What if...

[Tboy]

I'm starting this thread for people to post their 'what if' scenarios. As in, what would have happened if an event in history went a different way. This is for everything from 'What if the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs never landed' to 'What if Germany won WWII' or even 'What if John Kerry won the last US election'.

I'll open this with my own 'What if':

What if the Soviet Union was never created?

This could have led to an even worse defeat of Germany in WWI, since Russia would not have pulled out. And if WWII still happened, Germany might have won it, without a strong Soviet Union to stop it. On the other hand, Russia might have become even stronger and annexed eastern europe. Also, if this led to no WWII, then there would be no nukes, or United Nations, or computers (at least, probably not for a while). Russia may have continued to grow stronger than the Soviet Union ever was.... or it could have fragmented into many different states, due to the civil unrest.

Post with all your 'What if' s, I'd love to hear them!

 

[Chieftess]

I think Russia still would've beaten back Germany, but wouldn't have controled the re-conquered nations.

 

[willemvanoranje]

What if the Soviet Union was never created?

This could have led to an even worse defeat of Germany in WWI, since Russia would not have pulled out. And if WWII still happened, Germany might have won it, without a strong Soviet Union to stop it. On the other hand, Russia might have become even stronger and annexed eastern europe. Also, if this led to no WWII, then there would be no nukes, or United Nations, or computers (at least, probably not for a while). Russia may have continued to grow stronger than the Soviet Union ever was.... or it could have fragmented into many different states, due to the civil unrest.

Hey-ho..the Soviet-army had like one rifle per three soldiers.. they might have suffered an immense defeat. And dont forget the situation the country was in at the time! The Soviet state killed thousands in reorganizing the country and getting it to develop.. not to mention the millions of dollars of foreign investments they just seized.

About WWII, they might have lost it because the SU wasn't there, but then again they might have had a stronger army than at the beginning of operation Barbarossa because Stalin's massmurder wouldn't have taken place.

Then again, the army might have still been stuck in pre-WWI fighting techniques since the country was seriously underdevelopped before the Soviets took over. The Czars' various attempts to set off industrialization failed miserably.

 

[Kan' Sharuminar]

Post with all your 'What if' s, I'd love to hear them!

If you're interested in such things, then take a look at the What If? books. They have a lot of essays based on all sort of historical alternate realities.

Wiki Entry on the Books

 

[DAv2003]

http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/

This website may be of interest to you.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

What if the asteroid never killed the dinosaurs? Good question. I was just thinking the other day about how an intelligent species evolving from the dinosaurs (possibly through the birds) might view natural history.

 

[onejayhawk]

What if Robert E Lee had accept the command he was offered in the Union Army? Who would have commanded the two Armys and for how long? At what point would the track of the war seriously diverged?

J

 

[Xanikk999]

What if the asteroid never killed the dinosaurs? Good question. I was just thinking the other day about how an intelligent species evolving from the dinosaurs (possibly through the birds) might view natural history.

I dont think mammals would of diversified at all. Larger mammals could not evolve with fierce competition from dinosaurs.

 

[Israelite9191]

I refer you to the already existent and overwhelmingly successful alternate history threads of the Never Ending Stories sub-forum. We are currently on the third thread. Please, check it out!

 

[s.c.dude]

what if hitler died in ww1

what if the muslims consolidated thier hold over all of spain instead of attacking france

what if gandhi was never born

what if muhhamed was never born

what if columbus's expedition failed

what if napolean didn't attack russia

 

[Israelite9191]

All or almost all of which have been done in the aformentioned Alternate History threads of the Never Ending Stories thread IIRC. Really, i suggest using that instead of this thread as it is very successful and realistic in its assumptions of cause and effect.

 

[Tboy]

Ok, thanks for letting me know, Israelite9191. Sorry that I didn't go there first, never noticed it.

 

[sydhe]

If Columbus had failed, Cabral would have reached America eight years later, and the continents would not be named North and South America. Portugal might have colonized more of the New World since the Treaty of Tordesillas would not have restricted them.

 

[Tee Kay]

If Columbus had failed, i would expect Portugal and England to take a larger role in teh colonisation of Americas and Spain to take a larger role in continental Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean.

If Hitler had died in WWI the course of history would've changed little. Political extremism would still rise in Italy, Japan, Spain, Russia and Germany. And if Hitler had never led the Nazis, they would've less reasons to attack Soviet Russia and they may do better in a war on the scale of WWII than in real history.

 

[1889]

what if columbus's expedition failed

Columbus's expedition was a total failure, he was looking for China.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

With that question about the Meteorite: I believe that mankind would eventually achieve greatness, but it would take much longer, as we would be a little lower on the food chain.

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

No, we never would have turned into Mankind at all. Those tiny shrew-like protoprimates would have stayed that way for a long time.

 

[sydhe]

But, through the process of natural selection, they would be really well-adapted shrew-like protoprimates.

 

[drudkh44]

what if the christians didnt destroy our world??

 

[Eran of Arcadia]

What if we did? The world doesn't seem destroyed to me, just messed up, and everyone is responsible for that.