History Main / AlternateHistory

* The upcoming ''Patient Zero'' arc of ''{{ComicBook/Crossed}} Badlands'' (issues 50-56) will confirm that [[GordonBrown Gordon Brown]] was Britain's prime minister when the world-ending Crossed pandemic began, thereby making him the last ever Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in that world.

* ''VideoGame/NuclearUnion'', an upcoming post-apocalyptic party-based RPG using the ''VideoGame/MenOfWar'' engine, has the following opening line to illustrate just how significantly things have diverged;

* What if [[GodwinsLawOfTimeTravel Germany had won]] WorldWarII? (Or, for more truly "alternate" and less "[[CrapsackWorld hellish]]" potentials, WorldWarI?)

** In the ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series, the modern day US town of Grantville is transported back to the year 1632, right in the middle of the ThirtyYearsWar in Germany. See the tropes page on this series for details on all the changes; suffice it to say that the course of the war takes some very dramatic turns, including [[spoiler:the establishment of a more-or-less unified German nation some two hundred and fifty years ahead of our own timeline, the possible early start of the English Civil War, the takeover of England's North American colonies by France as part of a diplomatic deal, the union of Sweden and Denmark, the establishment of a "United Kingdom of the Netherlands" under the former Spanish archduke Don Fernando comprising the territory of Belgium and Holland, and a major schism in the Catholic Church involving the attempted overthrow of the Pope by a Borgia cardinal with close political ties to Spain.]]

* The novel Literature/{{Leviathan}} by Scott Westerfeld shows what might have happened if Darwin had discovered Genetic engineering and tanks had been invented in the Industrial Revolution using mechanical legs instead of treads, showing the start of WorldWarI between BioPunk 'Darwinists' (the Entente Powers) and SteamPunk 'Clankers' (The Central Powers).

* ''VideoGame/AztecWars'': The Aztecs have decided to move out from the Americas before their discovery by Columbus, and proceeded to conquer most of the world. The Russians and Chinese are the only ones holding out against them. All sides use {{Steampunk}} liberally.

* MakingHistory is all about creating this, without a particular alternate timeline in mind.

* ''ChromeHounds'' : The game is set in 2006, with the USSR still in existence, the US out of touch with mostly everyone, and most importantly: Humongous Mecha being deployed in warzones.

*** Newman being Newman, ''USSA'' is Alternate Fiction too to an extent; the counterpart to the Tsar is Film/CitizenKane. Not to mention alternates of [[Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath Tom Joad]] and [[Series/TheLikelyLads Terry Collier and Bob Ferris]], among others.

* The Novel Literature/{{Leviathan}} by Scott Westerfeld shows what might have happened if Darwin had discovered Genetic engineering, showing the start of WorldWarI between BioPunk 'Darwinists' (the Entente Powers) and SteamPunk 'Clankers' (The Central Powers).

* The Novel Literature/{{Leviathan}} by Scott Westerfeld shows what might have happened if Darwin had discovered Genetic engineering, showing the start of WorldWarI between LegoGenetics 'Darwinists' (the Entente Powers) and SteamPunk 'Clankers' (The Central Powers).

** ''1942'' about the Japanese invasion of Hawaii.

** ''Himmler's War'' in which Hitler is accidentally killed shortly after the invasion of Normandy, Himmler takes over and Germay's proffesional military is given a much freer hand.

** A second, minor divergence. The connection is between modern Britain and 1600s Talia (Italy). So when one of the main characters from our world learns that Britain is still Catholic, he asks why. Apparently all three of Henry VIII's children were born to Katherine of Aragon, so he didn't need to start the Anglican Church in order to remarry.

* RayBradbury's ''Literature/ASoundOfThunder'' is another example of alternate history by time-travel; [[ButterflyOfDoom stepping on a butterfly]] millions of years in the past alters the outcome of a presidential election (along with other details, though [[InSpiteOfANail not as many as you'd think]].

** The series is pretty much about alternate histories in practice, they are just subtle about it. Over the years many incompatible histories and futures are shown from adventure to adventure. [[WordOfGod Showrunner Steven Moffat has outright SAID]] that [[SeriesContinuityError continuity errors]] aren't continuity errors, we just haven't seen the episode where the Doctor's travelled back and time to change history.

* LarryNiven's ''KnownSpace'' series is an example of the "honorary alternate history" variant mentioned above. Many of its more fanciful aspects that happened in the late 20th century (legal rights and translators for dolphins, mining and colonies on Mercury and Venus) have changed from prediction into alternate history as the decades since the series started have passed. On the bright side, organ harvesting isn't ''nearly'' as bad as it predicted either.

** In one 4th Doctor adventure Sarah Jane asks why they don't just leave to avoid getting killed since they know the BigBad didn't destroy earth in the 19th century since she is from 20th century earth. The Doctor explains that now that they are involved in events alternate histories are inevitable and her earth may never exist if they don't stop the BigBad. He even takes her to her "present" and shows her a blasted wasteland that will result if they don't go back and fix things.
** The series is pretty much about alternate histories in practice, they are just subtle about it. Over the years many incompatible histories and futures are shown from adventure to adventure. [[FanWank It all makes sense]] if you assume that theses alternates exist *because* of the many changes The Doctor has made.

* Probably the most dramatic use of this trope in a video game is the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series. In the Fallout universe, TheSixties never occured, and the sociopolitical standards of TheFifties continued well into the 21st century, with all the extenuating political, artistic, and scientific implications;

** The US annexed Canada.
** Computing evolved to the degree at which robots and sentient computers were commonplace; however, said computers are still powered by vacuum tubes and have monochromatic monitors, and there is no such thing as the Internet.

** Cold fusion was discovered, and even cars run on nuclear batteries (as evidenced in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', when you blow up a car and a ''mushroom cloud'' forms).
** There are minor changes in the history of the Fallout universe pre-[=WWII=] as well; witness, for example, [[AuthorityEqualsAsskicking Abraham Lincoln's gold-plated repeating rifle]].
*** That actually existed. http://americanhistory.si.edu/Militaryhistory/collection/object.asp?ID=3

* In ''[[FanFic/ShinzakurasAllAmericanGirl All-American Girl]]'' and ''[[http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL62BA69EAB6DBD807 Ed, Edd n' Eddy Z]]'', 9/11 never happened. In the former's case, al-Qaeda also never existed.

* An OlderThanSteam example: Livy pondered what might have happened had Alexander gone West and conquered Europe rather than Asia. As a patriotic Roman, he (rather implausibly) suggested that the Romans would have fought him off.

* ''TheSpeculativeDinosaurProject'' takes place in an AlternateUniverse where the K-T asteroid never hit. [[DeathWorld It doesn't look fun.]]

** The author even attempts to make the novels seem contemporary (despite taking place in an AlternateReality) by adding several characters who could be considered duplicates of real-life people, including Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger (a trigger-happy, square-jawed officer of the Guard) , [[Literature/TheLittlePrince Antoine de Saint Exupery]] (a nobleman, a retired pilot, and an amateur poet), and Gerard Depardieu (thief-turned-bishop, miracle worker).

*** [[spoiler: If, by inflicted several losses, you mean lost a carrier (in OTL the carriers were not in Pearl Harbor so none were lost or damaged). As of the end of Coup d'Etat (where UK switches back to fight the Germans), US has lost ALL of it's carriers and is withdrawing towards Hawaii.]]

** Another Turtledove world is ''TheTwoGeorges'' (co-written with the actor Richard Dreyfuss), where America never left the British Empire. Gun crime is unheard of, Los Angeles is "New Liverpool", [[ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld airships]] are the fastest civilian transport, and Sir Martin Luther King is the Governor-General of the North American Union.
** Yet another book, ''RuledBritannia'', has the Spanish Armada succeeding in conquering England, though they are overthrown by a revolt inspired by Creator/WilliamShakespeare.

** Speaking of [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]], Turtledove's book ''In The Presence of Mine Enemies'' posits a world in which the U.S. remained isolationist throughout WWII, allowing Germany to defeat all the major European powers. World War III ends with the [[NoKillLikeOverkill nuclear pacification of the US]]. Set in the year [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture 2009]], the book follows a sect of hidden Jews as they struggle to survive during a time of political upheaval. Scenery includes: a Japanese empire, the radioactive remains of the Liberty Bell in a German Museum, and a Nazi version of "Film/TheProducers" that involves a horrible play about Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. Notable for its realistic presentation of these, alternative-universe, modern Nazis as being good people with a bad upbringing. And the ending [[spoiler: bears no resemblance at all to the fall of the Soviet Union. Really, honest. Well, maybe a little]]

* Creator/TerryPratchett's and StephenBaxter's TheLongEarth takes place in a world where, in 2015 humanity is introduced to a simple, cheap way of entering other Earths, where alternate history scenarios play out on a geological and evolutionary time scale.

* Creator/TerryPratchett's ''The Long Earth'' takes place in a world where, in 2015 humanity is introduced to a simple, cheap way of entering other Earths called Stepping, none of which have any intelligent inhabitants. Or do they?

In real life, Counterfactual History is a real discipline, looking at reasonable conjectures. For example, historians have carefully examined the threat of invasion of Britain by Germany in 1940 and suggested that, though British defense was rushed and rudimentary at that point, so were German attack plans. Thus, Germany would almost certainly have established a beach head, but would not have succeeded in maintaining it. Unlike its literary equivalent, scholarly counterfactual history tends to focus on the short-term effects, as extrapolating long-term trends into the future has proven to be tricky even for what ''did'' happen.

* In ''[[FanFic/ShinzakurasAllAmericanGirl All-American Girl]]'' and ''[[http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL62BA69EAB6DBD807 Ed, Edd n' Eddy Z]]'', 9-11 never happened. In the former's case, al-Qaeda also never existed.
* In ''[[FanFic/Emperor Emperor]]'', a ''Literature/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.]]

* Parodied in the 2012 ''RoyalCanadianAirFarce'' special in a hilarious case of RussianReversal. When the Soviets won the 1972 Summit Series against Canada, the Soviets then proceeded to conquer the country and turn it into Soviet Canuckistan for real. Canada now flies the hammer and sickle, eats at Vladimir Hortons [parody of Tim Hortons], and hockey greats like Paul Henderson were forgotten. Fortunately, Paul Henderson ''himself'' wakes up from his nightmare.

* When ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' originally began in the late '80s it wasn't alternate history. But since it passed 1999 when a Supreme Court decision gave corporations the right to their own militaries and 2001 when they gained extraterritoriality, effectively making them independent nations, it's become this. At the time of writing, we're still waiting for the dragon to appears over Mount Fuji that was due in 2011.