WI: Qin never unite china?

Is the idea that one of the other warring states unites China, or that China is never unified (or unified much, much later)? Because I'm not sure how plausible the latter is, even if we pushed a PoD as far back as a century prior.

That said, if either of these things can be done with a late PoD (specifically, late as 227 BCE), I'd love to hear about that here.
 
I was thinking about a later unification from a different state, which state is the most likely candidate and if it would expand south or not.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
Is the idea that one of the other warring states unites China, or that China is never unified (or unified much, much later)? Because I'm not sure how plausible the latter is, even if we pushed a PoD as far back as a century prior.

We tend to think of the unification of China as inevitable because China has been around for so long as a single entity that we can scarcely imagine it not existing. But there is no more reason to think that the unification of China was inevitable than there was to think that the unification of the Mediterranean was inevitable.
 
What's the likelihood that Modu Chanyu of the nomadic Xiongnu Empire conquers and unifies the Chinese states under his authority, in lieu of the Qin uniting China?
 
We tend to think of the unification of China as inevitable because China has been around for so long as a single entity that we can scarcely imagine it not existing. But there is no more reason to think that the unification of China was inevitable than there was to think that the unification of the Mediterranean was inevitable.

I'm not Chinese. However, my friend in China has a history textbook that says so otherwise. I'd think the Chinese historians as a group would know themselves, just as American historians know about the American Revolution.
 
Then we need to know which state
I would say Chu looks like the most promising candidate, based on their size and resources, and (IIRC) likely being different from the Qin due to their strong landed aristocracy.
We tend to think of the unification of China as inevitable because China has been around for so long as a single entity that we can scarcely imagine it not existing. But there is no more reason to think that the unification of China was inevitable than there was to think that the unification of the Mediterranean was inevitable.
But they had been united (more or less) before under the Zhou, and the Warring States period can't last indefinitely. That said...
What's the likelihood that Modu Chanyu of the nomadic Xiongnu Empire conquers and unifies the Chinese states under his authority, in lieu of the Qin uniting China?
That's actually a really good idea -- it would help the OP even more if he only managed to conquer the smaller, weaker states to the northeast, while Qin and Chu continued to hold them off. Now that I think of it, if the Jing Ke assassination is successful, it just might throw enough of a wrench into the unification wars to give this time to happen. In fact, I'm going to go on and cross-post this, if that's ok...
 
I would say Chu looks like the most promising candidate, based on their size and resources, and (IIRC) likely being different from the Qin due to their strong landed aristocracy.

I agree. IIRC, Chu is something of the favored alternate to Qin among historians and it was very frequently the bulwark against Qin power in the Warring States period. It seems that the state always ran into some sort of disaster while it was ascendant that pushed it back down again, repeatedly. Prevent one or two of those defeats and Chu might bee able to unify China.

That's actually a really good idea -- it would help the OP even more if he only managed to conquer the smaller, weaker states to the northeast, while Qin and Chu continued to hold them off. Now that I think of it, if the Jing Ke assassination is successful, it just might throw enough of a wrench into the unification wars to give this time to happen. In fact, I'm going to go on and cross-post this, if that's ok...

Very interesting. I don't know enough of the details to add anything, but it is a fascinating alternative.
 
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