/r/HistoryWhatIf

Photograph via snooOG

Welcome to HistoryWhatIf! We're here to explore alternate history scenarios in interesting ways.

Posting and Commenting Rules (more details are here):

  1. "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.

  2. Keep it historical. Questions should be set in the past, so no current events (6 years is a nice limit), and they should not require magic or time-travel to occur. Offer context if you can.

  3. Be civil. Don't insult people, don't correct spelling or grammar, and don't feed trolls - report them instead.

  4. 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.

  5. Use the [Geography] tag to indicate points of divergence based on different landscapes. Use the [DBWI] tag to signify double blind what-ifs. Use the [Challenge] tag for posts where you're asking how something could have happened different rather than what if it happened differently.


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/r/HistoryWhatIf

126,162 Subscribers

1

What if Disney had built a resort/theme park in Virginia?

they dropped the plans for it because it couldn't be open during Winter like the FL and CA parks

0 Comments
2024/04/06
05:28 UTC

1

What if the US airspace had been shutdown before the hijackings on 9/11?

1 Comment
2024/04/06
05:27 UTC

6

What if Robert Kennedy was never assassinated and was still alive today?

How would this affect JFK's assassination and today? He was one year younger than Carter.

3 Comments
2024/04/06
05:19 UTC

1

What if the US Government doesn’t have their stuff together and AIG then Merrill, Goldman & Citi collapse in 2007?

Title but basically what happens if AIG was allowed to fail and banks start collapsing and it’s too late for Congress to pass TARP?

1 Comment
2024/04/06
05:02 UTC

1

What if at least one building in every country was hit on 9/11?

3 Comments
2024/04/06
03:56 UTC

6

1935: Zhang Guotao prevails over Mao Zedong for leadership of the Chinese Communist Party during the Long March

OTL 1935: By their arrival in Yanan, Mao Zedong had purged his rivals and gained control over the CCP.

ATL 1935: The most powerful rival of Mao at the beginning of the Long March was Zhang Guotao, chief of the Eyuwan soviet (controlling Hubei, Henan, and Anhui) and commander of the Fourth Red Army. In this timeline, he is more victorious against the KMT, and it is he who arrests and purges Mao Zedong, instead of vice versa.

How does history change if Zhang Guotao prevails in the political fights for leading the CCP?

1 Comment
2024/04/06
02:01 UTC

4

Could the mob have protected Malcolm?

When Malcolm X received multiple death threats and numerous attempts on his life, his old friend Bumpy Johnson, the number one mob boss in Harlem, offered him his protection and even offered to bump off the individuals who were making threats against him. These were his words,

You know I could have that taken care of. All you gotta do is make that one phone call.

But Malcolm declined. His reasoning was that he didn't want for black folks to be killing other black folks. But if Malcolm had agreed and allowed Bumpy to "take care" of the NOI members who wanted him dead (Elijah Muhammad, Farrakhan, etc.), could he have lived just a bit longer?

3 Comments
2024/04/06
01:42 UTC

4

What if Richard the Lionheart survived the infected crossbow wound he received in 1199?

Richard the Lionheart's successor as King of England was his brother John, who is still widely seen as a tyrannical king who eventually angered England's nobility so much that he was forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215.

Had Richard the Lionheart survived the infected crossbow wound he received in 1199, it's not too implausible that he would still be alive at age 56 in 1215. Part of the reason King John was tyrannical was to pay for the defence of the Kingdom of England's holdings in France, and to pay for Richard's ransom. I personally wouldn't be surprised to see Richard the Lionheart resorting to the same tactics had he lived past 1199.

Would Richard the Lionheart have signed the Magna Carta, or would he have crushed his nobility to establish an absolutist state similar to post-Renaissance France, Prussia and Russia? And if the Magna Carta never got signed, would the limiting of monarchical powers and establishment of parliamentary systems have started elsewhere, or would it simply have never happened at all?

And if the Angevin monarchy can still consolidate its hold on its French holdings due to Richard's survival, could large swaths of France still be under British rule to this day, or would the Angevin monarchy have shattered with the rise of nationalism like the Habsburg realms did? Would France have had its own Risorgimento?

0 Comments
2024/04/06
01:17 UTC

19

What if the US Never annexed Texas?

What would be the consequencies

8 Comments
2024/04/05
22:37 UTC

0

What if Canada or another NATO member elected a Soviet-aligned government?

Repost of this because people preferred to um ackshyually instead of entertaining what I clearly meant

4 Comments
2024/04/05
22:07 UTC

1

Allied WW2

What if, instead of Germany invading Poland with the ussr, it was just ussr invading Poland, and the Allies declared war on the Soviets to ‘maintain European peace’Would Nazi Germany join the Allies? Which side wins? (Ussr has Poland at this point) what role would Japan play?

1 Comment
2024/04/05
21:32 UTC

63

What if Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt swapped presidencies

Lincoln is president when Roosevelt was and vice versa

18 Comments
2024/04/05
21:07 UTC

31

What if Iraq had invaded Kuwait (again) in 1994?

Operation Vigilant Warrior was Clinton’s response to 2 Iraqi Republican Guard Division moving on the Kuwaiti border in 1994.

What if Saddam went ahead and invaded?

I’m sure a coalition would have wiped the floor with them again, but how do you think it may have played out?

4 Comments
2024/04/05
18:41 UTC

3

If Taishō Democracy lasted could Japan and the United States have maintained a frosty or even friendly relationship?

Say for example, Civilian government reigned Supreme or at the very least managed to maintain control of the Military, and the Empire of Japan democratized more would it be possible for both Great Powers to maintain at least a cordial, or even a possible friendly relationship?

1 Comment
2024/04/05
18:21 UTC

2

What if JFK lived the same age as George H.W Bush and died in 2011?

1 Comment
2024/04/05
17:47 UTC

3

What if the Japanese had Invaded Sri Lanka?

Easter Sunday, 1942. Japanese planes bombed port facilities ships and airfields at Colombo. Unlike the OTL, they are followed by beach landing craft who seize the lightly defended city. Contingents of SNLF Marines and turncoat Indian auxiliaries occupy the island.

The Japanese propaganda ministry broadcast speeches by Subhan Chandra Bose urging Indians to revolt on the mainland. They portray themselves as liberators. After the defeat at Singapore just 2 months earlier, Japanese planners realized the British were significantly weaker than the Americans and focused on elimination of British naval elements in the Indian Ocean. Leaflets are dropped over Calcutta and eastern India with photos of emaciated British POWS and jubilant colonial troops now dressed in Japanese army fatigues. Japanese radio broadcast the British navy as cowards who fled west to Africa ( which they did in in otl only to return in 1944). The seizure of food from India to supply British stomachs was also deeply unpopular and led to a notorious famine which killed millions.

Tokyo forged a devil's deal with Hitler - while unable to attack the USSR, Japan can still tie down British efforts in Africa and South Asia against lightly defended India. Indian troops and foodstuffs were vital to the resupply of troops in North Africa against the German and Italian forces. In otl, Japan was late to organize the Azad Hind or turncoat colonial army under Subhan Chandra Bose. It takes time to train, brainwash, and organize pows into a new army. That still happens here as the Japanese Indian auxiliary numbers are grossly inflated by the propaganda ministry and are mostly compromised of police and paramilitary instead of army. But the local population on the ground did not know any of that.

0 Comments
2024/04/05
17:41 UTC

27

if al gore won in 2000, would he have won a second term in 2004?

lets say 9/11 still happens and al gore invades afghanistan as bush did and did not do a major screw up.

how high chances would you give him of getting a second term?

29 Comments
2024/04/05
16:33 UTC

1

who would win in the end if ww2 was a three way war?

1: assuming that UK launch operation pike after france falls and ww2 turns to a three way war.

2: when the fighting is eventually over. who is the winner?

3: i watched possible historys video about it: is it realistic?

1 Comment
2024/04/05
16:29 UTC

2

What If Ted Kennedy Won the Democratic Primary In 1976

2 Comments
2024/04/05
14:33 UTC

10

Axis victory: Canada

In a scenario where Germany annexed eastern Europe up until the Urals and made puppet states in western Europe (I can go into more detail of needed), what role would Canada play?

I can imagine that Canada would cut off from the puppet government in London, but what about it's place on the world stage?

The plan for a British invasion or surrender was to evacuate the royal family to Canada, along with Britain's gold, foreign reserves and the Royal navy which would be docked in Halifax. I can also imagine that prominent British politicians would also evactue to Canada such as Churchill and Attlee.

Do you think Canada would lead the British Commonwealth and what's left of British Empire?

Would George VI take up his place as Head of state of Canada or would he continue to allow a Govoner-General to rule in his place?

Would Churchill set up a government in exile?

17 Comments
2024/04/05
13:59 UTC

10

What if the Bolsheviks lost to the Whites in Russian Civil War?

12 Comments
2024/04/05
13:45 UTC

91

What if the Nazis actually WERE building an obscene amount of tractors?

As part of Germany's 'secret' remilitarisation efforts under the Nazis, reports were forged indicating that tanks being produced were actually farming equipment. This is an obvious lie, but what if they had actually been making a mass industrial effort to build as many tractors as possible? Would this lead to some strange boom for German agriculture, or simply an overwhelming surplus of unwanted tractors?

30 Comments
2024/04/05
13:16 UTC

1

What if Canada’s housing market crash and economy crashed

What would be the long term results of it? How would it affect us and how would the government deal with it?

1 Comment
2024/04/05
13:04 UTC

1

What if the peninsular war never happened and Napoleon still invaded russia?

Will he still fall?

3 Comments
2024/04/05
12:41 UTC

0

What would happen if Catalonia, Basque and Scotland suddenly rebelled and declared secession the same way Ireland seceded from UK?

The independence movements of the Basque Country, Catalonia and Scotland are currently very strong. These regions are at risk of seceding from Spain and the United Kingdom. Scotland even almost successfully separated from UK in the 2014 referendum.

In the early 1920s, the Irish rose in armed rebellion against Britain. The Irish won by driving the British out of the island of Ireland (except Northern Ireland).

Therefore, assuming the Basques, Catalonia and Scotland decide to have an armed uprising like Ireland in 2024, will they succeed?

5 Comments
2024/04/05
11:47 UTC

10

What if all the Slave States were loyal to the Confederacy?

What if instead of staying in the union, Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland and Delaware had seceded from the Union and joined the US, surrounding DC and giving the Confederacy a large strategic advantage?

6 Comments
2024/04/05
11:06 UTC

52

How would WW2 go with a Russian empire instead of the Ussr ?

In this TL, due to a more efficient Russian administration,Russia isen't subjected to famines. As a result anti-tsarist stay to weak to overtrow the Tsar. Russia continue to fight until the end of WW1.

How would WW2 go with a Russia un der the Romanovs and much more influent in Eastern Europe?I imagine that Russia would be forced to join ww2 due to Nazis goal of lebensraum.

32 Comments
2024/04/05
10:40 UTC

1

What if ASA EMB 120 hadn't crashed on 5th April 1991, and thus (among others) Sen. John Tower hadn't died that day?

0 Comments
2024/04/05
10:25 UTC

8

What would Indonesia look like today if it never got independence?

What would Indonesia look like today if the Netherlands kept the Japanese out and never lost control of Indonesia after the second world war?

9 Comments
2024/04/05
09:30 UTC

4

US Surprise attacks USSR??????

What if the US Surprise attacked the USSR During 1945 at the end of the war, to remove the threat of communism? Also don't talk about nukes,

21 Comments
2024/04/05
06:54 UTC

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