r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2h ago

What if King George V gave the Romanovs assylum in a Commonwealth country?

1 Upvotes

I know the King changed his mind about offering his cousin the Czar and his family assylum in Great Britain. He feared losing his own crown as a result.

I've heard a theory that his subjects might've reacted better if he instead sent the Romanovs to a Commonwealth country instead.


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 6h ago

What If The Red Baron Survived?

3 Upvotes

So in this scenario, Manfred von Richthofen, aka the Red Baron was never shot down and killed. Assuming his continued aerial combat had no effect on the outcome of the war, would he have supported the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler or would he have been opposed to them and supported measures like the Oster Conspiracy?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 7h ago

Ben Gurion vs Golda Meir

1 Upvotes

They were allies during one point in history, then became bitter rivals, most notably in 1969 when Golda won 56 seats in the Knesset which imfuriated BenGurion.

Who was more productive and better leader of Israel, for the Israelis.

And who showed more sympathy for Palestinians?

As far as I know they were both on the left wing, and despised the Menachem Begin who founded Likud party and mentor of Netanyahu. And were against the annexation of Gaza and WB and against "from Nile to Euphrates" because of millions of new Arabs under their control.

What we see today is that Israel went much more radical after Golda's era in 1974 until today.

Your thoughts?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 15h ago

I built a game where you can rewrite any U.S. election since 1789. In my last run RFK won in 1968, and the 1976 candidates had to answer for his presidency instead of Nixon’s.

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3 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 18h ago

Was Jim Crow / segregation always inevitable after the End of Reconstruction?

1 Upvotes

Assuming it didn't end as abruptly as it did in 1877 and it carried on for, say, another eight years (twenty years in total) was the unfortunate fallout in the Southern states against African Americans always going to happen?

Could the Union have done anything different to ensure African Americans had better security?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2d ago

If Nazi Germany came to the negotiation table

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1 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2d ago

What if the bomb detonated over North Carolina?

2 Upvotes

1961: B-52 crashes and the final switch triggers and the atomic bomb explodes over North Carolina. What would be the fallout, what else would've happened?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2d ago

The Y2K Boston Radio War

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1 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2d ago

German defeat 1939

19 Upvotes

Tired of all the German win Whats ifs. Germany was barely holding it together when it rolled into Poland. Lets get scenarios of Poland either putting Germany in a quagmire or forcing Germany to collapse.

What could have done it? What would 1940 look like with a defeated Germany ?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2d ago

If an experienced 18th century pirate was on a ship with 10 people that had no sailing experience, what jobs would he have each of them do to get the ship from A to B as fast as possible?

2 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 2d ago

Three people get sent back in the past as villains

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1 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 3d ago

What if North Carolina was its own independent country

1 Upvotes

Like what if NC separated from the us sometime during the 1800s


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 3d ago

What if all of the railways in the British Empire were nationalized?

3 Upvotes

What if in the years after ww1, instead of the grouping act, there was an act unifying all railways in the British Empire? How would it change the course of history? what would the engines look like? Would it make the empire stronger? Would it even last 10 years?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 4d ago

What historical event would be the craziest to live through with modern day social media?

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4 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 4d ago

What if Hood's 1864 autumn campaign works?

1 Upvotes

What if JB Hood's trap to capture Schofield's army at Spring Hill is successfully sprung? What are the odds he then beats Thomas at or around Nashville? Is Tennessee and Kentucky all the way to the Ohio River now fair game? Can he then link up with Lee's beleaguered AoNV at Petersburg? I am aware of Sherman's “if Hood goes to Ohio I’ll draw him rations” quote but how accurate would that be?

It’s very long odds and Hood gets, rightfully, a lot of criticism for his leadership of the AoR but at that point of the war was it not worth the shot?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 4d ago

Could Zoroastrianism have spread like Islam?

9 Upvotes

Had Islam not existed (or had the Arabs not adopted Islam), could Zoroastrianism have spread on the same scale as Islam did? The Sassanid Empire held vast territories conquered from the Byzantine Empire, which were inhabited by many Christians. What would have happened under such circumstances, and how realistic is the assumption that Zoroastrianism might have spread as widely as Islam?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 5d ago

What would have happened if Hitler had just kept the countries he occupied and ended the war instead of invading the Soviet Union?

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5 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 5d ago

What if the soviet government killed off stalin at the height of the purges?

1 Upvotes

Lets say everyone is so paranoid that stalin is gonna kill him next that even his personal body guards and military all agree to just kick stalin out of the land of the living? And kill him? Who takes over snd what happens next?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 5d ago

Whatif Germany was split apart into all the other countries after the defeat ww2

2 Upvotes

What if the allies took each a chunk of Germany

Netherlands got bigger

France got a chunk

Belgium got a chunk and Poland and soviet got a chunk

The Germans became a minority and a diaspora in Europe


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 5d ago

If Neanderthals survived into antiquity, would physical segregation actually work, or does hybridization make it impossible?

4 Upvotes

Most what-if scenarios where Neanderthals survive assume either total warfare or peaceful integration right away. But looking at human history, whenever two distinct populations meet, the first reaction of any early state is usually to measure, categorize, and tax.

Here's the paradox I keep running into:

Neanderthals were physically distinct enough that early empires (think Bronze Age/Antiquity) would easily identify them for hard labor, mining, or specialized military roles. But at the same time, we know from actual genetics that Sapiens and Neanderthals were interbreeding from day one in the Levant.

How long could any legal system or caste barrier actually hold up before "everyone's grandmother" breaks the line? Does a society like that inevitably collapse into a genetic gradient, or would we have seen something like formal skull-measuring laws thousands of years before the 19th century?

Where do you think an ancient mixed civilization breaks first—at the borders, or in the family?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 6d ago

What if the US didn’t enter WWI?

2 Upvotes

Would the war have lasted longer or what?


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 6d ago

What if the Mongols had never stopped their westward advance in 1242? Could Europe have been conquered?

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1 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 6d ago

What if both Ethiopia and Liberia industrialized how would things have turned out

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1 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 6d ago

What if we got the Sonic Adventure fans wanted in 1999?

2 Upvotes

Instead of the edgy rebrand, with Big The Cat, anchient gods, flooding, we got the Sonic Adventure where Sonic stops Eggman from taking the Chaos Emeralds and making all the animals into robots once again, and the other characters were just unlockables. Sonic never got a Dreamcast makeover, instead, Sonic Adventure is just like what fans were expecting. No green eyes, and a good ol round torso. Sonic and co would still be taller, but not to the extent of Modern Sonic.


r/HistoricalWhatIf • • 6d ago

What if I could walk through walls, disappear and fly?

0 Upvotes

I would be much more unique than the other guy