What historical event do you think would have changed history if it had turned out differently?

[MaryQueenofKnots]

Here's mine:
What if Edward VI had lived?
What if JFK hadn't been shot?
What if Edward VIII hadn't abdicated?

They are diverse groups of people, they should not be lumped together. There were and still are very different practices / faiths / language even the traditional diet is different.

If the Restoration hadn't happened. ..

He had no children at the time he abdicated, but had he remained on the throne and had he and Wallis married and had children, they and their descendants would be the house of Windsor.

No children, even if he hadn't abdicated - yes, Albert and his descendants would have taken the reins.

I thought that the Garden of Eden was supposed to be heaven on earth so I don't think either Adam or Eve were being abused?

Although I suppose if they wanted to eat from the Tree of Knowledge, encouraged by the snake, they couldn't have been 100% satisfied with their lot either.

It's an interesting thought.

Yes, I read a lot old Victorian novels and there is some really eye-opening stuff in there! Also, even in later books eg 1950s.

Also, a Victorian novel where an Italian and Catholic child is talked about in the most racist terms when it turns out he may have a claim to a country pile.

Or had won at Flodden.

If God had created the world and forgot to make humans...

Now that would have been interesting.

Lots of people have talked about the broader political implications of the reformation, but what always gets me about it was the unforgivable wanton destruction of priceless works of art - thousands of manuscripts trampled or desecrated eg used as butchers’ paper or thrown in the river, triptychs and alter pieces burned, stained glass windows smashed - and also the immense significance on the ordinary ways people ran their lives - last summer I went on a walking holiday through Slovenia and it was all ‘left at the second shrine’, right at the third well to st so and so. So many normal aspects of your life just done away with. Very traumatic. And then the civil war finished the job. Decimated our medieval art heritage.

My 'Big Picture' thought is that the Stuarts of the 17&18C were doomed. They had this obsession about Divine Right of Kings. The mood of the country had changed and ordinary people were happy with Protestantism. They also believed that other Catholic countries would rescue (finance) them.

I am loving this thread. I often go down wormholes of “what if?” from small things such as “what if I had become pregnant on a different day then I would still have children but they wouldn’t be the children I have now” to the historical events mentioned on this thread.

Thanks for the posters who recommend the podcast too!

If Robert, Duke of Normandy hadn't spotted Arlette / Herliva doing her washing.

Except if he was king he couldn’t have married her. Hence why he had to not be king for that relationship to work. He may well have married someone else eventually I guess.

Brexit - the social media manipulation was then repeated in the US which led to trump's election. Brexit and trump emboldened Putin leading to Ukraine. Back in the UK, Brexit caused an exit of talent from government, leading to the current miserable degeneration

Trump had decided to run even before the Brexit referendum was decided upon.

The real cause of the Brexit/Trump phenomenon was the start of low skilled mass migration into the West at the turn of the century.

Thank you for that one - I had to Google, hadn’t heard of them!

If Neanderthals hadn’t died out.

What's staggering and depressing is that humans have at their disposal all that they need in retrospect to learn lessons from the cockups and successes from history, but do they learn from those events and outcomes to make the world a better place?
do they fuck-

If Neanderthals hadn’t died out

The last time I checked on the Relationships board, they are alive and kicking and increasing exponentially

Yes! I loathe the Reformation for this reason, among others.

A swing of less than 1% would have lost the Brexit referendum, and Trump only squeezed in thanks to a few electoral college votes, having lost the popular vote (i.e. the "will of the people" was against him).

You can't possibly believe the much-evidenced significant illegal interference didn't have a large impact on nudging them both over the line.

Hmm coachman? The Archduke and his wife were driven by motor car.

Either way, it wasn’t self driving, AI powered Tesla.

If Hitler hadn't invaded the Soviet Union and opened an Eastern Front.(Which was suicidal for the Nazis and led to the Soviet join us as Allies . The Soviets lost the most people in WW2 against tge Nazis and we should be thankful to them for that.
Also, Pearl Harbour and The USA coming into WW2.
I do not believe the Nazis would have stopped as a PP has said . I do not believe they would have burnt out. They wanted world domination and their policies of racial "purity" was entrenched. (Germany had to undergo years of denazification as the sick brainwashing was in every part of society).

@enchantedsquirrelwood yes I do think John Smith would have been elected. He was very popular and was ahead in opinion polls against John Major's deeply unpopular government. The Tories by that time were falling apart.

What illegitimate son? Perhaps you are getting mixed up with another of the Edwards.

I’m also interested in this but answer comes there none.

Extra history on topic - it's worse than you think as it wasn't main route that attack didn't hurt the Duke they were going to see people hurt in hospital from that attack and driver took a wrong turn and assassin stopped for a snack and saw them and acted.