If...

[Don't Panic]

Missed the year in the original idea, 34-35, too late to kill hitler, 1917 is the time too take that shot, just another dead soldier in the fields of France.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Missed the year in the original idea, 34-35, too late to kill hitler, 1917 is the time too take that shot, just another dead soldier in the fields of France.

Too many other clowns waiting in the wings. The years after the war saw a lot of paramilitary groups spring up, far left right through to far right.

[Red Celt]

Rather than a potential target for a bullet purely in order to make the world a better place, I'd be fascinated to see how the world would have ended up if Julius Caesar hadn't crossed the Rubicon.

As an explanation, Caesar's return from gaul with his army (and crossing the river Rubicon with them) started the conflict that saw the end of the Roman Republic, replaced with the Roman Empire. The chain of events that was caused by that one action had a major impact on the flow of history that we're still living with.

No Emperor Constantine, so Christianity remains a fringe Middle Eastern religion? No Islam?

It would be an interesting alternative universe.

So, yeah... Julius Caesar... back-and-to-the-left, back-and-to-the-left, back-and-to-the-left...

[Don't Panic]

Missed the year in the original idea, 34-35, too late to kill hitler, 1917 is the time too take that shot, just another dead soldier in the fields of France.

Too many other clowns waiting in the wings. The years after the war saw a lot of paramilitary groups spring up, far left right through to far right.

Maybe, but by 34/5 war was already on the cards. Go back a few more years and a bigger change may have been possible.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Missed the year in the original idea, 34-35, too late to kill hitler, 1917 is the time too take that shot, just another dead soldier in the fields of France.

Too many other clowns waiting in the wings. The years after the war saw a lot of paramilitary groups spring up, far left right through to far right.

Maybe, but by 34/5 war was already on the cards. Go back a few more years and a bigger change may have been possible.

War wasn't inevitable if Hitler isn't there. A democratic government that renounced aggression and focused on restoring the industrial base of the country would be interested in peace, not war.

[Don't Panic]

Missed the year in the original idea, 34-35, too late to kill hitler, 1917 is the time too take that shot, just another dead soldier in the fields of France.

Too many other clowns waiting in the wings. The years after the war saw a lot of paramilitary groups spring up, far left right through to far right.

Maybe, but by 34/5 war was already on the cards. Go back a few more years and a bigger change may have been possible.

War wasn't inevitable if Hitler isn't there. A democratic government that renounced aggression and focused on restoring the industrial base of the country would be interested in peace, not war.

I didn't say inevitable, just on the cards, but where would that democratic government have come from? The nazis would still have been in power

[Cormac]

Rather than a potential target for a bullet purely in order to make the world a better place, I'd be fascinated to see how the world would have ended up if Julius Caesar hadn't crossed the Rubicon.

As an explanation, Caesar's return from gaul with his army (and crossing the river Rubicon with them) started the conflict that saw the end of the Roman Republic, replaced with the Roman Empire. The chain of events that was caused by that one action had a major impact on the flow of history that we're still living with.

No Emperor Constantine, so Christianity remains a fringe Middle Eastern religion? No Islam?

It would be an interesting alternative universe.

So, yeah... Julius Caesar... back-and-to-the-left, back-and-to-the-left, back-and-to-the-left...

I think the Roman Republic was already doomed. The "Res" of the "Public" was already the controlled plaything of a small super-rich elite who used their money and their prestige to contro access to public office, and to play the popular emotion for their own political ends.

If Julius Caesar had balked at the Rubicon, his rivals would have ultimately assassinated him anyway, and someone else would have adopted the purple.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I didn't say inevitable, just on the cards, but where would that democratic government have come from? The nazis would still have been in power

I didn't guarantee one, just said what I thought would happen if one managed to pull the country together after Rohm is overthrown.

[Warren Dew]

In the first of Lyndsey Anderson's Mick Travis trilogy, Travis has a great line. "One man can change the world with a bullet in the right place. "

Where would you place that bullet, If you were given the chance?

I'd probably just use it for target practice. Killing people doesn't really solve things, especially if you're talking about individuals. There are always other individuals ready to take up the the relevant roles in historical currents of time.

[JimC]

Arminius prior to Teutoberg Forest battle.

No Hitler
No Christian empire....

many many other knock on

http://gvsu.academia.edu/MarkSchwartz/P ... ember_8-11

This is a very good read btw

What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (Putnam, 1999).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_If%3F_(essays)

The various novels of Harry Turtledove make for interesting "What if..." history...

[Svartalf]

Arminius prior to Teutoberg Forest battle.

No Hitler
No Christian empire....

many many other knock on

http://gvsu.academia.edu/MarkSchwartz/P ... ember_8-11

This is a very good read btw

What If?: The World's Foremost Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been (Putnam, 1999).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_If%3F_(essays)

I don't get you... how does preventing the Varrus disaster (assuming you kill Arminius before he can start his German revolt) prevent the extension of chretinity?

[Svartalf]

Rather than a potential target for a bullet purely in order to make the world a better place, I'd be fascinated to see how the world would have ended up if Julius Caesar hadn't crossed the Rubicon.

As an explanation, Caesar's return from gaul with his army (and crossing the river Rubicon with them) started the conflict that saw the end of the Roman Republic, replaced with the Roman Empire. The chain of events that was caused by that one action had a major impact on the flow of history that we're still living with.

No Emperor Constantine, so Christianity remains a fringe Middle Eastern religion? No Islam?

It would be an interesting alternative universe.

So, yeah... Julius Caesar... back-and-to-the-left, back-and-to-the-left, back-and-to-the-left...

I think the Roman Republic was already doomed. The "Res" of the "Public" was already the controlled plaything of a small super-rich elite who used their money and their prestige to contro access to public office, and to play the popular emotion for their own political ends.

If Julius Caesar had balked at the Rubicon, his rivals would have ultimately assassinated him anyway, and someone else would have adopted the purple.

Yep, but with C Julius Caesar eliminated before he could be the major leader he became, there's no inheritance of his to dispute, and no opportunity for Octavian to become Augustus. Probably not even conquest of Palestine, which remains in the Herods' hands and chretinity possibly never really arises.

[Don't Panic]

I didn't say inevitable, just on the cards, but where would that democratic government have come from? The nazis would still have been in power

I didn't guarantee one, just said what I thought would happen if one managed to pull the country together after Rohm is overthrown.

Probable if democracy broke out, but not likely, without hitlers insane policies the national socialists may have found allies in Britain and elsewhere, don't think I'd want to play out that future, better to remove hitler before the writing of Mein kampf, if at all. However I would not be surprised if the removal of any one of the 20th century western dictators created a conquered Europe.

The democracies of Europe were tempered in the fires of war for the best part of 100 years, and I fear we are the stronger for it.

[laklak]

I'd do Georges Clemenceau in 1918. Britain and the U.S. wanted a more lenient treaty with Germany, but France refused. With a more lenient Treaty of Versailles perhaps the political situation in Wiemar wouldn't have led to the rise of National Socialism.

Besides, he was French. Reason enough, eh?

[Svartalf]

Don't make me do a number on the Norman Bastard or the Plantagenet founder, those are the cause of too much trouble, both immediate and root.