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Original poster

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

370 replies

MaryQueenofKnots · 22/12/2023 02:49

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
KylieJennersMakeUpSponge · 22/12/2023 15:13

The one that springs to mind is if the Cuban Missile Crisis had gone tits up. half of us wouldn’t even be here.

StuckinaMUD23 · 22/12/2023 15:18

I believe that many people involved in WW1 & WW11 hoped that would be the end of all wars. I believe that it has been the end so far of nuclear war so far. However, it seems that there is no end to wars in all parts of the world.

StuckinaMUD23 · 22/12/2023 15:19

What if Atlantis still existed ?

Isseywith3witchycats · 22/12/2023 15:21

If the person who shot Adolf Hitler during world war one had succeeded in killing him who knows the total tragedy of world war two probably would not have happened

EmpressaurusOfCats · 22/12/2023 15:23

If Elizabeth Woodville’s 1st husband hadn’t been killed in battle, & she hadn’t married Edward IV, Henry VIII would never have been born.

EtonMessy · 22/12/2023 15:23

What if the Library of Alexandria hadn’t burned down? Would civilisation be 1000 yrs ahead of where it is now ?

LoobyDop · 22/12/2023 15:24

@KylieJennersMakeUpSponge I’m so sorry you’ve been made to feel like this. The only tiny thing I can do is keep saying “not all of us” 💐

PhotoDad · 22/12/2023 15:29

Mine is about the Roman Emperor Constantine. He had a vision/dream in which he saw Jesus, and converted to Christianity. He later spread it throughout the whole Empire and gave Imperial backing to the Church.

If he hadn't, it's a fair bet that Christianity would have been completely wiped out before the collapse of the Empire, and things worldwide would be very different today.

Snazzysausage · 22/12/2023 15:43

If Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon's son Prince Henry had lived to adulthood,it would have been very different. No Anne Boleyn so no Elizabeth I's golden age, no break with Rome. The succession would have taken a different route altogether.

ru53 · 22/12/2023 15:45

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

Yes good point! I suppose we are at a similar moment with AI in many ways

Sauerkrautsandwich · 22/12/2023 15:46

I agree with pps that ww2 would happen even without Hitler.

SirCharlesRainier · 22/12/2023 15:48

I think the tragic, wasteful decline of this country over the last 13 years can all be traced to Gordon Brown's "bigoted woman" moment.

Austerity, Brexit, partygate, Trussonomics... all might have been avoided if the press and electorate hadn't lost their minds over one (accurate) private comment and so thrown their lot in with what would become the most corrupt, incompetent and downright wicked government in living memory.

How different life might now be if someone had turned his microphone off.

NeedWineNow · 22/12/2023 15:50

What a fantastic interesting thread. Thank you for starting it OP.

ConnieCroydon · 22/12/2023 15:57

This reply has been deleted

This has been deleted by MNHQ for breaking our Talk Guidelines - previously banned poster.

EdithStourton · 22/12/2023 16:04

TheTripThatWasnt · 22/12/2023 11:01

This whole thread is really interesting, and is making me realise how little I know or understand about history. And it's such a fascinating subject. I did it at school (to GCSE), but it was one of those subjects I never saw the point of as a 14/15 year old. And now I'd like to know more.

What's a good way of 'getting into history'? It's SUCH a wide subject, and reading this, I just want to KNOW EVERYTHING! I'm not a big reader, but I find myself now wanting to understand more about the big events nationally and globally that have shaped the current day. Where to start???

Find an event, era or person that really interests you and start there with the good films and documentaries, and the better books. The old series 'World at War' is still brilliant for WWII (except for Asia, which is given about half an hour).

Some historical fiction is also excellent for setting the scene and getting you into a time and place.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 22/12/2023 16:17

If the UK's revenue from North Sea gas had been invested in something like Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund instead of being wasted ...

LakieLady · 22/12/2023 16:19

TerrorAustralis · 22/12/2023 03:04

If the French had been the victorious colonisers of Canada and the United States, the world would be quite different, but I am not sure exactly how.

If the French or Dutch had colonised Australia, I wouldn’t exist.

And if the French had won the Napoleonic wars, all the former British colonies would have been French (well, apart from the USA, as that was independent before then).

We might all be speaking French, and still in the EU.

billycat321 · 22/12/2023 16:44

The Queen would have inherited anyway as Edward VIII and Wallis were unlikely to have children. She was Heiress Presumptive during Edward's reign, the Heiress Apparent during her father's.

KylieJennersMakeUpSponge · 22/12/2023 17:07

billycat321 · 22/12/2023 16:44

The Queen would have inherited anyway as Edward VIII and Wallis were unlikely to have children. She was Heiress Presumptive during Edward's reign, the Heiress Apparent during her father's.

Not if EVIII decided to make some changes - which by all accounts he was planning to do. He wanted to be as close as he could get to world domination, he would have fought hard for it too

SirCharlesRainier · 22/12/2023 17:16

billycat321 · 22/12/2023 16:44

The Queen would have inherited anyway as Edward VIII and Wallis were unlikely to have children. She was Heiress Presumptive during Edward's reign, the Heiress Apparent during her father's.

I think you're right that she was always considered likely to inherit the crown somehow, but just out of interest it looks like you've got your heirs a bit mixed up.

QEII's father (not QEII herself) was heir presumptive during Edward VIII's short reign.

QEII was heir presumptive during her father's reign.

There was no heir apparent in either reign, as a son would have leapfrogged straight to first place.

Sdpbody · 22/12/2023 17:55

If we had not shut the economy down for covid. We did not need to lockdown.

greengreengrass25 · 22/12/2023 18:01

Plexie · 22/12/2023 08:13

Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII? No no no.

If Catherine's first husband, Arthur, Prince of Wales, hadn't died young, Catherine wouldn't have married Arthur's younger brother Henry. If Catherine and Arthur had had a son, Henry might not have become king at all.

Very good observation

GasDrivenNun · 22/12/2023 18:12

Sauerkrautsandwich · 22/12/2023 04:38

My dad always used to say things would be completely different if Franz Ferdinand had normal car with roof and windows, not open one in Sarajevo. Can't disagree

Same applies to JFK

Original poster
MaryQueenofKnots · 22/12/2023 18:25

I don't think Hitler was necessary for the holocaust. My presumption had always been that the final solution came from the nazis not really knowing what to do with the Jews but in fact this awful rhetoric that the Jewish race must be stamped out and eradicated was long standing, since the thirties. It's abhorrent to think of that being a major policy of their party. Similar levels of antisemitism was on the rise in most places in Europe so I have no doubt that it could have been any other country if not Germany.
Truly grim and sad to read about but I think it's necessary so that we can be alert for warning signs if that sort of party with similar rhetoric starts to gain popularity. Antisemitism is rife now and must be challenged by us all.

OP posts:
enchantedsquirrelwood · 22/12/2023 18:28

TooBigForMyBoots · 22/12/2023 03:04

Things would be different if Catherine of Aragon had had a son.

I was thinking the same! The Reformation would have happened anyway, but English history would have been different.

Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard might have been happily married and kept their heads and died of natural causes, too.

The other one is if Kaiser Bill's older brother hadn't died. Maybe WW1 wouldn't have happened then, or not in the same form - and therefore not WW2.