Highly underused PODs with great potential

[vultan]

What are some potentially potent historical PODs that no one really looks at, but are plausible and could create a really cool/different timeline?
French victory in the French and Indian War is a good one.
Any others?

[HistIdiot]

Maybe the Spanish hanging on to Louisiana? Or no Louisiana Purchase?

[GreatScottMarty]

Mexicans win Mexican-American War

[TheNordicBrit]

No Haitian Revolt.

[GreatScottMarty]

Stephen Douglas wins Presidency in 1860
Henry Clay becomes President anytime between 1836 and 1850
William Harrison serves a full term
John Jay 2nd Pres. not John Adams
John Jay first VP not John Adams
James Garfield not assinated or survives attempt

those are a few, I haven't seen done

[corditeman]

Britain too far offshore for invasion by William the Bastard (Normans), the French and inconveniently so for Hitler...

[maverick]

Anything to do with South America or South-East Asia...

What if Athens had won the Peloponnesian war?

What if Darius I had conquered Greece?

What if Alexander had lived to conquer Arabia?

What if Pompey the Great had not attacked at Pharsalus, but had instead awaited for a better opportunity?

What if Marc Anthony had not gone to Egypt?

What if Crassus had not invaded Parthia?

What if the Social Wars had gone the other way around?

What if Marius had not risen to the Consulship?

What if Sulla had not risen to the Consulship, himself?

What if Pyrrhus of Epirus had not gained the reputation he did and defeated Rome?

What if Epaminondas had not lived and Thebes not risen as it did under the Greek General?

What if Thrasybulus had not overthrown the 30 Tyrants?

What if Cesare Borgia had supported the French candidate for the Papacy in 1503?

What if the Sforza had not taken the Duchy of Milan?

[Korporal Nooij]

Originally Posted by corditeman

Britain too far offshore for invasion by William the Bastard (Normans), the French and inconveniently so for Hitler...

That's an ASB PoD, and it would be sure to butterfly away at least Napoleon and Hitler.

[counterblitzkrieg]

The Ottomans won the Battle of Vienna (if you're into Ottoman-wank that is )

[MNP]

I don't think I've seen much discussion of this. I've started doing preliminary research on this subject:

What if La Pucelle succeeds in escaping from the English and returns to France?

[SJK]

What if the Parthians tried to push the Romans further back after Carrhae?

[maverick]

Originally Posted by SJK

What if the Parthians tried to push the Romans further back after Cannae?

It's actually the Battle of Carrhae, Crassus defeat in 53 BC...Cannae was against Hannibal and Rome didn't border Parthia in 216 BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae

I don't know if Parthia has the resources to seriously threaten Rome that year, but it'd be interesting to look it up...

[Desmond Hume]

1. Warren Harding gets his way and Irvine Lenroot becomes his running mate, with Lenroot then becoming President assuming Harding dies on schedule.

2. McKinley chooses anyone other than TR as his running mate in 1900.

3. Franz Josef is assassinated in 1853 instead of being saved by a high collar, an Irishman, and a butcher.

[Patukov]

No times of troubles in Russia

[corditeman]

Not sure if a change in geology about 4 million years ago is an ASB - we would need that for the British Isles to be so far offshore. I decided that the Romans might have got there (if Channel Islands strung out in a line) and probably the Anglian and Saxon invasions (with better ships) whilst the Vikings would sail anywhere.

Napoleon and Hitler would NOT be butterflied away, but major British involvement with Europe would be much reduced. (Mind you, is that such a bad idea ?)

I'm jotting down a few notes and this thread looked interesting. When I get the Four Islands in some kind of shape, do I put it here or the ASB?

Answers on a postage stamp, please.

[SJK]

Originally Posted by maverick

It's actually the Battle of Carrhae, Crassus defeat in 53 BC...Cannae was against Hannibal and Rome didn't border Parthia in 216 BC.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carrhae

I don't know if Parthia has the resources to seriously threaten Rome that year, but it'd be interesting to look it up...

Oh, mixed the names up.

Anyhow, the Parthians could send raiding parties to Roman-held areas nearby, but would that be a stretch for their logistics?

[truth is life]

@corditeman: Geographical/geological changes go in ASB.

As for myself...what about the Empress Dowager Cixi dying considerably earlier than OTL? IOTL, she served as a considerable block on the ability of the late Qing to reform and modernize China, even going so far as to overthrow the Guangxu Emperor when he instituted a series of reforms. She bears a lot of responsibility for the later ills China has suffered. So, what if, before she could do all that (say, sometime in the 1870s or 1880s) she died somehow?

[Basileus Giorgios]

No Plague of 542, or of 1347.

First Crusade defeated.

[I Blame Communism]

Like, anything to do with the Deluge and Northern Wars. At all.

[corditeman]

Thanks, truth is life.

What about the Exeter ramming the Graf Spee, or the Graf Spee sinking Exeter, Ajax and Achilles ?