And it was all started by a single act of a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip... who is a complete unknown to 99.99% of the people on earth.
How different would the world be today without that single act?
No WWI, No Soviet Union, No Hitler, No WWII, No Cold War, No Vietnam war, No Communist China...
Oh yeah, don't start me. Princip murdered the one man in all of the world who was capable of, and intended to, address the very issues that caused Princip to shoot him.
There is a school of speculative fiction centered around a time traveler going back to assassinate Hitler, but I think that Princip might be the better target. Before that shot in Sarajevo there was a Romanov dynasty, a Hohenzollern, a Habsburg, a Wittelsbach, and the entirety of the Ottoman empire. Afterward, all ashes.
It’s kind of like the bit where a butterfly stirs the air currents that windup a hurricane.
How different would the world be today without that single act?
Someone or something else would have volunteered for Gavrilo's role in history.
And history would have rolled on ... It would have been different, but not significantly.
Yes, I have thought of that. History often builds on single events and acts. WWI was not necessary...it led to Hitler’s power and WWII.
Russia was ripe for revolution for awhile, and may have happened at some point in some manner. Communism was an inevitable experiment, I believe.
Quite scary to think of what the future may bring. Our strong leadership is needed to tackle Islamic terrorism, North Korea, and other threats to world peace.
So much depends on a single act or decision.