If only 1054 campaign against Macbeth handn't happened, everything would be better

If the invasion of Wcotland in 1054 which established Malcolm as King of the Scots had only not happened, the son of Earl Siward, Osbeorn would not have been killed. He therefore would have succeeded his father when he died in 1055, and not Tostig. Therefore, the 'Northumbrian Revolution' of 1065 would not have happened, King Edward would not have died so soon and Edgar the Atheling would have been old enough to become king. Harald Hadraada would have had no reason to invade England and Tostig would have had no reason to be an enemy of Harold.

Plus, Scotland would have stayed gaelic. Macbeth was also (though like Malcolm) an efficient ruler.

Therefore you have no Norman Conquest and no Anglicisation of Scotland.
 
I suppose we're talking about languages rather than races.

Race is a social construct, of which language is a determining factor. In a pre-nationalist setting they are broadly one and the same. None of this answers the question of why Gaelic-speaking Scots are somehow inherently superior to Scots-speaking Scots, or as to how this overall heavily nativist leaning scenario would produce a better world than the one we have.
 
Race is a social construct, of which language is a determining factor. In a pre-nationalist setting they are broadly one and the same. None of this answers the question of why Gaelic-speaking Scots are somehow inherently superior to Scots-speaking Scots, or as to how this overall heavily nativist leaning scenario would produce a better world than the one we have.

Don't be silly - everyone knows only the English are racist ;) And it always their fault (although nowadays the codeword for English is "Tories") :D
 

Hot potato orchestra stalls puck will make amends! <nose pinch> Ahh!


But more seriously, and I know this is the guaranteed feather ruffler when we talk about the pre-modern - how much changes, really? So OTL has a set of lords with their boots on the peasants' necks who start to speak English instead of Gaelic. They say yes sir and hand over their produce in one language instead of another. Before the nineteenth century, when learn how much their supposed to care about that, I'm not sure the peasantry derives much comfort from saying "whatever you say, m'lord" in gaelic instead of English.
 
Because why, in your scenario, would the following millennia-ish be any better?

Why should they be worse? Literally any POD can be spun into leading to a nuclear catastrophe if the writer so wishes it - Baghdad not sacked by Mongols, Incan and Aztec Empires not subjugated, Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade nipped in the bud, WW1 avoided, cure for cancer discovered in the 60s, you name it.

Unless there is a real link towards the changes brought about by the POD and nuclear Armageddon, it's really silly to bring it up as a counter-point. I think I'll call it Reductio ad Bellum Atomicorum.

Here is what we DO know:

1. The Norman conquest was hugely detrimental to everyone but the Norman aristocracy. Lots of people died (both immediately and in the follow-up campaigns like the Harrying of the North) and society became a lot more unequal, with a significant number of previously 'free' (i.e. land-owning) peasants forced into servitude and with women enjoying a much-diminished role in society.

2. The Hundred Years War is almost surely butterflied away, as Anglo-Saxon England is unlikely to have any significant possessions on the other side of the channel. Thus France avoids taking a huge hit to its population, meaning its process of urbanization will be kicked into overdrive

3. A majority of kingdoms in Western and Central Europe managed to centralize successfully during and/or right after the Middle Ages (France, Spain, Hungary, Denmark, Sweden). It's quite probable that the ruling Anglo-Saxon dynasty would have managed to do the same, as the Viking Age had come to a close


All in all, I would say the likelihood of European development and technological and social progress surpassing that of OTL is quite high in this scenario, as small changes tend to build up over time.
 
Alternately one of Macbeth's descendants marries into European nobility and there direct ancestor lays such waste to Europe that the Mongols walk all over it and the nascent Atlantic-NorthEurope trade hub is still born setting technology back centuries.


The point being made we can say that this POD is either gonna cause sunshine and lollipops or plagues and atombombs because we cannot follow the causes. It's like claiming the recent death of John Nash in a car crash will doom all of humanity because his last theorem wasn't published and therefore couldn't be used to avert the Timewars of the 3000s which lead to the Great Paradox and the implosion of Earth.
 
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