Most common alternate history scenarios?

Sarkasmomancer

Sarkasmomancer

This probably a commonly asked question on this site, but I would really appreciate the input on this as I'm currently trawling through the internet looking for specific scenarios commonly used by writers for a project of mine. All of the below are ones that I have already found.
  • World War 2 never happens.
  • The Axis wins World War 2.
  • World War 1 never happens.
  • The Central Powers wins World War 1.
  • England becomes fascist
  • America becomes communist.
  • Russia wins the Cold War and takes over most of the world.
  • Fiction where the Soviet Union survives
  • The White Army wins the Russian Civil War, leaving the Russian monarchy intact.
  • The Reformation doesn’t happen.
  • The Americans win the Vietnam War.
  • The Confederates win the American Civil War.
  • The Cuban Missile Crisis escalates into war.
  • JFK is never assassinated.
  • The Beatles don't break up.
  • The Beatles don't form.
  • Christianity never emerges as a major religion, leading to a surviving pagan magic-using Roman Empire (From Oath of Empire and the Dragon Waiting)
  • Napoleon wins the Napoleonic wars.
  • The Spaniards use the Spanish Armada to conquer England.
  • The British suppress the American Revolution.
  • The British Empire never ends.
  • The Mongol Khanate never ends.
  • The Ottoman Empire never ends.
  • Alexander’s Empire never ends.
  • The Byzantine Empire never ends.
  • The Roman Empire doesn't fall or at least survives beyond it.
  • The KT-Extinction event never happens.
  • Nixon never ordered the Watergate scandal.
  • Sapient species evolve from dinosaurs and felines.
  • The Neanderthals beat out Homo Sapiens.
  • The Vikings stay in America.
  • The Russians still have Alaska.
  • 9/11 never happens.
  • The Black Death wipes out all of Europe.
  • The Ice Age never ends.
  • Alternate history with vampires.
  • Zeppelins are still used into the modern day.
  • Al Gore wins the election.
  • Columbus doesn’t discover the Americas.
  • Africa isn’t colonised.
  • Aliens invade during World War 2.
Anyone else is welcome to use this list!
 

Lalli

My opinions:

- Alexander the Great lives longer.
- Julius Caesar is not assassinated.
- Christianity never emerges.
- Byzanitne lasts at least to 20th century.
- Roman Empire remain pagan.
- Islam never rise.
- Mongols conquer Europe.
- Incas defeat Spaniards.
- Martin Luther doesn't begin reformation activities.
- Napoleon wins the war.
- Southern stat3es win ACW.
- Central Powes win WW1.
- Italy remain loyal to CPs.
-- Italy is neutral during WW1/WW2.
- Gallipoli succeeds.
- Sweden joins to WW1.
- United States remain neutral during WW1.
- Nazis never gain power.
- Italy joins to Allies during WW2.
- Axis win WW2.
- Valkyrie Plot succeeds.
- Normandy ends to disaster.
- Wallace's presidency with way or another and it is usually disastrous.
- JFK is not assassinated.
- MLK is not assassinated.
 

Coiler

Conventional World War IIIs happening after the Vietnam War (regardless of how they end) are weird in that they're frequent in certain places and ignored completely in others.

I can name ten published alternate history conventional WW3s (and that's without the internet ones). And in wargaming (from the cartoonish like Red Alert to serious tabletop games) they're very common. But that's it. None of those ten are made by big name authors/publishers. Every single one that is set in the time period of the publishing. One of the most telling cases, Walt Gragg's The Red Line, had to have a weird backstory to make what was clearly a cold-war-hot tale happen in the "present".

So it's strange and interesting.
 

Mort the Reaper

-Abraham Lincoln never gets assassinated
-Hitler dies before rising to power
-The Nationalists win the Chinese Civil War
-Trotsky becomes the leader of the Soviet Union
-The Aztecs manage to defeat Cortez
-The Qing dynasty is overthrown in the 19th century
-More species survive to the modern day
-Huey Long becomes an authoritarian POTUS
-India goes Muslim
-Japan gets Christianized
-No French Revolution
 
Sarkasmomancer

Sarkasmomancer

Mort the Reaper said:
-Abraham Lincoln never gets assassinated
-Hitler dies before rising to power
-The Nationalists win the Chinese Civil War
-Trotsky becomes the leader of the Soviet Union
-The Aztecs manage to defeat Cortez
-The Qing dynasty is overthrown in the 19th century
-More species survive to the modern day
-Huey Long becomes an authoritarian POTUS
-India goes Muslim
-Japan gets Christianized
-No French Revolution
Click to expand...
Can I ask what sort of species?
 
oshron

oshron

Sarkasmomancer said:
Can I ask what sort of species?
Click to expand...
i'm assuming it's mainly referring to recently-extinct species--less woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats, more quaggas and great auks. the fact that i'm including that kind of thing in my own ATL project lends credence to the idea of it being common.
 

Jedi Dragon

Axis victory in World War 2 is easily the most common in published works, followed by the Confederates winning the Civil War. Roman Empire surviving is very common too, often because Christianity either didn't form or simply didn't become the state religion. I've seen very few timelines with other human species surviving, other than Turtledove's A Different Flesh. Could you point me towards any?
 
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