 I've talked about alternate history before on this channel a little bit, but not that much. And part of the reason for that is that while it is a great genre, and I do enjoy it a lot, it's not very mainstream. And the reason for it not being mainstream is that there's basically no imagination anywhere in it. Like, whenever you see an alternate history scenario which is brought up in the mainstream, it's always either what if the Axis powers won World War II or what if the Confederate states won the American Civil War, which they're just boring at this point. You know, I've seen what if the Axis won World War II. I've seen so many different variations on that over the years. I'm just bored by it. I don't, if you have an idea for that, I really don't care anymore. And the American Civil War one is less overdone admittedly, but it's still been done a lot. And I think the Southern Victory series by Harry Turdledove is probably the best example of that we're ever going to get because that goes into just so much detail and it follows the war for like another 80 years, I think, or rather it follows the world for like another 80 years after the war, which is, you know, it's pretty interesting, but it still has its problems. And so basically I'm just making this video to come up with a whole bunch of new ideas that other people can use. Like, hopefully these little scenarios can inspire people to make their own timelines or their own series or whatever else, because I just, I really, really just want to see something different done with this genre. And honestly, as long as I'm here, another little bit of advice if you're an aspiring alternate history writer out there, just know when to stop. Like, for real, I've had, or rather I've come across some timelines and scenarios that have gone on way longer than they needed to. Like, there's one on the Napoleonic Wars, which started off in Napoleon's invasion of Russia and had that go better than before, so the French Empire stayed around longer, and it continued on for another 300 years, which is like in the future from now, and it just got really stupid and overdone and I just, I was so done with it by the end. So basically just don't do what that guy did, know when to stop. And all of these scenarios, like, again, I want people to use them so don't bother asking, oh, can I use that one? Like, just go with it, man. And these are going to be more or less in chronological order, except for the ones that I came up with later that I wasn't able to put in earlier because these are hand written notes, but yeah, whatever, let's get started. This is the introduction song. It's not very good, but it's not too long. So first one, what if there was a continent in the Pacific Ocean? You know, the Pacific Ocean is huge. It's bigger than all the landmass on earth combined, and there's not a whole lot out there other than a bunch of island chains, which are, in some cases, very isolated from one another. So I was just thinking, well, what if there was a continent there? Might be a relatively small one, like the size of Australia, or it might be a really big one the size of the Americas. That's up to you to decide. And well, what would happen there? Would there be all sorts of new societies? It might facilitate trade and contact between the Americas and Asia, and maybe people have been living there for thousands of years. It was discovered around the same time that humans migrated to the Americas, or maybe it was only settled relatively recently when the Polynesians did their whole expedition thing. And basically, just how does that interact with the rest of the world? Has it changed the rest of the world? Sounds neat. What if the Native Americans had access to domestic animals? Now, I know that Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond is controversial among historians and anthropologists, and I'm not going to get into that because I am not even kind of sort of at all qualified to talk on the subject, but I will say it's pretty convincing to me. And basically, though, what if Native Americans had access to all or some of the animals that Eurasians had access to, like horses and pigs and cows and chickens and all that, what would they have access to? Like, would they actually be able to create more technology and be ahead of where they were before? Would it improve their warfare capabilities? So when colonizers came over, they were able to resist that. Would it increase their resistance to disease? Would it create new diseases, which also hit the other people on the opposite side? Things like that. What if there were a bunch of rivers in Central Australia? Now, a little while ago, I did do a review of an Australian alternate history novel, and that one was pretty interesting, but this is a similar idea where it's just, okay, what if instead of a big desert, there were a bunch of rivers there so people could navigate them and move around more quickly? They could have better agriculture? How would that affect things? I don't know because I'm not an expert on Aboriginal history or Australian history at all, but it's a neat idea. What if Ancient Egypt was a lot more expansionist slash colonialist? Now, the thing about Egypt is that up until the New Kingdom, they were really insular. They didn't bother conquering outside of their little area because, you know, in a lot of ways they didn't need to. They had all the resources and everything they needed right there. But then the New Kingdom came and they just conquered into Palestine because they basically didn't want to get invaded from there again. It's a, it's a whole long story. I don't really want to get into all that here because we'd be here all day. But what if the Egyptians were more expansionist and more colonialist so they tried to spread their culture and their religion? How would that turn out? What if there was no Bronze Age collapse? This one's pretty straightforward. Like what if Egypt, or rather the Egyptian New Kingdom, the Hittite Empire, the Assyrians, the Mycenaean Greeks? I've heard people say Mycenaean and Mycenaean, but whatever. I don't care. What if those all stayed as they were for a while longer? What happens then? What if China never really unified? So China's history is just a series of unifying and then breaking apart into warring states and then unifying again. And what if, for whatever reason, China being unified was more the exception than the rule? For the most part, they were all just these different countries that were all fighting one another and had their own unique cultures and were all competing with one another. And what would they do then? Would they wind up being kind of like Europe where they, their technology and everything had to get better and better over time? Would they be able to keep up with Europeans? Would they become colonizers of their own? Would they get colonized? I think there's a lot of potential here and I've never really seen anyone do it. Specifically, I would really enjoy seeing, well, what if China or one or two of those Chinese states, rather, managed to colonize like Southeast Asia, like Indonesia and possibly even Australia. That would be really neat to see. What if Northern Japan stayed under the control of the Ainu? So basically, for most of Japanese history, the northern half of Honshu has been under the control of the Japanese and they pushed the Ainu out at some point. I don't exactly remember when. This isn't supposed to be a lecture. That's not the point. The point is, what if the Ainu stayed and developed like their own kingdom or kingdoms? And how does that affect Japanese history? What if Athens wins the Peloponnesian War? Now, I actually wrote a timeline on this myself on alternatehistory.com. Like I'll, I'll link to it below because I'm sure someone will be interested in it. I don't think I did the greatest job ever. But basically, well, Sparta was a lot less expansionist than Athens was. It was more isolationist. And that that was part of what caused Greece to get conquered by the Macedonians later. And I was just thinking, well, what if Athens was the victorious one there? And so they actually spread out and made their own empire. And that would completely change the course of Mediterranean history. There there's a lot of potential there. And I don't think I tapped into it all that well. What if Alexander the Great lives longer slash designates an heir? So basically, his empire lasts longer. And that manages to make better communication or more long lasting communication, I should say between India and Europe. And well, I guess Egypt would be in there too. The Mediterranean world, let's say, like the Mediterranean world in India would have better contact. Like how does that affect things? I'm sure it would be big. What if the Etruscans unite before the Latins? So, you know, the Latins were united under the power of Rome, and then Rome went on to conquer all of Italy, and then the rest of the Mediterranean world after that. And so I was just thinking, well, what if the Etruscans managed to do it before the Latins did? And possibly maybe they conquered Rome and the Latins and everything. So their culture discuses around everything. Or maybe they just prevent Rome from getting out, and they have their own empire up farther north. I don't know. There's a lot of places you could go with this. What if during the Second Punic war, Hannibal marches on Rome after the Battle of Cannae? Now, this one, I have seen people talk about it a bit, but I haven't really seen it explored all that much. Like, would Hannibal's march be successful? Would he actually manage to destroy Rome's city or the city of Rome and wreck their empire before it even really starts? Would Carthage take over that role? Or would it fail? And both sides were just exhausted, and so neither side really wins the war. They just agree to stop fighting. Like, there's places you could take this. What if all Andalusics converts to Islam? Now, all Andalus is Iberia, you know, the area in Spain and Portugal that was under Muslim control for a very long time. However, the majority of the population was never Islamic. They never converted. And I'm just thinking, well, what if most of them did convert for one reason or another? And so Spain and Portugal were Islamic. Like, what happens then? We'd probably have a higher Muslim presence in Europe, and there might be more or less religious tolerance. This is a pretty big deal. Like, if that happened, it would change a lot of things. What if the Seljuk Turks never enter Anatolia? So, you know, what if the Byzantine slash Greek presence remains there? And what if the Seljuks instead, they still come out west, but they settle in like Mesopotamia around Baghdad instead. And they just make their empire there. Would the Ottoman Empire ever become a thing? Or would there be some sort of equivalent that was based in Iraq instead of Turkey? And later on, would Turkey or Anatolia, I should say, would that become kind of like the Balkans with a couple of different ethnic groups, like Greeks and Kurds and Armenians and such? Would they all be at each other's throats all the time? I don't know. What if during the first crusade the Byzantines helped the crusading army like they said they were supposed to? Like, basically the Byzantines never helped them in their conquest of Jerusalem and the whole coast of the Levant there, because of a miscommunication where they thought, oh, okay, those guys are all about to get killed. We have to take ourselves back home and prepare for an attack. And that never happened, obviously. And so I'm just thinking, well, what if the Byzantines helped them out? That would probably foster a better relationship between them. And that might help fix the great schism, I don't know. And maybe the crusader states would last longer because they would have more support from right there as opposed to having to truck it all in from France and Germany. On the subject of the crusades, what if the Kingdom of Jerusalem never used the French feudal system? Now, without going into too much detail, basically the French feudal system was a clusterfuck. It was extremely decentralized and had basically the king has very little authority, at least until later years in France, he was able to consolidate over many generations, but whatever. And they tried to export that same system to Jerusalem, but it did not work very well because they didn't have the population to back it up. And so that's why the kingdom declined so quickly and was able to be conquered relatively easily, less than 100 years after it was founded. And so if they had a functional government, what would happen then they would probably last a lot longer. And from there, it butterflies out and affects a lot of other things. What if Guyakon lives longer? Now, Guyakon, basically he was the Khan of the Mongol Empire at the time where they were invading into Europe. They were going through Poland and Hungary. And if he hadn't died, then the invasion likely would have continued as it was rather than them having to leave and go back for a new election. So like what happens then? How far would the Mongols go into Europe before they would be stopped? And how does their conquest of a huge chunk of the continent affect things? On a similar note, what if Guyakon dies at the same time but he actually designates an heir and so the Mongol Empire avoids having a civil war which lasts several years and causes a whole bunch of destruction and more than anything that probably contributed to the empire fracturing a generation later? Like what happens then? How much longer would the Mongols really be able to last? What if Ireland united without England? Now, don't tell the IRA this but Ireland has only ever been a unified state when it's under the control of the English and so this would depend a lot on what time period Ireland becomes united under and what system it's under. Like for example if it happened in maybe not prehistory but in let's say 200 BC if some king had managed to unify it and make it an actual centralized state like that would be a lot different than if it had managed to throw off the English yoke during one of their many rebellions in like let's say the year 1500 and centralize and unify that way. Like either way those are going to be much much different but in independent Ireland changes the whole calculus of European politics. What if there was less ethnic cleansing during the Beaver Wars? Now the Beaver Wars were basically a bunch of different conflicts where the Iroquois Confederacy otherwise known as the Harunoshoni went south into like the Midwestern United States and killed basically everyone there and depopulated huge chunks of the country so that they could get access to those Beaver hunting grounds and I was thinking like okay what if instead of just killing everybody the Iroquois vassalized them and rule over them or maybe they actually brought them into the Confederacy and just how does that change things because having Native Americans that are much more unified and more numerous that changes a lot when it comes to American expansion into the interior. What if the Holy Roman Empire did not have partable inheritance? Now basically there's two types of inheritance there's partable and impartable. Impartable is where it just all goes to one child usually the oldest son and impart and partable is where it gets split between various sons and like the the logic there is okay if they all get their own land then they won't have a civil war fighting with each other and that destroys everything which yeah that does help with that but at the same time you can have one guy who conquers a whole empire and then he has three sons and then they all have three sons and after a couple of generations you no longer have an empire and so that's how we wind up with the Holy Roman Empire having its famous border gore which I'm sure a lot of you have seen maps of but the thing is that mostly happened because of partable inheritance whereas in the rest of Europe that went out of fashion partway through the middle ages I I don't want to make generalizations here but by the late middle ages part impartable inheritance was just not very common in most of Europe and I'm just thinking like okay if the HRE was more unified and more centralized then it could conceivably be a powerhouse that could steamroll most of the rest of Europe and dominate the continent what if there was no Inca civil war before the conquistadors came in so yeah basically it's a similar idea like the Inca empire had a brief civil war because their emperor died of smallpox or not a brief civil war is actually a really long grinding one and then so when the conquistadors came in it was much easier for them to conquer and so I'm thinking like okay what if that happened with the Spanish would probably be able to conquer them sooner or later but I don't know how long it would take and maybe they wouldn't be able to outright just take them and destroy their entire culture the way they did maybe they'd wind up having to vassalize them in some way probably not in that exact manner but still it is an interesting idea to consider what if the protests of American colonists were listened to and they were given a voice in the English parliament now you know this was a big thing of what led to the American revolution you know they were being taxed and they had absolutely no representation and no say over their laws and their foreign policy and so they were just resentful of that and that that's what kicked things off and so if they did have representation even if it wasn't fair representation then this could lead to no revolution or a very different revolution you know like imagine if the American colonies stayed as a British dominion until very recently the way Canada did that would be that that changes a lot of things and frankly I would be very interested in seeing what other people have to say on that subject what if after the American revolution there were some different political systems that we could have used like what if there for example was a monarchy instead like obviously it would probably be a constitutional monarchy but you know that changes things a lot or what if there was just no senate is another good example you know so our congress is just one house in the legislature and it's just the house of representatives like that has a lot of small changes at first and I think over time those would get bigger and bigger what if there was no slavery in the United States or conversely what if slavery was slowly phased out over the first couple decades of the United States being a thing like obviously that would lead to no civil war but how does it affect things beyond that how does it affect like black people's civil rights and their place in society and maybe there'd be a lot fewer of them because less slaves would be imported and maybe a bunch of them would wind up leaving and Liberia would become like an actual American colony I don't know there's a lot of places you could go with this what if Austria-Hungary became a proper federation where everybody was represented and had their own little region with its own autonomy like the country would ironically probably be more unified and more stable going into World War One and then it might not even collapse or if it did it would do it in a different way like there's a lot that could be done here and on a similar note what if the Ottoman Empire federated as well so you know they would have like a region for the Turks which would be you know Anatolia the biggest chunk of the Empire and then you might have like a region for the Greeks a region for the Armenians for the Kurds for the Arabs you know stuff like that and well would that help things or would it make it worse what if instead of Marxist-Leninism the Bolsheviks were anarchists during during the Russian Civil War like that's a neat idea like would they even be able to win the war under these circumstances or if they did win the war like what happens after that I I don't know what if the Soviet Union wins the Winter War you know like because in real life they I mean sure they did win eventually but that's just because they had so many more resources to throw at Finland like Finland was really punching above its weight there because well for a variety of reasons but a big part of it is just that the USSR had purged the officer ranks of its army and so they weren't led very well and a couple other reasons too but let's not get too far into that and basically what if they had been able to go in pretty early and just destroy their army and set up their own friendly governments so basically a communist Finland like how would things work out there like would that really change that much about the Cold War would it change that much about World War two I don't know that's up to people who have researched this better than I have what if Tibet's independence was recognized by other countries now after the Chinese monarchy fell and the country broke apart into a bunch of smaller pieces Tibet did declare independence and they had their own monarchy for a while which I have not been able to make heads or tails of like I've tried doing research on it the most I can figure out is that the Dalai Lama is basically the the king of Tibet and he's like an absolute monarch but his selection is not it's not hereditary it's like through a weird religious ceremony it's it's a little weird and I can't quite wrap my mind around it but like what if Tibet had had its independence recognized and so China was not able to just go in and take it over like okay what happens then China would be smaller obviously but how does this change the geopolitical calculus like what about anti monarchy activities in Tibet like people probably wouldn't like living under that system for very long they might have small rebellions and stuff China might fund some of those like what happened there's a lot of places you could go with this one I'm really interested in seeing what other people have to say on the subject what if the Madagascar plan went through so basically before the Holocaust happened some higher members of the Nazi leadership were just saying what if we took all the Jews and just shipped them to Madagascar let them have their own little country there and okay what if that actually happened well for starters there'd be no Holocaust but like what would the conflict between the Jews and the natives look like what would this Madagascar Israel thing abomination let's call it what would that be like and how would it affect the world stage what if after world war one instead of fascism taking hold monarchism takes hold and by monarchism I mean like absolutist monarchism like okay the king is chosen by god and that's that we just do what he says like what what if that was the most popular thing that came around I don't see it being a whole lot different other than less genocide but you know like what if Kaiser Wilhelm was restored to power in Germany basically it is the biggest one that I'm thinking of right now and how do his decisions change the rest of the world and actually now that I'm thinking about it I'm thinking that if he was restored to power then other countries would probably come in and try to put a stop to it how successful they would be is up to you but they would probably not want him in charge again what if Tsar Nicholas was open to reform and he decided to reform Russia into a constitutional monarchy well first of all they probably have no revolution so they wouldn't just replace one dictatorship with another and from there I don't know a lot of different things could happen maybe they don't industrialize as well as they could have and they get stomped during world war two or maybe they industrialize better earlier on and so they do a lot better during world war one and they stomp Germany and Austria-Hungary there I keep trying not to repeat myself but there really are a lot of different things you could do with this what if the Celts win the battle of Alessia basically this was during the Roman conquest of Gaul when Julius Caesar had managed to take Virx and Yeterix and all the other Celtic rebels and trap them in this town called Alessia and they were under siege and I'm just thinking well what if the Celts won and they destroyed the Roman army they possibly killed Julius Caesar and they managed to maintain their independence more than that they've actually formed into something of a tribal confederation or a state now so they aren't just a bunch of different people warring with one another they're this one unified force right on Rome's doorstep what happens then and the last one what if Fred Hampton lives you know what if he was not assassinated or they attempted to assassinate him and he still survived like what goes on then I I got this idea while watching Judas in the Black Messiah which is a really good movie by the way you should check it out but basically he was a very charismatic dude like what if the Black Panther Party under his leadership was able to become an actual political force what if it had people elected to Congress in a couple of places what if their ideals and the whole thing of Fred Hampton creating a rainbow coalition like what if that causes socialism to take hold in America like I doubt I really really doubt we would have a revolution in the 70s or 80s but you know like the idea is there you can use it and that is all for today those are just a bunch of ideas that I came up with and basically those are just the basic setups that you guys can use and just work off of like please for the love of God somebody do something new with this genre because it's just been spinning its wheels for years now and I really want to read something different uh thanks to all all the names on here those are my patrons and thanks to ten dollar and up oppo Savilane and Olivia Ray and brother Santotis Christopher Quinten, Mbis Joel, Carcat Kitsune, Liza Rudakova, Madison Lewis Bennett, microphone, Paul Williams, Saad Mardigan, Tobacco Crow, Tom Beanie, and Vaivictus you're all you're all really cool all the names on here uh they they they gave me 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