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Table of Contents
Points of Divergence: Political Movements
Points of divergence concerning the development of various political thought, ideologies and practices in the history of human civilisation and human cultures. Organised by historical eras and topics into sections, with each section having its POD entries sorted as chronologically as possible.
If you are adding new entries to this page and the topic at hand is too wide and abstract to be assigned to a specific historical period, please list the the entry under a separate 'thematic' heading (e.g. the already existing “General musings” section).
Antiquity
What if Sargon of Akkad lost against Uruk and never formed an empire ?
Challenge: Other ethnicities "survive" like the Jewish people
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
The Middle Ages
Alternate empires in the medieval era
Challenge: Carolingian 'nationalism'
A surviving house Hohenstaufen
Challenge: Patron Saint of Democracy
Challenge: With a POD after 1453 AD, create a less balkanized Europe
Challenge: With a POD after 1453 AD, create a less balkanized Asia
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
Early Modern Era
Challenge: Keep Scandinavia United
Plausibility check: How long could feudalism have survived?
Mercantilism or Free Trade for Industrialization ?
Challenge: Socially liberal authoritarianism
Challenge: Other ethnicities "survive" like the Jewish people
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
18th and 19th century
Challenge: European monarchies become republics (and vice versa)
Challenge: Directly-elected prime minister in monarchy
Challenge: Major Benthamite social movement
Plausibility check: Industrialization without liberalism ?
Challenge: Alternate 19th/20th century world powers
Challenge: Alternate 19th-Century Alliances
Probabilities of World Domination (once we reach the Industrial Age) ?
Challenge: Weirdest 19th century
WI: A world without nationalism as a political movement ?
How inevitable is nationalism ?
Nationalism on a smaller scale
Victorian devolution in the UK (after 1830)
A union of hispanic colonies ?
Could the 1848 German revolutionaries have gotten more organized and more successful ?
WI/Challenge: Stirner influential, Marx obscure ?
How likely was the emergence of Communism or a similar political philosophy ?
Consequences of a succesful Paris Commune ?
WI: Earliest possible country with Communist revolution before Russia
Challenge: Make most nations in the world Communist with a POD in the mid 19th century
Alternate ideological strains of proto-fascism
Challenge: A Mormon Fascist State
Challenge: Disunited Arabia (with a POD after the 1880s)
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
20th century
Alternate major ideology for the 20th century ?
Challenge: Alternate 19th/20th century world powers
Political Atmosphere of World without Communism, Fascism & Zionism
Challenge: Earlier European Integration
Challenge: Modern day absolute monarchy in Europe
Challenge: A country self-isolates itself during the interwar period
Plausibility check: Nazism as a artistic movement
ATL "cool bad guys" in lieu of Nazis ?
Plausibility check: How far could communism spread ?
Challenge: World's first communist revolution in Latin America
Challenge: Countries other than USA and USSR become superpowers
Challenge: Draw the ideal map of post-WWI Europe
Plausibility check: Actual Islamic Fascism
Plausibility check: Powerful UN with a POD after 1945
Challenge: First World sub-Saharan country (with a POD after 1948)
Challenge: Christian head of state in an Arab Country besides Lebanon
Challenge : A Christian Objectivist Movement
A smaller but tighter-knit European Comunity ?
Why wasn't EFTA that "successful" ?
WI: France transfers Foreign Legion to UN
Plausibility check: French neo-fascist movement in the late 1960s/early 70s ?
Make up your own terrorist group
Complete collapse of communism in the late 1980s
WI: Arab Spring in the late 1980s and early 1990s
Alternate post-Soviet breakaway states ?
WI: No reconciliation in 1990s South Africa
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
General musings
Challenge: Entirely original alternate ideologies
Challenge: Ideologies based on psychology instead of economics
Most loosely governed state possible
Alternate little countries, like OTL San Marino and Andorra ?
Challenge: Europe comprised of many small countries and city states (with a POD after 1000 AD)
A world composed of city-states
Alternate permanently neutral/unclaimed territories on Earth other than Antarctica
Challenge: "International waters" concept not created or not in use
Make up your own terrorist group
A religious national communist state
Challenge: Biggest abdication crisis possible
Challenge: Make absolute monarchy last longer as a dominating political trend
WI: Successful Arab Union State
Challenge: Tiny countries become empires
Alternate states and provinces
Challenge: Christian Socialism popular in the US
Challenge: Logical Central Asian Borders
Plausible expansions of tiny countries
Countries that could have successfully united but didn't
Try to come up with the most evil AH regime you can imagine...
European regions that just couldn't quite unify
Plausibility of a united Africa ?
Challenge: A dystopia based around unexplored philosophies
Plausibility check: Slavic/Panslavic Union
Challenge: Make World Pro-Totalitarianism
Challenge: Weirdest possible powers
Challenge: Single party dominance in your country
Plausibility check: "African Century" ?
Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.
See Also
Points of Divergence : Society and Societal Norms
Points of Divergence : Famous People
Useful Resources on Political Science, Diplomacy and Protocol
Useful Resources on Political Lists and Election Results from OTL