What if Winston Churchill had been killed in a traffic accident, as he almost was in New York in 1931? Would World War II have turned out significantly differently?
What if Alexander the Great had decided to expand westward instead of eastward in the 300s BCE? Would the early Romans have developed their vigorous republic?
What if the Assyrian army hadn’t caught the plague just before it was about to destroy Jerusalem in 701 BCE? Would the Jews have survived and come to think of themselves as the chosen people?
Here are Brian Micklethwait’s reflections on What if? Military Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, edited by Robert Cowley.
And:
The Mongols and modern European history: What if Ogedai hadn’t died young?
John Stuart Mill on the Battle of Marathon: What if the Persians had won?