what if

What if Tetricus had managed to win the Battle of Châlons? Could it have saved the Gallic Empire?

What if, at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, Theodoric I survived and Attila the Hun died, rather than the other way around?

At the Battle of Kili, Zafar Khan, a general of the Delhi Sultanate, attacked the Mongol forces without Alauddin's permission. When he found himself surrounded, Alauddin refused to send him support. Seeing an opportunity, the Mongol commander Qutlugh Khwaja offered to let Zafar join forces with...

Despite lasting only nine years, the Anarchy at Samarra severely damaged the Abbasid Caliphate's central government, and led to rebellious and secessionist tendencies in the provinces. What if this period hadn't happened?

Some time before the Battle of Dyrrachium, Julius Caesar attempted to sail across the Adriatic so that he could bring reinforcements to Greece. But due to hostile weather, he failed, and only made it back alive through luck. What if Caesar had drowned in this attempt?

What if the Chagatai Khanate had defeated the Delhi Sultanate at the Battle of Kili? Could it have opened the way for Mongol conquests in the Indian subcontinent?

What if Nero had never become Roman emperor? How might history have been altered?

The Göktürk Civil War (also known as the Turkic Interregnum) was a conflict between the Western and Eastern Turkic Khaganates that resulted in the two formally splitting. What might have happened if this civil war hadn't occurred?

Philip II of Macedon is widely credited for transforming Macedon from an irrelevant backwater into the premier military power of all of Hellas. He is known for his military reforms, which essentially created the Hellenistic model of warfare used by Alexander and his successors, and for his...

What if Justinian I and his wife Theodora had at least one healthy son? How might history have been altered?

What if the Nika riots had played out differently, and Justinian, Theodora or both were killed during them? How might history have been altered?

On June 11,323 BC, Alexander the Great died in Babylon, and the generals decided to name a successor and a regent. Aside from Philip Arrhidaeus and Alexander IV, one of Alexander’s wives, Stateira, was also pregnant, and may have been carrying a son. Roxane, another one of Alexander’s wives...

The various nationalities of the Austro-Hungarian Empire had already been showing signs of tension and autonomy-desire even before Austria-Hungary's entrance into WWI. However, what if these tensions somehow built up to the point of meaningful calls for national independence before the outbreak...

What if Evangelicalism (also known as Evangelical Christianity or Evangelical Protestantism) had never existed? How might things have been altered by its absence?

Mansa Musa is widely considered one of the richest individuals in history. But his personal wealth was not the only notable thing about him. He was a great builder, and many of his construction projects still stand today. He made Sankoré Madrasah a renowned center of learning. And under his...

Selim I was one of the Ottoman Empire's most accomplished rulers. Despite reigning for only eight years, he enormously expanded the empire. His momentous success is widely considered to have laid the groundwork for the Ottoman Empire's zenith under his son and successor, Suleiman the...

In 326 BC, Alexander the Great, having been forced to turn back by his own soldiers, advanced south through the Indus Valley. Here, one of his enemies were the Malli tribe, and while Alexander was conducting a siege of their capital Multan, he was struck by an arrow that punctured his lung after...

The Qarmatians were a branch of Sevener Isma'ilism that incorporated elements of Zoroastrianism. After they took power over Bahrain and much of Eastern Arabia in the Qarmatian Revolution, they held onto it for much of a century and were a constant thorn in the Abbasid Caliphate's side, even...

Let's say Mycenaean Greek civilization somehow survived the Late Bronze Age collapse in some form or another. What changes might this have caused?

What if the Byzantine Empire never developed the semi-feudal Pronoia system? And how would you prevent the system from becoming an institution?