Large island kingdoms or empires

What about Venice?

"Also Long Island or isle of Man are too small, too closely tied to their 'mainland' surroundings"

Both bigger than la Serenissima, and whileI can't really speak about the Isle of Man, Long Island has (or rather, had :() much good farmland and forests, as well as harbors and access to some very productive fisheries.

*Although since in all it's wisdom the U.S. Supreme Court has declared Long Island to be in fact a peninsula, not an island, despite being surronded by water*
 
Of all those, Irish-dominated Britain and Sicily are the only realistic options in my mind, if you're limiting yourself to SUPERpowers. For significant powers, many of them would work. If Sicily seems strange, it was for a time the "center" of the Holy Roman Empire and could have been the basis for a large empire.

It seems like Britain and Japan are the only island states which could have been superpowers at any point. There aren't many others in ATLs either.

How many can you justify? Bonus points if they're in the same timeline.

Britain
Japan

Ireland
Iceland (Viking wank.)

Nova Scotia. The capital of a superpower Canada or Quebec might be here.
Newfoundland
Long Island. The capital of a superpower New England might be here.

Pirate states.
Cuba, Puerto Rico, Marajó (island in the mouth of the Amazon), Bahamas, Madagascar

Sicily, Cyprus, Sardinia

Vancouver Island
Hawaii, Tonga, Tahiti, Samoa, Ponape

Borneo, Sumatra, New Guinea, New Zealand, Luzon, Java, Taiwan, Hainan

I've left out plenty for various reasons. Which of these is highly unlikely to be some kind of center of a significant political state?

The POD can be any time, and you can posit future histories with PODs in the distant past if you want.
 
Minoan Crete with no Thera eruption? You could imagine Crete rising to be a power on the level of Athens- probably through trade rather than conquest.
 
uber-Cyprus somehow? or if the Hospitallers hold on to Rhodes, Malta, and their colonies, I think that would be a sort-of middle power.
 
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