WI: An evil empire existed today

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Karlmarx900

What if a powerful country such as the USA, China or Russia was an evil empire?
This scenario assumes the following:
It has a large nuclear stockpile and a powerful military with at least one million personnel, it is at least totalitarian, it has a rapidly growing economy with a large population, the empire in question is a superpower or a hyperpower with a horrible human rights record and the government has universal support amongst the populace it rules over. The empire has aggressive tendencies and a wise and competent leadership
By the way: a hyperpower is a state that dominates all the others in every domain such as military and economy. Can anyone please post any links to dystopian alternate timelines in this thread?
 
Mr_Fanboy

Mr_Fanboy

Folks, I would chill with the direct discussion of modern politics. It would be a great way to get the thread closed.

Anyway, an "evil empire" as discussed in the original post would basically be a totalitarian state that has reached superpower, or at least great power, status. That is, it is not sufficient that the state be totalitarian and hold to an ideology widely considered to be immoral outside of their sphere of influence, it must have power projection capabilities sufficient to build a sphere of influence. The Soviet Union pretty much fits the bill for this historically. An Axis victory would have created three (well, two and a half) such evil empires in the form of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Mussolini's Italy, though you would have to take Japan off of that least if this is a world where the Nazis win in Europe but America still fights and wins the Pacific War. It also seems very possible that one or more surviving and powerful European colonial powers, such as Britain, France, or Imperial Germany could have tended in this direction.

The big problem with your challenge is that an empire, whether it exists formally or through a series of client and puppet states, will almost definitionally include many different races, religions, and ethnic groups, and those who do not belong to the dominant groups (Germans in Nazi Germany, for instance) will probably find themselves enslaved or exterminated in the worst case scenario, and largely excluded from the halls of power in the best case scenario. Hence, it would be very difficult for any such state to achieve close to universal approval unless one only considers the opinions of the dominant group, and even then there will always be dissenters.
 

King_Arthur

Mr_Fanboy said:
It also seems very possible that one or more surviving and powerful European colonial powers, such as Britain, France, or Imperial Germany could have tended in this directio
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Assuming a Post-1900 PoD, then that is definitely possible for Germany and maybe France but outright ASB for Britain. Democracy has existed in various forms in Britain for 211 years by that point and we had universal male suffrage at that point, and we were one of the most democratic countries in the world in 1900 (along with France). There is no chance that there could be a lasting totalitarian Britain with a 1900 POD.
 

NiGHTS

King_Arthur said:
Assuming a Post-1900 PoD, then that is definitely possible for Germany and maybe France but outright ASB for Britain. Democracy has existed in various forms in Britain for 211 years by that point and we had universal male suffrage at that point, and we were one of the most democratic countries in the world in 1900 (along with France). There is no chance that there could be a lasting totalitarian Britain with a 1900 POD.
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But, what about the colonies?
 
Crystal

Crystal

Gone Fishin'
Osakadave said:
And the US.
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MrHaakwood

King_Arthur said:
Assuming a Post-1900 PoD, then that is definitely possible for Germany and maybe France but outright ASB for Britain. Democracy has existed in various forms in Britain for 211 years by that point and we had universal male suffrage at that point, and we were one of the most democratic countries in the world in 1900 (along with France). There is no chance that there could be a lasting totalitarian Britain with a 1900 POD.
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The biggest colonial Empire didnt come into existance by being nice & you cant just handwave the evil which comes with it away.
 

General Tirpitz

The USSR which experiences significantly less war-time destruction than it did IOTL would be quite formidable, even more so than IOTL. Say, Germans delay their invasion to 1942 and in addition do series of even more stupid mistakes than they did in reality. The war ends the Red Army on the Rhine with Austria, Denmark, Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia tightly on Moscow's leash. IOTL it took until the 1950's until the USSR recovered from the war, and even then there were sectors which significantly lagged behind when compared to the pre-war situation. Turkey could be Finlandized while Norway and Italy stay neutral. In addition you could additionally screw western powers. The evacuation from Dunkirk goes badly, North African campaing is little more sluggish, Japan does little better in the Pacific while Western powers little worse but still ending in the Japanese defeat in a Operation Downfall-like event. The USSR could snatch whole Korea and Hokkaido and Tohoku during this operation. These small screws don't even need to be huge individually but together would result in a war which is much more expensive for the Western Allies while leaving the USSR in a relatively unharmed and much more powerful.
 
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CalBear

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Osakadave said:
And the US.
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And it took EXACTLY one post more ensure a political flame war on current politics outside of Chat?

Nicely done

Take a week off, you must be tired after dragging all that kindling all the way from Chat.

See ya; in 7
 
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