To ask which historical crossroads you wonder about?

[HoneyParsnipSoup]

For me it’s wondering what would’ve happened had Catherine of Aragon had a son and Henry hadn’t divorced her. Country may well be totally different.

What if Ed Miliband hadn't challenged his brother David for the Labour leadership? David would have won, and then Labour would have won the 2015 General Election and Brekshit wouldn't have happened.

If nuclear weapons had never been invented.

The Reformation would have happened somehow. England readily adopted Protestant ways of worship. We never wanted to go back to Catholicism.

My Sliding doors moment is about that generation of the Labour Party that idolised Stalin. They gave USSR 3 jet engines and drawings that enabled the Russians and allies to build enough aircraft to attack Korea.
Later they scrapped the TSR2 aircraft program so that Soviets did not get left behind. Denis Healy was really a communist.

I don’t think it does. The Russians were an ally after all.

If Archduke Ferdinand's car hadn't taken a wrong turn https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/franz-ferdinand-ww1/29417/

@StartupRepair

There is a great film
On it I've about him

I think it's called the man who saved the world.

He literally did.

If Harold had defeated the Normans at Hastings.
Had his Brother (?) Tostig not invaded and Harold had to get the army north into Yorkshire to repel him it might have gone better for the Saxons.

Yes

If Mary Queen of Scots first husband had not died not long after he became king of France? Scotland would probably have had its queen staying in France.
Would France have supported her claim on the English throne on the grounds of Elizabeth being illegitimate?
Her son James VI would never have existed, so no union of the crowns. No Charles I, so no civil war (or war triggered by other causes if the tensions were there.
Would the United Kingdom have come about?

If the bloke next to King Harold at Hastings had said "Duck gov"

Generations of recusants would beg to differ!

It was a very slow change, and for some people, Catholicism never went away - there are families who continued to practise as Catholics right the way through.

Was this the USSR that had in relatively recent history comprehensively defeated the highly technical German military machine? I doubt they needed our '3 jet engines and drawings' etc etc.

By that I mean of course it wasn’t a ‘serious possibility’ but it isn’t unheard of for opposing parties to work together for a common goal, and it would’ve absolutely wrong footed the British establishment as Ireland joining WW2 was probably something they thought was less likely than Hell freezing over. They would’ve been forced to thaw the relationship then and make accommodations.

I think you need a few history lessons on what the British Empire actually caused in the world. The majority of the world's conflicts have their origins in the British Empire. Also, the British Empire stopped so many Jews from being saved. It was an empire of evil

Probably not in its current form! I suppose we could only answer that if we somehow knew which power would’ve entered the void.

You’re wrong there. I went to Myanmar in 2015, they’re huge fans of the Brits there as they believe the colonial influence put them ahead of neighbouring countries - their framework and civil service is based on ours and they believe (or at least the people we met) it gave them a strong constitution. Some of them were flying Union Jacks outside their establishments.

Of course the Empire did awful, horrific things. But there were also positives which I didn’t even believe until I ‘educated myself’.

WW2 would’ve raged on for another 5 years killing many millions of people, and who knows how it would’ve been resolved is my guess…

Most people know that - the rest is much bigger in terms of awful stuff
aybe they wouldn’t have needed to be ahead of neighbours and could have kept their own culture

we will never know

Read "Time After Time" by Ben Elton (I think that's the title.)
The protagonist goes back in time to prevent the assassination of FF in order to alter the course of the 20th Century. Great book. And an "easy/gripping read" despite perhaps sounding a bit dry

Well, they could’ve stayed disadvantaged like their neighbours - and all sunk together. Would that be better, more equal? It may make a luxury Westerner feel more comfortable.

Good thread idea op! For me:
if Harold hadn’t lost the battle of Hastings

If Hannibal had known how to use victories and Carthage had defeated Rome

If Neil Kinnock had won that election!

One day I might magically learn how to write creatively…

That is a very serious choice and would have made a big difference.

If Bob Marley, John Lennon, George Michael and Diana hadn’t died so young.
If Rupert Murdoch had never owned/influenced British newspapers
If Thatcher had chosen another career
If there was no Daily Mail
No 2008 financial crash and subsequent austerity
No Cameron and Osborne
No Brexit
If I hadn’t married the wrong man

Those can't be equated.
British rule in Ireland meant land dispossession, cultural suppression, religious discrimination, Cromwell's massacres, the Black and Tans, British soldiers and police escorting food shipments and livestock to port for export to Britain during the "famine" while the Irish starved to death.
That's just some of the reasons why Ireland wouldn't be an ally of Britain during the war.

Omg you are the comfortable
westerner to think they needed to change

we don’t know what would have happened - India was on the way to industrialisation