Alternative history is an interesting concept to think about. What if the Nazis had won WW2? Why if Duke Ferdinand hadnt been assassinated? What about Lincoln? My favorite one that I read about was a hypothetical scenario where the Romans accidentally discovered steam power 1500 years ahead of time. In present day, based on the rate of technological progression, they would control the entire Earth and planets within our solar system. Focus: What change in a historical event would have the biggest impact on how history has played out? What do you think would be different in the world today because of it?
I always wondered what would have happened had paternity tests been available when Mary was virgin birthing. I`d also like to see Joseph`s reaction on Maury. "The King of kings....is NOT your baby!" This would be followed of course by cheers and tears.
The South winning the Civil War. Pros: No one would be trying to get Huck Finn banned from public libraries. Labor costs? What labor costs? What's rap music? No immigration problems. "Vacancy" signs outside of prisons. No Oprah, ergo no Drs. Phil or Oz. Cons: At some point, Willie Nelson becomes president. Sports is a lot less interesting. NASCAR replaces baseball as the national past time. "Dixieland" is the national anthem. President of the NRA is a cabinet position. Peanut butter never gets invented. No 3-day weekends in January.
Pro- I wouldn't have to be from the same country as those dirty southerners since they'd be their own country Said country's legal system would be so renegade I'd fight tooth and nail to get out of the North.
<a class="postlink" href="http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0389828" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0389828</a> This movie is free on Netflix streaming and worth checking out. Its pretty disturbing.
I don't like ridiculous hypotheticals. With that in mind, I present to you an eminently possible alternative history. I wrote a paper on this in high school: What if George Washington had died during the Battle of Monongahela in 1755? Yep, bullets went through his coat. I don't think you get a United States of America if Washington is killed right there... or at least not a united, functional one. It probably would have torn itself apart quite quickly.
Patton Oswalt did a good bit on an alternate universe based on the last decade. Politics aside, if 9/11 did not take place, imagine how different the last decade would have played out? There probably wouldn't have been a war in Afghanistan/Iraq, Bush wouldn't have been elected to a 2nd term, the US economy wouldn't have gone in the shitter and I wouldn't have my 9/11 commemorative coin collection.
Genghis Khan's son and heir, Ogedai, sent armies to explore and conquor Europe somewhere around 1240. They were crushing everybody in their way, and were preparing to attack the Holy Roman Empire. Basically, they were going to take Europe and there was nobody who could stop them. Unfortunately for them, Ogedai died suddenly and the armies had to return home immediately to sort who would become Khan. Had it not been for that sudden death, European history would be very different.
I think it's safe to say that even without 9/11, al Qaeda would have still managed to attack us on a similarly massive scale and many of those things still would have taken place in one form or the other. Besides your coin collection, that is. Without 9/11, the TSA or Homeland Security department wouldn't exist, airport security would be as lax as it ever was, and there'd still be a whole bunch of pissed off Muslims over there hell-bent on destroying the Great Satan. Sooner or later, they would have gotten groups of terrorists onto planes and started royally fucking shit up. You could make the argument that killing bin Laden when we had the chance in the 90s or not arming the Afghans in the 80s would have limited their ability to plan, fund, and execute such a well-coordinated attack to the point where it wouldn't have happened in some form.
You're probably right. Near the end of the war, officers of the Continental Army were getting pretty pissed that they hadn't been getting paid for a quite some time (years). Washington arrived at the meeting where they were planning on how to basically overthrow the government they were attempting to set up, and this happened:
Nixon defeats Kennedy in 1960. *Cuban missile crisis doesn't happen. *All-out war in Vietnam is averted. *Civil Rights movement gets kicked in the balls. *Hunter Thompson disappears, Jimmy Hoffa doesn't. Goldwater defeats Johnson in 1964: *Nuclear apocalypse. Ford defeats Carter in 1976: *Hell freezes over.
I've been playing Napoleon: Total War and I am therefore amazed and intrigued by Napoleon's prowess as a general. The man (shameless quote from the game) was said to equal the presence of 40,000 men on the battlefield. I do wonder what could have happened if he hadn't pissed off as many nations and/or pushed into Russian Winter (and it hadn't rained during Waterloo, and his general intercepted the Prussians before they could reinforce the British, yada yada, [/wikipedia]). The impact of little things throughout war and history is quite interesting. Chaos theory anyone? I suppose the "what if?" can be applied to every major conqueror out there: Alexander, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, etc.
If Hitler got into art school, 9/11 never would have happened. I have no way of proving this. It's a theory that one of my friends has and she refuses to explain it.
It's not a bad one, if he went to art school there would have been no holocaust because he wouldn't have the work ethic to pull it off. If that never happened we wouldn't be the world power we are today (thanks 8th grade history, I think) and there would be no reason to bomb us. It's bullet proof.
If Constantine wasn't tripping balls on one of the worst acid trips known to man at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, Christianity wouldn't have been nearly as powerful as it turned out to be and nothing would have been the same from that point on.
I'll tell you what's bullet proof: if Hitler hadn't existed, our current dialogue about pretty much any topic of history, politics and religion would be much more tolerable.
If the South won, bib overalls and pick-up trucks with no registration whatsoever would be all the rage. Your American-American neighbours may not have it so good, though. However, drinking fountain installation employment is double what it would have been. Plus, those boa-ties on the lanyard that oil tycoons wear on Dallas would be cool all the time. I think I could rock one of those. Confederate scientists also figure out that if you have kids with at least your second cousin they won't look like The Hills Have Eyes. Give my regards to president Charlie Daniels.
Is this what Canadians consider a "boa-tie"? I'm not sure what you know about the South, but I think you've been misinformed.