Favorite Historical What-if's

[massaffect123]

What if gunpowder had never been discovered? How would that affect the colonization of the New World? This is mostly me trying to envision heavily armored knights trying to fight in New England. Poor bastards.
What if Great Britain had simply allowed the 13 Colonies to secede instead of fighting a long and costly war?

 

[Valkraye]

Not sure if its been posted but...

What if King Harold didn't look up at that moment in the Battle of Hastings?

 

[The Random One]

What if the Americas had been left alone for a few more centuries? What would happen to the Aztecs? Would they develop gunpowder and other technologies, and fight the Europeans on equal footing when they arrived? Would they take the battle to them after conquering the entire continent? Would they remain at their then-current technology state for ever? Would they abandon their religion, or become even more fanatic? Would they wipe out and/or slave other Native American groups? Would they just die out, like the Mayans, and when the Europeans finally arrived they'd only find the ruins of a fallen empire?

...This makes me want to play Civilization.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

What if the Baghdad Battery [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baghdad_Battery] had led to the development of real chemical batteries more than a thousand years before Alessandro Volta had even been born? What would the world have turned out like if a Middle Eastern semi-feudal civilization had harnessed the power of electricity, even in a minor way, back during the days of Alexander the Great?

 

[Romblen]

What if Kennedy was never assassinated?

What if we discovered a way to get to other planets, then make them hospitable? Where would we be now if we did this to Mars in the 1960's?

 

[AMX58]

What if Hitler and the Itlian dude did take over the world

What if The British won the American Revoulution

What if Regan was still Alive

 

[Acies Argentum]

No crusades, no renaissance. No renaissance, Europe would have stayed in the dark ages for who knows how long. Not saying that means everything is justified in the end, but you can't really take a single historic event and hold it apart from everything as if it had no influence anywhere else.

Actually without Christianity in Europe as such an oppressive factor the Renaissance wouldn't have happened because there wouldn't have been a Dark Ages. So much scientific progress has been slowed down because it didn't conform with the Church's doctrine. Without the Catholic Church calling everyone who doesn't follow Catholic creed exactly a heretic then perhaps more people would have been willing to really figure out how the world works thus advancing technology.

Fair enough. But I suppose thats why this is all 'what if' discussion. I mean, without the campaigns waged to bring all of Europe under the christian faith, how long would have the entire continent stayed as 'barbarian' tribes? Just look at Scandinavia. I forget the name but I know of a king who converted his people to Christianity and used that in his drive to bring the whole place under his control. Scientific discovery is rather hard when you have to go off to war every summer. But who knows, maybe everybody would have figured out another reason to stop fighting for land long enough for progress. But thats one reason why I like "what if"s. There are just so many variables to try and account for.

 

[SnipErlite]

What if England kept it's empire... I would have a pretty sweet life if I where an English man in such a tagent of our universe. Or something to that effect.

Haha wondered if you'd turn up here


Oh, imagine the glory............... and horrific oppression and cruelty towards the natives.

But the gloryyyyy...........

How did you know I would say this?

I doubt we would have continued oppressing countries... Ok maybe just a little.

'Cause the Empire is ftw?

Well just a lil.............hmm..........meh They wouldn't've been able to do anything back anyway so hey.

 

[Blindswordmaster]

I have an entire book of historical essays concerning this very subject. Some of my favorites:
-What if Rome had never fallen?
-What if Hannibal had succeeded in conquering the Roman Empire?
-What if Jesus had never been crucified?
-What if the Vatican had protested the Holocaust?
-What if Theodore Roosevelt had won the election of 1912?
-What if the Confederacy had won the Civil War?
-What if Madison had succeeded and the U.S. had ended slavery with the Constitution?
-What if Alexander the great hadn't died young?