AHC: Make a radically different world than OTL with 1000 CE POD

What events in history were so pivotal in shaping the modern world from the year 1000 AD or later POD with events that them not occurring would radically change history. To be clear with what I mean by radically, I mean that the map looks nigh alien linguistically, culturally, and ethnically. For example, Europe still having large non-Christian populations by the 18th century is something that is radical. Or was the complete Christianization of Europe just inevitable?
 

Dolan

Banned
Have someone in Lithuania decides that this funny black powder could be put into tube, get a lead ball into, and ignite the powder to fling that ball...

Pagan Lithuanians armed with guns, now that would be something that will definitely change the world.
 
1492 and Columbus. Literally have anyone else, sponsored by anyone other than Castile/Spain and you have a radically different linguistic and ethnic makeup of the Americas.

William the Bastard/Conquerer not becoming king of England. Maybe not overly radical but I’ve always found you trace anything back far enough today with American/British words, customs, events, etc. I always end up back with him.
 
Have someone in Lithuania decides that this funny black powder could be put into tube, get a lead ball into, and ignite the powder to fling that ball...

Pagan Lithuanians armed with guns, now that would be something that will definitely change the world.

Now that would be really interesting, but how would that come about?

A Lithuanian conquest of Northern Europe or maybe the Rus would create a really different world for sure.
 
1492 and Columbus. Literally have anyone else, sponsored by anyone other than Castile/Spain and you have a radically different linguistic and ethnic makeup of the Americas.

William the Bastard/Conquerer not becoming king of England. Maybe not overly radical but I’ve always found you trace anything back far enough today with American/British words, customs, events, etc. I always end up back with him.

I know it's a common AH PoD, but what are the best No William the Conqueror timelines on AH.com?
 
You can take any POD before Thirty Years War and world is going to be extremely different if then you don't use very effective butterfly net.

But some ideas:

1. William the Bastard fails.
2. Genghis Khan not born or is killed very young.
3. No Fourth Crusade or at least Venetians doesn't destroy Constantinople.
4. War of the Roses goes differently. For example Battle of Bosworth goes differently. Perhaps Henry Tudor is killed or then Richard III and Henry Tudor are killed.
5. Prince of Wales Arthur survives.
6. Henry VIII and Catherine the Aragon have son.
7. Edward VI remain healthy.
8. Protestant Movement goes differently. There is several different possibilities.
9. Columbus doesn't return.
10. Incas have much better luck.
 
Pagan Lithuanians armed with guns, now that would be something that will definitely change the world.

Pagan Lithuanians already used black powder and cannons IOTL. They have also conquered lots of Christian territories. No Pagan wank resulted from this.
 
This IMO is the best POD for at least Asia and Eastern Europe looking wildly different from OTL, and the whole world as well.

And it has too markable impact to Middle East and Central and Western Europe when Black Death is not hitting there or it is not so bad thing as in OTL.
 
Genghis Khan is the big one. Stopping the Mongol Conquest impacts on everyone from China to the Middle-East to Europe, setting up the mother of all butterflies on the centuries since.

Stuff like William the Conqueror (it made England part of Europe) or Columbus (it was going to happen anyway) is small-fry by comparison.
 
Reformation PODs has big potential. You could have very different Reformation, more successfull one or way less successfull. England staying Catholic is massive Protestant-screw, making Protestantism mainly North German/Scandinavian thing.
 
Have someone in Lithuania decides that this funny black powder could be put into tube, get a lead ball into, and ignite the powder to fling that ball...

Pagan Lithuanians armed with guns, now that would be something that will definitely change the world.

Then that Lithuanian dies because the barrel he is using isn’t sufficient to properly contain the force of the explosive, or the gunpowder deflagrates rather than detonating because the mixture wasn’t made or stored correctly, or he tries to introduce it to his family/tribe and no one cares...

Seriously, how will this scenario ever come about? Why will the Lithuanians care that this unpredictable, expensive, hard-to-manufacture powder can kill them by burning or detonating? Where will the Lithuanians get the sulfur, saltpeter, charcoal, and iron necessary for firearms? Very close to ASB.
 
How about some non-Europe PODs? That might just change the world. How about a surviving Song, or no Ghorids/Delhi Sultanate, or a surviving Angkorian Empire, or a continued Iranian Intermezzo, or a surviving Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq, or a different Tulunid Empire, or no Timur hmmm? Sorry, just a little cranky at the fact that it seems that by “world” we mean “Europe” in like every thread I’ve looked at today.
 
Gavrilo Princip never goes to the sandwich shop.

Adolf Hitler, Herman Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and others are shot dead at Munich.

The Black Death never happens/reaches Europe/is way less deadly.

The Turks don't win the Battle of Manzikert in 1071.

Chernobyl is worse.

The Beatles never exist.
 
How about some non-Europe PODs? That might just change the world. How about a surviving Song, or no Ghorids/Delhi Sultanate, or a surviving Angkorian Empire, or a continued Iranian Intermezzo, or a surviving Abbasid Caliphate in Iraq, or a different Tulunid Empire, or no Timur hmmm? Sorry, just a little cranky at the fact that it seems that by “world” we mean “Europe” in like every thread I’ve looked at today.

Absolutely agree
 
Interesting. There are way too many.

Tocharian and Scythian, Sogdian, Turkic Caucasian Buddhist+Tengrist Central Asia and parts of Northern Indian subcontinent.

Greek and Iranian Asia Minor

Western Latins conquering Byzantine Empire and establishing a new Empire there.

Byzantine Empire conquering parts of the West.
 
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