history two
History, two
In general history is limited to human events that have taken place since the development of writing about 5,500 years ago. Events taking place before that is know as prehistory.
Historians study records of past events and prepare new records based on their research. These records, as well as the events themselves, are also commonly called history.
Hypothetical Questions
1. If you could go back in time and change history, what would you do? If I could change history, I would….
2. What will happen in the future?
3. What were the consequences of the following events? What would have happened if they hadn’t happened or happened differently?
4. The ancient Greeks defeated the Persians at the Battles of Marathon and Salamis. How would things have turned out differently if the Greeks had lost the Battle of Marathon or the Battle of Salamis?
5. King Philip of Macedon was assassinated, and his son, Alexander succeeded him.
6. Before a battle with Maxentius, his major rival in the west, Constantine had a dream of fighting under the sign of a cross. He did . . . and won.
7. Leif Eriksson’s attempt to settle in North America in the early 1000s failed. What would have happened if they had succeeded? What would have happened if one of Leif Eriksson’s crew members had smallpox?
8. In 1214, King Philip defeated King John at the Battle of Bouvines.
10. On two occasions, one before an invasion of Western Europe, the other before the invasion of Egypt and Arabia, the Mongol Khan died.
11. What would have happened if early medieval Portuguese or Basque fishermen had revealed the source of their rich cod catch?
12. The new Ming Emperor in 1433 was xenophobic and reactionary and decided not to continue to sponsor Zheng He and the Chinese merchant fleet?
13. In the 1630’s the shogun Tokugawa leyasu issued the seclusion edicts. It expelled almost all foreigners; only a few Dutch and Chinese traders were allowed to conduct business in Japan for the next 235 years.
14. King Jaruslaw of Poland decided to send a 10,000 cavalrymen to Vienna in 1689, in time to defend the city against an Ottoman siege.
15. Duke Ferdinad’s car took a detour in Sarajevo, Bosnia in 1914 — right towards Gabril Princep.
16. During World War I, German agents place Vladimir Ilich Lenin in a sealed, armored train bound for Petrograd. What happened later? What would have happened if they hadn’t?
17. Adolf had been rejected by the Vienna Academy of Art. What would have happened he he been accepted?
18. On 10 August 1940, a squadron of Luftwaffe Mescheschmidt dropped a payload of bombs on a residential section of London, causing numerous civilian casualties.
19. How would things have turned out had US President Harry S. Truman not dismissed (relieved) General Douglas MacArthur of his command of United Nations forces in Korea?
20. What would have happened if Oleg Penkovsky admired Nikita Khrushchev (and not passed on Soviet nuclear secrets to the CIA)? What would have happened if John F. Kennedy and his cabinet was not careful in their thinking and behavior?
21. A six-year-old Cuban refugee was denied asylum in the United States and custody with his U.S. relatives in Miami. After a highly publicized S.W.A.T. raid ordered by Secretary of the Interior Janet Reno, he was returned to Cuba with his father in June 2000—not long before the 2000 U.S. presidential elections. In other words what if Al Gore, and not George W. Bush, had won the election?
