History Main / AlternateHistory

* In ''MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', the colony that would become California was founded by the British, rather than the Spanish. The only obvious consequence of the difference is that the action takes place in a city called "Angel Grove" rather than "Los Angeles".

* ''Anime/MazingerZ'' ''[[{{Mazinger}} spin-off]]'' ''Anime/NewMazinger'' was written in 1988, but the story happens several centuries after that World War III between America and Soviet Union left the planet devastated in the early 21st century. It is the early 21st century now, and not only nothing of it has happened, but also the Soviet Union collapsed shortly after the story's publishing.

* Jonathan Hickman's ''PaxRomana'' assumes that in our future the dying Roman Catholic church develops time travel and decides to send a small army back in time to Rome 312 AD. The intention was to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong, but the results are unexpected.

** His ''HeirsOfAlexandria'' series, co-written with Mercedes Lackey and David Freer has a somewhat more tolerant (both of other religions and magic) Christianity set in the mid-16th century with the point of departure springing from the Library of Alexandria not being destroyed by Christians in 391. Among the differences are a larger, more centralized Holy Roman Empire, a Christianity in which neither the schism between Catholicism and the Orthodox Church or the Protestant Reformation occured and a still existing Byzantine Empire.

** ''[[http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=144200 O Renascimento de um Império]]'' is a surprisingly thorough saga chronicling Portugal's rise as a world power from 1750 onwards. In the process, it turns into a liberal, multicultural (or at least multiethnic) empire, where the Kingdom works hand-in-hand with an independent Anglican-style Portuguese Catholic Church. On the other hand, their road to glory isn't clean.

* ''InglouriousBasterds'', and by extension the entire universe of Creator/QuentinTarantino movies, [[spoiler: takes places in an alternate WWII era in which Hitler and his three biggest men are blown up by the basterds.]]

[[Film/{{Ghostbusters}} Egons & Ectoplasms]][[/note]]

* The entire premise of the ''{{GURPS}}: Infinite Worlds'' campaign is based on one version of Earth discovering the means of traveling to hundreds of other alternate dimensions as reliably and economically as domestic air-travel is today, and engaging in a trans-dimensional cold war with a different version of Earth with similar technology. Steve Jackson Games published two sourcebooks for the 3rd edition of the game, which detailed at least ten distinct worlds and offered seeds for dozens of variations.

* What if a particular presidential election had turned out differently?

* What if a certain technological development (firearms, television, space travel) had been made earlier, or later, or [[AliensNeverInventedTheWheel not at all]]?

The plausibility and realism of AlternateHistory is measured on the SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility, an analogue of the MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness. More examples are on the AlternateHistoryLiterature page. See Also the AlternateHistoryTropes index.

A type of SpeculativeFiction set in a world where one or more historical events unfolded differently than they did in the real world. Often set some time after the event (called a "point of divergence", or [=PoD=], by fans of the genre), such stories typically describe a PresentDay world vastly changed by the difference, or follow another major historical event in light of the change. Sometimes linked with a TimeTravel story -- the point of divergence is often caused by travelers from "our" timeline (OTL in Alt-history parlance) seeking to effect a desired change. The protagonists may be original characters or actual historical figures. LampshadeHanging occurs often in these types of stories (an AllohistoricalAllusion); often, a character will stop to muse on what the world would be like if history had gone the way it did in the real world. Which, we suppose, is TruthInTelevision... after all, lampshading this trope is the entire point of alternate histories.

It is different from an AlternateUniverse, where the difference is in the fictional elements of the story. "What if Superman's ship landed in Soviet Russia?" or "What if Charles Xavier died before creating the X-Men?" are examples. However, the alternate universe may lead to alternate history as well: [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome Alternate Reed Richards may change human society]], Dr. Doom may give up [[ThrowAwayCountry ruling Latveria]] and begin to conquer or destroy actual countries, or Red Skull [[PresidentEvil may be elected President]]. In those cases, the alternate history is a side consequence, not the basic premise.

* Hector Bywater's ''Literature/TheGreatPacificWar'' was actual written as fiction (it was published in 1925, the war in the book takes lasts from 1931 - 1933), but the naval conflict has so many similarities to the actual Pacific war that happened soon after, than the book now seems like an alt-history novel.

It is different from an AlternateUniverse, where the difference is in the fictional elements of the story. "What if Superman's ship landed in Soviet Russia?" or "What if Charles Xavier died before creating the X-Men?" are examples. However, the alternate universe may lead to alternate history as well: [[AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome Alternate Reed Richards may change human technological society]], Dr. Doom may give up [[ThrowAwayCountry ruling Latveria]] and begin to conquer or destroy actual countries, or Red Skull [[PresidentEvil may be elected President]]. In those cases, the alternate history is a side consequence, not the basic premise.

* ''Fanfic/{{Downfall}}'' is a Manga/{{Bleach}} AU where Unohana ruthlessly leads Hueco Mundo, Aizen opposes her along with his loyal compatriots of the Gotei 13. What makes it truly inspiring is not just the current differences, but the roots of said changes. Many individuals dead in canon are alive, some who were alive are dead, and others will soon die if [[spoiler: Rukia's death]] is any indicator.

* ''{{Block 109}}''.

* ''RaidouKuzunohaVsTheSoullessArmy'' and its sequel, ''RaidouKuzunohaVsKingAbaddon'', do this quite discreetly, by using the Japanese calendar and noting the year as Taisho 20, when in real history, the Taisho era only lasted fifteen years. It's noted in the first game that, should the timeline remain unpolluted, the result would have been the CrapsackWorld that is ''ShinMegamiTenseiI'' and ''ShinMegamiTenseiII''. After the modifications imposed by a timetraveling villain, the timeline's implied to have diverged irrevocably. Comments in ''{{Persona 4}}'' imply said world was the end result of the manipulation.

* In ''[[FanFic/Emperor Emperor]]'', a HarryPotter fanfic, history changes when Robert Schuman fails to convince the European governments to work on what would eventually become the European Union, leaving the continent divided, Britain militarized and the threat of war hanging over everyone's heads. [[spoiler:Turns out that the failure of [[AtomicHate Project Manhattan]] was an even earlier point of divergence.]]

* ''Radioactive Panda'' makes a throwaway joke about how GeorgeLucas suffered a fatal heart attack in 1993; the characters lament that they "only" got to see Spielberg's vision of [[StarWars the prequel trilogy]], which won 14 Oscars.

* Ward Moore's ''Bring the Jubilee'' is a novel in which a time-traveler from a 20th Century in which the South won the American civil war accidentally alters the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg and finds himself trapped in what becomes our world.

* In ''The Nanking War'' by Ryan McCall, an incident during the Nanking Massacre and an slightly different Panay Incident in 1937 provokes a war between Japan and the USA, Britain and Germany.