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All that happens the same but the Paris Commune survives and socialism spreads throughout Europe. Consequently...(see above).66. Hot headed Emperor Napoleon III doesn't fall for Bismarck's dirty trick, and doesn't react to the Potsdam letter (a forged insulting letter supposedly sent by Kaiser Wilhelm) by declaring war on Prussia, thereby unifying Germany against France. The 1870 war doesn't happen. Germany unification still happens, but at a later date and by peaceful means. Alsace and Lorraine french provinces doesn't get forcefully integrated into Germany, permitting France and Germany to maintain peaceful relations. No world war happen (either the first or second one). Europe remains an economic and scientific superpower.
Funny what can change when one or two leaders make wrong decisions based on hubris, eh ?
Sorry... No 1870 war, no prussian invasion, so no Paris Commune.
And where did you get the idea that holding two jobs was illegal in France? Listening to Rush, again?
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105. Adolf Hitler moves to Australia after WW1...becomes farmer near Lobethal (a region popular with other post ww1 German Migrants). As an Artist he becomes one of Australia's lesser appreciated Painters of Rural life.
Got to 100+ entries pretty quick...wonder what we should do now? 200? Or should we now take two of the posted options and use them to write a new Alternate History Synopsis?
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Nah. Let's just keep this crazy train rollin'.
106. The Zulus lead a raid that captures even more firearms than originally expected, including a small cannon. They rapidly learn how to use these weapons and add many years of resistance to the Zulu War.
107. The gunship firing on the Seminoles who took over the small military base in Florida never scores that lucky shot on their ammo dump. The president capitulates to their desire for land of their own.
107) Hannibal is able to garner support from the Roman aristocracy when he invaded Rome and is thus able to defeat Julius Caesar. Rome becomes just another city in the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian Empire spreads a Greco/Persian culture throughout the Mediterranean world allowing the peaceful spread of both Gnostic Christianity and Islam averting centuries of holy war.
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108. Jesus of Nazareth decides that this whole dying to save everyone deal is not really a good one for him. He skips town the night before the Last Supper, heading for the hills, with his girlfriend Mary and a couple of his loyal flunkies in tow, and successfully evades capture by the forces of the chief priest. For their part, the local Roman authorities aren’t all that bothered and do not join in the hunt.
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107) Hannibal is able to garner support from the Roman aristocracy when he invaded Rome and is thus able to defeat Julius Caesar. Rome becomes just another city in the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian Empire spreads a Greco/Persian culture throughout the Mediterranean world allowing the peaceful spread of both Gnostic Christianity and Islam averting centuries of holy war.
Sorry Xabulba you are out by a few generations JC is much much later - It was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (the Elder) that Hannibal finds himself up against.
The Carthaginians were baby sacrificing Baal and Astarte worshippers. The Romans did not like human sacrifice. There was no way the Romans were going to ally with Hannibal. The southern greek states in Italy - yes, the Samites in the hills - yes, what was left of the Etruscan cities and the Gauls in the Po Valley yes. The Latins no.
The eternal question is what if Hannibal marched on Rome after the victories at Lake Trasimene, and Cannae. Would have he been able to breach the walls, He didn't have enough men for a full siege and the most important of Romes allies stubbornly refused to go over to Hannibal.
107) Hannibal is able to garner support from the Roman aristocracy when he invaded Rome and is thus able to defeat Julius Caesar. Rome becomes just another city in the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian Empire spreads a Greco/Persian culture throughout the Mediterranean world allowing the peaceful spread of both Gnostic Christianity and Islam averting centuries of holy war.Sorry Xabulba you are out by a few generations JC is much much later - It was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (the Elder) that Hannibal finds himself up against.
The Carthaginians were baby sacrificing Baal and Astarte worshippers. The Romans did not like human sacrifice. There was no way the Romans were going to ally with Hannibal. The southern greek states in Italy - yes, the Samites in the hills - yes, what was left of the Etruscan cities and the Gauls in the Po Valley yes. The Latins no.
The eternal question is what if Hannibal marched on Rome after the victories at Lake Trasimene, and Cannae. Would have he been able to breach the walls, He didn't have enough men for a full siege and the most important of Romes allies stubbornly refused to go over to Hannibal.
I think the hatred others had for Rome overall would have gotten him enough men. I certainly agree that Rome's stauchest allies wouldn't have switched sides, buying into Roman virtues and lifestyle, but to my knowledge(I could be quite wrong) Hannibal and his peeps weren't into making others convert to his religion- they could have worked together to bring down Rome and then worship separately.
But there's already another thread for this discussion. Let's keep mucking up the timestream.
107) Hannibal is able to garner support from the Roman aristocracy when he invaded Rome and is thus able to defeat Julius Caesar. Rome becomes just another city in the Carthaginian Empire. The Carthaginian Empire spreads a Greco/Persian culture throughout the Mediterranean world allowing the peaceful spread of both Gnostic Christianity and Islam averting centuries of holy war.Sorry Xabulba you are out by a few generations JC is much much later - It was Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (the Elder) that Hannibal finds himself up against.
The Carthaginians were baby sacrificing Baal and Astarte worshippers. The Romans did not like human sacrifice. There was no way the Romans were going to ally with Hannibal. The southern greek states in Italy - yes, the Samites in the hills - yes, what was left of the Etruscan cities and the Gauls in the Po Valley yes. The Latins no.
The eternal question is what if Hannibal marched on Rome after the victories at Lake Trasimene, and Cannae. Would have he been able to breach the walls, He didn't have enough men for a full siege and the most important of Romes allies stubbornly refused to go over to Hannibal.
D'oh wrong general, dam public schools system.
What I said but replace Scipio for Ceaser.
The Romans loved human sacrifice, they were called gladiators. For enough power and money the Roman leaders would side with baby killers. They were the same people that were totaly fine with the genocide of hundreds of germanic tribes afterall.
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111)Benjamin Harrison wears a coat for his Inauguration speech..as a result he does not develop pneumonia and die 30 days into his term..
112)The US Senate declines to annex Texas.
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113) America pushes further south during their war with Mexico/Spain, not stopping until they have crushed all resistance and refusing any offers of land in the name of a ceasefire.
Still wonder why this never happened.
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114)President Madison is killed by a stray bullet at the battle of Blandensberg..as a result the US sue for terms a year early..Britain imposes major restrictions on US trade with Europe which leads to American attention turning south.
By 1825 Mexico is a US satellite and is fully annexed by 1840.By 1860 the whole of Central America is under US influence and the rest of the Americas are brought into a hugely expanded USA by 1914.
World War One is fought between an alliance of the Old European Empires and the USA.
Hmm we could let Harry Turtledove loose on that one
those interested in this thread could do worse than check out this site
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115) King Henry remains faithful to his first wife, remaining Catholic.
116) King Henry converts to protestantism primarily for the joys of divorce. He begins quietly persecuting Catholics while building military might. Eventually pushed too far, Spain, France, and Catholic elements of Ireland join forces as a United Catholic Alliance and declare war on all the Protestant nation of England and its allies.
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Oh lets do something really different:
The last ice age is a few degrees warmer. Clovis man and the megafauna of North America do not die out to the same degree, with populations in the south surviving to refill the continent.
Nothing is the same.
A little closer in:
Zheng He discovers North America almost 80 years before Columbus. Ming colonies built around what is San Francisco Bay in our reality. Trade alliances made with Aztec and Incas. Early 1500s brings war with Spain. Losses in the south, but the Chinese retain control of colonies on Pacific coast.
117) Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Midway and the host of other lightly-populated islands become US states instead of territories. Panama also follows suit not long after their split with Columbia.
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84) Instead of cheating him, Thomas Edison makes good on his promise to Nikola Tesla to pay him $50,000 for his work in improving the direct current system. Tesla doesn't leave the Edison's company, and instead a long partnership develops that combines Tesla's invention genius with Edison's practical applications and business acumen. There is no "war of the currents" with Westinghouse; Edison converts his whole system of electricity with Tesla's help to alternate current. The Continental Edison Company goes on to develop wireless technology for telecommunications; microwave power transmission; and radio astronomy telescopes by the 1920's. In addition, Edison's company becomes the #1 defense contractor in the United States - providing remote controlled, robotic torpedos; VTOL systems for aircraft, and projected energy weapons.
World War I ends more quickly and less bloody after Tesla (who is a proud Serbian) convinces Edison to influence US involvement in the conflict.
*sigh* If only.
118)A raid during Jesus' last supper results in the arrest, prosecution and execution his followers alongside him.
119) The jews choose to release Jesus. Barrabas is slain in his stead.
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120) David Koresh is arrested at Denny's without incident. His cult falls apart shortly thereafter without note. McVeigh never blows up the federal building in Oklahoma City.
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The Mound Builders of Chahokia do not abandon their large city (located in the Chicago Area) due to flooding and Fuel and Game Scarcity and continue to Develop Agriculture, Trade, and Cultural skills achieving Herding and Farming along the Ohio? River.Just for information's sake Cahokia is about 20 minutes east of St. Louis and the river in question would be the Mississippi.
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121) Guy Fawkes succeeds in the Gunpowder Plot and James I is killed, along with a massive chunk of Parliament.
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122) Canada, drunk on glory following the War of 1812, pushes into the United States.
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123) The Manhattan Project fails utterly, and atomic weaponry is deemed too unstable to ever use effectively in warfare. Without the decisive end to the war brought by the bombings, the war between the Allies and the Japanese drags on for several more years, even after Nazi Germany collapses.
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124) Saul of Tarsus suffers a fatal heart attack as a result of his revelation on the road to Damascus. He never converts to Christianity, never makes his missionary journeys and many of his epistles are never written. Communities where he founded churches either delay their arrival by ten years or more, or never convert at all.
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125) King Saul of Israel thinks twice before making a few bad decisions and avoids ticking off God and Samuel. The line of ascendancy never moves to David and remains in the tribe of Benjamin. The stronger military mindset results in a more martial, more heavily-defended country that is better able to withstand the Babylonian assault several hundred years later.
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126) David's aim is off, and his sling stone glances off of Goliath's armor. He is almost immediately crushed underfoot.
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122) Canada, drunk on glory following the War of 1812, pushes into the United States.
It sounds dirty when you say it. ;)
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123) Battle (or Siege) of Alesia results in the destruction of the Roman Legions in Gaul, Julius Caesar is killed in the battle and Vercingetorix leads the Gallic tribes in resisting Roman rule for many more years. End result, no civil war, Pompey is now in charge of Rome. Julius Caesar and Marc Antony never meet Cleopatra, and she probably ends up seducing Pompey or somesuch instead. No Triumvirate formed, Octavius does not end up as Emperor, and Rome remains a Republic for a bit longer. Oh and there's no Ides of March connection with the stabbing of Caesar, etc.
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128) A Babylonian engineer gets the bright idea to put grates over the canals directing river water through the cities, possibly to keep animals from getting in. This has the (possibly unintended) side-effect of preventing Cyrus the Persian from sneaking in through the open canals after redirecting the Euphrates away from Babylon, preventing him from conquering the city in the middle of a single night. The only other option being direct war with the Babylonians, Cyrus turns his strategies elsewhere.
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129) Xicotencatl the Elder does not persuade his son, Xicotencatl the younger, who is the Tlaxcallan warleader to stop attacking the newcomers who are now surrounded up onto a hill. The newcomers are slaughtered, their leader, Cortes is captured and sacrificed to the gods. Thus the Aztec empire does not fall to the Spaniards for many more years.
Siddhartha Gautama decides that leaving behind his wife and son to a life of asceticism is abhorrent and therefore lives out the rest of his days as Prince, and later King, in Kapilavastu.
In this case many of us who practice Buddhist meditation would be Taoists instead. I am glad it didn't go that way.
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130) The Voldstead Act does not pass through Congress again after Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Prohibition does not occur (thus what we know of today's 18th and 21st amendment will be something else...) along with the implications. Bootleggers would not have existed, organized crime would not have gotten large during the 30's, bootleggers in the southern states would not have driven souped up cars resulting with stock car racing not being as popular in the beginning. American Lager style beers would not have been instroduced, many of the traditional breweries would still be open today and beer would be more like the europeans. The wine industry would not have to start over and would have flourished earlier than before and the Judgement of Paris does not occur.
113) America pushes further south during their war with Mexico/Spain, not stopping until they have crushed all resistance and refusing any offers of land in the name of a ceasefire.
Still wonder why this never happened.
A dozen or more almost certain slave states and the fact that the further south one went the more Mexicans and Catholics there were.
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113) America pushes further south during their war with Mexico/Spain, not stopping until they have crushed all resistance and refusing any offers of land in the name of a ceasefire.
Still wonder why this never happened.
Because they are racists who didnt want to give Mexicans the Vote or citizenship?
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130) The Voldstead Act does not pass through Congress after Woodrow Wilson's veto. The Prohibition does not occur (thus what we know of today's 18th and 21st amendment will be something else...) along with the implications. Bootleggers would not have existed, organized crime would not have gotten large during the 30's, bootleggers in the southern states would not have driven souped up cars resulting with stock car racing not being as popular in the beginning. American Lager style beers would not have been instroduced, many of the traditional breweries would still be open today and beer would be more like the europeans. The wine industry would not have to start over and would have flourished earlier than before and the Judgement of Paris does not occur.
"Wha? No Dukes of Hazard? Thas Crazy Talk!"
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131. Paris of Troy decides that Helen is not all that, and sails back home empty handed; the Greeks never lay siege and eventual waste to Troy, and the city state eventually grows to become the capital of a burgeoning empire that later hampers both Greek attempts to colonise Asia Minor, and the expansion of the Persian Empire.
Homer (or whoever really first wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey) is not inspired to write the epic poems and leads an un-noteworthy career as a composer of love poetry.
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*sigh* If only.
Yep. The truth is that Tesla's ideas were really revolutionary (and a little crazy at times), and could have really changed the world as we know it if he hadn't had OCD and Edison hadn't worked so hard to smear his name.
America pushes further south during their war with Mexico/Spain, not stopping until they have crushed all resistance and refusing any offers of land in the name of a ceasefire.
Still wonder why this never happened.
If you are refering to the Mexican-American War, most of the nature of the war was about pushing West, not South. The Polk administration's campaign promises were in expanding into California and acquire the territories to link the continent. This was the era of Manifest Destiny. More practically, California was considered a huge resource prize and there were fears that Russia, France, or Britain might snatch it away - and all three were global powers that could keep it out of American hands.
To do that required buying (which failed first) or taking the Mexican territories.A secondary result had to do with Texas. Basically Mexico never accepted Texas independence, despite their losses and the creation of a Texas Republic. The annexation of Texas just created more friction. People tend to forget that Mexico was "saber-rattling" and threatening as much as the US over the territory. 1840's Mexico was still a fairly decent national power, and generated concerns for the southern states.
Finally, the reality was that the war was never that popular in the US with some areas of the country - due to slavery issues and the industrilization economy that was developing. Conquering Mexico would have been such a drain (Napoleon couldn't hold the country and he had poured millions into it) that the Polk administration would've likely lost the next election before enacting such a grand plan. It was just easier to take and expand towards California.
Ironically, the close of proxmity and large resources of Cuba made it a more tempting target for US acquisition in the 1850s. If not for all the political upheaval of the Civil War period, it might have been bought or conquered to become a state.
Apologies for the getting off the main thread topic. This is all about speculating and alternate histories.
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132. Critias and Theramenes, two of Athens' ruling oligarchy, decide that Socrates' disobdience for failing to bring in Leon of Salamis requires he be executed immediately as an example. Although the oligarchy soon falls, it comes too late to save him.
Plato and Xenophon never meet him; never learn and convey the Socratic methods that will impact philosophy, art, or history. Plato wanders the Mediterranean as a trader and partial scholar, but without witnessing Socrates unjust death he never feels compelled to write dialogs about the man or develop a scholastic school.
Aristotle never learns from Plato, and becomes a physician for the kings of Macedonia. No scientifc method, elemental forms, or Aristotlean logic develops.
The traditions of Hellenic and Western philosophy instead develop from the Confucianistic and Zoroastrianistic traditions Alexander brings back from his advances into the East. The Roman Empire clashes with the Persian Empire over interpretations of the Avesta as much as territory. Judaism remains a small, but accepted religion due to its philisophical similarities, a Christian element never develops.
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133. Bowing to pressure to honour the traditions of the Carneia, Leonidas of Sparta doesn’t march north with his 300 bodyguards to Thermopylae. The Persian army marches through the pass uncontested. There’s also good weather that week, and a gale does not strike Magnesia.
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The Mound Builders of Chahokia do not abandon their large city (located in the Chicago Area) due to flooding and Fuel and Game Scarcity and continue to Develop Agriculture, Trade, and Cultural skills achieving Herding and Farming along the Ohio? River.Just for information's sake Cahokia is about 20 minutes east of St. Louis and the river in question would be the Mississippi.Dang!!
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121) Guy Fawkes succeeds in the Gunpowder Plot and James I is killed, along with a massive chunk of Parliament.
134. The Chief of the Secret Police learns of the Plot to blow up Parliament and lets it happen...figuring on Picking up control of the Kingdom in the aftermath and exterminating all Catholics in a tide of Popular reciprocity.
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135) The Republican Party unwilling to entrust the country to an untried country lawyer do not chose Abraham Lincoln to run for the Presidency in 1860.
The Democrats win the Election. However the Electoral College votes for John C Breckenridge rather than Stephen Douglas and the New England States begin plans for Succession over the slavery issue.Rather than risk a major war the South is content to let them go
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136) 8000 BCE Native Americans begin to domesticate the Columbian Mammouth and at least one breed of horse. As a result, many more diseases cross the species line, giving rise to scores of diseases which the Native Americans develop immunity to but whom European explorers have none. As a result explorers bring a score of such diseases home. Both the Americas and the Old World suffer the greatest pandemic of all time, with an 80-90% decline worldwide in population by 1700.
137) Battle of Alesia results in the destruction of the Roman Legions in Gaul, Julius Caesar is killed in the battle. End result, no civil war, Pompey is now in charge of Rome, which splinters after his death as regional commanders end up creating Roman 'Republics' in North Africa, Spain and Greece, fighting each other for control of Rome. Gaul remains safe from villa dwelling wine snobs and safe for Beer (and wine) hall drinking barbarians who, while adopting practices from the Mediterranean create a 'Western Civilization' which, over the next 2000 years is much more Celtic/Germanic in flavor then Roman.
138) Julian the Apostate does not die in battle in 363 and instead holds the Roman Empire for the next 27 years, successfully restoring a Roman Pantheism and subverting the rise of Christianity.
139) Mohammad is killed before the start of his ministry.
In this case many of us who practice Buddhist meditation would be Taoists instead. I am glad it didn't go that way.
In this case many of us who practice Buddhist meditation would be Taoists instead. I am glad it didn't go that way.** spoiler omitted **
Nothing really I just found Buddhist text much easier to read and understand.