How would the world look if...
Let's imagine what the world would look like if certain events in history had ended differently than they did.
I'd like this debate to work like this: Someone posts a comment about an event, suggesting a different outcome and their ideas of how things might be different, then whoever wants to can post their ideas about it. Someone else posts a comment about a different event, and people comment, etc...
This idea was inspired by a Russian history class and The Watchmen(I haven't actually seen the movie; I have a comic book nerd friend who told me the basic storyline. x]).
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I'll start. Keep in mind that I am a Russian history novice(correction: World history novice), so be patient if I'm not being completely accurate. How would the world look if the peasant revolts of the 1660's in Russia had been successful? If they had achieved something close to equality? I say that there wouldn't have been as much distrust between Russia and the west, no cold war. I think the west would probably still have developed as it did with the same ideas of equality, but perhaps it would have done so faster. Thoughts? Side: Peasant revolts in Russia
Hmm, I would say history would've gravitated to more or less the current state of things regardless of how a few historical events turned out. We can see all the countries of the world gravitating toward a similar blend of democracy with regulated capitalism. I believe this is because this system is the one that works best given human nature. So no matter what course history took, people would always have drifted in this direction, because it would always have been the logical thing to do. In other words, I don't know enough about world history to say anything interesting :) Side: Pretty much the same
Interesting point. I don't know enough about world history to know if you're right or not, though. x) But even if you are, I would still say that some things would be significantly different had certain events ended differently. At the very least, different countries would have been primary world powers than those that are in reality. And perspectives on some things would have been different. For instance, if Russia had moved away from autocracy/aristocracy(at the time it wasn't a pure autocracy), there would probably not have been as much paranoia about communism, or at least not about Russia. We might not have landed a man on the moon as quickly, we most likely would not have had the cold war, and we certainly would not have had Boris and Natasha. ;P Side: Pretty much the same
Another thought: It's probably impossible to know about how things might have been different. Seems like even small changes could have had big impacts via the butterfly effect. The world is just too complex; it would be like trying to predict the value of the stock market a hundred years from now. Side: Hard to say
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