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Originally Posted by Drifter

OK, lets say aliens land in 1947 to trade for rare earths. But being relatively advanced they are going to do most of the heavy work themselves so they can get the stuff and get back to where the action is. So they trade with the locals, but why go to DC? Not too many rare earths in the Virginia area. So in this timeline they aliens aren't quite so Euro-centric and go to where the rare earth sources actually are and trade with those humans instead.

India, Brazil and South Africa get alien superconductivity tech in exchange for mineral rights.

The British attempt to retain India but are routed in a disastrous defeat demonstrating the abilities of even the most basic uses of this new technology. Indian forces go on to take Pakistan and, in heady over enthusiasm, move into Indo-China, Indonesia and southern China. While their weapons are irresistible, they can't control the vast areas they've conquered with the anti-Islamic policies they attempt to enforce.

South Africa enacts Apartheid and warns India away from attempting to move West or into Australia or the Pacific. Its policies of racial segregation become the norm across Africa and Mid-East. While it never institutes a Final Solution policy it becomes a pretty close replacement for Nazi Germany otherwise. Its military moves across Africa during the 50s and 60s, and it attempts to politically dominate Europe and the US.

Democratic Brazil becomes the main opponent to South Africa during this time, promoting democracy and integration via the UN, which moves its headquarters from New York to Sao Paulo in 1958. While it doesn't use overt military force Brazil replaces the US as the the political and economic leader of the West. The US remains a major ally but is in constant turmoil as South African ideology appeals to the Southern regions, making the US an intermittent partner at best.

The Cold War is there, but the struggle is now a three-way judo match between the Indian and South African Empires and the Brazilian backed United Nations. The Americas are the most peaceful and advanced areas, while Europe is not that far behind but wracked with political extremism and refugees from Africa and the Slavic States. Britain, humiliated by India, swings toward South African politics, moving further toward dictatorship as the decades pass. With no political backing from the new Powers, the Soviet Union collapses into anarchy, the various nation-states fought over by the allies of the Powers if not the Powers themselves. With China divided, the last bastions of Communism fall. Hindi caste systems, South African racial theories and Brazilian capitalism are the ideologies of this 20th century.

Brazil, the US, Mexico and India have bases on the Moon. Everyone is waiting for the aliens to reappear and if the Three Powers agree on anything, its that THEY will be the ones dealing with the aliens again.

Again, Centrum and Homeline would love to get their hands on some superscience. The espionage is more industrial here, as the military is very well protected, and industrial uses for superconductivity have reshaped the world.

In 1947 Brazil was still under the Vargas military dictatorship. While there could have been a democratic revolution, it seems more likely that the military would only strengthen their hold, maybe create a pseudo-fascist populist regime like Peron did/would in Argentina (more Mussolini than this South Africa's Hitler).

America and Western Europe might go more reactionary - suddenly the Western Allies aren't the biggest boys on the playground. The colonial powers could be more determined to hold on in Africa, with South Africa's support and the example of independent India (particularly if it invades other Asian colonies, like British Malaya, Dutch East Indies, and French Indochina). The United States might not push anti-colonialism, being more wedded to its European allies and more afraid of independent India and the new superpower in the Americas, Brazil.

The Soviet Union would sink into isolationism. It could get first nuclear weapons, then a missile program, but so would the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, and India.

Which side would India back in China's civil war? The southern Nationalists might be a natural choice, but perhaps Mao could turn from Moscow to Dehli. India would extend its influence into independent Tibet, perhaps back Mossadegh in Iran, and intrigue against Europe & USSR in the Middle East.


Any 'aliens arrive' could make science fiction more paranoid. So often in it, especially in the fifties and sixties, humans were the main power in space - but now they're just some backward little planet that's only interesting for raw materials, like some third world commodity producer.

This makes me think of GURPS Uplift, where humanity is a minor race in a galactic community. This wouldn't be to that extent (key would be whether there is just one spacefaring race, or many, and what the galactic set-up is), but could be along those lines.