The What Ifs of History

One of the pleasures of studying history is to consider the What Ifs.

Such as, what if ...

• Nixon had burned the White House tapes?
• France had heavily fortified the Ardennes Region in 1940?
• Barry Goldwater had won the presidency in 1964?
• Benito Mussolini had decided to form an alliance with Spain and Portugal rather than with Germany and Japan?
• Napoleon had won the Battle of Waterloo?
• Spain, not Britain, had settled North America?
• George Washington had become a king?
• Peter Best had stayed with The Beatles?
• The majority of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had insisted upon the abolition of slavery?
• Charles Dickens had never published a novel?
• William Shakespeare had never written a play?
• The Confederacy had seized the White House after the Battle of Bull Run?
• George Orwell had been killed in Spain?
• A cure for polio had been delayed for forty years?
• Africa had never been colonized?
• Baseball had never been invented?