Create A Top 10 Events That Changed The World With This Poll

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

German Invasion Of Poland (1939) - A bigger event was UK and France NOT coming to Poland's aid.
Invading the Ruhr would have halted the German invasion. Just like Scipio Africanus saved Rome from Hannibal by attacking Carthage in 201 BC.
If they'd done it right off the bat then the Soviets might not have invaded because never forget that the Soviets invaded Poland too.

The Western betrayal of Czechoslovakia was an even bigger event, because it could have been them, Poland , the UK and France vs Germany. Instead it was Poland vs Germany AND Russia.

Sounds great C, but to be fair to the Allies, they simply couldn't have stopped them at that late stage of proceedings. And they knew it. Poland was way out of range of any allied air cover. They had feck all decent bombers at that stage and they were only ramping up fighter production. The French had feck all of an Air Force as the Luftwaffe later showed(even with help from Britain). Their armies would have had to invade overland, maybe try a run at Poland's ports(where they would have faced JU 88's and Stukas doing dive bombing whack a mole). Czechoslovakia? Forget about it. Whereas both were next door to Germany.

I mean look what happened with the British and French combined their forces and closer to home and relying(unwisely) on the Maginot defences and having more tanks and the like and fighting an enemy that had to travel. They were soundly and completely routed in bloody short order. France fell and the British expeditionary force and what French and others could make it, well...

Dunkirk. Earlier.



Germany had the largest most organised tactical military machine on the planet and the modern tactics to back it up, tactics still valid today and were fanatical with it. While the Allies were still thinking it was a rerun of the Great War. Put it another way Cap't, at the end of the war with the combined forces of the UK and her commonwealth and local resistance and the manufacturing might of the US and the manufacturing and sheer weight of numbers of the Soviets fighting on a separate front and Germans losing allies and ground and the place being bombed into rubble on all side, it basically took a year between D-Day and Hitler doing the one decent thing in his life and putting the world out of his misery and Berlin falling. One year to go 600 odd miles. In 1939 they wouldn't have had a hope in hell.

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

The Chinese had that yonks ago.

Movable type was only of use when Europeans could afford to buy new clothes and glasses.

Glasses because otherwise most people wouldn't bother learning to read. Clothes because prior to this there weren't enough rags to make cheap paper.

Again kinda, but not really C. Yes the Chinese and others in Asia had printing, but so did Europe by the 14th century albeit in the form of wooden block type. Again yes China had paper for yonks alright, but Europe had it too and by the 13th century paper mills were all over the place and "rag and bone" men were providing the rags. As for there being not enough for paper making, textile production in Europe was a going concern well before the printing press. It was one of the biggest industries in Europe. The English economy on its own depended on it by the 13th century and it was her largest export and money spinner(no pun). The background stuff was already in place at least a century before oul Johnny Gutenburg, silversmith, after a failed venture to flog cheap relics to the faithful/thick, got his printing press together.

His was just one of those providential moments in humanity's history. That had a long existing raw material line. To bring it up to date; personal computers. They started getting big in the late 70's early 80's and by 1990 they were all over the place happy out. So like the rags etc above. Then the internet connects them and they're no longer just for nerds and business types and it explodes in a world changing way. So like Jonny showing up when he did. That metaphor got away from me...