/r/HistoryWhatIf
Welcome to HistoryWhatIf! We're here to explore alternate history scenarios in interesting ways.
Posting and Commenting Rules (more details are here):
"Yes, And!" Please read questions charitably. Try not to shoot down posts too much. If there's a way to read the question that allows an interesting answer, go for it.
Keep it historical. Changes must be set at least 20 years in the past (clarify in your post if the change time could be confused with present events). Scenarios should not require magic or time travel.
Be civil. Don't insult people, don't correct spelling or grammar, and don't feed trolls - report them instead.
No low-effort posts, which means answers should be more than single-sentence replies. It also means no image macros, no bots, no joke-only posts, etc. and no personal politics, conspiracism, snark, etc.
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/r/HistoryWhatIf
What if he would have destroyed the whole building? What if he wouldn't have been executed in 2001? How would that affect society today? He would have been 56 years old today. Do you think that his views would have changed? He probably would have written a book about his life. Do you think that he would have become as famous as Charles Manson in prison? He probably would have gotten letters in prison from women wanting to marry him. He probably would have been a hardcore Skinhead because he had a deep hatred and disgust for African Americans. He was also a White Nationalist/White Supremacist as well. He would probably be committing a lot of hate crimes too. I've always wondered if he had some kind of Mental illness or was just psychologically damaged because of the Military.
What it Rome and Britain were allies?
What if Rome helped Britain during the Revolutionary war?
Could a modern Rome and Britain defeat the USA.
Could a modern Rome and Britain conquer the world?
4.Anything interesting you can think of!
Special: Rome and Britain in a perfect state with everyone who ever lived there alive again, working together.
Leaders would be Julius Cesar and King George III, both at their peak, (excluding Britain during the Revolutionary war era.)
Now he never did that obviously but lets pretend he only took what was once German land that was lost after the great war
I can't find many sources to help with this idea, what if Hitler simply stopped there and focused on the inner workings of Germany
I can't quite remember from where but i heard that Allies were willing to keep the peace if Germany stopped
How would this have effected history as a whole?
Thanks for reading and have a nice day
There is some debate about whether Polynesians reached the Americas. While there is indirect evidence suggesting that Polynesians may have made contact with the Americas, it likely involved only small-scale interactions.
If the Polynesians had reached the Americas and their population had expanded significantly, how would history have changed?
Although Polynesians did not possess technology on par with Europe, they had technologies different from those of the Native Americans, which I believe could have brought changes to the Americas. Additionally, Polynesians carried domesticated animals and crops from the Old World, which might have significantly altered life in the Americas.
Finally, as people from the Old World, the Polynesians would also have introduced Old World diseases to the Native Americans. This could have mitigated the devastating impact of European diseases on the Native American population in the future.
just the 4 main islands, hokaido, honshu, kyushu and shikoku and the land was the same elevation and flat as japan's other plains
What would had happened if instead of islamic terrorists by Osama bin laden, it has castroist spies by Fidel to do the terrorism?
After Mao secured northern China, Stalin advised him to stop the civil war and attempt peace negotiations. What would have happened if Mao had taken Stalin’s advice at that time?
The abdication of Edward VIII was forced due to the untenability of his desired marriage to Wallace Simpson gelling with his role as king and head of the Church if England. What if Edward had insteadbrefused to give in to the pressure of his government, and elected to remain as monarch and maintain his intentions of marrying Simpson? Would the Dominions actually "break with the crown" as some claim might've occurred,, or would this just be a huge media fiasco for the king? Would the Conservative government of the time be seriously impacted? When war comes around, is the king able to use his limited power to promote his pro-German views in any meaningful way?
I read that it was considered perfectly plausible for Colin Powell to win the Republican nomination in 1996, if he had ran, due to his fame gained as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. I assume he still would have lost the General to Clinton just like Dole did, even if by less, but how do you think the racial dynamics would have played out in a Clinton Vs. Powell election in ‘96? Would Powell still have gotten over half of the white boots just like every Republican does and would Clinton still have gotten almost all of the Black vote just like every Democrat does? Would Powell’s race have been less prominent than Obama’s was in 2008? And would Clinton’s unusually high popularity with Black voters have been effected in any notable way?
Let’s say that in a parallel universe, the Lusitania is sunk by a U-boat like in our timeline. However, upon learning that the ship was carrying Americans, either some or a majority of the crew have a "My God, what have we done?" moment. This could take two forms:
Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Otto Walther Schwieger and his crew aboard the U-boat undergo a “My God, what have we done,” moment. Burdened by guilt and shame at having killed people from a neutral country, the entire crew goes rogue and sails for America, where they surrender to the authorities.
Out of guilt and enraged at having been ordered to attack a ship that (unbeknownst to them) carried citizens of a neutral country, several crewmembers mutiny against Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Otto Walther Schwieger and pull a Red October, sailing for America just to surrender to the authorities (In this version, several particularly guilt-ridden crewmen express their outrage at Schwieger by either forcibly detaining him or flat out executing him before sailing the U-boat towards America).
How plausible is this scenario?
In a bright flash at New Year's Eve, the British Isles of today are transported to the 21th Century BC (Including their satellites orbiting Earth), more precisely ''2025 BC'' and take the place of that time's British Isles. Regarding the 2025 BC's isles, they would appear in our time as it swapped places with the modern isles, leading to another what if scenario to explore.
How will the isles change history with their modern ammenities and inventions? Which nations will be allies or foes?
PS - This story is an homage to the ''Nantucket Series'' by S. M. Stirling.
Let say in this world, the Dutch was focus on spreading its culture in Indonesia, focus on interracial marriage and convert them to Calvinism or Protestant. How would it change the modern Indonesia? or even its role in ww2
Lu bu seeing China warlording he desides he has all he wants out of it (Diaochan and maybe the emperor Xian)
OTL 1846: Mary Todd Lincoln persuades her husband to ignore his friend James Reed's suggestion to join their wagon train going to California.
ATL 1846: Abraham is able to persuade his wife to pick up stakes and travel west. How will this very tall wood-splitter, failed journalist, and failed politician fare on the journey? Will either survive? If Abraham does survive, how will he fare in California?
What if Mao in this timeline decide to follow a more similar economical model to Dengism instead of his. What's possible it could had happend in China and Mao's legacy
Fell down a late night Wikipedia hole of the early years of Revolutionary Russia, namely Lenin’s government from 1918-1924. It’s a time marked on the one hand with violence from WW1, civil war, white/red terror and general unrest but on the other you had universal education, universal healthcare and equality for women (among other things implemented by the Bolsheviks). From a very basic viewpoint of tiredly reading some Wikipedia pages, one could say that upon Lenin’s death the direction of the Soviet Union could’ve gone in a more positive direction than Stalinism, perhaps liberalising into a position befitting Democratic Socialism or some form of democratic society with a bedrock of leftist/communist ideals.
My question is which leading Bolshevik at the time of Lenin’s death in 1924 could’ve paved the way for such a thing, if indeed any of them could. Any form of answer appreciated!
This is a very wild post that I suddenly thought of while thinking up fresh alternate history posts about alternate events that could have affected the American War of Independence. In our timeline, a large number of British citizens sympathized with and sided with the colonists for various reasons, including (but not limited to) the fact that Britons suffered from the inequity of the British government at the time, family links, business partnerships and property ownership, people who were concerned with the trade with the colonies, etc. So, let's say for the sake of the argument that, thanks to growing dissatisfaction with the war, we see a rise in public opinion against King George III. King George III stubbornly refuses to give up the fight.
In an alternate 1780, a majority of British citizens who both sympathize with the 13 Colonies and have had enough with King George the Third’s stubbornness form a militia and launch an uprising against the British crown. Their goal is to overthrow King George III.
This militia is led by William Wilberforce, who in our timeline was an abolitionist who sought the immediate abolition of slavery in England. In this alternate timeline, Wilberforce is a pro-Colonies sympathizer who is fed up with King George III’s stubborn desire to continue fighting (I did the math and he’d be about 21 in 1780, as he was born in 1759).
Wilberforce’s militia is joined by French volunteers who are similarly outraged that King George III is refusing to back down.
At this point you pretty much have England’s version of the French Revolution.
In short, the American Revolutionary War triggers a Second English Civil War.
Julius Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon River is regarded as one of the most pivotal moments in Western history, as it led to the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire. It was also an extremely risky move, as the river served as the boundary between the province of Gaul and Rome proper and it was a capital offense for a Roman general to cross it without disbanding his army first. Because of this, the phrase "crossing the Rubicon" became a synonym for passing the point of no return.
But what if Caesar hadn't committed this pivotal act? I've heard before that since his term as governor of Gaul was about to expire, he would have had to return to Rome as a private citizen anyway, at which point his political enemies would have had him seized and charged with a number of crimes that he may or may not have been guilty of. The Republic definitely would have become the Empire anyway at a later date, perhaps with Pompey in charge.
But other than this, what else would have been different?
Lets say for whatever reason Marx never decided to write the manifesto and theofore no communism. But what would had happend if social Catholic's Distributism become popular around lower life people?
What if during the Washington Naval Treaties Japan was treated equally to the other major signatories such as the UK and US, allowing them to have as many capital ships as the two other great naval powers (or almost as many).
The Japanese Delegation was looking for a 7:5 ratio of tonnage between their navy and the other major powers (7:7:5 actually, with US and UK having higher tonnage allowance and Japan having the slightly smaller). In our time line they got much less; a 5:5:3 ratio that was far below what they wanted or felt was fair.
This is part of what began to distance Japan from their allies in the UK and trading partner in the US. But if they had been given what they had wanted and treated as a more equal partner, what changes would we see?
Let's the Mongols invade the Roman Empire in 150 AD, who would have won?
If it weren't for natural dissasters, the plague, a very capable adversary in the form of Khosrow of Persia, would Justian and his heirs be able to reunite the roman empire?
On 10 June 1940 (Battle of France), Vesuvius has a huge eruption. This is a 7 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index (Tambora-sized).
Will Italy still join World War 2? If they do, how much easier will they be to defeat?
What if the Kievan Rus (the medieval predecessor of modern Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) converted to Catholicism instead of Orthodoxy?