Alexander died at the age of 32 with the throne of the greatest empire on earth left vacant. According to the Greek philosopher Arrian, his generals gathered before his death to decide who would succeed him. When the generals came to visit Alexander, he said, “Hoti To Kratisto,” or “To the strongest.” Did Alexander predict the future? With the absence of a designated heir, his generals would split the empire and fight wars to succeed Alexander as the ruler of his empire. The fall of the Alexandrian Empire tremendously affected the politics of the ancient world by giving birth to the Diadochi Kingdoms, creating a vacancy of power in India, and setting up the stage for Rome to rise and become the dominant empire.
Alexander’s empire was soon divided by the generals, or Diadochi-the successors of Alexander. More than ten Diadochi competed for power, but in the end, the three most prominent Diadochi remained: Antigonus, Seleucus, and Ptolemy. Each Diadochi split the empire into their kingdoms and competed to gain control of other Diadochi. I believe the Diadochi originally didn’t intend to split the empire into separate states; generals like Perdiccas argued to keep the Empire intact until Alexander’s son grew enough to rule. Honestly, Alexandrian Empire would have continued to stay as a unified empire if Perdiccas had taken effective control of the empire. Alexander’s empire did not have any outer threats to endanger its survival. The only possible threat, the Nanda dynasty of Indian Mahajanapadas, had no intention of invading due to its own internal issues. However, Perdiccas’ corruption and lack of central control caused Diadochi to split the empire. Ptolemy took Egypt and established the Ptolemaic Dynasty of Egypt, while Antigonus grasped Asia Minor or modern-day Türkiye (Turkey). Seleucus took the most out of all, controlling almost all of the ancient Persian Empire.
Seleucus established the Seleucid Empire in Syria and became the largest of all Diadochi kingdoms. I believe Seleucus sought lands outside of the empire’s boundaries, and his ambition was directed toward India, the land that even his predecessor Alexander the Great failed to conquer. However, his ambition was soon crushed when he realized India was no longer divided into multiple states but came under the control of one powerful empire, thanks to Chandragupta-Maurya, the Indian successor of Alexander’s ideal of conquest. It is said that Chandragupta met Alexander in person when he campaigned to conquer India. Alexander talked about his past conquests and revealed his will to completely annex India into his empire once he returns. Although Alexander never returned to India, Chandragupta was greatly influenced by his ideals. Alexander had already annihilated the northern kingdoms of India, including the prominent Nanda dynasty, and this created a power vacancy for Chandragupta. Chandragupta would soon merge all kingdoms into one Maurya Empire. The Maurya Empire was the first empire to unify India and became one of the major turning points in Indian history. Could India have been unified without Alexander’s influence? Possibly, but I maintain that the fall of the Alexandrian Empire was undeniably the catalyst that stimulated the establishment of the ancient Asian superpower.
Legend says Alexander initially planned to conquer the Mediterranean Sea after annihilating India. However, his early death due to malaria caused his plans to go unfulfilled, and his empire was divided by Diadochi into separate states. If Alexander did not die so early, numerous Mediterranean states could have been annexed into the Alexandrian Empire without reaching their own respective full potential. One of these states was Rome, which by the time of Alexander’s death, was a small republic limited to the Italian peninsula. I believe Alexander’s main target in his plan to conquer the Mediterranean was Carthage, the Phoenician state on the northern coast of Africa that dominated the Mediterranean trade. Conquering Carthage would have effectively provided Alexander with dominance over the seas. As a matter of course, the separation of the empire also divided the dominance of the Mediterranean into multiple states: Carthage, Rome, Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Syria, and Greece. Over the next centuries, Rome would defeat its rivals one by one and annex remnants of Alexander’s domain into their dominion. I don’t believe Rome would have been able to achieve such a feat if the Alexandrian Empire had remained united. The disintegration of centralized power and separation of authority led the Diadochi kingdoms to fall to Rome and fulfill Alexander’s vision of his empire going to “the strongest.”
The ancient world before Alexander was dominated by the entrenched powers from Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Persia competing to determine who is the strongest. Alexander extended Europe’s range of power all the way to India and laid the groundwork for the possibility of Europe to rule the world.