Great debates can be made with alternate histories about most cases. Would love to hear some examples.
Waterloo.
Napoleon’s tactical errors leading to a ton of his skilled and valuable horse soldiers self inflicting and defeating themselves basically made it easy for wellington to triumph though he did enough to earn the w. That is just from memory 20 years ago when I read from Les Miserables, there is like a 100 page section–maybe 150 just on the battle of Waterloo which isn’t that critically tied for the plot. Victor fucking Hugo, ladies and gentlemen.
Napoleon’s defeat led to alliances across Europe for protection, which led to WW1, which guaranteed WW2 due to unsustainable concessions for Germans leading to Hitler’s rise, which led to USA being gifted a churning economy almost undamaged and populace relatively unscarred by war compared to devastated Europe. Baby boom, relatively equal wealth distribution and a GI bill built the US might that is now imploding under it’s own fetid weight of corruption and ignorance, as many empires fall to, but it’s all pretty linear imo from Napoleon.
Alexander the Great’s battle against alcoholism.
Spoiler. He lost.
Well history clearly would’ve gone a lot differently had the rebels lost the battle of Yavin.
The battle of Stalingrad is the biggest in modern history. Both sides suffered massive casualties but the Germans never recovered from their losses for the remainder of the war.
Hitler’s order to halt the drive towards the Caucasus oil fields and capture the city was arguably his biggest error of all. It sealed Nazi Germany’s fate.
Even if Germany succeeded at Stalingrad and captured the Caucasus, there was no way Germany would have been able to maintain it. The entire campaign was doomed for failure.
The oil fields were sabotaged well in advance and weren’t able to produce notable amount for a good 6-9mo after. Allies had plans to bomb the crap out of them as well. Russia moved the majority of their industry further inland prior to the German’s arrival.
Put simply: Germany didn’t have the population or production capacity to win. It just wasn’t feasible. Could they have won “politically”? I suppose, but that’s like asking if Allied leadership would have sued for peace, which based on the personalities is pretty damn unlikely.
Hastings, not even close.
England’s history as we know it was shaped by that battle. It begat the true codification of England as not just a nation, but a Christian monarchy, unified, able to expand, which they hella did.
English is the world’s dominant language thanks to that battle, along with many of well, the post-Roman foundations that most of Western civilization would later be built on.
Relavent Alt History Hub: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wuN6kwgfC_Q
The Michael Offensive at the end of WW-I.
After 4 years everyone was out of gas. Germany had early success during this campaign, but there were fresh American troops, and the Entente had figured out their munition manufacturing supply pipelines.
Once it turned, it went really bad for the Germans. It led to a total collapse and the one-sided Versaille Treaty.
The grievances gave rise to Hitler, and everything that came after that, which affects the world to this day.
Theodora convincing her husband not to flee the Nika Riots of 532 AD. She successfully rewrote Christianity and global history forever (for better or for worse.)
I don’t know the specific battle per se, but the conquering of the Iberian peninsula and founding of Al-Andaluz and the resulting age of enlightened that pulled Europe from the Dark Ages. Ie. When Islam saved Europe from herself.
Also, Fredrick II “failed crusade” and his friendship and mutual love of falconry with Al-Kamil. Not a battle but just a specific historical nerd who loved falcons and diplomacy who probably saved countless lives in his time because “birds”.
These are my Eurocentric answers, not specific battles per se but definitely pivots in history imo that rewrote Europe and its ability to be a future global player.
Theodora convincing her husband not to flee the Nika Riots of 532 AD. She successfully rewrote Christianity and global history forever (for better or for worse.)
Deep, historical cut. 👍🏼
WWII
I think if Pearl Harbor had not happened, the United States wouldn’t have had a reason to jump into WW2 and not become a superpower. Hitler and the Axis were already being figured out and being dealt losses already by the time the US finally joined, so it was a matter of time before he was dealt with, it was only accelerated once the US joined.
Weren’t the Germans pretty close to releasing a devastating new tank before the war ended, though?
I doubt it was real history, but in the Chung Kuo saga by David Wingrove, back in the late Roman times there was a massive Chinese army that came very close, right up to the borders basically. And then turned back, went home. Think how history could be different if China had decimated and subjugated Rome way back then?
This series is about how China still didn’t do that, but in the near future they take over the planet. They build over everything, destroy all other language and culture and history. Then they teach the children that long ago the Chinese conquered the Romans, and it’s been this way ever since!
The battle of Matter vs Antimatter
Assuming our model is right anyway
Yanni.
