choose your own adventure: history that didn't happen

[shart_attack]

Which scenario in world history would to you be the most fun to exploit, if you were writing a "what if" novel?

What if:

• a group of New World colonies that would eventually come to be known as America had not imported African and Caribbean slaves?
  
• a boy named Elvis Presley had not been born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1935?
  
• Texas Rep. Charlie Wilson had not gotten the CIA the money to fund the Mujahideen in the 80s?
  
• two brothers named Orville and Wilbur Wright had never been born?
  
• President John F. Kennedy had not been assassinated?
  
• a man named Robert Oppenheimer had never been born?
  
• a man named Leonardo da Vinci had never been born?
  
• the Chinese had not invented gunpowder in the 11th Century?
  
• the brassiere had never been invented?
  
• a man named Kanye West had never been born?

 

[Noomi]

If Sharon Tate hadn't been killed.

 

[shart_attack]

If Sharon Tate hadn't been killed.

Depending on how well this thread is received, I have her lined up in my head for the sequel, yeah.

Her, and the scenario regarding what would have happened if Tila Tequila had never gotten a show on MTV.

 

[shart_attack]

Because one fellow USMB poster has already expressed to me some confusion as to this thread's motive, here are a couple of links to help anyone who is having trouble with it to understand it better.

First: What if Kennedy had not been assassinated — would we have lost thousands of Americans in the Vietnam War? One of the best "what if?" documentaries ever made, this:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYQMsqf6zxs]Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived[/ame]

Next: What if Hitler had been given more recognition for his post-WWI artwork — would WWII have ever happened? An outstandingly introspective film, this:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNcUEraG5sA]Max (2002 film trailer)[/ame]

 

[Noomi]

I am most interested to know what would have happened if slavery hadn't been permitted.

 

[Picaro]

First: What if Kennedy had not been assassinated — would we have lost thousands of Americans in the Vietnam War? One of the best "what if?" documentaries ever made, this:

Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived

The answer is yes, we would have, and probably a lot more American lives. The Camelot Myth and the BS about his 'Last 90 Days' is just PR static and hubris.

Next: What if Hitler had been given more recognition for his post-WWI artwork — would WWII have ever happened? An outstandingly introspective film, this:

Max (2002 film trailer)

Also a yes here. Hitler didn't invent Nazism, nor was he the only demagogue running around in Germany in those days. WW I left a lot of unresolved issues in its wake, which is why WW II was just WW I, Part 2.

 

[Picaro]

I am most interested to know what would have happened if slavery hadn't been permitted.

People would have just invented other reasons to butcher each other.

 

[shart_attack]

First: What if Kennedy had not been assassinated — would we have lost thousands of Americans in the Vietnam War? One of the best "what if?" documentaries ever made, this:

Virtual JFK: Vietnam if Kennedy Had Lived

The answer is yes, we would have, and probably a lot more American lives. The Camelot Myth and the BS about his 'Last 90 Days' is just PR static and hubris.

Okay.

I didn't know that facts are mere "hubris," but okay. If you say so.

Next: What if Hitler had been given more recognition for his post-WWI artwork — would WWII have ever happened? An outstandingly introspective film, this:

Max (2002 film trailer)

Also a yes here. Hitler didn't invent Nazism, nor was he the only demagogue running around in Germany in those days.

He may not have been "the only demagogue running around in Germany in those days," but I've little doubt that he was the only one who had the sort of demonic charisma that he had.

I couldn't see, for example, the likes of his fellow occultists Himmler's or Goering's or Speer's having had the same ability to embody the will of the volk to the same extent that Hitler did. But that's just me.

WWI left a lot of unresolved issues in its wake, which is why WWII was just WWI, Part 2.

Inflation.

Loss of hegemony, in Europe and abroad.

Resentment of the League of Nations for (what Germans perceived as) having stripped them of that hegemony.

Could be it's just me, but I'm not sure one can unequivocally state that "WWII was just WWI," though: it seems a bit more complex than that, to me — particularly because of the rise of America as an international post world war player.

America was itself neither an internationally-feared nor respected military hegemony prior to WWI.

 

[shart_attack]

I am most interested to know what would have happened if slavery hadn't been permitted.

People would have just invented other reasons to butcher each other.

Yeah?

You think America would have still been able to gain enough economic steam from the cultivation of its two chief crops—tobacco and cotton—to have propelled it into the Industrial Revolution without slavery, though?

 

[MaryL]

What if Jesus was real? Or My Dad singlehandedly won WWII, or my Dog could live another ten years? I would take my dear old Dog living another ten years. Definitely.

 

[shart_attack]

What if Jesus was real? Or My Dad singlehandedly won WWII, or my Dog could live another ten years? I would take my dear old Dog living another ten years. Definitely.

What if you once said something funny?

What if a dromedary camel once thought you were pretty?

What if you once got an "A" on a intermediate-level history test based on remedial rote learning?

Fun, isn't it?