History Main / AlternateHistory

* What if a famously assassinated historical figure (e.g. UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar, UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln, UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy, UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr, or Music/JohnLennon) was never killed, either through the assassination attempt failing or never occurring?

* What if one [[ForWantOfANail small and seemingly irrelevant detail]] was changed?

* What if UsefulNotes/{{Napoleon|Bonaparte}} had won The Napoleonic Wars? Or never even rose to power?

-->-- ''{{Website/Cracked}}.com''

* [[LogicBomb What if this piece of alternate history was never written?]]

* What if fascism or communism rose to power within the Anglosphere (e.g. via the American Communist Party or the British Union of Fascists) in the 1930's?

* What if a famous assassination attempt survivor (e.g. UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson, Creator/AndyWarhol, UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, or UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan) ''was'' killed? Or an infamous assassin picked another target instead (e.g. Mark David Chapman going after Music/DavidBowie instead of John Lennon)?

* What if the UsefulNotes/RomanEmpire (or [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire some]] [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan other]] [[UsefulNotes/ByzantineEmpire famous]] [[UsefulNotes/TurksWithTroops former]] [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan empire]]) had never fallen?
** Alternately, what if the Roman Republic never fell and the Empire never rose?

* What if WorldWarIII happened during the Cold War (works of this type made ''during'' the Cold War count as SpeculativeFiction, but works made post-1991 count as this trope)?

* What if the [[ModernMayincatecEmpire Aztecs had defeated Cortez]]?

See the '''AlternateHistoryTropes''' index for a list of common plot devices in this genre. The plausibility and realism of Alternate History is measured on the SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility, an analogue of the MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness. If the differences are unintentional, see ArtisticLicenseHistory.

A secondary type, sometimes called "honorary alternate history", consists of SpeculativeFiction stories written a considerable period of time ago, and set in a time period which has since passed. This is what happens to stories set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture when the twenty minutes have passed. This type of unintentional alternate history has its own trope: FailedFutureForecast, as is everything that fell victim to TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

A secondary type, sometimes called "honorary alternate history", consists of SpeculativeFiction stories written a considerable period of time ago, and set in a time period which has since passed. This is what happens to stories set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture when the twenty minutes have passed. This type of unintentional alternate history has its own trope: DeweyDefeatsTruman, as is everything that fell victim to TheGreatPoliticsMessUp.

* AlternateHistory/{{Other}}

* What if a famous assassination attempt survivor (e.g. UsefulNotes/AndrewJackson, Creator/AndyWarhol, UsefulNotes/GeraldFord, UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan) ''was'' killed? Or an infamous assassin picked another target instead (e.g. Mark David Chapman going after Music/DavidBowie instead of John Lennon)?

* What if a major social movement (e.g. the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement or first/second-wave UsefulNotes/{{Feminism}}) never happened or was successfully suppressed?

A genre of SpeculativeFiction stories (sometimes called "Uchronia" or "{{Anachronism|Stew}}"), set in a world where one or more historical events unfolded quite differently than they did in the real world.

* What if UsefulNotes/WorldWarII [[HitlersTimeTravelExemptionAct never happened]] ?
* What if [[AlternateHistoryNaziVictory the Axis Powers had won]] World War II? (See page quote)
* What if [[RussiaTakesOverTheWorld The Soviet Union had won]] the UsefulNotes/ColdWar or [[WhiteRussia the "Reds" lost the civil war]]?
* What if the Confederates had won UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar?
* What if Usefulnotes/JohnFKennedy was never assassinated?

* What if the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire British]] had [[AmericaIsStillAColony successfully suppressed]] UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution?

* What if the UsefulNotes/RomanEmpire (or [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire some]] [[UsefulNotes/GenghisKhan other]] [[UsefulNotes/KatanasOfTheRisingSun empire]]) never had fallen?

* What if certain tools or weapons (firearms, radio, space travel) had been [[GivingRadioToTheRomans cost-effective and widespread earlier]], or later, or [[AliensNeverInventedTheWheel not at all]]?
* What if a particular presidential election (common examples include 1860, 1896, 1912, 1948, 1960, 1968 and 2000) had [[WhatCouldHaveBeen turned out differently]]?

[[caption-width-right:300:I pledge allegiance to [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington King George I]] of the Most Sovereign Kingdom -- The United States of America...]]

* {{AlternateHistory/Film}}
* {{AlternateHistory/Literature}}

* AlternateHistory/WebComics

* {{AlternateHistory/Other}}

It is different from an AlternateUniverse, where the difference is in the fictional elements of the story. "What if Superman's ship [[Comicbook/SupermanRedSon landed in Soviet Russia]]?" or "What if Charles Xavier [[ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse 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]]. And https://www.whatifhub.com is an Alternate history base Community. In those cases, the alternate history is a side consequence, not the basic premise.

* What if [[RussiaTakesOverTheWorld The Soviet Union had won]] the UsefulNotes/ColdWar or the "Reds" lost the civil war?

* What if the [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire British]] had successfully suppressed UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution?

* What if the [[AlternateHistoryNaziVictory Axis Powers had won]] World War II? (See page quote)

It is different from an AlternateUniverse, where the difference is in the fictional elements of the story. "What if Superman's ship [[Comicbook/SupermanRedSon landed in Soviet Russia]]?" or "What if Charles Xavier [[ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse 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.

See the '''AlternateHistoryTropes''' index for a list of common plot devices in this genre. The plausibility and realism of Alternate History is measured on the SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility, an analogue of the MohsScaleOfSciFiHardness. If the differences are unintentional, see ArtisticLicenseHistory. More examples are on the AlternateHistoryLiterature page.

* What if Creator/GeorgeLucas never created ''Franchise/StarWars''?
* What if Creator/GeneRoddenberry never conceived of ''Franchise/StarTrek''?

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 character}}s or [[HistoricalDomainCharacter 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.

* What if the Axis Powers had won World War II? (See page quote)