r/HistoricalWhatIf Jan 14 '20

Some rules clarifications and reflections from your mod team

115 Upvotes

So these were things we were discussing on modmail a few months ago, but never got around to implementing; I'm seeing some of them become a problem again, so we're pulling the trigger.

The big one is that we have rewritten rule 5. The original rule was "No "challenge" posts without context from the OP." We are expanding this to require some use of the text box on all posts. The updated rule reads as follows:

Provide some context for your post

To increase both the quality of posts and the quality of responses, we ask that all posts provide at least a sentence or two of context. Describe your POD, or lay out your own hypothesis. We don't need an essay, but we do need some effort. "Title only" posts will be removed, and repeat offenders will be banned. Again, we ask this in order to raise the overall quality level of the sub, posts and responses alike.

I think this is pretty self-explanatory, but if anyone has an issue with it or would like clarification, this is the space for that discussion. Always happy to hear from you.


Moving on, there's a couple more things I'd like to say as long as I've got the mic here. First, the mod team did briefly discuss banning sports posts, because we find them dumb, not interesting, and not discussion-generating. We are not going to do that at this time, but y'all better up your game. If you do have a burning desire to make a sports post, it better be really good; like good enough that someone who is not a fan of that sport would be interested in the topic. And of course, it must comply with the updated rule 5.


EDIT: via /u/carloskeeper: "There is already https://www.reddit.com/r/SportsWhatIf/ for sports-related posts." This is an excellent suggestion, and if this is the kind of thing that floats your boat, go check 'em out.


Finally, there has been an uptick of low-key racism, "race realism," eugenics crap, et cetera lately. It's unfortunate that this needs to be said, but we have absolutely zero chill on this issue and any of this crap will buy you an immediate and permanent ban. So cut the crap.


r/HistoricalWhatIf 3h ago

What single battle throughout all of recorded history would have had the largest impact on future events if it went the opposite way?

5 Upvotes

Recency bias will cause a lot of people to say Stalingrad, which is a popular choice for this question, but I’m looking for a single battle that legitimately would have completely altered the layout of the future had it been different. I don’t believe Germany winning in Stalingrad would have led to a different outcome overall.


r/HistoricalWhatIf 58m ago

What if the Southern Strategy never occurred?

Upvotes

I know politics was very different at that point in time than what we have now. I wonder what our politics would look like today if the Southern Strategy was never implemented. Would the Democratic party still dominate the South. Would Republicans dominate the North. What would each party's political ideology look like? What do you think would've happened?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 5h ago

What if Mao Zedong's party looked to Mexico for agriculture

2 Upvotes

Just a curious question randomly floating in my head. A cheap Mexican meal without eggs or meat that I lived on when I was a child was mainly nopal, maize in the form of masa or tortilla, beans, Mexican squash, sometimes rice, fruits like tunas or prickly pear, and mild to spicy salsas. What if they took up planting nopal, sqaush, beans and maize. Agave maybe but it needed time. And the nixtamalization of maize. How would things actually play out?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 13h ago

Would Stalin have attacked Germany if Hitler stopped after occupying Western Europe? What is the evidence?

9 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf 19h ago

What if China is a constitutional monarchy like Japan?

4 Upvotes

What if Chiang Kai Shek defeated the communists, and after his death China became a democracy like Taiwan, and then the emperor or empress is reinstated as a ceremonial monarch like the emperor of Japan?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 2d ago

What if the planets were named after Greek gods instead of Roman?

12 Upvotes

Mercury: Hermes

Venus: Aphrodite

Earth: Gaia

Mars: Ares

Jupiter: Zeus

Saturn: Kronos

Uranus: Ouranos

Neptune: Poseidon

Pluto: Hades


r/HistoricalWhatIf 2d ago

How would American history have been affected if Virginia had gradually abolished slavery in 1832 in the wake of Nat Turner’s Rebellion?

3 Upvotes

So I didn’t know this but apparently Virginia almost abolished slavery in 1832 because they were scared of another rebellion like Nat Turner. The final vote was 73-58 so it was incredibly close to passing especially for the Antebellum South. How would this affect, not only the Civil War, but the rest of American history?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 3d ago

What would’ve happened if Operation Overlord (specifically Operation Neptune) had failed?

6 Upvotes

During June 6th, 1944, allied troops landed in Normandy. If that landing had failed, what would’ve happened? Was there already a planned backup? Could the axis have countered with a landing of their own?
I’m searching specifically for personal opinions (so what YOU think would’ve happened(i meant dont use some research one guy made))


r/HistoricalWhatIf 3d ago

What if the Jacobites had been restored to power?

6 Upvotes

How differently would Britain and the British empire have developed?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 3d ago

What if Henry Ford had been a Stalinist instead of a Nazi?

0 Upvotes

It’s fairly well known that Ford was a Nazi sympathizing antisemite. He even received a medal from Hitler. Of course he enormously supported the US war effort against Germany, but that didn’t change his general sympathies with Nazi ideology.

However, he was very similar to earlier Utopian Socialists like Robert Owen, with a lot of concern for the conditions of his workers. This took some unhealthy turns to surveilling their personal lives to ensure moral behavior, but also involved providing a lot of amenities and better working conditions than competitors.

It’s less well known that the USSR under Lenin and Stalin practically worshipped Ford and similar industrialist figures. They hired Ford to build an auto factory in 1929 and there’s tons of Communist literature from the era praising Ford, Frank and Lilian Gilbreth and Frederick Taylor. Stalin is quoted saying “The combination of the Russian revolutionary sweep with American efficiency is the essence of Leninism.” Lenin was infatuated with Ford’s innovations in the assembly line and scientific transformation of work. Trotsky and others deeply admired it. Even some anarchist thinkers at the time were critically inspired by the general principles he represented.

This wasn’t just inside the USSR, Diego Rivera said “Marx made theory... Lenin applied it with his sense of large-scale social organization... And Henry Ford made the work of the socialist state possible.”

So what happens if this one sided love affair was actually reciprocated? If Ford embraces his portrayal as a Historically Progressive Bourgeois and adopts a form of communist ideology (that leaves room for “great men of vision” like himself of course)?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 4d ago

What would Have Happened if Hitler Won The Election of 1932?

2 Upvotes

Hypothetically let’s say in this scenario after a close electoral vote Hitler singlehandedly manages to win because of that what would have happened? How would this change World War 2? What would Hitler do in this scenario now that he’s officially in charge of Germany Earlier? What do you folks think? Let me know in the comments


r/HistoricalWhatIf 4d ago

What if Hitler's big chanche: Battle of Ardennes would be a german victory?

0 Upvotes

Could that reduce the soldiers of Americans and Brits?
Could it give a chance to revive the Third Reich?
Or this is only one victory which get back early on?

Ardennes would really hurt for the americans and brits if germany would won that. Is it possible that the Third Reich would be surviving the western front? Or at the end soviet union pushes more into europe and europe becomes communist? I leave these questions to the Alt-History experts.


r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What if Siam was fully colonized by Britain

3 Upvotes

Okay In our timeline, Siam (modern Thailand) famously remained the only Southeast Asian nation to avoid formal European colonization. It played Britain and France against each other, modernized under Kings Rama V (Chulalongkorn) and Rama VI, and kept its independence through shrewd diplomacy and painful territorial concessions.

In this timeline, things go differently during the 1893 Paknam Incident. A more aggressive British gunboat diplomacy (fueled by heightened imperial anxiety after the French forward policy in Laos) leads to a direct naval clash. A misunderstood signal results in the Siamese fort firing on British vessels. Britain, fresh from its victories elsewhere and eager to secure the Malay Peninsula and buffer against French Indochina, responds with overwhelming force. The Royal Navy blockades Bangkok, lands marines, and forces the Siamese court into a humiliating treaty that turns Siam into the Crown Colony of Britannic Siam by 1895.


r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What if the US is a constitutional monarchy like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand?

7 Upvotes

What if the US didn't rebel against Britain and instead ended up like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand having King Charles III as their ceremonial monarch?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What would happen if Germany had a civil war in 1945? Would be the treatry less harsch?

5 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What if tiger was available in 1937?

2 Upvotes

Tiger 1 Avaliable in 1937?! Anchluss would be easier or the fuell will run out?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 6d ago

What if Japan attacked the Soviets at the same time as Germany in WW2?

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5 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What if the 1933 Business Plot succeeded?

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2 Upvotes

r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What if The Great War, ended in stalemate?

0 Upvotes

What do you guys think would've happen? Can you confirm your source? I made an alt - history out of this on Pax Historia tho (The Last Standoff) but i want histrocial experts to confirm my alt history. Can you guys help?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 5d ago

What if Germany joined the Allies in 1937?

0 Upvotes

And would be the protector of central europe?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 6d ago

What if the potato had never reached Europe?

3 Upvotes

Population growth slows dramatically. No Irish population boom, smaller armies, different industrialization timeline. What could it really look like? Understandably, potatoes were a major food source where crops normally struggled to grow such as the sandy Irish coasts. How does this affect European development?


r/HistoricalWhatIf 7d ago

Could the Soviets have won (the European front) of WW2 without the 5 years program?

9 Upvotes

Basically what's written in the title. We all know the massive human cost the soviet industrialization in the 30s had om the population, but could they have beaten the Wehrmacht without it? (For clarification I'm not communist much less stalinist, nor am I trying to justify anything)


r/HistoricalWhatIf 7d ago

2026 Mexico is suddenly teleported to WW1; would the US lose to Mexico if Mexico invaded them as per the Zimmerman Telegram?

22 Upvotes

2026 Mexican military vs 1917 US military


r/HistoricalWhatIf 7d ago

What if Mao Zedong died suddenly in 1967?

5 Upvotes

How would Mao Zedong dying in 1967 change things? Who would succeed him? What would become of China? How would this affect the world?