Painting an alternate reality.

So, sometimes in life I get obsessed with could have beens, generally this is a source of anxiety. Today however, it's an adventure into my imagination.

Where this started? In my shower, today around 9:10 am. Why this came into my head? No idea, but I love it.

What if Rome fell to Hannibal and the Carthaginians around(my guess, too lazy to look it up) 200BC? 200 years later, Christ is born, but Isreal is occupied by say...The Persians rather than the Romans who never conquered Europe or the Middle East. Or perhaps Paul makes his way to Carthage instead of Rome, where eventually the emperor converts to Christianity, but Carthage's empire is based on the African coast of the Mediterranean. Their empire engulfs Spain, Southern and Western France, Italy, Northern Africa from Egypt to the Atlantic Ocean...but they've also expanded south down the west coast of Africa and North to England. Creating their own vast empire, but a maritime civilization rather than one that conquers vast amounts of land. Christianity spreads...but into Africa. After it's collapse, a great Christian kingdom arises in Egypt. 500 years later, about 700 AD. Muhammed is born, founds Islam; but rather than spreading west across Africa it encounters resistance from Christian Egypt. Instead it spreads North, and with no Eastern ROman empire, it continues to spread towards Germany, Russia, and Norway. Rather than Constaninople(or today Istanbul) standing in their way, the great border between Islam and Christian nations spreads from The Danube, the alps, the Red Sea and in Africa the great Christian Nations influenced by Carthage of West Africa are separated from the Muslim city states on the east coast.

In the picture, Red is the countries most influenced by Christianity in our world. Green, Islam. Blue is the dividing line between Christianity and Islam in my alternate reality. Orange is the what the Islamic Caliph would look like at the height of it's power(green - Indonesia and Bangladesh is what theIslamic "empire" looked like around 1300, add Spain.)
Purple is the proposed height of the Carthaginian Empire after defeating Rome, the star being the rough location of Carthage.(Rough location because the Romans so thoroughly destroyed it that it has not been found)

It's interesting to think where else this would lead. Perhaps African nations would be the ones to launch colonialism into the new world, where their diseases were not as efficient in wiping out the native population? The Aztec and Incan empires successfully retained their independence? The Iroquois Federation successfully establishes a hierarchy bordering an empire in North America? Perhaps white barbarians from Norway, Sweden, and Germany are imported into small island colonies in the Caribbean.

Or perhaps if history were to remain much more similar. There would be no Greco and Roman ideals of Democracy taught in a Christian America. There was no Rome and Greece has been an Islamic country for 1000 years at this point. Athen's Democracies are perhaps just a small blip of curiosity in world history without Rome expanding Greece's culture.

Isn't it amazing thinking about the lives that had lead us where we are? What if just a few things in history had gone different? Hannibal successfully sacks Rome, destroying the Roman backbone in the second Punic War. Rome eventually completely succumbs to Carthaginian endeavors and is destroyed so thoroughly that people today can only speculate on the true location of the city of Rome.