Imagine how different history would be if...

This is all fascinating speculation and not entirely irrelevant, because if we don't speculate on what would have been if, we can't assess the importance of what actually happened. For example, how different would the world be if the Fascist powers had won the Second World War? Or if Charles Dickens had never existed, would either literature (outside his actual work) or social conditions have become much different from what they did?

I think the problem with the Princip/Archduke scenario is that Princip wouldn't have been satisfied. He wanted a dramatic act in a tradition of war and sacrifice. He may well have hoped his act would bring war. I'm not aware of a spanking having ever brought about a war, though we could always rewrite the Helen of Troy story. I agree that the First World War was "an accident waiting to happen", though in different circumstances different powers might have been involved or stayed out, leading in all likelihood to a shorter war and nothing like the same carnage.

I think the future of the Russian Empire if war had been avoided is a particularly interesting subject: after all, the economy was growing very fast indeed. The Communist revolution might well never have happened, but reform would have been inevitable if revolution wasn't and I suspect the Finns and some other peripheral nations would have won independence by now, given Finnish sisu.

I would agree but I would worry about everyone on this site being in the army and no one submitting any stories anymore...LMAO

Yes indeed! Both are scary prospects, especially looking at it from the receiving point of view. LOL

There have been some pretty good alternate history books written about what if such and such had never happened or turned out differently. Robert Harris' Fatherland is an excellent example of what if Hitler had survived WW II and the allies hadn't taken control of Germany at the end.

Seegee
Two points: 1) There is a wonderful trilogy about a fleet from the near future that accidentally gets sent back in time and wipes out the USA fleet right before the Battle of Midway and how the two time period inhabitants clash (if I'm remembering right, there might even be a spanking reference or two) & 2) I've been reading a lot of WWII related history lately. One book, The Churchills, recounts how when Winston Churchill was on the battlefield in WWI, Hitler was just ten miles away from him. While not a violent person, it's a pity Winny couldn't take the measure of that...person. So much would be different.

There's a book by Stephen Fry (can't remember the title this late at night) about someone who discovers time travel and attempts to change history by dosing the water supply to Hitler's parents' house with a powerful oral contraceptive. Unfortunately it all goes wrong - in the absence of Hitler, another fanatical leader emerges, this time one more competent. He also somehow gets his hands on a sample of the contraceptive, and has his scientists duplicate it - so instead of sending Jews and other groups to gas chambers, he has them secretly contracepted out of existence.... Most of the book is about one man's attempt to put things back the way they were.

There's also a Dr Who episode called Let's Kill Hitler where they attempt to do just that and an episode of Misfits. I think in all cases it's not done because the results are even worse.

If you want to play at what if, what if Romania (with its 650,000 man army) had entered the war in 1915, anchoring the Russian south, rather than it's historic entry in 1916 - which was after several Russian armies were destroyed?

Or imagine if Vice Admiral Carden had revealed to the captains under him "the admiralty knows our entire fleet of pre-dreadnought ships is obsolete and is willing to see 95% of it sunk if that means we capture the Dardanelles". Carden became ill, someone else replaced him as commander of that operation, and that someone failed to capture the Dardanelles because he was worried about loses. Note that they didn't lose that many men - virtually of the sunk vessels went down to mines, sinking slowly with enough time to evacuate their crews.

WWI is one of those wars filled with "what if" moments - but then again most wars are filled with them.

Goodgulf

The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K. Dick, deals with this issue (the Axis Powers winning World War II) as well, as does The Divide by William Overgard and In the Presence of Mine Enemies by Harry Turtledove, who is arguably the modern master of alternate history... --C.K.

There was a book called Mirage by Matt Ruff which many have compared to The Man in the High Castle and in that the Arab states are the world power and the US is a group of republics largely divided along religious lines. It's not a bad reimagining either.