Historical “What Ifs” That Might Change How You See the World (4 of 5)

What if the Confederacy won the American Civil War?

Plenty of fiction has tried to reimagine this one. A Confederate victory likely means a permanently split North America with a slave-holding, agrarian South struggling to industrialize, and a smaller United States up north. The South’s economy would still revolve around cash crops, creating pressure to expand its labor system and possibly look farther south for resources and people. Globally, a divided America would wield far less power. That ripples into the world wars (if they happen the same way) and almost certainly reshapes the Cold War. The 20th century’s balance of power would look nothing like the one we know.

What if Franz Ferdinand survived Sarajevo?

The 1914 assassination is the cliché “spark” for World War I, but the gunmen almost blew it multiple times. If the archduke hadn’t been shot right then and there, things would have been different. He was pro-peace and didn’t want to go to war with Russia, which could potentially doom the whole of Europe. Without World War I, the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Ottoman empires would not have collapsed as fast as they did, and the hatred that helped fuel World War II would have been greatly reduced. Nationalism would still simmer, but the 20th century could’ve been far less apocalyptic.