Speculative fiction is the umbrella category that includes everything from science fiction to fantasy. Anything that imagines a world based on guesswork fits into that super genre, but one interesting piece uses history to create its new world. When a writer explores the possible future, influenced by a new past, he enters the world of Alternate History fiction.
Science fiction and fantasy are in many ways the same concept in reverse. Sci-fi explores a possible future influenced by theoretical scientific development. Fantasy considers a world influenced by magic and myth. Alternative history is much more grounded in that it tries to change everything we know about the real world.
Alternate History shows several routes the timeline could have taken, imagining a modern or distant future on that path. Every Alternate History story has a point of divergence, a moment or period when things went different. Most of the time, the story doesn’t take place on the POD in the first place, but usually takes place long after that, giving the timeline plenty of time to change. Some common picks for points of difference are major wars, assassinations of great names, hugely influential moments in art, examples of imperialism or technological advancement. These alternate histories are separate from alternate universes, which introduce a fictional element into the existing timeline. If aliens land on Earth and the events of World War II change, that’s an alternate universe. If the Axis powers win and the rest of the story is about the consequences of that event, then that’s Alternate History.
Alternate History is history fanfiction. As such, it is one of the oldest disciplines in fiction. The earliest examples occur just before and just after the turn of the year, more than 2,000 years ago. Herodotus’s historiesDating back to about 430 BCE, it is primarily a record of events and traditions of the time, but it also contains many conjectures about what might have happened. The first good example is probably Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita Libric, which represents an alternate reality in which Alexander the Great continued his invasions. Alexander died of sudden illness or insidious poison at the age of 32, so his undefeated battle streak was cut short by a death on the battlefield. Livy imagined that Alexander and his Macedonian troops were trying to invade Rome. He went on to believe that the Roman Empire he lived in would eventually defeat the great conqueror. It borders on retroactive bragging rights, a “my country could beat your country” for the 4th century.
Many hugely notable writers have left their mark on the alternative history genre. Winston Churchill wrote a famously absurd treatise called “If Lee Had Not Won the Battle of Gettysburg.” That story is set in an alternate history where the South won the Civil War, but it follows a person reading a historical account of the real world. Churchill’s victorious Confederates join the former Union, join England and prevent World War I. Nathaniel Hawthorne, van scarlet letter fame, wrote “P.’s Correspondence”, the first Anglophone Alternate History of record. It is a comedy sketch in which a man writes letters about his conversations with really long-dead figures such as Napoleon and Lord Byron.
Numerous alternative history stories have become popular over the years. Phillip K. Dick’s The man in the high castle shows the worst-case scenario in which the Axis Powers win World War II. That work also depicts a look at our history from their perspective in which various things have changed. From the opposite perspective, Quentin Tarantino’s ongoing shared cinematic universe envisions a reality in which Hitler’s regime was defeated more than a year earlier. No doubt that history has diverged before, making the character of Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful Eight to fight in the Union army before he was historically allowed to. Numerous cinematic examples of this figure of speech twist the idea by adding a supernatural element. From Dracula Untold giving Vlad III vampire superpowers to the Godzilla franchise using the King of the Monsters as the franchise’s point of divergence.
Video games also have a lot of fun with alternate histories. The clear favorite among the medium is the Cold War, as countless games are set in a world where the conflict with Russia was running high. precipitation is the most iconic alternate history, but the point of divergence actually takes place sometime shortly after World War II, leading to a retrofuturistic world centered on the 50s. Dozens of real-time strategy games from the 90s use the Cold War, including but not limited to; World in Conflict, Operation Flashpoint, Flashpoint Campaigns, Wargame: European Escalation, and much more. Interestingly, the metal gear franchise creates an alternate history by adding elements to the Cold War, rather than letting it boil over.
The Alternate History genre has so much room for exploration, although it has been common since authors wrote on paper. There are endless historical concepts that can be slightly modified to create a whole new world.
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