Alternate History - The biggest change

[Beelz]

Was Korea a potential colonizer ?

In a vacuum, Korea could quite easily be considered a colonial power, however in reality the Koreans have always faced threat from all directions: the Chinese to the west, the Jurchens, Manchu and Mongols to the North and the Japanese to the south and east. They simply lacked the ability to sail unmolested, which is pretty much essential for a colonial power.

 

[Dale248]

Yeah, I have not seen it all, so maybe it gets better. Regardless, is he aware of the horrible puns he makes ?

ha, they get worse in other episodes. :rofl:

 

[Merrick Chance']

I'd say that maybe a Song dynasty could have colonized. The first Ming ruler was very concerned with creating this idyllic form of rural China and while the Ming rulers failed at keeping the merchant class from expanding their ban on ocean travel was pretty successful.

 

[TheDerpyBeagle]

They never invent guns.

 

[Buczkowski]

All you get then is long, ill informed, self righteous arguments about bow control.

 

[Ithvan]

The ERE and the Sassanids work out some sort of a peace deal. Then the Sassanids won't lack the manpower and will to beat back the Caliphate. Persia and (by a stretch) the Levant never get islamicized.

 

[Jazumir]

I´ll just throw one out there, to orbit: Yuri Gagaryn´s mission and all the decisions leading up to it. That really forced the race to space and if man´s view of earth had not changed due to the images and testimony of all those who followed, it would be almost certain, not just possible, that we´d mess with our planet until it would not be able to sustain us anymore, in the future, before we´d be able to seize another, or change our ways.

 

[unmerged(671782)]

I'd say that maybe a Song dynasty could have colonized. The first Ming ruler was very concerned with creating this idyllic form of rural China and while the Ming rulers failed at keeping the merchant class from expanding their ban on ocean travel was pretty successful.

The Tang Dynasty was already doing the whole imperial ambition thing and then this rebellion came up and all their forces disappeared and the Middle Easterners killed their outposts and then China went back to the dark ages for like a century.

 

[Beelz]

...we´d mess with our planet until it would not be able to sustain us anymore, in the future, before we´d be able to seize another, or change our ways.

We're still doing that anyway.

 

[Beagá]

The space race changed nothing long term, apart from improving our satellite and comunication tech. IMO we are stranded on Earth and will die here, unless finally a decent fusion reactor is created.

 

[Leisner]

The mutation leading to Y. pestis never happens.

While it was not the only cause for "the black death", and there have been other plagues, it is probably the single most influential thing in recent human history. And there is nothing that says there would have been other plagues in its place. And while the invention of metallurgy, or other similar inventions, have on whole a far bigger impact, they were not singular instances. Bronze working, for example, were invented in more than one place. The mutation that lead to Y. pestis were most likely a singular instance, and if a meteor happened to hit the area in that timeframe, then world history would have changed quite a bit.
Y. pestis is a rather ineffective disease, which makes it a good candidate for a killer.

Another fun virulent what if, is to switch smallpox (the biggest cause for the rapid decline of the native American cultures) and syphilis (came from the Americas). That would have disabled the Europeans for some time (hell, it pretty much single handed killed the Mississippian native cultures)

 

[el_zilcho321]

Tsar Nicholas allows himself to become a constitutional monarch in 1905. Russia is more efficient during WWI, so German advances aren't as quick/large as real life, and it never pulls out due to revolution. This means that Brest_Litovsk wouldn't have happened, and Germany wouldnt control E. Europe. Therefore, when Germany is defeated (Probably sooner than irl) Countries in E. Europe under Russia remain under Russia.

Can't think what would happen next but, no cold war!

 

[Merrick Chance']

Or some weird Czarist/American cold war.

What if the Jacobins weren't overthrown and St.Just realizes his dream of universal socialized education in France in the 1800s? The Jacobin utopian visions was really strong and the society that they were trying to build (based on an idealized view of Sparta) would completely change our modern idea of what a democracy is.

 

[soda7777777]

Pfft. Aurelian isnt't assainated by his is stupid generals, and the cult of Sol Invictus comes to dominate the western world.

 

[Beelz]

Tsar Nicholas allows himself to become a constitutional monarch in 1905.

To be honest, I see a Constitutional Monarchy in Russia causing a lot of trouble. Not all of the territories of the Russian Empire wanted to be Russian, and a written Constitution might just increase peoples' political awareness. If WW1 still occured along the same lines there would likely be a lot of people in Western Russia willing to help the Germans in return for liberation. Maybe Brest-Litovsk wouldn't happen, but that still doesn't mean Russia would keep all of its territory.

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

To be honest, I see a Constitutional Monarchy in Russia causing a lot of trouble. Not all of the territories of the Russian Empire wanted to be Russian, and a written Constitution might just increase peoples' political awareness. If WW1 still occured along the same lines there would likely be a lot of people in Western Russia willing to help the Germans in return for liberation. Maybe Brest-Litovsk wouldn't happen, but that still doesn't mean Russia would keep all of its territory.

Didn't stop the Brits keeping a lot of people in the Empire when they didn't want to be.

 

[__schon__]

How about Charles XII of Sweden not being a total fuckwhit? Would at least affect Northern Europe.

 

[Beelz]

Didn't stop the Brits keeping a lot of people in the Empire when they didn't want to be.

I would disagree. The British Empire fell apart pretty quickly following our fall from grace after the World Wars. It's simply a matter of power VS unity. If you have enough military power you can keep people subjugated, but if you lose that military advantage then the separatists get their way. In the case of Russia, their power was considerable, but their technology was outdated and their transport network was incapable of putting troops anywhere in the East in anything like a reasonable amount of time.

 

[RedRalphWiggum]

I would disagree. The British Empire fell apart pretty quickly following our fall from grace after the World Wars. It's simply a matter of power VS unity. If you have enough military power you can keep people subjugated, but if you lose that military advantage then the separatists get their way. In the case of Russia, their power was considerable, but their technology was outdated and their transport network was incapable of putting troops anywhere in the East in anything like a reasonable amount of time.

Britain kept plenty of unwilling prisoners while a conmon.

 

[DoomBunny]

Britain kept plenty of unwilling prisoners while a conmon.

Whilst I wouldn't really agree with him, there's a difference between the 2. Britain kept its 'unwilling prisoners' as you put it out of Westminster. Only the United Kingdom itself voted for the Government, and therefore Kenyans, Indians or other such people were kept from exercising political influence to such a degree as they might have.

A Russian Conmon would struggle to justify the denial of parliamentary representation to areas such as Finland, the Baltic states or other areas, and as such would face a bigger problem.