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).

Challenge: Musicracy

What if Sargon of Akkad lost against Uruk and never formed an empire ?

Challenge: Stoicism bringing the downfall of slavery in Rome

Amerindian States

Challenge: Other ethnicities "survive" like the Jewish people

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Amerindian States

WI: No feudalism

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.

Challenge: Keep Scandinavia United

Alternate Tory Names

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

Challenge: Make Africa the most developed and stable region in the world (with a POD in the 16th century at the earliest)

Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Challenge: European monarchies become republics (and vice versa)

DBWI: Republican Europe ?

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

A Communist CSA ?

Communism with Christianity ?

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.

• Alternate major ideology for the 20th century ?
• Challenge: Alternate 19th/20th century world powers
• Challenge: Save the monarchies
• Political Atmosphere of World without Communism, Fascism & Zionism
• Challenge: Earlier European Integration
• Challenge: Modern day absolute monarchy in Europe
• More post-WWI nations
• Challenge: A country self-isolates itself during the interwar period
• Fascism without Nazism
• Plausibility check: Nazism as a artistic movement
• WI a Fascist International ?
• 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 (1)
• Plausibility check: Actual Islamic Fascism (2)
• 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 Sweden had joined NATO ?
• 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
• What could the eventual post-communist flags of the presently remaining communist countries look like ?
• Know of any PODs or POD discussions ? Feel free to add them.

Challenge: Entirely original alternate ideologies

Challenge: Ideologies based on psychology instead of economics

Invent your own ideology...

Most loosely governed state possible

Challenge: Biggest possible empire

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

Last minute dictatorships

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

Largest possible country ?

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

PODs for a United Europe

An African Superpower ?

Plausibility of a united Africa ?

In-Exile/Remnant States

Challenge: A dystopia based around unexplored philosophies

United World Assembly

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.

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

Points of Divergence Main Directory