====== Alternate History Clichés ====== Commonly abbreviated to AH Cliches (no accent on the e because we're a bunch of lazy francophobes), these describe certain concepts, technologies, events and scenarios that tend to crop up in a large number of timelines, particularly those written by those unfamiliar with the wider AH community. What follows is an alphabetical list of the most notorious clichés. As you can no doubt see, most of the clichés on the list have their own separate pages (which contain more info, with frequently tongue-in-cheek descriptions - just a precaution to keep you impatient readers interested :-)). **Important note**: Not all of the concepts or plots listed here are total clichés themselves ! While most are, many are just good ideas (e. g. a surviving independent British space/aviation industry), [[historical misconceptions|marred by the same old unresearched assumptions of AH authors]]. Others are tolerable (e. g. alternate Israels, the greater proliferation or survival of airships/battleships than in our history, etc.), but can easily be written badly or be overdone to the point of irrelevance... Or worse - making the reader bored. ---- ==== A List of the Most Common AH Cliches ==== * **[[alternate history:Airships]]** * **[[alternate history:Balkanize... NOW !!!]]** * **[[alternate history:Battleships]]** * **[[alternate history:Bland, united India]]** * **[[alternate history:British aviation industry]]** * **[[alternate history:British space program]]** * **[[alternate history:Confederate Cuba]]** * **[[alternate history:Conveniently sudden death]]** * **[[alternate history:Deseret]]** * **[[Central Powers Victory Clichés|The Deutsches Reich Imperial European Union]]** * **[[alternate history:Disunited Germany]]** * **[[alternate history:Disunited Italy]]** * **Everybody loves eugenics**: An easy, lazy way to paint an scenario as dystopic if one [[alternate_history:butterfly effect|keeps butterflying]] real historical genocides and massacres away. * **[[alternate history:Exiled royals go to the colonies]]** * **[[alternate history:German techwank]]** * **[[alternate history:Halifax the surrender monkey]]** * **[[alternate history:Nazis win, Heydrich survives]]** * **Nazi Argentina**: The idea that Argentina was crawling with Nazi sympathizers to the degree in which they could take power and join the Axis at any given moment just because the author says so. * **[[alternate history:Nothing ever happens in South America]]** * **[[No, it doesn't actually mean 'Wormwood']]** * **[[pods:Sealion|Operation Sealion]]** * **Pan-Slavist Romania**: A common misconception is that Romanians are Slavic people and that they would want to join a Pan-Slavic movement of their neighbours. * **Pan-Turkic Tajikistan**: Similar to the above, the misconception that Tajiks are Turks, where as in reality they are Persians. * **Pan-anything**: While movements such as Pan-Arabism, Pan-Germanism and Pan-Slavism existed in OTL, that doesn't mean other, sometimes ridiculous varieties would have existed in ATL. * **[[alternate history:Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck]]** * **[[alternate history:Pendulum Fallacy]]**: The idea that if a country/religion/ideology etc loses territory it has in [[OTL]], it has to gain territory elsewhere to compensate. * **[[Alternate Israels|Pin the Zion on the Eurasia]]** ([[Alternate Israels]] based in overly weird places) * **[[alternate history:Premodern Japan as a great power]]** * **[[alternate history:President Anybody]]** * **[[alternate history:President Cliche]]** * **[[alternate history:Randomian Congo]]** * **Random Axis South America**: When a random South American nation joins the Axis, or goes Fascist during the 1930s. Related to the already mentioned "Argentina becomes an instant refuge for vengeful Nazis, who set up a Third Reich in exile" cliché. * **[[alternate history:Ridiculously overpowered Ireland]]** * **[[alternate history:Space filling empire]]** * **Space programme changes**: Generally, absolutely any TL which involves any change at all to the OTL space programme will result in a vastly more extensive and successful one than OTL. Even if the change consists of Neil Armstrong wearing red socks instead of white on March 14th 1967. * **[[alternate history:Stupidly-named Italy]]** * **[[alternate history:Surviving culture as a wholesale stereotype]]** * **[[alternate history:That damned Kazakh border]]** * **[[alternate history:The Russians Want Alaska]]** * **[[alternate history:Uber Brandenburg]]** * **[[alternate history:Uber Cornwall]]** * **[[alternate history:Uninvadable super-duper Switzerland]]** * **[[alternate history:United State]]** * **[[alternate history:Afrikaners#Villainous Afrikaners]]** * **[[alternate history:Vinland colony]]** * **[[alternate history:WWI and WWII must always occur]]** * **[[alternate history:Zheng He]]** ---- ==== AH.com discussions on alternate history clichés ==== **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=9228&highlight=clich%E9s+rules|The "Rules/Clichés of AH" thread (a.k.a. The Grand List of AH clichés)]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=206127|Irritating clichés about pre-1900 alternate history]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=206139|Irritating clichés about post-1900 alternate history]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=150473|Overlooked Clichés]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=51839|Another round of AH clichés]]** **[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/xx-xxi-century-alternate-history-clich%C3%A9s.418525/|20th-21st century alternate history clichés]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=254707|What annoys you in TLs ?]]** **[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/alternate-history-cliches-that-annoy-you.458615/|Alternate history clichés that annoy you]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=297216|Things you dislike about alternate history]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=356977|AH clichés that are inevitable and sometimes necessary]]** **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=66967|AH Cliches from Alternate Worlds]]** - A fun [[double blind what if|DBWI]] take on the topic of alternate history cliches. **[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=166278|Allohistorical Convergence Pet Peeves]]** - A thread critizing the **[[Citroen DS Incident]]** that often crops up in TLs, commonly leading to a lot of clichés. **[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/ah-recurring-tropes-and-the-timelines-that-avert-or-subvert-them.493881/|AH Recurring Tropes, and the timelines that avert or subvert them]]** **[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/ah-cliches-in-other-languages.469244/|AH Clichés in other languages]]** ---- ====See Also==== **[[alternate history:Historical Misconceptions]]** **[[alternate history:FH Clichés|Future History Clichés]]** ---- ==== Navigation ==== **[[alternate history:alternate history|Alternate History Topics Section Main Directory]]**