what if

On November 15, 1902, an Italian anarchist named Gennaro Rubino tried to assassinate King Leopold II of Belgium. Though he almost killed the king's Grand Marshall, Count Charles John d'Oultremont, Leopold was uninjured. What if Rubino had killed the king? Could it have ended the atrocities of...

Few authors have had as great an impact as J. R. R. Tolkien. Widely considered the father of modern fantasy, he played a major role in defining the genre for generations to come. So here's my question: what might he have accomplished had he lived until 1992 - or even later? What impact would...

Harun al-Rashid, the fifth Abbasid Caliph, ruled during the zenith of the Islamic Golden Age, and played a major role in turning Baghdad into one of the great centers of learning and commerce. In 802, he decided to divide his vast empire between three of his sons: al-Amin, al-Ma'mun, and...

While it's often overlooked in the West, the Paraguayan War (also known as the War of the Triple Alliance) was one of the most bloody and devastating wars in Latin American history. How might the absence of this conflict have changed history?

would mao long gonna be defeated or not?

What if the Union had won the Battle of Fredericksburg? How might it have altered the course of the war?

There are several historical figures that were not too far off inventing the steam engine however, al-Jazari was undoubtedly the closest, in the early 13th century... A proto-industrial revolution with only al-Jazari's inventions is a possibility, he invented an early crankshaft in 1206 [1], he...

The Mauryan emperor Ashoka the Great is a truly remarkable historical figure. H. G. Wells famously wrote of him: "Amidst the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history, their majesties and graciousnesses and serenities and royal highnesses and the like, the name of...

After Brazil becomes independent, how large can the country get? Could it gain more territory from its neighbors than it did? Can it gain a part of the Pacific coast? Could it gain colonies in Africa? Hell, could it even take over the whole South American continent? What would Brazil have to do...

Sometime in 551 BC, during the revolt of Cyrus the Great against Media, the battle of the Persian border was fought. Although the battle was not particularly desicive, Cyrus’ father Cambyses was killed during the battle. What if Cyrus the Great was killed at the Battle of the Persian Border...

So I was talking about plastic bags and environment with a friend of mine and she said things would have been really different and probably better for the planet if no one had ever discovered how to make plastic. So what do you think of it: how different things would have been from an...

In 317 BC, Cassander had finally defeated and killed Olympias at Pydna, and her brother Aeacides wad deposed for supporting Olympias against Cassander. Aeacides sent the young Pyrrhus of Epirus to Glaukias, king of the Taulantians, where he was raised and restored to the throne in 306 BC. What...

Before and during the Late Bronze Age collapse, a mysterious group of maritime raiders and invaders known as the "Sea Peoples" attacked multiple regions in the Eastern Mediterranean. What if the Sea Peoples didn't attack?

Contrary to popular belief, there's nothing inherently against proselytization in Judaism. Once upon a time, Jews did proselytize. So what happened? Negative legal consequences - up to and including mass executions - as punishment for trying to spread Judaism. Christian and Muslim empires...

What if Æthelred the Unready had never become King of the English? How might history have been different?

When Sherlock Holmes described his archenemy Professor Moriarty as "the Napoleon of crime", it wasn't just a commentary on Moriarty's brilliance. It's a reference to the fact that Napoleon, like Moriarty, was quite skilled in mathematics. There's even a geometry theorem attributed to him. What...

In 1882, Nikola Tesla got a job in Paris with the Continental Edison Company. Two years later, he moved to the United States and began working at Edison Machine Works. But six months after coming to America, he quit for unclear reasons (the most popular theory is because he didn't receive...

In 1536, Henry VIII of England suffered a serious jousting accident. This caused him to suffer from serious health problems, and may have caused his mood swings. What if he hadn't had this fateful accident?

Some time after Darius III ascended to the throne of the Achaemenid Empire, Bagoas tried to poison him. But Darius got wind of this, and forced Bagoas to drink the poison himself. What if Bagoas had successfully poisoned the king?

In 281 BC, after defeating Lysimachus, Seleucus I Nicator had essentially taken over the entire Asian part of Alexander’s Empire, and was preparing to cross into Macedonia and Thrace. However, before his invasion could commence, Seleucus was assasinated by Ptolemy Ceraunus. What if Seleucus had...