History has forever been shaped by great men and women, those brave enough to build vast empires out of regional backwaters, or cowardly enough reduce the largest empires the pathetic shadows of their former selves. This timeline will change the leaders of two great nations, sending each one on a vastly different path than they went in Our Timeline. In each nation, I will try to demonstrate the effects of this leadership, with narratives about everything from empire ending battles to daily life in the 8th century, I will try to cover as much relevant information as I can, and probably some Irrelevant information as well. Without further ado, my two Points of Divergence are:
First Point of Divergence
Han China, 5 AD • As
Rúzi Yīng, already 13 years old, begins to come to age,
Wang Mang, the acting Emperor, sees this as his last chance to slaughter the child and claim the throne for himself. Eventually, he decides against killing
Rúzi and instead decides he is content to forfeit his position as emperor in favor of a lesser position on the royal court. However, as soon as
Rúzi comes to power as his first order to kill
Wang, as revenge for an uncle's death. With the newly crowned Emperor at its head and no competition,
Han China starts on a path towards prosperity and expansion for centuries to come.
Differences in Han China
Without Wang Mang to throw the nation into civil war, the Han dynasty never experiences the war that split it into two, and is thus able to remain stable and expand
With a stable political system and a large population base, starting in 57 AD, Han China expands rapidly across Asia, taking over Southeast Asia, Tibet, and other tribes, eventually building a huge empire spanning much of Asia,
Han China Remains a superpower for more than a thousand years, and as a result it is one of the first nations to colonize The Americas(Known in this Timeline as Atlantis)
Second Point of Divergence
Rome, 270 AD • After his ascension to the
Roman throne,
Aurelian makes his massive attempt to reunify his shattered empire by leading an attack against the
Gallic Empire. After an early defeat, he is quickly killed by a mutiny from his disgruntled army. His replacement,
Fabius, quickly proves himself incompetent as his armies lose massive swaths of land to both the
Gallic and
Palmyrene Empires. Even as
Fabius’ grip on the nation is weakened, the army, and consequently the nation, continue to fall apart. Although by 274 AD,
Diocletian manages to take power, the damage is already done and
Roman Empire is in tatters.
Differences in the former Roman Empire
Split into three nations, Rome is never fully reunified, though the Roman Empire eventually manages to defeat and annex the Palmyrene Empire
With a smaller population and a more stable government, Rome never collapses, and like Han China is able to colonize the Americas
As a result of competition for influence in Germania between Rome and Gaul, Germania is split into hundreds of states, some under Roman Influence, others controlled by Gaul