Alternate histories.

[Talshere]

What would have happened, and what would the world looked like if Britain had no started giving the vote for independence after the American civil war. Not necessarily that independence was lost, but that the decision after that to allow Empire states to become independent through vote.

: / I honestly have no idea...

 

[The Scythian]

I would like to see a Byzantine victory at Manzikert, and the destruction of the Most Serene Republic (Venice). So, no Fourth Crusade. Byzantine survival might have shifted the Renaissance to Greece, among other things.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

It would be that England never ruled Ireland. Point would be an old Irish King would die by being hit by a stray toilet seat travelling through time. The modern world would be different by people in Ireland having Irish as national language and no one complains including me from time to time about learning it in school.

Considering every other aspect of our history....we'd have ended up in the same place.

I'd wonder how the world would look if America was just an extension of Britain, or if the Americans never adopted containment, how would Europe look under Soviet rule?

Well at least we would still properly have our language and our culture intact.

It would be that England never ruled Ireland. Point would be an old Irish King would die by being hit by a stray toilet seat travelling through time. The modern world would be different by people in Ireland having Irish as national language and no one complains including me from time to time about learning it in school.

That would be very interesting, though probably not beneficial, southern Ireland's economy is dying on its ass, i dont think they can afford to have the north as well.. But hey who knows = P It is alternative history, maybe Ireland would of raised a MASSIVE army given time and invaded England

Well Ireland would probably have a much bigger population given that corn would not of been exported during the Famine. That still doesn't take into account the sheer volume of money that the British Empire took out of Ireland in terms of resources. Also we would maybe have a more established political system I mean the one we have now is only coming close to 100 years old. So we would still be in recession as it is a world recession but I don't think to the degree we would be now.

 

[Agent Larkin]

Also this thread has gotten me writing my own Alt History Short-Story now.

There goes my sleep.

 

[Nick31091]

Mine would be if the Confederacy won the American Civil War and see what would later world events would look like with a dis-united United States.

Personally, I'd love to know how things would've played out had everyone not have got involved in the First World War, and it had stayed between Serbia and Austria. Or even if Franz Ferdinand's assassination failed completely, rather than partially as it actually did.

That actually sounds like it would be pretty interesting too. Maybe also what would have happened if the U.S. joined allied with Germany during the war instead of the Allies?

Someone has been reading (or needs to read) the Timeline 191 series by Harry Turtledove.

Best series I've read yet IMO.

The US would of failed if they did that, It would of been impossible for the US to attack the EU without Britain giving them their foothold into the EU. So it would of just ended with the USSR and the UK kicking the arse of Germany.

At least half of Britain's war budget was spent buying American armaments to shoot at the Germans and even then Britain and France were exhausted by 1917, and Russia quit half way through the war (I'm talking about World War I).

In the end though I'm just having fun speculating.

 

[brunt32]

Mine would be if the Confederacy won the American Civil War and see what would later world events would look like with a dis-united United States.

Personally, I'd love to know how things would've played out had everyone not have got involved in the First World War, and it had stayed between Serbia and Austria. Or even if Franz Ferdinand's assassination failed completely, rather than partially as it actually did.

That actually sounds like it would be pretty interesting too. Maybe also what would have happened if the U.S. joined allied with Germany during the war instead of the Allies?

Someone has been reading (or needs to read) the Timeline 191 series by Harry Turtledove.

Best series I've read yet IMO.

The US would of failed if they did that, It would of been impossible for the US to attack the EU without Britain giving them their foothold into the EU. So it would of just ended with the USSR and the UK kicking the arse of Germany.

At least half of Britain's war budget was spent buying American armaments to shoot at the Germans and even then Britain and France were exhausted by 1917, and Russia quit half way through the war (I'm talking about World War I).

In the end though I'm just having fun speculating.

Oh sorry I thought World war 2, You do show a good point that we wouldn't have much in the terms of fighting power however I would expect it would of stayed a heavy stale mate with the most probably the Germens surrendering still however I cannot say if anything would happen that would drastically change the war due to not having the US there.

 

[SirBrad]

I would like to see what history would be like had a second intelligent species developed alongside us, or maybe more...

Also, what if Persia had swept through Greece and made their way further into Europe, eventually taking over all of mainland Europe?

Another: what if the majority of the catholic clergy in the middle ages had stuck with the script rather than improvise? Meaning, what if the medieval church had promoted the same Christianity Christ preached?

One more to the list: what if Roswell really happened (come on, why would an alien be built almost exactly like a human? All the "evidence" is crap. If aliens really do come, they won't look like us) and we had made non-top secret contact with aliens?

 

[Nickolai77]

Sometime in the early 1st century Egypt, a Hellanic philosopher called Heros invented a little toy which he called a Aeolipile, this was, in effect, a steam turbine.

If only Heros, or some other bright spark, had realised the full potential of this device...you know what this means....

STEAM-PUNK ROMAN EMPIRE AWESOMENESS!


The industrial revolution occurs in the Imperial Roman Empire, manufacturing costs fall, Maintenance of the armies becomes cheaper, steam engines transport legions rapidly across the Empire, the Empire never falls. Europe is unified through the Roman Empire (Like what happened with China) and everyone speaks Latin.

I'm so writing a story on this...

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

After Rasputin died, he came back as Rasputin the White and aided the Fellowship of the Ring.
Either that, or he visited a Jedi prodigy and told him to go to the Degobah system, despite Degobah being a planet, not a star.

Wow. That is the single greatest thing I've read today. You need to be made aware of that.

*Internet High Five*

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Being a huge fan of alt history, I've read quite a number of books (and series) that explore different timelines. By far my favorite author is Harry Turtledove, he's created a crap-ton of alt history novels. His two big series are Timeline-191 or the Southern Victory series and the World War series.

Spoiler: Southern Victory

Secret order 191 never falls into Union hands at the battle of Antietam, allowing the South to eventually win the American Civil War. Lets just say that later wars (WW1 and WW2) end up quite different due to this division of North America

Spoiler: World War

Little less plausible but still interesting. Aliens, known as the "The Race" decide to conquer a third planet for their empire. They expect little resistance as the last probe they sent to the planet 800 years ago noted only horseback riding savages running around with swords ("And its only 800 years ago, how far could they have advanced?"). What they stumble upon when they arrive is that the "Big Uglies" (Humans) are in the middle of fighting an all out war amongst themselves (WW2). Now both The Race and Humans have to rethink the situation.

He also has a couple other stand alone novels like "The Man with the Iron Heart" (the Germans fight a guerilla war against the allies after "V-E" day, think like the current problem in the Middle East), "The Guns of South" (the C.S.A. gets AK-47s from racist time travelers), and "A World of Difference" (Mars is populated with life, sentient life [more Sci-fi, less alt history though]).

I also have a book "The Collected What If?" which contains a lot of WIs and how we think they might have gone down. Interesting ones like "What if the Chinese Discover the New World in the 15th Century", "What if Pontius Pilate spared Jesus", "What if Alexander the Great had been killed early on, before he was 'the Great'?", and "What if Pizzaro hadn't found potatoes in Peru?" (seriously, that's one of them; you'd be surprise how something like that can have an effect on history).

Some of my favorites are ones like "What if the Roman Empire hadn't fallen?", "What if Christianity hadn't spread so far?", "What if another area of the world (Asia, Africa) came to prominence to rival Europe?".

 

[DkLnBr]

Mine would be to see what the world would be like if Archduke Franz Ferdinand hadn't been assassinated. That would have changed just about everything that happens in the next century. No WW1, possibly no Great Depression (not sure about this one), no WW2, no Pearl Harbour, no Holocaust, no Nukes dropped in Japan, no United Nations, no Israel, no Cold War, no Space Race, no Vietnam war, no Nuclear arms build up, no American training or equipment with the Taliban, no 9/11 attacks, and no war on terror.

Though some of these may have very well just happened later in time, but with a very different setting and date (or maybe even with entirely different people involved)

Also i just want to mention, this idea came from my Social Studies (its like history class) teacher in High school, but she told me this 2 years ago so sorry if i get any details wrong

 

[Count Igor]

No WW's, or Germany winning WW2. The first, Britain would most likely still have an empire, and the latter I want to see what happens to Britain, as Adolf often praised Britain and it's strength, so I wonder if he'd attack it if we didn't get involved.