History Forum / General / What If / October 2004

How will you explain it away?

He had returned!
The word spread among the peasants of the Sierra Maestra.  Yes, the famed
youthful rebel leader had returned to Cuba from his Mexican exile.  He had
redeemed his promise to be back by the end of the year.  His little boat had

How big can a stable European medieval empire be?
To be specific, how large could a stable European empire
be in the year 1200 AD assuming reasonable leadership?
The Roman Empire at it's peak went from southern Egypt to northern

Seeing that most countries which used imperial (non S.I) units in
1960s have sucessfully phased out gallons, pounds, and other non
metric units, why is the US still the only place where metrication
hasn't taken placen?

If I was never born someone else was posting this message?

I just got _Medieval: Total War_ and it just occured to me that it
would be perfect for creating some of the battles featured in Empty
America.  Or indeed practically any other battle during the time
period it takes place.  It also occured to me that _Shogun: Total War_

Give a plausible POD for a world in which the US is about as powerful and
populous as in OTL (and at about the same level of technology) but where the
approach of a hotly contested US election does *not* result in an increase of
massively cross-posted political trolls in (an ...

What if the Roman Empire, during the peaceful years of Antoninus and Marcus,
Aurelius (138-180 AD) invented the steam engine?
I read somewhere that some Greek guy new how to make a steam engine but
was "discouraged" by A Roman Emperor and asked ,"not to proceed" with his

WI Senator John Kerry was assassinated today or some time this week.  What
happens to the elections ?

At the establishment of the Fourth Republic, de Gaulle gave the vote
to women based (explicitly) on their role in the Resistance.  This was
a similar justification to that given by David Lloyd George in the
early 1920s, rewarding the women of Britain for their efforts in war

WI in the 1959 Egypt decided to go with the Qattara Depression hydroelectric
project instead of the Aswan High Dam?  The Eisenhour administration
'Project Plowshare' studied the ways and means through the mid 1950's and
the project has been revisited twice since then by the ...

Have you ever heard that hindsight is 20-20? I wonder if its not more like its
20-200?:) Because of my experiences here.
Perhaps the biggie. I say something like suppose you were a British, French, or
American statesman of power or influence at sometime between 1919 and 1939

Do you think if when he was marched into the court room the had Spike Jones and
his orchestra  to play and sing:
Wenn der fuehrer sagt, daß wir de master Rennen wir heil heil Recht der
fueher's im Gesicht nicht zu lieben sind, ist der fuehrer entehren so uns heil

"Now, class, here is a picture of General Christian Gable, now who is
he?"
Silence in the room, and one girl puts her hand up.
"He lead our army to victory in the Ontario War of 1812 to 1816."

A Loose Bandage Pt. 21
June 1913 – October 1913
- President Theodore Roosevelt's jubilant and triumphant arrival in
the capital of the United States quickly becomes a rather sober