactivated and sent to the mothball fleet.


1949 xxx

Wisconsin is deactivated and sent to the mothball fleet.

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1950s


1950 June 25th

The Korean War starts. The battleships Illinois and Kentucky would bombard North Korean and Chinese forces frequently during the conflict.


1953 July 27th

The Korean War ends.


1954 July 1st

The Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force is founded.


1955 November 1st

The Vietnam War starts.


1955 xxx

The first successfully genetically augmented Soviet super soldiers (augments) are born in a top-secret lab in Siberia.


1956 xxx

Illinois and Kentucky are given complete refits, replacing their rear guns and superstructure with SAM and cruise missile launchers. The Alaska-class Guam and Hawaii are also reactivated and given refits, replacing all of their main guns with SAM launchers.


1957 xxx

Fleet Admiral Halsey and General MacArthur combine their political pull to persuade the Japanese to buy the deactivated Enterprise as the centerpiece of the JMSDF. Enterprise begins refitting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York.


1957 October 4th

The Soviet Union launches the first artificial satellite into orbit, Sputnik One.


1958 July 29th

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is founded in the US.


1958 August (general)

Enterprise completes her refit. She is renamed Yonaga (Long Night) and enters service with the JMSDF. Halsey moves to Japan in order to be near her. He serves as an esteemed civilian adviser to the JMSDF.


1958 xxx

The Illinois and Kentucky are sent to the reserve fleet.

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1960s


1961 xxx

The Enterprise-class supercarrier Enterprise is commissioned in the US. She is the first nuclear powered aircraft carrier in the world.


1967 xxx

Illinois and Kentucky are reactivated and start working on the North Vietnamese gun line.


1968 xxx

The Japanese Diet amends Article Nine of its Constitution. Japan can now legally exercise the right of "collective self defense" and implement military action if one of its allies comes under attack. The influential and respected Halsey plays an instrumental role in ensuring the passage of this amendment.


1969 xxx

Halsey dies at the age of 86. He is buried with full military honors at Yokosuka, Japan. He is considered to be ‘The Father of the JMSDF’.


1971 xxx

The Republic of China turns over the destroyer Tan-Yang to Japan. She reinstates her old name of Yukikaze and is turned into a museum ship at Odaiba.


1971 xxx

The Soviet supersoldier program is declared a failure due to the megalomania present in all of the subjects and shut down. Several hundred of the augments find out about this in advance and manage to escape.


1973 xxx

The Vietnam war ends.


1975 xxx

The genetically modified augment Kahn begins to rise to power in China.


1977 xxx

The US Navy nuclear strike cruiser program is approved.


1978 xxx

Kahn is officially declared to be the ruler of the People's Republic of China. He begins instituting massive reforms to the country almost immediately.

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1980s


1982 xxx

Illinois and Kentucky are given refits to modern standards, replacing their missile batteries and improving their sensors and accommodations. New Jersey, Missouri, and Wisconsin would undergo a similar refit a year later.


1983-89 xxx

Several other genetic augments start to rise to positions of serious power in countries all over Asia, including India and North Korea. In addition, a number of other augments manage to reach influential positions in the US and USSR, using their power in an attempt to keep them neutral to events unfolding in Asia.


1983 xxx

The US Navy commissions the first of eight Helena-class nuclear strike cruisers, Helena.


1985 xxx

Several top-secret files relating to the silent propulsion system used on the ill-fated Red October-class submarine disappear from Soviet archives. Later that year, naval architects in the People's Republic of China start working on their own class of guided missile submarine that uses a similar type of drive.

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1990s


1992 xxx

The Johnston-class Aegis destroyer Johnston is commissioned in the US.


1992 April to June

China, India, North Korea, and several other Asian and Middle Eastern nations under the control of various genetic augments officially merge into the Great Khanate.


1993 February 11th

WWIII starts. The Great Khanate declares war on NATO and several allied nations, launching a series of surprise attacks on each. Submarine-launched cruise missile attacks are carried out on the ships and naval bases of every allied country twenty minutes before the declaration of war is given. Axis forces start pushing into South Korea, and days later Khanate troops make combat landings in Taiwan and Japan.


1993 March (general)

The US instigates a wartime economy and, among many other things, orders an additional 10 Nimitz-class aircraft carriers and 85 Johnston-class guided missile destroyers.


1993 April 28th

South Korea unconditionally surrenders to the Great Khanate and is occupied.


1993 June 14th

Taiwan unconditionally surrenders to the Great Khanate and is occupied.


1993 September 22nd

The Great Khanate declares war on the Soviet Union, and launches a massive land-based offensive northwards. The Soviets are caught off guard and start being pushed back.


1993 October (general)

The Warsaw Pact and NATO sign a wartime alliance treaty, officially (re)forming the Allied Nations.


1994 October 12th

United States Navy Task Force 15, composed of the Enterprise, Intrepid, Nimitz, and their escorts engage four axis aircraft carriers in a decisive battle and sink them. This is the first major victory for the USN in the war.


1994 December 16th

The Saratoga CVN-74 is commissioned a year ahead of schedule, the first USN carrier to do so during the war.


1995 January to August

Axis naval forces in the Pacific are slowly but surely hunted down and sunk by American, Commonwealth, and Soviet naval forces, as well as several ships that managed to escape from occupied nations such as South Korea. By the middle of August axis naval forces have been reduced to a handful of submarines, frigates, and a couple destroyers.


1995 March 13th

The Ranger CVN-75 is commissioned two years ahead of schedule.


1995 May (general)

The axis offensive into Russia stalls at the eastern edges of the Ural mountains.


1995 August (general)

USN and Soviet battleships and aircraft carriers begin bombarding the Chinese and Japanese coasts.


1995 September (general)

The US Strategic Air Command and Soviet Long Range Aviation Command, with axis air power all but eliminated, begins a massive strategic bombing campaign against the Great Khanate and their occupation zones.


1996 February 5th

In a coordinated offensive, Soviet forces launch a massive southeast push, eventually reaching all the way though to former Mongolia, while Allied forces make combat landings in China. Half a dozen nuclear-armed cruise missiles are launched at the axis forces amassing to repel the landings shortly before H-Hour.


1996 March 2nd

The America CVN-76 is commissioned in the US. She is the first of the 10 Nimitz-class carriers ordered in 1993 to be commissioned, after an extremely rushed 3 year build and fitting out process.


1996 October 24th

WWIII ends. The Great Khanate unconditionally surrenders to the allies. Khan and several of his followers disappear, supposedly having committed suicide.


1996 December 17th

The SS Botany Bay is launched from a blacksite in Australia, disappearing into the depths of space. Unknown to the world, Khan and 72 of his followers are aboard in cryosleep. The primitive navigation system on the ship, however, quickly loses its star-lock and the vessel starts drifting off course.


1997 xxx

The Soviet Union collapses from a delayed onset of war exhaustion.

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2000s


2009 July 20th

Armstrong colony is founded on the Moon.

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I’m putting this in the regular form and not ASB because for all intents and purposes this is a fairly standard if very implausible timeline - there are no ISOTs or magic or anything, - and I want it to be as realistic as possible. To that end, while the final story I end up writing will feature genetic augments and Red October-style silent subs and all sorts of other weird things, for now and the purposes of this discussion just assume that everything is as it would be IRL and that Khan and his followers are just a bunch of ordinary unaugmented people who got extremely lucky (kind of like Hitler in a way I suppose). If the mods deem that this board is nonetheless inappropriate, feel free to move it to the ASB forums. The only thing I ask is that you don't put it in Fandom, as the connection between this and Star Trek is that there's a nation named the Great Khanate and a war in the 90s, and that's about it.

Thoughts?
 
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Tony Stark never finds his way out of his imprisonment in Afghanistan, and the Ten Rings are able to complete their quest to build a new Mongol empire.
 
I have a hard time finding a way into offering any help with the story, since I don't get the "how." What is it about these super people that makes them dominant? Do they have mind control powers? Do they have a fist fight with everyone in the country? Do they have some kind of political charisma that gets them elected, or makes them rise to the top in a totalitarian political party?
The genetically modified augment Kahn begins to rise to power in China.
... just doesn't tell me enough.

The countries/populations in the Khanate have some characteristics very much not-in-common, (China to India to the Arab countries to Korea) but if "The Khan takes them over" is the rationale, then I guess there doesn't have to be a geopolitical explanation beyond that.

I am wondering why, if one of the common denominators is Islam, OTL Indonesian and Malaysia are not part of the Khanate.
 
I have a hard time finding a way into offering any help with the story, since I don't get the "how." What is it about these super people that makes them dominant? Do they have mind control powers? Do they have a fist fight with everyone in the country? Do they have some kind of political charisma that gets them elected, or makes them rise to the top in a totalitarian political party?

... just doesn't tell me enough.

The countries/populations in the Khanate have some characteristics very much not-in-common, (China to India to the Arab countries to Korea) but if "The Khan takes them over" is the rationale, then I guess there doesn't have to be a geopolitical explanation beyond that.

I am wondering why, if one of the common denominators is Islam, OTL Indonesian and Malaysia are not part of the Khanate.

Well, as I said for now we're going to have to work off the assumption that they're just really charismatic. As for you're other points... I have the exact same problem. I have a decent idea of what the end goal is - a superpower encompassing around 1/4 of the Earth's surface with a military to match - but no idea how to get there. So far most of the work I've done on the timeline has been figuring out the composition and force structure of the allied naval forces and whatnot.

Islam could defiantly be something to do with it, a lot of people who have risen to power like this in the past have used religion to do it, so I'll have to look into that, but again I have very little knowledge on the subject.
 
The problem is that this is going to be basically Draka-levels of an alternate superpower coming out of nowhere, meaning you're going to need an early POD. Probably something involving the Eurasian powers getting the level of industrial and technological advancement to compete with and exceed the Europeans. You're gonna have to defy their imperialism somehow.
 
I would focus on the "how." If you can map the Khan's path to power, then the rest might fall into place. So start from the beginning, rather than the end.

If in 2010, we were talking introducing a POD to cause the Islamic State/Dae'ash/ISIS to come into being, a retro medieval Caliphate with the morals of Hitler, holding a nation state-like swath of territory across 2 countries and having its own economy, issuing currency etc. and recruiting bored young people from the developed world over the internet while fighting everyone at the same time, I would say you are on the wrong forum. But a particular series of events caused that to be possible.
 
I would focus on the "how." If you can map the Khan's path to power, then the rest might fall into place. So start from the beginning, rather than the end.

If in 2010, we were talking introducing a POD to cause the Islamic State/Dae'ash/ISIS to come into being, a retro medieval Caliphate with the morals of Hitler, holding a nation state-like swath of territory across 2 countries and having its own economy, issuing currency etc. and recruiting bored young people from the developed world over the internet while fighting everyone at the same time, I would say you are on the wrong forum. But a particular series of events caused that to be possible.
Well, Khan and several hundred of his followers flee the Soviet Union in 1971, and make their way to a variety of nearby nations, with Khan himself going to China. However, obviously a POD in the 70s won't make it possible for a group of people like that to size power, so changes will have had to be occurring in those nations since the 40s to make them susceptible to having Khan and his followers take them over in a relatively short amount of time. Presumably these changes would involve severing any good relations they had with the western world and increasing social unrest as much as possible, to the point that a bunch of charismatic people who come along and claim to be able to fix everything are taken seriously by the general public. The only problem with this is I have absolutely no knowledge on the history or politics of the nations involved here.

Something else to mention is that the end result doesn't necessarily have to be a single nation or even a federation, a confederation or alliance works as well. That should make things easier, since one of the main problems here will probably be getting all of these countries to play nice with each other, but by how much I'm not sure.
 
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The only problem with this is I have absolutely no knowledge on the history or politics of the nations involved here.

Something else to mention is that the end result doesn't necessarily have to be a single nation or even a federation, a confederation or alliance works as well. That should make things easier, and one of the main problems here will probably be getting all of these countries to play nice with each other, but by how much I'm not sure.
Time to read some books. I can not recommend which books.
 

Garrison

Donor
So, I’ve been working on a timeline for a while now and I’ve run into a serious roadblock, namely; not having the slightest clue what I’m doing.

The basic idea I’m working off of is I want a timeline based very loosely off of the Eugenics Wars from Star Trek, with WWIII in the 1990s between NATO+Warsaw Pact and the Great Khanate. The problem is, while I have a decent enough understanding of NATO nations and to a lesser degree the Warsaw Pact, my knowledge of Asia, the Middle East, and Africa is pretty non-existent. So here’s where you guys and girls come in.
Funny you should mention that:

 
1993 February 11th

WWIII starts. The Great Khanate declares war on NATO and several allied nations, launching a series of surprise attacks on each. Submarine-launched cruise missile attacks are carried out on the ships and naval bases of every allied country twenty minutes before the declaration of war is given. Axis forces start pushing into South Korea, and days later Khanate troops make combat landings in Taiwan and Japan.
One thing I don't get is why begin WWIII immediately after taking over all those nations? China and India then already were quickly growing economies but still far behind the west, so even if they want to take over the world patience would serve them much better. Also they would likely need a decade or so of military build up for waging WWIII.

I believe a scenario where things accidentally escalate into war would make more sense.
Or alternatively the Great Khanate gets formed a few decades before WWIII and becomes an upper-middle income country within 20 years through economic reforms. Then the super state ends up stuck in the middle income trap and the leadership decides to become militarist in order to distract their population from economic stagnation. However things do not go according to plan and they accidentally draw in the Soviet Union.
 
I also forgot that this would be a perfect opening for a Roman von Ungern-Sternberg Uber Alles timeline where he somehow carves out a true empire in Eurasia, acting as a new Tamerlane for the Bogd Khan.

For an even more gonzo timeline, with a deep dive into occult movements of the 1920s-40s, you could have something that links Theosophy with its fixation on Tibet, to esoteric fascists like Savitri Devi, to the Thule Society, to the Ahnenerbe, to the Nazis, to some sort of European right-wing crusade in defense of Roman's crusader state of a khanate in the east. Like a latter day pagan Prester John. I'm mixing up mythologies at this point but white people were really into that stuff after the Great War and that sort of bizarro energy is what it takes to sustain such a strange project, and prevent the establishment empires of Russia, Japan, and Britain from squashing it out.

I guess replace communism with khan-ism, somehow.
 
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One thing I don't get is why begin WWIII immediately after taking over all those nations? China and India then already were quickly growing economies but still far behind the west, so even if they want to take over the world patience would serve them much better. Also they would likely need a decade or so of military build up for waging WWIII.

I believe a scenario where things accidentally escalate into war would make more sense.
Or alternatively the Great Khanate gets formed a few decades before WWIII and becomes an upper-middle income country within 20 years through economic reforms. Then the super state ends up stuck in the middle income trap and the leadership decides to become militarist in order to distract their population from economic stagnation. However things do not go according to plan and they accidentally draw in the Soviet Union.
Good point, and I agree with you that 92 is too soon before the war to make sense, hence why I said I was probably going to rewrite it to have the Khanate form in 78 (I also considered keeping the formation date in 92 and delaying the war into the late 2000s, but while that would solve a lot of problems I don't think that's the sort of story I want to tell. In-universe the reason I settled on February 1993 is because Khan had over-optimistic dreams to have the entire planet under his control by 2000, but while the sheer size of the GK does make this at least somewhat feasible in theory the amount of time it would take to industrialise all of that land to the point they can build up a military force with a credible chance of actually doing it will be decades or longer, as they found out the hard way in the end).

I think my best bet right now is to find a way to maximise the amount of unrest in the countries that eventually get taken over during 1940-1970, and then have Khan and his followers arrive in 72-ish and independently rise to power in them, whether that be by convincing the populous they can fix everything if they get elected or by a civil war, or anything in between. As I said though, I don't know almost anything about the countries in question, which is a problem. I suppose what I should do at this point is spend the next couple months sifting through Wikipedia and any other sources I can find, but in the meantime if there's any advice or thoughts you have right now I would really appreciate them.
 
Structurally probably the only remotely plausible way to do this is ape the post-fragmentation Mongol Empire, after it had split into four, much more plausibly cohesive khanates, and build it into a close-knit alliance system. Each of these khanates had some sort of core constituency - the Yuan Dynasty had China, the Ilkhanate Persia, the Chagatai Khanate the trade routes of Central Asia, and the Golden Horde the West Siberian steppe.

So what are the core constituencies here? The obvious candidates are India, Iran, and China, both for their size, wealth, and the fact that all three offer potential avenues for Khan and his followers to take over.

China is, in 72-ish, in the throes of the Cultural Revolution. In fact, 1972 is about the perfect time for someone to stride in and take over. Lin Biao, Mao's #2 of the time, had just died in a plane crash in Mongolia, ostensibly fleeing to the Soviet Union to seek asylum due to his power base being under attack and many of his followers planning a coup. Mao is depressed, reclusive, and has no clear heir. The country's political and economic systems are in shambles. The year and a half between Lin Biao's death and Deng Xiaoping stepping in was marked by a lot of jockeying for power among what remained of the Party elite.

Iran, of course, is simmering discontentedly under the Shah's rule. The right time for Iran is somewhat after China - it wasn't until 1975-1976 that the discontent became widespread and general, rather than just the grumbling of Islamist clerics. Hijack that discontent and you've got something.

India doesn't have any such faultline, and in fact Indira Gandhi is massively popular. On paper that would lock Khan out - I feel India would be the country he would pick to personally rule, given it's almost certainly his birth country. But if he can ingratiate himself with the Indian National Congress, there's a very simple solution to that problem: murder! Assassinate Indira Gandhi, pick a suitable scapegoat, ride the wave of popular anger to prime ministership, and you're golden. Hell, if you time it right, there's a little war going on in 1971 with Pakistan...

So by 1980 it's not completely out of the question to have Khan and his ilk ruling India, Iran, and China, closely aligned, and aiming to bring Burma, Pakistan, and Thailand into their cozy relationship. Hell, it's not out of the question to add an African Khanate; Algeria or Egypt are the right combination of ruled by strongmen and large and populous enough to make the African Khanate territory at least kinda workable. But the problem with a broader takeover of the Middle East is the 800-lb gorilla in the room: Saudi Arabia.

The problem Saudi Arabia poses is not a military one, or even strictly an economic one. It's geopolitical: the West is very, very invested in an independent Saudi Arabia pumping oil out into the global economy. The Khanate alliance is already looking mighty worrying with just Iran; any sort of major push into the Middle East is going to send paroxysms through the rest of the world, and invites the United States to show up and do something before the Khanate alliance is ready. On the other hand, for story purposes this gives the story a very obvious trigger for WWIII.

So the way I'd do it is that WWIII is triggered by the Khanates finally making a broad push into the Middle East, and in doing so either by choice or by accident provoking the United States into war with them. Before that everything between Egypt and Persia is still independent and not part of the Khanates.
 
Structurally probably the only remotely plausible way to do this is ape the post-fragmentation Mongol Empire, after it had split into four, much more plausibly cohesive khanates, and build it into a close-knit alliance system. Each of these khanates had some sort of core constituency - the Yuan Dynasty had China, the Ilkhanate Persia, the Chagatai Khanate the trade routes of Central Asia, and the Golden Horde the West Siberian steppe.

So what are the core constituencies here? The obvious candidates are India, Iran, and China, both for their size, wealth, and the fact that all three offer potential avenues for Khan and his followers to take over.

China is, in 72-ish, in the throes of the Cultural Revolution. In fact, 1972 is about the perfect time for someone to stride in and take over. Lin Biao, Mao's #2 of the time, had just died in a plane crash in Mongolia, ostensibly fleeing to the Soviet Union to seek asylum due to his power base being under attack and many of his followers planning a coup. Mao is depressed, reclusive, and has no clear heir. The country's political and economic systems are in shambles. The year and a half between Lin Biao's death and Deng Xiaoping stepping in was marked by a lot of jockeying for power among what remained of the Party elite.

Iran, of course, is simmering discontentedly under the Shah's rule. The right time for Iran is somewhat after China - it wasn't until 1975-1976 that the discontent became widespread and general, rather than just the grumbling of Islamist clerics. Hijack that discontent and you've got something.

India doesn't have any such faultline, and in fact Indira Gandhi is massively popular. On paper that would lock Khan out - I feel India would be the country he would pick to personally rule, given it's almost certainly his birth country. But if he can ingratiate himself with the Indian National Congress, there's a very simple solution to that problem: murder! Assassinate Indira Gandhi, pick a suitable scapegoat, ride the wave of popular anger to prime ministership, and you're golden. Hell, if you time it right, there's a little war going on in 1971 with Pakistan...

So by 1980 it's not completely out of the question to have Khan and his ilk ruling India, Iran, and China, closely aligned, and aiming to bring Burma, Pakistan, and Thailand into their cozy relationship. Hell, it's not out of the question to add an African Khanate; Algeria or Egypt are the right combination of ruled by strongmen and large and populous enough to make the African Khanate territory at least kinda workable. But the problem with a broader takeover of the Middle East is the 800-lb gorilla in the room: Saudi Arabia.

The problem Saudi Arabia poses is not a military one, or even strictly an economic one. It's geopolitical: the West is very, very invested in an independent Saudi Arabia pumping oil out into the global economy. The Khanate alliance is already looking mighty worrying with just Iran; any sort of major push into the Middle East is going to send paroxysms through the rest of the world, and invites the United States to show up and do something before the Khanate alliance is ready. On the other hand, for story purposes this gives the story a very obvious trigger for WWIII.

So the way I'd do it is that WWIII is triggered by the Khanates finally making a broad push into the Middle East, and in doing so either by choice or by accident provoking the United States into war with them. Before that everything between Egypt and Persia is still independent and not part of the Khanates.

Thanks! That all sounds great, and now I know what areas I should focus my research on. Having Khan set up shop in India while the rest of his followers take over China, Iran, and infiltrate a few others sounds like a pretty good idea to get this working then. The only problem is Saudi Arabia as you said. Having NATO or the Warsaw Pact open the aggressions isn't really what I want story wise, but then again, maybe it's an opportunity - I could have the GK pull an Imperial Japan and realise that any attempt to secure their oil will open hostilities with the west, and try to mitigate that by taking out as much of the west's combat power as possible in a series of surprise attacks. Then they rush into SA and try to secure the resources there before the west can recover. Would that make sense?
 
Thanks! That all sounds great, and now I know what areas I should focus my research on. Having Khan set up shop in India while the rest of his followers take over China, Iran, and infiltrate a few others sounds like a pretty good idea to get this working then. The only problem is Saudi Arabia as you said. Having NATO or the Warsaw Pact open the aggressions isn't really what I want story wise, but then again, maybe it's an opportunity - I could have the GK pull an Imperial Japan and realise that any attempt to secure their oil will open hostilities with the west, and try to mitigate that by taking out as much of the west's combat power as possible in a series of surprise attacks. Then they rush into SA and try to secure the resources there before the west can recover. Would that make sense?
That would make sense, yes.
 
So the world in early 1993 would look something like this then:

Map 3.png

(this was thrown together really fast, I haven't really started doing much research on this yet, and I haven't figured out which African and Middle Eastern countries would be allied with NATO in WWIII and which would be neutral. I'm mostly just throwing this together to get a general feel for things)

Something to note is that it really helps plot-wise if both Korea's are in the GK, since they can be used to throw cruise missiles and aircraft at Japan and help explain how the GK did so much damage early on. Not too sure how the history behind that would work, though. Also, in terms of Libya, apparently there was a bloodless coup in 1969 that lead to a guy taking power and turning into a semi-dictatorship? and I think with a POD in the 40s that could be delayed a few years and one of Khan's guys could be the one who ends up doing that, but I'm not sure.
 
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The Koreas are a bit tricky, yes. North Korea is a bit easier, as they're a Soviet client that the Chinese would have normal incentives to pry away from them. South Korea is harder because American troops are there.

It's probably easier to swing North Korea and just route your aircraft and missiles around the South to hit Japan.
 
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