/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.


Related Groups

/r/HistoryWhatIf

127,415 Subscribers

4

What if Hitler had been right ?

In OTL, Hitler accused in Mein kampf the jews of conspiring to bring down Germany. What if he was right and there really was a pan-jewish conspiracy to destroy Germany, with every jew doing what ever he could to destroy Germany,since the dawn of the 20 th century ?

Disclaimer:In real life, Hitler was wrong, this conspiracy never existed.

4 Comments
2024/04/22
14:14 UTC

5

How long Vladimir Lenin could have stayed in power, if there wouldn't have been assasination attempt on him in 1918?

In this alternate timeline, Fanny Kaplan had been killed during the First Russian Revolution and thus, she didn't try to kill Vladimir Lenin in 1918. How much this would prolong Lenin's life? And how his policy would have changed?(would Far Eastern Republic had joined the Soviet Russia or it'd have stayed as the Soviet Russian puppet state?(in OTL, Japan withdrew its troops from Far East in October 1922, albeit still having plans on reoccupying Far East in the future)Yep, Far Eastern Republic was created by Lenin, who wanted to have the buffer state between Japan and Soviet Russia) And one question-who would have succeeded Lenin, if he would have lived longer?

3 Comments
2024/04/22
13:18 UTC

1

Alternative History newsletter/website

Do you know if a good website or newsletter on Alternative history novels exist? Can you point me to some resources?

0 Comments
2024/04/22
12:17 UTC

6

What If HMS Indomitable joined the Force Z?

Someone said that if the HMS Indomitable had joined Force Z from Simon's town, Ceylon or Singapore, Force Z wouldn't have had a miserable end, and another said that the result would have been the same regardless.

Which do you think is the right answer? And How did history change?

7 Comments
2024/04/22
10:16 UTC

1

What if the southern aristocracy assassinated Lincoln and Hamlin instead of seceding.

1 Comment
2024/04/22
03:37 UTC

5

What if Germany just took the L once France was completely liberated?

11 Comments
2024/04/22
03:32 UTC

2

What if Macarthur had be not only allowed but encouraged to drop 34 nukes to end the Korean War?

  • How would this have played out?
  • How would this effect national relations today?
  • Would the border between the Korean Peninsula and China be impassable due to radiation?

​

0 Comments
2024/04/22
03:27 UTC

4

What would West Africa be like if the songhai empire remained dominant, and survived until at least the scramble of Africa?

Or maybe even up to WW1?

1 Comment
2024/04/22
02:21 UTC

1

What if Uruguay and Paraguay never Existed as Independent Countries?

What if they were never made into sovereign states and were instead absorbed into other countries? how could history, politics and cultures be different?

1 Comment
2024/04/22
01:09 UTC

2

What if the Spanish American Wars of Independence failed?

If these wars failed and the Latin American colonies of Spain were granted equal status in terms of citizenship (and one of them like Mexico became an integral* part of Spain for example): then how could history, demographics, cultures, politics, etc be changed?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_American_wars_of_independence

3 Comments
2024/04/22
00:20 UTC

14

If you had to theorize, which area/province is mostly likely to be an independent country in the future?

33 Comments
2024/04/22
00:18 UTC

5

What if instead of Apostle Paul being crucified he escapes to Spain?

Let's say hypothetically Paul escapes imprisonment in Rome and travels to Spain and survives. What would history be like?

8 Comments
2024/04/22
00:18 UTC

1

If John Kerry have been elected US president in 2004 and Fidel Castro had died beforehand from complications resulting from his incident in October 2004 whereby he fell down and shattered his left kneecap, would the US have normalized relations with Cuba?

On October 20, 2004, Fidel Castro tripped and fell down after leaving the stage at a graduation ceremony in Santa Clara, Cuba, shattering his left kneecap and breaking his right arm, rekindling the obsession of the Cuban community in Miami with the bearded dictator's mortality.

Five months earlier, George W. Bush restricted Cuban American family travel to and remittances to Cuba hoping that this would sway Fidel Castro to step down so that Cuba would, as Woodrow Wilson put it, "made safe for democracy" (Bush was a Wilsonian in terms of his foreign policy philosophy). Indeed a lot of Cubans in Miami still believed that Cuban communism would come to an end with Fidel's death or incapacitation. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry criticized Bush's Cuba policies as hurting Cuban Americans on both sides of the Florida Straits.

If Fidel Castro's physical stumble in October 2004 had been severe enough to cause him to die from unconsciousness and John Kerry had been elected president in 2004, would the US have re-established diplomatic ties with Cuba? I'm of the opinion that the US itself waited a few years after Fidel Castro's departure from power to normalize relations with Cuba because many of the Cubans in Miami would have aghast to see photos of Bill Clinton's handshake with Fidel Castro at the UN Millennium Summit in September 2000 if they had entered the public domain, and Raul himself did not have his brother's charismatic aura.

1 Comment
2024/04/21
23:58 UTC

1

What if All Carribbean Islands were Connected to North America and never existed as Islands?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean

How would history, languages, demographics, cultures, climate, flora, fauna, geography, politics, etc be different?

0 Comments
2024/04/21
23:32 UTC

8

What if Central America was an Island?

Would history change much at all?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_America

3 Comments
2024/04/21
23:27 UTC

93

Is there any way Operation Sea Lion could have succeeded?

Operation Sea Lion is generally treated as utterly impossible by the alt history community, but was it really doomed from the start? What would the Germans have needed to do for it to succeed?

109 Comments
2024/04/21
22:15 UTC

0

What if Switzerland were entrusted to govern every country?

🇨🇭 Every government has its own domestic critics…Switzerland (nation and state) doesn’t offend too many people, relatively speaking… Say hypothetically every country’s nihilists squeezed into/seized enough power & en masse request Swiss representatives effectively run their respective countries. What does the Swiss government do if given effective administration over every square-inch (erhm, square-centimeter) of the planet? 🇨🇭

8 Comments
2024/04/21
21:36 UTC

1

What if Governor George Wallace was elected in 1968

Lets say Wallace's segregationism is somehow less impactful in the North, defining himself more as a man for the 'forgotten american'. RFK Jr wins the Democratic Nomination and more Democrats flock to him, Wallace attracts the dissatisfied white democrats excellently. He intensifies himself as the candidate of Law and Order, States Rights, and Traditional Values, while Nixon is forced to play the awkward middle as Wallace takes dissatisfied white northerners and southerners alike.

In theory he only needs to fracture the vote and throw it to the House and Senate, in which he may be voted the winner as the winner due to seeing Wallace as a stronger force against "communism and social upheaval" compared to Kennedy, getting Curtis LeMay in too. The Democrats control (probably less of) the House and Senate, giving them the power they need to fulfill their campaign promises.

2 Comments
2024/04/21
21:32 UTC

11

How would American english change if America took over Mexico?

If america took over mexico, and kept on to it, would Mexican spanish have influence on american English?

11 Comments
2024/04/21
20:40 UTC

3

What if the ancient Greeks settled Madagascar.

What if some Greek explorer somehow found Madagascar and established a colony there that managed to grow and prosper, eventually ending up populating most of the island, but also losing connection with the Metropole. How woul such lost colony affect history?

0 Comments
2024/04/21
20:07 UTC

14

What if the War on Terror occurred concurrently with a never ending Cold War?

Let’s say the USSR never collapses, Gorbachev is removed from power early on, the Eastern European satellites stay in line, and the status quo of the Cold War continues to this day. However, the communist government in Afghanistan still collapses in the early 90s. 9/11 still happens and the war on terror begins.

What would be different in our timeline?

10 Comments
2024/04/21
19:20 UTC

54

DBWI: Putin ended up President of Russia

Russia, while clearly autocratic-leaning at best, and hardly a liberal democracy nearly had this guy in power. What if he had become President instead of a string of weak leaders like Luzhkov and Primakov after Yeltesin died of a heart attack in the mid 1990s?

13 Comments
2024/04/21
19:04 UTC

0

What if some group with Ukraine used a wmd in Russia and fight to the end killing as many as they can?

I called OP laststand what if grounds with Ukraine push in Russia their plans is to fight like tet ?

3 Comments
2024/04/21
19:04 UTC

3

What would happen if a time traveler went to 1897 and told the story of the 20th and 21st centuries like a popular comic book series?

4 Comments
2024/04/21
18:54 UTC

0

what if kid were not naive and selfish?

6 Comments
2024/04/21
17:06 UTC

2

What if the Greeks had sey yes to the Italians to pass in the country, and the Germans never invade greece.

My thinking is, that if the Germans never really invade greece I think that, they had campure almost all ussr before winter. So the barbarosa plan would have been sussefull. And the war would be dan.

6 Comments
2024/04/21
16:25 UTC

1

What if the USSR became a free Democratic and capitalistic country earning the name UDSR?

PS: UDSR means United Democratic Sovereign Republics.

1 Comment
2024/04/21
16:05 UTC

2

What if Mack fought Napoléon at Ulm ?

In OTL, Mack got encircled by the French army in Ulm, and cowardly surrendered, giving Napoleon a bloodless victory.What would have been the outcome, had he decided to fight ?

3 Comments
2024/04/21
15:19 UTC

17

What if Mitt Romney ran for President in 2020 instead of Donald Trump?

I apologize if this is too recent (I caught flak in another alternate history subreddit for posting hypothetical alternate history scenarios based on events that were too recent and ended up getting banned from it as a result) but I thought this hypothetical was VERY intriguing.

Let's imagine an alternate timeline where Donald Trump decides not to run for the US Presidency a second time in 2020 and Mitt Romney replaces him on the GOP side (Biden and Harris still run on the Democrat side of the election). Do we still have the 2020 Election Fraud hysteria?

34 Comments
2024/04/21
14:09 UTC

50

Would Ronald Reagan support ukraine with aid as long as it takes if he was president today instead if biden?

Could he have controlled his party to aid Ukraine?

52 Comments
2024/04/21
13:47 UTC

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