ASB events in OTL

archaeogeek

Banned
World War One is quite ASB right?

There had been threats of general mobilization in 1908 and 1912, Europe was on the brink before then. The military systems involved were so ponderous that if there was general mobilization it only took one wrong word to plunge Europe into general war between every major power.
 
There had been threats of general mobilization in 1908 and 1912, Europe was on the brink before then. The military systems involved were so ponderous that if there was general mobilization it only took one wrong word to plunge Europe into general war between every major power.

The end of WWI was really ASB right?
 
A small group of horse-nomads conquers Eurasia, killing a bunch of people for absolutely no pressing reason. They weren't even starving in Mongolia, they were fine.

A bunch of religious extremists turn the British Isles into a shortlived Republic and most of the world forgets about it.

The Mughals go from being wealthy and magnificant to being fucked over the course of one Emperor's reign, and that Emperor is then considered the greatest that country ever had.

Japan goes from being a medieval country to a modern state in a matter of years, but still doesn't even become a weirdo culture mix until after WWII.

Every single thing the Europeans do the prevent the Black Plague causes it to spread, to levels of irony that had to be intentionally caused by the universe.
 
Most of the Spanish conquest of the New World was ASB. As heavily outnumbered as they were even iron, horses, and disease shouldn't have been able to make the difference.

I mean when the Athualpa walked right into Pizzaro's trap and later during Manco's counter attack a few hundred Spanish holding against 200,000 Inca? Totally ASB.
 
Most of the Spanish conquest of the New World was ASB. As heavily outnumbered as they were even iron, horses, and disease shouldn't have been able to make the difference.

I mean when the Athualpa walked right into Pizzaro's trap and later during Manco's counter attack a few hundred Spanish holding against 200,000 Inca? Totally ASB.

I think by far the biggest ASB moment in that was Cortez arriving just in time to be mistaken for Quetzacoutl.

Edit: Scratch that. Now that I did like a few-seconds long Google search for the above incedent, I find it ASB that I could have believed that to have actually happened.
 
The death of Union General John Sedgwick, especially considering his last words.

The 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz-Ferdinand. Most of the assassins chickened out or were inept bunglers. The one who succeeded only got his chance through a series of ludicrously improbable events.

The 1950 attempt to assassinate President Truman. One would-be assassin is only lightly wounded in spite of a hail of bullets, while his far more dangerous counterpart gets his brains blown out by a man who shouldn't have still been conscious, let alone hit a target at 30 feet.

The action off Samar in the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The second largest Japanese ship weighed more than the entire American task force.
 
Miracle of the House of Brandenburg is the BIG one, IMO.

The invasions of Kuwait and Iraq both seem very stupidly ASB in hindsight.
 
World War I. A war started by the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne that nobody really liked? C'mon. :rolleyes:
 
Battle of the Alamo... another rag-tag group manages to defend a crumbling old mission against a force of thousands inflicting massive casulties upon the Mexican army. Even though they had siege cannons nearby that could have taken down the walls without an assault. No way!

Battle of San Jacinto... the Mexicans have the rebel army trapped and what do they do? They decide to take a nap without even posting sentries, thus allowing the band of Texan rebels to crush them soundly in the space of twenty minutes. Silk underwear even become a major turning point in the battle as this proves they captured the Mexican president! ASB!

After losing that war to the rebels, and adamantly refusing to admit their independence, Mexico waits to launch a major invasion to reconquer Texas until AFTER the major power on the continent annexes them and thus gives the land-grabbing US a chance to grab all of Norte Mexico. ASB they'd be that dumb!

Sorry but that is a huge over simplification of the Mexican American war., very much based on American-sided elementary school level text books.

For one the Texians didn't hold on to the Alamo, they were all massacred. Inflicting that much damage to the attacking army when you have the upper ground and a well defended position isn't that ASB, even when you're defense doomed since the start.
San Jacinto and the "nap" was very good luck for Houston and his men but they still had the field advantage, they basically got to choose the battleground. That Santa Anna decided to wait only helped them but it was certainly not decisive.
Mexico never launched and invasion to re conquer Tejas. The whole "American blood on American soil" was propaganda by the Polk administration to gain support from Congress for the war. Mexico, when Paredes was in power, did send a large army across the Rio Grande to defend the Nueces Strip, which was technically part of the department of Tamualipas and not Texas or the US, after Taylor had moved his troops south of the Nueces and stationed them near Matamoros to claim the strip for Texas/the US. The declaration of war Paredes sent to the US for annexing Texas was never actually ratified by the Mexican Congress so technically it was more of an very angry letter from Paredes to Polk than an actual declaration of war.

The real ASB part of the Mexican American war is the life of Santa Anna. You basically have the most inept military commander in military history coming in and out of power in Mexico 11 times in a period of about 30 years or so. Even after being exiled twice out of the country. Not to mentioned the fact that his longest right happened after loosing the war against the United States and being exiled for the second time.
 
The real ASB part of the Mexican American war is the life of Santa Anna. You basically have the most inept military commander in military history coming in and out of power in Mexico 11 times in a period of about 30 years or so. Even after being exiled twice out of the country. Not to mentioned the fact that his longest right happened after loosing the war against the United States and being exiled for the second time.

Yeah. You just seem not to be able to get enough of this guy right? I think Santa Anna epitomizes the saying "if at first you don't succeed, try and try again"

Anyway...

How about communism? I mean the communism that we know is really nothing like the communism stated by Marx. I mean, a place where everything is meant to be equal and perfect in OTL develops into a dictatorship... ... ...and then lasts in various forms for about seventy years.
Or, according to the Chinese ideology, a capitalist government with a communist system...
 
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