History Forum / General / What If / November 2005

Greetings and salutations.
Besides the inevitable rash of blimps, how else might have technology
developed differently in the 20th century?
Could TV have been developed a decade or two earlier?

This may take a slight altering of the laws of physics. Suppose someone
invents a way to turn base metal into gold in 1905 and it gets public
before the powers that be can supress it?
Nowadays gold can be manufactured as cheaply and plentifully as any

is there a ww2 with russia as the enemy?
or is there a peaceful utopia for ever and ever?
--
Never sh.t a sh.tter.

In Great Brytiatins by-elections of 1992 to 1997 the Monster Raving
Loony Party received more than _twice_ the votes of the Communist Party
of Great Britain, the National Front, and the British National Party
combined!  Hip-hip hurray for our cousins across the pond.

   Pat Morita, best known for playing Al on Happy Days and Mr. Miyagi
in the Karate Kid, died this past Thanksgiving.
    An editorial in today's New York Times remarked on his struggle to
find work in Hollywood that had little use for Asian-Americans,

I wasn't going to post this so soon, but why not? So here goes...
"I did not come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into
politics to change the country."
(Taken from "My Life" by Oswald Mosley, Longman 1961)

One should not confuse Auric Goldfinger with Erno Goldfinger.  One was an
arrogant monster, a brutalist east European born champion of Communism who
did considerable harm and would have done more if he had his way.  The
other was just a fictional character.

Much of the dysfunctionality of Austro-Hungarian policy in its last
fifty years has been blamed on the stubborn influence of the Hungarian
half of the empire in opposing progressive measures in the national
rights and socioeconomic arenas. Once Hungary got its status in the

It is the spring of 1776. Sir William Howe's British army is besieged
in Boston by the ragtag continental army under Washington. The British
army is comfortably supplied by sea, until in two nights continental
fortifications are built and artillery placed on Dorchester heighs,

I just played my first game of Diplomacy yesterday and noticed that
while the game starts in 1901, the borders are from 1914.  This makes
good sense game-mechanics wise as it sets up more opportunity in the
Balkans for nibbling at minor (non-player) powers before one has to take

This one skirts the boundaries of the BoP.  I think it should be okay
if we stay focused, though.
PoD: Albania, 1997.
OTL this was the year that Albania -- under the erratic and not

Just wondering about For Want of a Nail...
1. Why did China basically fall apart in a manner similar to OTL's?
China just broke apart in civil war related to the Global War.  Was the
country better modernized than in OTL at all?  Also, since the Romanovs

       The powerful 19th century German industrialist, Alfred Krupp,
had a relatively unique solution to his labor relations issues, the
General Regulations. Issued on September 9, 1872, the General
Regulations was a combination between an elaborate contract and a

WI The U.S. and Turkey had an agreement prior to the Gulf War that they
would eliminate Saddam Hussein through military action? The Turks
massed 100,000 men on their border with Iraq in OTL, drawing a
defensive force out of Saddam's armed forces. An advance across the

Of course, any actual change in geography butterflies
all of recorded history...
But just for fun, some ideas for changes in geography
that would have interesting consequences in history-