Need help in narrowing down a POD

Which POD should I use?

  • 1

    Votes: 4 44.4%
  • 2

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • 3

    Votes: 1 11.1%
  • 5

    Votes: 5 55.6%
  • Other-Specifiy

    Votes: 2 22.2%

  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
EDIT: Adding a poll so you can state which one you'd be more interested in seeing a timeline created from.

Okay, I'm actively doing research into the history of the Republic of China, the early days of the 1900's to the 1940's, and I am searching for a good POD that could possibly, possibly lead to the Nationalists controlling and governing China instead of the Maoists.

Here are the POD ideas I've got so far. If you happen to be a bastion of Republic of China history, feel free to suggest some of your own if you think you've got a better one. Heck, feel free even if you don't know much about the history of the Republic of China.

POD #1-Sun Yat Sen does not offer Yuan Shikai the position of President for the ROC. In this idea, I am open to flexibility in whether or not Sun offers a different position, or simply doesn't even make the offer in the first place. Also open to the idea of Sun offering, and Yuan rejecting, and vice versa.

POD #2-Sun decides to use his position in Guangzhou to go with the local leaders idea of making the region "A model for China." Also open to the possibility that Sun takes a less militaristic approach, and perhaps decides on a balanced plan of unifying China via Military, Economical, and Political actions rather then simply through the military.

POD #3-The Zhongshan Warship Incident doesn't happen, or happens in a way that prevents the Kuomintang from fracturing and splitting. Maybe it even ends up happening in a way that solidifies the Kuomintang right and left. However, I would need more information on this incident before moving forward with this POD.

POD #4-Chiang Kai-shek does not go to Xi'an to lead the offensive against the Communists, and the Xi'an incident doesn't happen. I don't know as much about this scenario, surprisingly, considering that I believe when it comes to Nationalist China timelines, its one of the more regular POD's picked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Yes, this is something I actually intend to go through with. I've been printing out information, and intend to if I need to buy books for more information. Before I do that though, I would appreciate any suggestions on what sites and references to research for information.

If I can manage to actually go through with this, I believe I could consider myself a Junior Historian :D
 
Not that you need more options, but here are a couple anyway :)

1911 - Yuan Shikai continues his military reforms, specifically the one about insisting that officers regularly rotate to positions in other provinces. He caved to his subordinates on this because he felt he needed their complete support urgently to put down the southern rebels; if he chooses to stand firm, or finds some other concession he can offer, or just accepts the fact that it might be a couple of years before he gets around to controlling the south, any of that could be helpful. Yuan was perfectly aware of the dangers he might face if enlisted men grew too close to specific officers, and officers grew too attached to specific regions.

1935 - his - leadership coup? goes backwards, and Zhang Guotao successfully executes Mao Zedong for mutiny, then takes the Communist army south and gets it destroyed. This still leaves Republican China somewhat basketcaselike, but perhaps General Stillwell will roll the dice well and be listened to in Washington...

It's not an area of specialty for me, so I can't really comment well on the PoDs you already offered :eek::(
 
I had been considering a POD that might end up with Yuan Shikai not becoming President of the ROC. One of which was that he decided to simply make his run for Emperor then instead of later. I'd also considered the possibility that Shikai's assassination of...can't remember his name, but he was a Nationalist who was very very vocal about limiting the powers of the President.

So far though, it seems people are interested in the more common scenario :p :( :) Which I suppose is both good and bad.

Good in that it should be easier to get information for the Timeline, bad that its not as different or uncommon.
 
Another good PoD is Chiang successfully wiping out Mao, Zhao Enlai, and the rest of the politically effective communist leadership (and preventing the Long March) in the Fifth Encirclement Campaign (1934) -- which can be as simple as Enlai's intelligence network coming apart at an inopportune moment...
 
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