I think going back further than 300 years could easily be done to show how a more sane world could have developed. The suggestion of the US not leaving the UK would probably be the best option of “changing history” when only taking the past 300 years into consideration, but it could still be contested if allowed to look back further. That said, I saw the Brits as the last beacon of hope for sane government (the West had and was still experiencing their share of craziness at this time), anything that undermined them during this era was furthering the cause of insanity. Outside of the US Revolution and looking forward at other awful events that could be contested for “worst period ever” would be: The French Revolution, the German Revolutions, WWI/Russian Revolution, The New Deal, and whatever the f*ck happened in the 60’s (if the nail wasn’t technically in the coffin at that point in time).
Either way it is crucial to locate where the “snowball effect” could have been stopped, it may have been able to have been stopped at the American Revolution, but I doubt it. In any case, I think once the French Revolution took hold the damage was done: Central Europe, Russia, China, and the UK and USA would be absolutely mad in less than 150 years which perhaps inevitably would birth something uniquely and irretrievably insane like the 60’s, which destroyed the last remnants of methodological and historical thinking.
To quote our very own Enlightened Cult of Reason:
Aux armes, citoyens,
Formez vos bataillons,
Marchons, marchons !
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons !
translation: mobs and blood.
Our great Reformers with all their Quaking and Shaking did nothing but form chaos. Our most noble Enlighteners who fought most Reasonably for the most Reasonable Liberty, Brotherhood, and Equality did nothing but give birth to us*…vive le Revolution, w*e are all madmen now
That said , I wonder if maybe it is because most of Western Europe is relatively new to civilization. Despite some of the most AMAZING accomplishments in history, they seem more drawn and willing to revert to primitive barbarism than any of the more ancient civilized cultures have ever shown (it is unprecedented), perhaps it’s in their relatively young civilized genes. I mean Italy, the West’s oldest culture, never really had these problems to the same degree.
I posted my last comment twice, and still its only blank. Is it just me or there’s something odd with the new posting interface? Whatever…
I was agreeing with Joe on . A wise king would have seen that keeping the rapacious Hungarians within the empire was not worth losing the whole thing, and rather than appeasing them by not reforming, would have been willing to radically decentralize the Austrian part of the empire along Swiss lines.
Such an would have easily managed to stay out of WW1, while hungar would have been blasted and at least some of its possessions would have joined the Austrian ‘empire’. And with a big right in the middle of I doubt that WW2 would have gone the way it did. In any case, it would have been a major asset for the continent. Such a shame.
That’s general. When you have a lot to lose, you overreact.
Back in the old days, when the capital stock per head was very low, people did’t give much of a damn about measures that diminished that stock, such as overpopulation, immigration, trade wars, etc.
Nowadays, with a large and sensitive stock, people overreact to every small change. The Christian fundamentalist/anti-immigration hysteria sweeping the west these days is just one example. So, the richer you are, the more you’re compelled to be free, else you turn into an animal to defend what you have.
And even historically, the west is far form being alone in reverting to barbarisms in a short time. Jus think of communist China, or Japanese soldiers in Asia. People are the same everywhere.
I would also think that Austria would have emerged as a financial juggernaut in the 20th century its ‘system’ might have been copied and everyone would have looked to learn under Menger and Böhm-Bawerk. Sadly, it might have meant that Mises would have never had to come to America.
I’d include a clause in the Constitution allowing the President and Congressmen to be executed for war crimes. And make sure that the clause was applied whenever necessary.
I think the War of 1812 was the first example of an American war of aggression (the U.S. trying to annex Canada, and using British acts of piracy as a convenient justification). If certain Congressmen were hanged for the crime of “starting a war that took the lives of thousand of Americans” we would not have had the civil war, WWI, or WWII.
A consolation list if that all wasn’t possible: Alter the outcome of the Whiskey Rebellion, partial southern secession suceeds (with a lesser Civil War, or a slow, inter-civil cold war), no FED, no JFK assassination (partially just sick & tired of hearing about it) no American interference in either WW1 or WW2.
The last 4 I agree to, though. Would’ve been nice to see China go Confucian instead of Communist.
I agree with a lot of what’s been said, so this is not necessarily my first choice, but at some point someone would have to set the wayback machine and go back to do something about John Stuart Mill - distract him into becoming a fisherman or something.