Historian Reacts - Top Ten What Ifs of History by TopTenz

Check out the VTH Podcast

#History #alternatehistory

[donniedewitt]

You should make your own top ten what ifs. Your historical perspective would lead to an interesting and in depth discussion

[Awells]

One of my personal favorite what ifs recently: what if Leon Trotsky won the power struggle against Stalin after Lenin died?

[RazgrizArcher]

The "siring an heir" one could apply to literally 99% of the Roman Empire.

[shrekthenoob]

I think there's an important butterfly effect missed when talking about Napoleon. If he doesnt suffer those losses and doesnt finally get taken down, France retains top dog status for the foreseeable future. If France isnt weakened by all of its internal bollocks after Napoleon and up to/through the reign of Napoleon III then Prussia would never have been able to have its rise to power, win the Franco-Prussian War, and formally create the state of Germany. Instead youd still have a smaller Prussian Empire that MAYBE unifies with the Austrians due to the French threat, but thats unlikely due to Germanic nationalism and the whole mess of shit that made up Austria at the time.

tl;dr If Napoleon doesnt lose, Bismarck doesnt get to be Bismarck because France would snuff out any Prussian attempts to expand and grow and we dont get Germany.

[joematthews]

There are so many bigger what if's that could have made the list. Below are just a few in no perticular order.

What if Operation Unthinkable was launched?
What if the Cuban missile crisis turned hot?
What if Jean François de Galaup took Napoleon on his expedition, instead of rejecting his application, leading to Napoleon's death?
What if the Persian Empire successfully conquered the Greek city states?
What if Hannibal sacked Rome? What if the French didn't send their Navy to Yorktown?
What if the Christians lost the Reconquista?
What if the Nationalists won the Chinese Civil War?
What if the Spanish Armada had succeeded?
What if the Franco-British Union actually happened?
What if the Ottomans conquered Vienna?

[DoctorElk]

I think on the 9/11 number they mixed up casualties with deaths. In addition to nearly 3k deaths, there is listed 6000 injured. Which likely is how the 9k number came together in his video.

[PalmelaHanderson]

The biggest "what-if" for me that doesn't get covered as much is the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem in 701 BCE. Obviously, going that far back in time, we're going off of a lot of conjecture, but I don't think it's that much of a stretch to say that the Jewish faith may have died out had that siege succeeded. As far as I know, Jerusalem was, for a time under the Assyrians, the only place where Judaism was practiced openly. Had the Assyrians conquered Jerusalem in 701 BCE, there's potentially no more Judaism by the time the Romans come around, which means no Christianity, no Islam... the world is a different place in ways that we can't even begin to comprehend.

[SparLeonidas]

20:00

Slight correction there, because I think you may have misheard him, Simon actually said "Everywhere BUT Britain falls behind the Iron Curtain."

[RealSamuelGibson]

I love your videos and how you give you options on what would happen. It's fascinating to listen to!

[jamesoconnor]

I think a big one that people often overlook is the battle of Magnesia, if the Romans had lost, this could have resulted in decades even centuries more of conflict between Romans and Greeks.

[masterplokoon]

21:10 I don't think Britain, Prussia, Austria and Russia would have come to terms with France's dominance. Whenever a European power grows too strong in the continent, the others always try to weaken it. When the Habsburgs of Spain and Austria were dominant, France, England, the Ottomans and others were always trying to weaken it. When Sweden was growing too powerfull in Northern Europe, Poland, Russia and Denmark teamed up against it. When it seemed like Russia was geting too powerfull the British and French tried to weaken it in the Crimean war. When the Ottomans dominated the Balkans there were countless wars waged by many nations to curb their power. One recurring theme in European history is that when a country gets too strong everyone else wants to take it down a peg.

[CrisisMonday]

Normally, I don't care for recation videos, but when you add something to the mix, I enjoy watching it.

[totallytubulartommy]

The story about you meeting your wife is incredible. I’m an atheist and that still made me think that maybe there is some higher power making sure everything happens as it should for a reason. Sometimes life does feel too calculated to all be some coincidental string of events. Love your content, & love hearing your backstory! Honestly my favorite channel on YouTube at the moment. Keep it up :D

[Mike-lbhx]

My favourite what if is to do with Kett's rebellion in England. The forces of the Crown were negotiating with the rebels when a youth turned round, pulled his trousers down and waved his backside at the Earl of Warwick (also Duke of Northumberland) who shot the youth and the fighting began
When he later tried to put Lady Jane Grey on the thrown part of the reason he failed was due to the ill will the ferocity in putting down the revolt had engendered. So if the youth hadn't shown his backside would Lady Jane Grey have been Queen for her natural life rather than the Catholic Mary. If so the whole world would be different

[royalewithcheese]

I was expecting a “The Normans lost the battle of Hastings” or “The First Opium War doesn’t happen” or “the Vikings establish permanent trade posts in North America”

[ethanpkaiser]

Your question about if things would be better with Napoleon reminded me about the History vs. series from Ted Ed. Basically it’s a short video where they put a historical character and debate about whether they were a net good or a net bad. It’s pretty good I’d recommend it

[furiousscotsman]

Sir are you a gers fan ??? i have watched your content for well over a year never ever thought i would see you with a rangers top on, imagine my shock when i seen the thumbnail lol . great videos btw keep them coming .

[EmpressMermaid]

I think one of the biggest "what ifs" that I don't hear talked about very often is what if Katherine of Aragon had given Henry VIII a surviving son?
So much of the world we live in would be different today.

[Pyrowithos]

Ahh let’s go deep diving into VTH past videos and I found a reaction to Simon! Huge find I’m excited to see this

[forgottenfamily]

The biggest problem with the Rommel scenario is that it seems to mainly be about a swifter action on the panzers and there's just a far simpler and more certain way to get the panzers into play: Jodl has the balls the wake Hitler.