What countries could have become great powers/empires but didn't?

[Corjomc]

What about Texas?

If they manage to stay independent and then get California to Join them they would be quite the country.

Throw in an America divided by civil war before they can respond to the Texas expansion and major foreign backing and they should be good to go.

End up with the USA, the Confederate States and Greater Texas.

 

[Timaeus]

What about Texas?

If they manage to stay independent and then get California to Join them they would be quite the country.

Throw in an America divided by civil war before they can respond to the Texas expansion and major foreign backing and they should be good to go.

End up with the USA, the Confederate States and Greater Texas.

Could Texas become a power without California?

 

[Whiteshore]

What about one of the "Ten Kingdoms" during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period? Could any of them have reunified China?

 

[Johari Abdul Patah]

What about one of the "Ten Kingdoms" during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period? Could any of them have reunified China?

Maybe someone more well-versed in Chinese history could correct me if I am wrong but I think Five Dynasties was always the top dog during that era. The kingdoms in "Ten Kingdoms" who tried to expand always found themselves overstretched & unable to hold on their temporary expansion.

A more interesting POD would be the Shatuo Turkic emperors continuing their rule in Five Dynasties instead of being usurped by native Han Chinese. The Song who came out victorious & completed the reunification of China in OTL chose to abandon the culture & value of Tang Dynasty & went retro instead. If China was reunited by a Shatuo Turkic emperor instead of Han Chinese I doubt they would choose the same path because the fact that Shatuo Turkic being considered Chinese at all was pretty much tied to the culture & attitude of Tang dynasty regarding assimilation. So instead of ethnic chauvinism of Song dynasty we could instead had a culture chauvinism & pro-assimilation dynasty founded by Shatuo Turkic who regarded themselves as successor of Tang instead of going retro.

 

[Daedalus]

Burgundy, had it held together, could have been a powerhouse to reckon with. Not sure how well it could withstand a rise in nationalism in later years, but it could take the Dutch's place as a colonial trading power. considering it holds all of Benelux plus more of an interior. This would probably be its weakness, having such a long border to defend on either side, but it would be a key player in keeping France at bay from the smaller HRE states.

Naples/Sicily under the right rulers and circumstances could have remained a country in its own right, separate from the northern Italians. Had it industrialized at the same pace as the north did, that combined with its great position for trade and its fertile lands would have made Naples the premiere Mediterranean power.

The sultanate of Kilwa dominated much of the Swahili Coast during the medieval and renaissance era but came undone under Portuguese meddling and the dominance of viziers. A mostly-united Swahili state would be an interesting one to see in East Africa.

 

[ByzantineLover]

I reckon the Kingdom of Georgia, if they had managed to expand further into Armenia and Eastern Anatolia, at least far enough to border/vassal and/or annex Trebizond, Cilicia and Antioch. Something similar to the Antiquity Kingdom of Armenia. Contact and trade with the latter two would, at least, have given them access to Western Europe. Depending on when this happens, the crusaders might see them as potential allies.

 

[WeissRaben]

Italy dodged so many occasions, you could make a "the floor is being a great power" meme out of it.

 

[koa_dan]

I'm gonna cheat here and say France. I know that France OTL was one of the biggest powers in the world, but to quote someone who wrote a much better post about this, France at many points in it's history could have been THE power, even more than England or Spain was OTL. However, due to mismanagement during the 16th-18th centuries, it kept loosing wars to England or Spain or it's own incompetence at just the right times. In an ATL, France could have even become a Hyperpower, with only perhaps Russia or China at full strength there to threaten their dominance.

Also, I know that India gets a lot of talk about how it could have been a viable counter to Europe, but IMO the Spice Island/Indonesia could have taken this role too.

I'm particularly interested in this, may you provide several PODs for this?

 

[Fabius Maximus]

I second the suggestion of France; they were powerful IOTL, but when you consider their potential it seems like they were punching under their weight most of the time.

Also, the Romano-British: practically the only former Western Roman province to successfully defend itself for any length of time, an achievement which is particularly impressive when you realise just how much things were going to pot at the time (in a lot of areas, it seems that the level of material culture after the Roman withdrawal regressed to a level lower than that before the Romans came). It would be interesting to see how things might have developed if they'd managed to keep up their success.

 

[Fabius Maximus]

I'm particularly interested in this, may you provide several PODs for this?

Does "this" refer to France or Indonesia? I don't know about Indonesia, but regarding France, you could have several:

(i) The Franks don't have/get rid of the practice of splitting up their lands every time the king dies, meaning that the Empire manages to stay united after Louis the Pious.
(ii) No Hundred Years' War.
(iii) No Wars of Religion.
(iv) Give ancient regime France a better tax system. IOTL Louis XV got about as much income as the King of Great Britain, despite having something like three times the population under his rule.
(v) No demographic slowdown post-Napoleon, which resulted in the country getting overtaken by Germany in terms of population.

 

[Byzantine fanatic]

the Romano-British: practically the only former Western Roman province to successfully defend itself for any length of time, an achievement which is particularly impressive when you realise just how much things were going to pot at the time (in a lot of areas, it seems that the level of material culture after the Roman withdrawal regressed to a level lower than that before the Romans came). It would be interesting to see how things might have developed if they'd managed to keep up their success.

Technically, they were still going until 1295, when King Edward of England conquered the last area of North Wales that had been holding out.

 

[Fabius Maximus]

Technically, they were still going until 1295, when King Edward of England conquered the last area of North Wales that had been holding out.

Ah yes, of course. Gwynedd: the last outpost of the Western Empire.

 

[cmakk1012]

I second the suggestion of France; they were powerful IOTL, but when you consider their potential it seems like they were punching under their weight most of the time.

Also, the Romano-British: practically the only former Western Roman province to successfully defend itself for any length of time, an achievement which is particularly impressive when you realise just how much things were going to pot at the time (in a lot of areas, it seems that the level of material culture after the Roman withdrawal regressed to a level lower than that before the Romans came). It would be interesting to see how things might have developed if they'd managed to keep up their success.

If only they’d invented the stirrup IOTL

 

[Wallet]

What about Texas?

If they manage to stay independent and then get California to Join them they would be quite the country.

Throw in an America divided by civil war before they can respond to the Texas expansion and major foreign backing and they should be good to go.

End up with the USA, the Confederate States and Greater Texas.

Throw in Alaska and the Oregon country and you have a super power

 

[Timaeus]

Throw in Alaska and the Oregon country and you have a super power

So would independent California and Tejas on their own have the potential to be great powers on their own?

 

[water123]

What makes you say that?

A lot of reasons. One is the fact that even OTL there were a lot of strong states (Srivijaya, Majapahit, Sunda, etc) that were able to really carve out powerhouses for themselves before the Dutch came. Another is an extremely strong naval and trading tradition. IMO, if you can nix the Chola invasion, you could get Indonesia to become a series of powerful kingdoms with strong oceanic traditions, enough for them themselves to start expanding outwards at least a few decades before Europe.

 

[Wallet]

So would independent California and Tejas on their own have the potential to be great powers on their own?

Possibly. California and Texas now could rival Britain or France but their growth was because of migration of people and money from the rest of the United States. It’s uncertain if that would occur if they were separate nations

 

[Oliveia]

Egypt, hands down. Had Muhammad Ali Pasha won the Second Egyptian-Ottoman War, Egypt'd practically be the Ottomans.

 

[Timaeus]

Possibly. California and Texas now could rival Britain or France but their growth was because of migration of people and money from the rest of the United States. It’s uncertain if that would occur if they were separate nations

What if an alternate ACW takes place at roughly the same time the two republics tried to claim their independence?

 

[Wallet]

What if an alternate ACW takes place at roughly the same time the two republics tried to claim their independence?

Than the US falls apart and Balkanized

Speaking of Balkanizing, I think a Bosnian led Balkan Union could become a world power. A Serbian one would just fall apart.