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So I've been fond of the irony that the Xi Xia state, which existed in Northwestern China from 1038 to 1227, would refer to itself as the White and Lofty Great Xia State, despite the fact that it was hemmed in by stronger states and never really that White or Lofty. I've decided to write about a timeline where this is reversed, and the Xi Xia are indeed powerful.

To be honest, much of these ideas will look like I merely replaced the Mongols with Tanguts.

My initial plan would be for Li Yuanhao, who was Jingzong of the Western Xia, to reign longer, and be succeeded by more capable rulers and men. Later, when the Khitan Liao are overthrown by the Jurchens, who were consistently restless, and probably unified under the Wanyan tribe here too, the Jurchens aren't that successful, and the Tanguts of the Xi Xia manage to take most of Liao territory, and then defeat the Northern Song. In real life, the Southern Song came into existence because a Jurchen cavalry unit missed capturing Gaozong of Southern Song by a few minutes. In this world, there will be no Southern Song, just a handful of Chinese successor states in the south, who will be defeated in due time.

Then, the Tanguts would then proceed, in a manner similar to the Mongols in history, to conquer large swaths of Eurasia. Because the Tanguts were devoutly Buddhist, this will have the effect of imposing Buddhism through a much larger area.

So, for some of the butterflies and effects I had in mind: The Khitans in this world won't just flee to Central Asia and create the Kara Khitai. The advance of the Tanguts mean that the Khitans will instead go even further east. I'm thinking of either a Khitan version of the Ottoman Empire centered in Constantinople, or a Khitan Egypt. Next, the Tanguts will take Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan. Naysayers might say Islamization has taken too deep of a hold in these areas already. I envision a Buddhist Middle East instead, just for the sake of the butterflies.

A group of Tanguts will later take over most of India, in the same manner that a group of Mongol descendants became the Moghuls and did the same. As for the Jurchens, I'm thinking of them invading and conquering Korea and Japan, and then starting a maritime tradition that will see the Jurchens spread to Taiwan, the Philippines, and maybe even North America. I'm not sure about Europe though. I don't want a Tangut invasion of Russia: the parallels with the Mongols would start to get boring. Perhaps the Tangut invasion creates a wave of migration, and this world sees Naimans, Mongols, or Tatars invading Russia and forming their own states anyways. I'm not sure about the Eastern Roman Empire. However, I do plan to have the Tanguts weaken the position of the neighboring Muslim states, and perhaps the Crusader States survive longer, maybe even till the present day. Europe, more dedicated to Middle Eastern involvement, would turn out differently, but I'm not sure how. For the sake of divergence, I'm thinking of England having more of a European continental presence with a different Hundred Years' War.

A few last butterflies I had in mind: it's not too late for the Reconquista to fail, and it's still possible for Islam to spread into places that it never really reached historically. I'm thinking of the Indochina Peninsula, Thailand, and Burma, and maybe the New World. Otherwise, it seems the Muslim world is unreasonably unfortunate in this world.

The reason I post so much about an idea that I'm not really sure about, is because I'm thinking of making a miniature timeline, not some magnum opus, so don't expect LTTW or DoD. I'd also like to ask for your thoughts, and also for people who'd like to collaborate with me, because there are people here who are much more knowledgeable about history than I am.

So, any thoughts? I can already imagine the tag line: Muslim Vietnam? Khitan Egypt? Jurchen California? Why not try "The White and Lofty?"
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