Recent content by Brian Ghilliotti

Did the Soviet Union ever consider approaching Taiwan in offering to help subvert the Communist regime in Beijing during the Sino-Soviet conflict? Reviewing the history of the Kuomintang of China, which formed the KMT / Nationalist Party of China that eventually ruled Taiwan, I discovered that...

If Hitler sped up the development of the STG 44 assault rifle, so it's final version was introduced to the battlefield earlier than 1944, could it have affected the outcome of the Eastern Front? If so, how? My position is that the Soviets would have quickly developed their own assault rifle...

This article is based on the on-line historical news clip shown in the link below: COUP IN BOLIVIA PRESIDENT HELD BY PRO-NAZIS - Examiner (Launceston, Tas. : 1900 - 1954) - 22 Dec 1943 From research I come up with the following facts: -Bolivia was in important source of tin and other...

What if the allies intercepted the German air raid at Bari, Italy, on December 2, 1943? This was an air raid by the German forces in Italy against a major allied logistical port on the east coast of Italy. It was apparently a major supply depot, left weakly defended by British forces since they...

L

What if German WW2 occupation forces in Scandinavia bombed the training camps Sweden was hosting in its country for Norwegian and Danish resistance forces? This would have been quite possible, as the Swedes let German forces in Norway move through its territory toward the Eastern Front when it...

If there was a Serb mis-perception that the Canadians were just stalling, out of anti-Serb bias, and letting the Croat militia cleanse the villages that the Canadian peacekeepers were "trying to reach", but could not, under Croat pressure. I do not think either ethnic militia trusted the...

Please see the link below for more information about this forgotten battle: Reviewing this video, I have to ask what would have happened if the Serb forces decided to move against the Canadian peacekeepers stationed on the hill overlooking the battle? Or what would have happened if the Serb...

What if there was an actual naval clash between British, US, and German Naval Forces during the first Samoan War in 1889? This would be been a very "interesting" three-way war, as each nation was backing a separate Samoan faction to get control of the islands. Each of the powers may have taken...

I forgot to consider the scenario whereby those Central African tribes who may have converted to Islam may resort to enslaving other tribes that resist Islamic conversion. In this case, those tribes that do to resist Islamic conversion efforts may end up finding themselves becoming slaves...

I asked on reddit/askhistorians if there was a serious effort by Muslims in East Africa to promote Islam in Central Africa, besides the historically known fact of making raids into Central Africa for slaves, up into the 19th Century. I am assuming that the answer will be "there was no effort to...

Though the Fenian Raid of 1866 into Ridgeway, Ontario was a heroic and futile feat of arms, it was doomed to failure, whatever foolhardy objectives they hoped to achieve. In an alternative scenario, in which the the North American Fenian leadership could have shown a little more strategic...

Please refer to the following link for more details about this border clash. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Cuevas_War This event was initiated by a group of Texan Rangers who decided to initiate a raid over the Mexican border to reclaim cattle stolen from Texas. During the process, the...

Here is the link for information about the operation. If a firefight happened, Americans would have woken up in a "where the hell did this war come from" moment. I was only 2 at the time, I am not sure of these events were covered in the major news networks at the time or being carried out...

Active