We previously coveredsome of the many substitute historiesout there . Here are seven more challenging ways the human beings could be completely unlike .
1. What if the Romans won the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest?
Effect : No one would mouth English .
account : InWhat If?(1999 ) , edited by Robert Cowley , historians pondered what would happen if historic outcome had change state out other than . Many of these were popular query — What if the Americans lose the Revolutionary War ? What if the D - Day invasion had fail in 1944 ? But an essay by the late Lewis H. Lapham , then editor ofHarper ’s Magazine , recall a little - know showdown in 9 advertising between the Romanist legions and the Germanic tribes at the Teutoburg Forest . The kin group ambushed and destroyed three Roman legions in this campaign , and the Romans would never again assay to conquer Germania beyond the Rhine .
Lapham suggest that , if the Romans had won , universe history would have been remarkably different , with a “ Roman empire preserved from ruin , Christ dying … on an unremembered cross , the nonappearance of the English words , neither the indigence nor the occasion for a Protestant Reformation … and Kaiser Wilhelm seized by an calf love with stamps … or else of a Passion of Christ for cavalry boots . ”
2. What if the Protestant Reformation never happened?
Effect : Christianity would carry on to govern the world . skill , not so much .
Explanation : noted novelist Kingsley Amis come in substitute - history territory in 1976 with his prize - winning novelThe Alteration . In his imagined story , Henry VIII ’s unawares - survive sr. brother , Arthur , has a son just before his death . When Henry seek to take over his nephew ’s potty , he is kibosh in a pontifical warfare . Hence , the Church of England is never founded , the Spanish Armada is never shoot down ( as Elizabeth I was never born ) , and Martin Luther reconciles with the Catholic Church , eventually becoming Pope . course , this turn Europe into a immensely dissimilar place . By 1976 , it is rule by the Vatican , in the eye of a long - run Christian / Muslim moth-eaten war , and technologically regressed , as electrical energy is banned and scientist are frowned upon .
3. What if Napoleon had kept going?
Effect : Revolution in South America .
Explanation : plausibly the first book - distance alternate history , Napoleon and the Conquest of the World : 1812 - 1823(published in 1836 ) imagined that Napoleon , rather than freezing in Moscow in 1812 , sought out and destroyed the Russian regular army . One chapter mentions a phantasy novel in which the Emperor abide a major frustration in the Belgian townsfolk of Waterloo . ( The approximation of a fictitious book , telling the “ real ” history , was also used by Kingsley Amis inThe Alteration . )
But what if Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 ? This question was take in 1907 , in an essay contest held by London’sWestminster Gazette . The winning essay , by G. M. Trevelyan , suggest that Napoleon would lose interest in amplify his empire , partly because his wellness was suffering , and partly because the mood in Paris was for peace . England , however , would stomach economically , with many people starving . The poet Lord Byron would lead a popular uprising against the government , which would be suppressed . Byron ’s execution , of course , would only inspire gyration . Meanwhile , a war of independency would call down in South America . With Napoleon ailing , the French regime would nearly cease operation , attack from all side . ( The essay ended there – on a cliffhanger . )
4. What if the South had won the US Civil War?
Effect : The Union would be over … forever .
account : Theprevious list of alternate historiesincluded a historiographer ’s vista of what would have happened if the Confederacy had won the Civil War . Of naturally , the idea has also been pop in fable . The popular Harry Turtledove , who specialize in alternate history novels , has suggested what might have pass – in 11 volumes ( so far ) . The first novel , How Few Remain(1997 ) , introduce a world where , year after the war , the former USA is separate into two nations : the U.S. and the Confederate States of America . Later bulk were set in the Great War , in which the CSA allies with Britain and France , and the U.S. – still sulphurous over the two Civil Wars – joins forces with Germany . Using advanced applied science , the U.S. is on the win side . In the South , post - war measures lead to runaway splashiness , poverty , and the triumph of the violent Freedom party . The newly fascist CSA then contrive a Final Solution for the “ superfluous ” black population . In the Second Great War ( 1941 - 1944 ) , three American cities and six European city are destroy in nuclear attacks . At the destruction of the war , the U.S. side get ahead again , and takes control of the CSA .
unhappily , it is too late for the South to repay the Union . After all these years of battle , such a move would replete Congress with some of the USA ’s outstanding enemy . or else , the CSA is extend neither independence nor polite rights , but is kept under military rule .
5. What if the Cuban Missile Crisis escalated into a full-scale war?
impression : The end of atomic proliferation … except in the U.S.
account : Though usually view a arm of skill fiction , alternating story news report have their own awards , the Sidewise Awards for Alternate History , which have been presented to some renowned novel , let in Harry Turtledove’sHow Few Remain , cite above , and in 1999 , Brendan DuBois’Resurrection Day . This envisions a humanity in which the U.S. military counteract President Kennedy ’s attempts to negotiate repose during the Cuban Missile Crisis . The United States invades Cuba , making the Crisis escalate into nuclear war . The Soviet Union is ruin , the People ’s Republic of China collapses , and a fallout cloud over Asia kill million of others . Meanwhile , the United States lose New York , Washington DC , San Diego , Miami and other cities . However , all endure state renounce their possession of nuclear weapons – with the exception of the USA , now under martial law ( as the military had design all along ) .
6. What if Marilyn Monroe survived?
Effect : She would make headway an Oscar – and be brainwashed .
account : Marilyn Monroe ’s death in 1962 , at age 36 , has been pondered by a few writer . In his novelIdlewild(1995 ) , diary keeper Mark Lawson devised a human beings where Monroe endure her “ felo-de-se attempt , ” President Kennedy survived his blackwash attempt , and they continued their ill-famed ( if historically unproved ) affair for another 30 years . Playwright Douglas Mendin , in a 1992 narrative forEntertainment Weekly , guess that Monroe would go , dedicate herself to serious playacting , and come through an Oscar in 1965 , with no make - up and her hair’s-breadth dyed brown . She would then record a hit song with Frank Sinatra , make bad motion picture , and give up act in 1980 to appear after her drug - addict twin Word .
Then there was the American supermarket tabloidThe Sun . In a 1990 story , they “ reveal ” that Monroe actually was still alive . According toThe Sun , after threatening to reveal an affair with Robert Kennedy , she was drug , brainwashed and take to Australia , where she lives the " simple life of a sheep rancher ’s wife . "
7. What if the Summer of Love never ended?
force : A TV show would have one of its punch-drunk installment .
Explanation : While scientific discipline fabrication series likeDoctor WhoandStar Trek(and even dramas likeDallas ) occasionally entered the globe of substitute history , the only show that focused on them in every episode wasSliders , which aired on Fox from 1995 to 2000 . In this series , a untested genius and three companions “ sloping trough ” through an inter - dimensional portal , sending them into a dissimilar parallel Earth every episode . While it never won an Emmy ( or even a Sidewise Award),Slidershas a cult follow . Some of the alternative globe were intriguing — like one in which ban was never repealed , so that organized crime dominates society . Some were absurd , like those inhabited by vampires or human - eating elephantine worms , and some were just hair-raising , such as the one where caffeine is outlawed – a scary scenario .
The time of year one episode “ Summer of Love ” was one of the more humourous , as they visit a San Francisco where the 1967 Summer of Love never finish , and were misguided for extraterrestrial prophets . It was even divulge that the U.S. President was Oliver North , though it ’s never explain how the protracted Summer of Love could urge on citizenry to vote for a former warfare hero known for his use in the Iran - Contra dirt . ( As I say , it was stand for to be funny . )
