Taiping World

Oof. The treasure fleets are interesting, but are best understood as a Chinese Apollo Project, not the prelude to Chinese America.
They could lead to contact with Europe. Trade. And eventually conquest. The Americas might come later when Columbus presents his proposal for a Europe-Asia route going west to the local Kahn/Viceroy/Magistrate who gives him a couple ships.
 
Granted, many of the replies state that this scenario would lead to a dystopia. I do not know enough to say one way or another, so I depend on people with a better understanding and knowledge of 19th century China, but I appreciate the feedback.

CHAPTER ONE - Rise of the Taiping

How the Taiping movement launched a successful revolution and took over all of China. (How did they persuade foreign powers to help them?)

What direction might this regime take? Perhaps more moderate leaders balanced out the fanatics, and they restored some semblance of peaceful order. Perhaps I am being too optimistic about the possibility of anything productive emerging from the Taiping order.

Anyways, the Qing lose province after province, which all end up under Hong Xichuan. The future course of the Taiping faction depends on who succeeds Hong after his death. IOTL the Taiping rebels were not very pleasant people, but I do not see why more sober leaders can not carry on the movement. Perhaps a revitalized China could modernize as Meiji Japan did. While I would imagine that the Taiping regime would impose their brand of Christianity on China, there is the possibility that they try to be a little tolerant, perhaps following the example of the Mughal Empire.

Of course, worst case scenario, the Taiping launch a "Cultural Revolution" against the old Confucian establishment almost a century before Mao. I noticed many here consider the Taiping rebellion to be an eery foreshadowing of Maoism. To be fair, I do not know enough, but I appreciate your critiques.

CHAPTER TWO - The Northern Kingdom

[Note if any mapmakers wish to make some maps, I appreciate it, just make sure you make it based on maps of the world at the time. Do not make the mistake of using present-day geopolitical boundaies.]

By the time all of China was placed under the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xichuan and his successor have ruled over a land even greater than OTL modern China. (Even in their decline, the boundaries of Qing Dynasty China were beyond those of the People's Republic of China. All of Mongolia and all of Manchuria plus more of Turkestan were under Qing rule.) The new regime was better able to hold its own against the predation of European empires, and these European nations found it better to cooperate with the Heavenly Kingdom than to attempt to subvert it.

Eventually, the Emperor set his sights on the old Russian Empire. IOTL, Imperial Russia was bitterly defeated by Meiji Japan, which had the benefits of Meiji Period modernization and British assistance. Imagine if China had these advantages.

In case you did not guess, China conquers the Russian Empire...
:eek: of course it might not seem plausible... This is a wank! :p

Rather than annex all of the Russian Empire, the Taiping leaders supplant the Romanov dynasty with a Chinese dynasty loyal to them. They are able to accomplish this using a combination of conquest and internal struggles. Eventually, a reformed version of Taiping Christianity is preached to the masses of peasants, who find the egalitarian teachings appealing.

In the midst of the internal strife, Polish revolutionaries fought the last remnants of the czarist regime for independence. In the end, the Chinese overlords made a semi-independent client kingdom out of Russian Poland, tributary to the Northern Kingdom.

Together the Zhong Guo (Middle Kingdom) and Bei Mian Guo (Northern Kingdom) form a power bloc to reckon with.

In the mean time, the Taiping encouraged colonization of far off regions of the former Russian Empire. Chinese was made the official language, and a lingua franca, though Russian and other languages will continue to be used. The Taiping began proselytizing in many of the Protestant countries of Europe, but they met much greater resistance in the Catholic countries. Will the Taiping be able to sweep through Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and Iceland? (If they can take Russia, what's stopping them?) How will Prussia, Austria, France, and Britain react to the Chinese empire in their back yard? Stay tuned!

...Keep going or has the direction of this TL gone off the deep end? :eek:

Off the deep end, especially w/a POD in the 1850's (unless you want to emply those pesky ASB's).
 
Originally Posted by Leistungsfähiger Amerikan
No!!! Do a real TL, not just a wank!

Unfortunately, I do not know enough about this period to do a serious TL.

But just out of curiosity, when do you think would be the most reasonable POD for China to conquer the world?

  • the FUTURE
  • QING DYNASTY (incl. Taiping Rebellion)
  • MING DYNASTY
  • YUAN DYNASTY
  • EARILER POD (pre-Genghis Khan)
There were many Roman-wank scenarios such as the very popular one by ericams2786 in which Rome conquered most of the world and there is a dissenting thread jkay explaining why the Roman Empire can't conquer the world. However, there do not seem as many similar threads about China.
 
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