WI: Alexander the Great reaches China

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Esopo

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I dont see it happening.
If alexander manages to live more, consolidates his empire, and for some reason he decides to go again eastwards (giving up the conquest of arabia, carthago, italy), isnt crushed by riots in greece or asia, he could try to conquer india. For sure, if he decided to keep going to the east he would exclude the northern (mountains/deserts/endless poor wastelands) route. But even if he manages to submit northern india (i dont buy the "everyone outside the borders which alexander actually conquered was HUGELY powerful, and if he attacked the inner indian kingdoms they would have conquered Pellas in a few years"), reaching china through burma is just too much. It is a distance as long as the one from greece to india, and now alexander is too far from his supply lines.
 
Oh, come on now...don't be so rigid like that...
Way I see it, it's an alternative timeline so pretty alternative stuff could and probably would happen...

So what if he could have captured northern India?
Maybe through his own personal charisma he would have managed to convince his troops to stay onboard for a final push.
Also the unrest and dissidence among his troops and generals and especially it's significance is a bit overestimated I think. Yes, they probably were tired of the endless campaigning and since Alex was open to criticism they weren't shy letting him know how they feel. Still, above all esle, they were the king's soldiers and would follow him to the end of the world, quite literally, if that is what he commanded.
Yes, it is possible he would have to remove the heads off a couple of the main dissident figureheads among his leaders if it got down to it, and that would kind of blemish his almost spotless presence in history but...
But bottom line is discipline and morale would be restored among the ranks and they would fall in line behind the king because that's their duty and job.

Additionally, it stands to reason that after Persia, the Indian states would have been the richest places EVER witnessed by the Greeks. In many ways probably THE richest. As in gold, silver and all kinds of precious gems.
Even the northern states who weren't the most powerful, nor had any semblance of strong centralised government like southern Indian kingdoms did.
So it could be that in the face of all this wealth just waiting to fall into their laps, the enthusiasm of the host would be renewed for one final drive.
Let us not forget that, no matter how overextended his army was he still never lost a battle.
Not in India, not anywhere.
Following that pattern he could have easily defeated the forces of the various north Indian warlords to finally force them into submission.

And that brings me to my final argument.
That he wouldn't really have to "capture" Northern India. All he'd have to do is sack the richest cities to provide for the loot that would placate his rogue generals, satisfy his soldiers' hunger for wealth and enforce vassalage among the local warlords.
That would provide him with ridiculously lavish annual tributes plus it would give Alex the perfect launching base for his future conquest of lands beyond India. Not to mention a huge pool of manpower from which to draw soldiers for his future armies.

What part of what just I said doesn't sound even remotely possible?

Just because it is an alternate timeline doesn't mean it has to be fantastical. Alexander had massive amounts of personal charisma- his troops loved him, they would charge a city to protect his prostrate body.

And that wasn't enough to make them go even further than Persian armies, to go further into India. The distances involved are practically preposterous. It took an army, back then, six months to march from the Aegean coast of Asia Minor to the outer periphery of the Persian Empire. Double that, and you get the kind of reaction time that someone would have in an empire that reached through India.

The Romans, who had a massive road building system, still could not react faster than about two or three weeks to events occurring in Gaul, despite everything they did, they were still behind.

Should an attack fall upon this Empire, it would almost immediately crumble. The Empire wouldn't be able to pay, especially if it was led by someone of Alexander's caliber of spendthriftiness, for the necessary army in India.

Additionally, there is the possibility that Alexander was forced out of India by some foreign power, rather than by his own volition, giving Porus the lands he had conquered. It may be that he lost a battle there, and had to retreat.

We can't know, speaking more than 2,000 years away from his death. We do know, however, that logically speaking, an Empire big could not survive in the pre-modern era.
 
I don't think the condom was invented yet.:p

Anyway, doubt Alexander would convert to anything else, he was the "son of Zeus" after all.

I gather that Ancient Roman priests would sometimes use an arrangement made of animal intestines. Or a herb whose name escapes me (lipsum?) which looks suspicously like a modern "love heart" (as opposed to, say, an actual human heart.)

Anyway, I can't see Alexander successfully conquering China. It's too far from his power base, his troops were wavering, and with his style of leading from the front it seems likely that he'll be killed before he makes it there. If he stops and tries to consolidate his position over a normal sort of lifetime (which is, for a man of his personality, unlikely-perhaps a few more limited conquests, slightly closer to home, with him slightly more able to sort out political issues), one of his successors may have a crack at it.
 
If he entered what is now southern or western China, then he might be a bit disappointed. During the reign of Alexander, Chinese states existed in a small area, and where in the middle of fighting each other. Which means they would be quite well armed, and able to resist. Whether or not they would continue to fight each other despite foreign invasion (like the Nationalists were more interested in fighting the Communists than the Japanese) is another matter.
 
Somebody wrote a good little one-post TL where Alexander loses a civil war after most of his conquests, then leads the die-hard loyalists as a mercenary company. This eventually leads him as far as Korea.
 

Kosta

Banned
Why not just have him establish diplomatic relations with China and send Greek and Persian emissaries to China? Maybe after a few years of relations, Alexander himself can visit Luoyang? That is, granted, if he can live longer and solidify his domain so that leaving for what would have to be a few years wouldn't be a problem.
 
Somebody wrote a good little one-post TL where Alexander loses a civil war after most of his conquests, then leads the die-hard loyalists as a mercenary company. This eventually leads him as far as Korea.
In that one he reached Japan (though I think Korea was as far as he actually conquered).
 
What about going around India? Merchants had been traveling the northern silk road for centuries even in this point in time if I have my information correct, and the northeastern edge of his empire line up. He couldn't make it in the opening expedition, certainly. But if he survives to return to Macedon, a future conquest is not out of the question. And if having Alexander go to China is too outrageous, allow him to sire children raised on tails of his many deeds and glories, children who grow to raise armies of their own and venture forth to match or exceed their father's deeds.
 

CalBear

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Back to the grave zombie! With Blood, Salt & Iron I bind thee to the Earth to rise no more!
 
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