Actually, I have wondered this for sometime. And I am apparently not alone. This girl in my grade school (when I was a kid, of course), wondered the same thing. She also wondered, what if we lost World War II (where is she, and why doesn't she post in Mind Games?). What if we lost the American Revolution? Of course, by "we", I mean Americans. No offense to any British or Canadian posters, who may be on these boards. I know I read in a couple of places, the American Revolution was a catalyst of sorts. The French even waited to see how it went, before they attempted their own. But of course, these boards are unique. I've noticed, many of the people here are critical of American foreign policy, and whatnot. Not everyone believes the USA is necessarily a force for good in this world. So you have to take the good with the bad, I suppose. But would we even be in the same world, if we lost? In short, just how important was this critical event (i.e., us winning the War)? :crowngrin:
If we had lost the American Revolution things today would be completely different. The founding fathers who wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence would have all been rounded up, tried & convicted, then hung for treason. The Constitution would have never been ratified. On a positive note: Slavery would have been abolished 50-60 years earlier, The Civil War would have never been fought, and the war to Seize (Snatch & Grab) land from the Indians would have never happened. ..........................And we all lived happily ever after under British rule and a daily diet of Fish n Chips, Sausage Rolls, and Yorkshire Pudding Hotwater
we've lost lots of revolutions. won a few occasionally too. you lose revolutions every time something that is spinning slows down. america isn't sliced bread on toast. its ok, but the existence of places that are worse doesn't excuse anything, and it certainly doesn't excuse ideological prejudice making things worse and preventing making them better. what if britain hadn't won the french and indian war? i like that one better. even if my own ancestor was one of the mercinaries from hess that fought for the british in that one. i thing the answer to the topic question if pretty simple. "canada", "new zealand", "australia" and so on. the nations of the british commonwealth. would we eat more fish and chips, drink more tea, and drive on the left side of the road? i don't know, does the rest of the commonwealth? would very much else be all that much different? i doubt it. this is simply too recent an event for cultural divergance to be all that much greater or less so. i mean the kind of differences there would be, would they really make that much difference in anyone's individual life? i would be more interested in a north american continent with 900 indiginous soverign nations, solar power, and narrow gauge railways instead of oil, coal, or the automobile. and without having to buy and sell land to build yourself a place to live. but then yes i know i'm fantacizing and not really getting down to calculating what is probable.
there are lots of we's and lot's of revolutions to have been won and lost. and lots of planets circling lots of suns in lots of galaxies, and maybe even lots of universes. if we is a person indiginous to one place, many revolutions in the form of invasions have been lost, every time an invading culture has supersceeded an indiginous one. so who is this we, to have lost what revolution to whom. christ lost his life loosing the insurgency he led against the roman occupation, and yet won, three centures after his body was exicuted, when the entire empire of rome fell. an empire, which by the time it did, had adopted his name, if not his teachings. so grab your tardis and witness the fall of alexandria, if you can prevent it, you will have prevented the loss a thousand years to the advancement of science we call the middle ages. lots of other 'revolutions' to be one and lost, earlier and later too. what if the british had never taken india, india sikkim, or china tibet? what if there had never been an ottoman empire? how about one of the iranian revolutions? what if the babi's had won rather then lost theirs? if azerbajan had come fully to the aid of tibarsi? what if the hessians had not been able to defeat the french for the british?
