If you could change one historical event, what would it be?

[TheGravemind]

Disclaimer: I know how Chaos Theory works, and I know how changing a single historical event can change literally every single thing that ever occurs after it, but let's ignore that for the purposes of this thread.

For me, it would either be the Battle of Tours (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Tours) or the Final Siege of Venice and the Battle of Lepento (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto).

If the Umayyads had won the Battle of Tours, we would probably be ~400 years ahead in terms of scientific progression right now since the scientific prowess of Andalusia would've been unleashed on Western Europe a full ~500 years before it actually managed to get through (which, when it did, it triggered the Renaissance.) The Dark Ages/Medieval Period would've been cut short. Enough said.

If the Ottomans had won the Battle of Lepento/the Final Siege of Venice, then a whole host of deadly conflicts would have never happened, and humanity would probably be politically unified right now. An explanation as to why that's a good thing is not necessary, obviously.


Also, inb4 "your parents conceiving you."

please don't

thanks

[Blueobelisk]

Holocaust...?

Is that the right answer?

[Rukioish]

inb4 holocaust.

[Zoaric]

As many as there are, I wouldn't. Should the butterfly effect be real, who knows
what horrors I could have unleashed upon the world- maybe even worse than the
ones I stopped.

[TheGravemind]

As many as there are, I wouldn't. Should the butterfly effect be real, who knows
what horrors I could have unleashed upon the world- maybe even worse than the
ones I stopped.

re-read the OP please

[Deleted]

The unfair peace terms of WW1. They led more or less directly to WW2 and the Holocaust.

While I believe that WW1 was pretty much inevitable, WW2 could perhaps have been averted - at least in the same world-wide scale it happened, although Japan or the Soviet Union would probably still have caused trouble.

[breadisfunny]

the bush election of 2000.

[Deleted]

[If the Umayyads had won the Battle of Tours, we would probably be ~400 years ahead in terms of scientific progression right now since the scientific prowess of Andalusia would've been unleashed on Western Europe a full ~500 years before it actually managed to get through (which, when it did, it triggered the Renaissance.) The Dark Ages/Medieval Period would've been cut short. Enough said.

Bullshit. We'd be in the same miserable and degenrate hell-hole situation where all of the Muslim countries are today. Even lower because no one would have invented electricity or even a steam engine.

Science requires a Western mindset to work, an urge and curiosity to explore, research and try new things - and the courage to say "bullshit" to religions. Islam is all about submission to brainless worship despite of the little period when it was seemingly ahead of Europeans (thanks to the Greek and Persian culture that they had adopted but couldn't eventually develop further) - until all free thought got stomped out by the more unforgiving religion.

[Gumboy]

the bush election of 2000.

What do you think Al Gore would have done differently?

[TheGravemind]

Bullshit. We'd be in the same miserable and degenrate hell-hole situation where all of the Muslim countries are today.

The reason why Muslim countries are in a degenerate condition, in general, is because the Ottoman empire was sabotaged by the Western powers following Germany's defeat in WW1. If the Ottomans had won the Battle of Lepento/Siege of Venice, then they would've never collapsed, and Muslim countries would not be, in general, the poor condition that they are presently in.

Ataturk barely held onto Turkey during the Battle of Galilee, and so Turkey managed to escape unscathed, as the heartland of the Ottoman empire, but the rest of the Arab/Muslim countries largely receded into serial dictatorships and being exploited by neo-colonialists.

If you're not cognizant of history to a far enough extent to understand that Muslims were the leaders of science in between the Greeks and the Enlightenment, then educate yourself on your own time.

[Gumboy]

Personally I wouldn't change much of anything. The world, despite what people scream about all the time, is in a fairly decent shape, probably the best its' ever been, there are areas of insanity, but....the average person is better off now then at any other point in the earths lifetime.

[Kellhound]

Im torn between having Poland stopping Germany in 1939 and the Jacobites winning Culloden in 1746.

[Angella]

The burning of the Library of Alexandria.

[breadisfunny]

What do you think Al Gore would have done differently?

oh gee i dunno everything. anyone could have done better than that mistake.

[Angella]

What do you think Al Gore would have done differently?

Obviously saved the planet.

[Deleted]

I'd only change something for personal benefit. I don't dare to mess with big things. Preventing the holocaust could have set us back so many years in technology, not to mention if we then had a big war with all the new tech years later.

Can you picture us having a WW2 with all the tech we have now?

[Angella]

oh gee i dunno everything. anyone could have done better than that mistake.

He did invent the internet.

[Veritas94]

Hitler did nothing wrong.

All dark jokes aside, I'd say the Kennedy Assassination.

[Crissi]

Captain Phil Harris dying or Steve Irwin dying. Or the art school rejecting Hitler for big scale.

[breadisfunny]

Hitler did nothing wrong.

All dark jokes aside, I'd say the Kennedy Assassination.

that isnt amusing in any shape or form.