Historical “What Ifs” That Might Change How You See the World (2 of 5)

What if the Berlin Wall never fell?

The Wall’s 1989 collapse wasn’t just a dramatic TV moment; it symbolized the broader unraveling of Soviet-style communism. Gorbachev’s “perestroika” and “glasnost” helped soften the relations, and revolutions were already rolling through places like Poland and Hungary. If that famous border mix-up hadn’t happened, the Wall might’ve lasted a few more years. And with that, the USSR might’ve held together for a bit longer, or maybe it would have split faster. No empire ever lasts forever, but some historians think that the Soviet Union made the world more stable.

What if William the Conqueror whiffed in 1066?

William’s win at Hastings reshaped England: castles everywhere, Norman officials in charge, a new paper trail (hello, Domesday Book), and French mixing into English until the language became the glorious, illogical soup we know and love today. If Harold had survived and the Anglo-Saxons had kept power, England likely would’ve stayed more Germanic in speech and custom. Political fractures were already there, Viking pressure was real, and without Norman castle-building and legal reforms and the mortifying bureaucracy, England would’ve stayed more old-school. English might sound closer to Dutch or German, and a lot of later “English” institutions would feel very different.