History Main / AlternateHistory

* The {{Mockumentary}} ''Punishment Park'' takes place in an alternate 1970. After the Vietnam War escalates, Richard Nixon implements the McCarran Internal Security Act, which authorizes federal authorities to detain persons deemed a risk to internal security without referring to congress. Anti-war protesters, civil rights activists, feminists, communists, and conscientious objectors are arrested and given a choice: either spend their convicted full-time in a federal prison or spend three days in the titular punishment park. There, they will have to travel across 53 miles of the hot California desert in three days, without water or food, while being chased by National Guardsmen and police as part of training. If they succeed and reach the American flag at the end of the course, they'll get to go free. If they fail and get "arrested", they'll be sent to prison anyway. The story is about a joint British-West German film crew following groups of these people during their excursion

* What if magic existed and worked? (In order to qualify for this trope, this must be combined with another point of divergence.)

* ''Anime/CodeGeass'' takes place in a timeline where things went really well for British imperialism; the Celts kicked Julius Caesar and the Romans off the island, Elizabeth I had male heirs, [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution "Washington's Rebellion"]] failed... all with the cumulative effect of making "Britannia" the only superpower on the planet as of the early 21st century. They ''were'' defeated by Napoleon, though, forcing them to abandon Britain and relocate to what had been the colonies -- that is, North America, which is ''entirely'' under their control. Napoleon's Europe-spanning empire also laid the foundation for a faux-EU before he died (likely of poisoning by one of Queen Bessie's spies). The calendar is all messed up as well, being at least 55 years behind ''our'' calendar. Technology, in the meantime, is vastly more advanced, with powerful mecha, existing in their 2010 (our ''1955'').
** In other words, the main bulk of the story takes place in what our world would know as ''TheSixties,'' given how ATB 2017-18 translates to AD 1962-63.
*** It bears mentioning that there are certain factors present in the world of Anime/CodeGeass that indicated that perhaps it NeverWasThisUniverse. Such as Sakuradite and Geass itself.

* What if magic existed and worked? (In order to qualify for this trope this has to be attached to one of the other examples)

** ''ComicBook/TheLeagueOfExtraordinaryGentlemen'' initially starts out as a steampunk crossover of characters of Victorian literature, but in following volumes all of fiction begins to intertwine with actual history. Half-fairie [[TheFaerieQueene Queen Gloriana]] rules instead of Elizabeth I, postwar Britain sees the rise and fall of the [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour Ingsoc regime]] and there's a war in [[Series/TheWestWing Qumar ]] in the Noughties.

* YouTube series "What If" by AlternateHistoryHub, hypothesizes various historical situations with a few possibilities. Keeping in mind, of course, what happens is the result of numerous factors and cautioning that their scenario is just one of many. A few examples include "What if the Black Death Never Happened," "What if Napolean Never Rose to Power?" and "What If The South Won The Civil War?"

* Creator/JuliusCaesar conquered Gaul (modern France), defeated Vercingetorix and annexed the territory to the Roman Empire. All of it? Yes. All of it. ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' is based on an alternate history scenario: Caesar defeated only ''most'' of the gauls, with the exception of an UndefeatableLittleVillage that resists, then and ever, the invader. All the conventional Roman warfare is useless, because the village druid created a magic potion that gives SuperStrength. All Asterix stories are either about a futile attempt of Rome to conquer this village in some non-standard way, or Asterix and Obelix making a visit to some other ancient civilization (all of them, however, were just humoristic expies of modern countries, rather than realistic portrayals of their ancient counterparts).

* In the original fiction[[https://www.fictionpress.com/s/3206139]] version of ''KeitAi'', the girl's strange area code isn't the only thing that's different compared to the boy's universe. In the boy's timeline, the [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Lost Decade of Japan]] never happened, the Creator/{{Nintendo}} Ultra CD exists, the {{Sony}} {{PlayStation}} and the VirtualBoy don't, and the Wrestling/{{WWE}} is still the [[AttitudeEra WWF]].

* What if the rebels had won UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar?

* ''Blog/ThePredepairKids,'' in addition to being an AlternateUniverse for ''VisualNovel/{{Danganronpa}}'', has quite a few historical deviations from our own. Hope's Peak Academy was founded back in 1937, Toranosuke Ishimaru severed as the 46th prime minister of Japan instead of Noboru Takeshita, and the Towa Group and Togami Corporation managed to save Japan from experiencing the economic downturn in the 1990's, leading to the country becoming a much more important player in world politics. However, some things remain consistent between worlds, such as Brexit and the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections.

* FanWorks/NeverAgain revolves around a future in which World War II and the Holocaust never happened... and succeeds in NOT using HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct. How do they do this? [[spoiler: By redeeming all the Nazis, AND HITLER, in one ''heck'' of a HeelFaceTurn.]]

* MiloManara's ''Borgia'' series is more or less faithful to history, but the last book goes off the rails: the King of France dies in the eruption of the Vesuvius, Savonarola is sodomized to death by the Pope on a bed of spikes, Cesar Borgia conquers cities with LeonardoDaVinci's working superweapons and flying machines, etc. Though the end sort of snaps back with the death of Cesar in Spain.

* ''TabletopGame/ThroughTheAges'': Emphasised by the use of real-world names for wonders and leaders. Gandhi as president over a nation of scientists kept happy by BreadAndCircuses? IsaacNewton builds the Taj Mahal and discovers computers? ElvisPresley conducts espionage, declares Holy War and builds the Kremlin? All are plausible occurrences and add significant amusement to the game.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Audio Play]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

* ''Film/InglouriousBasterds'', and according to some fans 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. Goering, Goebbels and Borrmann are killed by the Basterds in June 1944.]]
** May have already been alternate history because Goebbels is referred to as Hitler's NumberTwo and his real right hand Himmler is never mentioned.
** If ''TheHatefulEight'' is part of the same universe, then the divergence is much earlier.

* Subtle example in ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}''. While the Pacific nuke tests being covert attempts to kill Godzilla falls under HistoricalInJoke, the 1999 collapse of the Janjira NPP and the subsequent quarantine of a sizable Japanese metropolitan area is a much bigger divergence.

* A minor example in ''{{Film/Ted}}''. In 1985, a child's wish to bring his teddy bear to life came true. News spread rapidly, making Ted into a celebrity. 27 years later, no one really notices the animate teddy bear anymore.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

*** The show consistently portrays Florida as being an island off the coast of Georgia rather than an attached peninsula

[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbean Barnacles & Bilgewater]]\\

* What if magic worked? (In order to qualify for this trope this has to be attached to one of the other examples)

** What if the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct never happened]] ?

* ''ComicBook/LiberalityForAll'', made in 2005 and set in 2021, has Al Gore win the 2000 American presidential election instead of George Bush, which [[AuthorTract somehow]] results in a future where al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein still rule Afghanistan and Iraq, and American conservative pundits are fugitives.

* ''WebComic/{{xkcd}}'' - Their version of the Matrix. While still considered a great action sci-fi movie with disappointing sequels, it features several bizarre departures from the version we have. For instance Neo taking both the red and blue pill, crushing them up and snorting them [[NiceJobBreakingItHero with screwy results]]. [[http://xkcd.com/566/ Read it here]].

* ''Anime/SuperDimensionFortressMacross'' was broadcast in 1982 but featured an alternate history of humanity after 2009 when humans and aliens fight a devastating war over a transforming mecha battleship. It's beyond 2009 now, and we haven't even fought World War III and built mecha like they did in the series - we're behind schedule, in other words.