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?

It is interesting. I can't, for example, imagine what difference the non death of Diana would have made to the course of history. The Norman Conquest, the Reformation, Queen Anne and the succession, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, all of those....

Re - Dominion, Yes it was a disturbing read but compelling

I wonder what would have happened if Cgarles had Bern allowed to marry Camila in the first place? Diana would probably be alive, married to another member if minor aristocracy and completly unknown. I think Charles and Camilla are very well suited but would have probably had a marriage like The Queen and Phil, so solid with a lot of love there, but infidelity with an understanding that that was how it was, rather than Diana's non acceptance of affairs ( ehich I suspect is a similar arrangement yonthe now P & POW.

We’d probably have a lot more princes and princesses than William and Harry!

I think there are advantages, but do they outweigh the harm is more important?

India wasn't a single country and had 100+ languages and many different writing systems. Colonisation created a country (that split after independence) where you needed to speak English in order to work in something like the civil service.

Today India has many call centres because they have so many English speakers and Indians often use English to speak to each other when they don't have a common Asian language.

Was it worth it? It's really difficult to quantify.

Colonisation meant many people form former colonies could come to Britain after WWII, was that a gain to those countries? They lost a lot of mainly young people but those young people were often sending money back to families.

Britain encouraged Indian doctors to emigrate to the UK, who benefits most? THe UK got trained doctors, but those doctors were (and probably still are) educated to a similar standard to UK based doctors. The healthcare infrastructure was set up under colonial rule.

Some things were interdependent, Lancashire became 'King Cotton' during the industrial revolution, that cotton came from America and Asia but was processed in Lancashire due to the damp environment.

I feel I'm waffling and just putting thoughts down but it is a really interesting question that would probably need a PhD thesis to explore fully.

It is difficult to quantify. Yes, there was Infastructure built, but that was to make it easier to syphon goods out of the colonies. Yes there was a legal system set up but unification of India has made it a huge and unwieldy country that is difficult to democratically govern and to keep an eye on corruption. Who knows what would have happened if it had been allowed to grow organically? Maybe it would be several smaller countries. On the other hand much of the reason for the Indian Space programme is because of the need to communicate with such a vast population, and they have developedthe technology to sell to others, making them a pretty wealthy cou try as a whole ( although that wealth is concentrated amongst few people relatively) They may not have done that as many small countries. Another reason for the space programme is an attempt to stem the brain drain of highly educated scientists to the US. The concept of sending your kids abroad to make money to send ' home' is a result of colonialism too. It's very difficult to quantify or imagine what would have happened without colonialism.

I gather that most of the balls in Jane Austen's England, and the pretty frocks, and the stipends for otherwise penniless curates... were indirectly paid for by the wealth that flooded outwards from the East India Company. So England would also have been very different.

Derailing the thread but there is a fascinating "what if?" historical boardgame called "John Company." Players are families working for the EIC, and the winning goal is to move up the social ladder in the London Season and retire to a Scottish estate. Just about the only way to win is to encourage, or at least turn a blind eye to, genuinely awful policies (including causing the company to fail once you've made your own pile). Unfortunately it's the sort of game which takes a full day to play, as it tries to include so many things, including corruption in Parliament. But it's very thought-provoking.

I remember that well, we were in Germany with Mod and had conversations briefings, it seemed very real. Deutschland '83 was an excellent series built around it, check Able Archer for the full story of how close we came to disaster.

conversations? serious briefings it was originally!

If the Plantation of Ulster had never happened I wouldn't be here and 1000s like me.

Harold won battle of Hastings

I answered this upthread, but basically, my family tree would not exist without Britain colonising Australia.

Having just finished Half of a Yellow Sun, what if Biafra had won the Nigerian Civil War & managed to secede from Nigeria?

If Boudicca had defeated Paulinus

If Athens had lost the Battle of Marathon then ancient Greece would have been colonised by the persians and the roman empire would not therefore have developed the culture it did, we would probably not have democracy because Athens' democratic record would have been lost to history, everything would have been different.

Wouldn't that be a blessing?

WW1 caused the biggest social class change around then.

If Henry V hadn't died young.

If the Spanish armada had been successful.

If the Vikings hadn't raided.

This reminds me suddenly of a conversation I had years ago with secondary school friends. I think we all did realize that the Romulus and Remus story was a myth; nevertheless we started speculating on what would have happened if Mama Wolf had obeyed her natural instincts and made Romulus and Remus into a nice tasty dinner! I'm afraid we were mainly looking at it from the point of view of not having to study the Romans in history, and no one needing to study Latin! But it is interesting to wonder what would have happened if (a) Rome hadn't been founded at all; (b) it had existed, but not established an Empire; (c) it had established an Empire, but Britain hadn't been part of it.

No Roman Empire would almost certainly mean no Christianity and hence no Islam either, though something else might have emerged from Jewish monotheism.