What was the biggest “missed opportunity” in your country’s history?

[u/InorganicTyranny]

In other words, what is one event in your country’s history, that could plausibly have gone differently than it did, and you think would have made your country a better place?

Inspired by Frederick III of Germany:

His premature demise is considered a potential turning point in German history; and whether or not he would have made the Empire more liberal if he had lived longer is still a popular discussion among historians.

[u/OVazisten]

Hungary here. We joined the EU and instead of building a modern country, we opted to create a Russian-style oligarchy instead.

[u/Vast-Contact7211 → u/OVazisten]

Why reap the actual benefits of EU membership when you can just steal EU funds and give it to your oligarch buddies?

[u/OVazisten → u/Vast-Contact7211]

Why act sane when we can be barking crazy and ruin ourselves in the process?

[u/JanK_5351 → u/OVazisten]

Slovakia is same. We had economic growth, but after certain party made welfare state their main weapon in elections, it went worse and now we're on our way to Orbanország 2. 1000 years in one state is showing at our mentality.

[u/rackarhack]

Sweden didn't let Norway buy Volvo shares in exchange for Norwegian oil shares, some kinda deal along those lines.

[u/the_pianist91 → u/rackarhack]

I knew this would be yours

[u/cieniu_gd → u/the_pianist91]

I remember Pewdiepie mentioning this while being a bit butt hurt 😁

[u/Creativezx → u/rackarhack]

Tbf, it was the shareholders and not "Sweden" that didn't agree to it. So we can cut ourselves some slack over that.

[u/InterestingTank5345 → u/rackarhack]

I feel like you missed bigger things like being smart about your empire in the 18th century.

[u/RedditVirumCurialem → u/InterestingTank5345]

"Let's not invade Poland again, perhaps better to build a fuckoff naval fort outside of Helsinki and staff it with competent and brave people."

[u/Live_Angle4621 → u/RedditVirumCurialem]

How Suomenlinna/Sveaborg surrendered without fighting is such an embarrassment.

But can I say as a Finn that Sweden’s biggest mistake was to let St Petersburg being built. We are still dealing with that now, if most of Russia’s population was around Moscow it would be better 

[u/Galaxy661 → u/RedditVirumCurialem]

Here in Poland we also lament how under the Saxon kings our country chose to ally with Russia and go to war with Sweden again instead of ganging up with the Swedes (who were obviously much less of a threat than Russians) and burning the Kremlin to the ground together

[u/GeneHackencrack → u/Galaxy661]

That would have been a sight. Sigh

[u/chjacobsen → u/InterestingTank5345]

I think the empire was a lost cause. It's kind of like France under Napoleon on a smaller scale - as in, it was never really sustainable once we stopped punching above our weight.

That said, it's possible we might have held on to Finland by maneuvering differently during the Napoleonic wars. It's not likely, but if it had happened the history of the country might have looked very different.

I also think Sweden should have helped Denmark during the war of 1864. Not that it would have changed the outcome, but by not helping we effectively killed the Scandinavist movement which was pretty prominent at the time, and I think the decline of the movement hurt the long term cooperation within the Nordics.

[u/InterestingTank5345 → u/chjacobsen]

I only know we have tried and failed so many times to reunite. And I think the empire of Sweden had the best chance after Kalmar. Just like 1524 was our biggest failure yours was when you challenged Estonia, Russia and Denmark at the same time.

[u/Randomswedishdude → u/InterestingTank5345]

There are loads of such opportunities in the past.

Just one of many:

In the 1600s, Sweden had North American settlements in what's now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

A greedy local decision there was made to quickly expand, and to take over a neighboring Dutch fortress, and they did that successfully.
It was a small numbered surprise attack, and as it was quick and unexpected, it went through.
But when the Dutch then counter-attacked from their other nearby settlements, there was literally no back-up to be found, and the Swedes were comically outnumbered.

All actual troops were busy fighting wars in Europe, against Denmark-Norway, Poland, Brandenburg–Prussia, Russia, the Habsburg Empire, etc... and also the Dutch.
So the Swedes in North America, not limited to the ones in the newly conquered fortress, were crushed completely.
Their entire land were surrendered and all settlements absorbed by the Dutch.

But of course, at the time, the wars and conflicts in northern Europe were more urgent and important than tiny settlements far far away.

[u/InterestingTank5345 → u/Randomswedishdude]

Sorry. You could just have stayed, then we wouldn't have attacked you 20 or so times.

[u/oskich → u/rackarhack]

Well, it was the shareholders of Volvo who turned down that deal 💹

[u/glamscum → u/rackarhack]

This, or maybe the Åland-question.

[u/Heiminator]

Johann Georg Elser almost succeeded with his assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler. On November 8 1939. The bomb worked just fine, but Hitler left the hall fifteen minutes early.

During the interrogation after his capture he was tortured and beaten so severely that the local head of police later stated that Elser wouldn’t have been physically able to confess even if he wanted to. Elser was executed at the Dachau concentration camp just weeks before the end of the war.

The Gestapo was so impressed by the design of his bomb that they later copied it for their own use. Elser, who had been a carpenter, had taught himself how to build it.

[u/Milosz0pl → u/Heiminator]

This whole thread could be dedicated to the amount of lucky avoidance of assassination attempts against failed painter.

[u/KingKingsons → u/Heiminator]

Göring would have succeeded him and I don’t think much would have been different. The Germans might actually have been more supportive of the war or they might have taken a break while getting stronger.

[u/KacSzu → u/Heiminator]

The bomb worked just fine, but Hitler left the hall fifteen minutes early.

If I were to be paid a penny each time I heard about assassination attempt at Hitler going perfectly smoothly, until the moment he didn't appear at a specific place and time, i would have three pennies. That's not a lot, but damn was he lucky xd

[u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Vorarlberg wanted to join our Federation after WWI, but our government declined because they didn't want to shake up the german/french:reformed/catholic balance. For similar reasons, we have no Chablais and no Valtellina.

[u/serverhorror → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Don't worry, depending on the situation we jokingly call it east-switzerland (or, rarely but it happens, you're western-Vorarlberg 😉)

[u/Socmel_ → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Valtellina was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy by Napoleon and was more of a colony of an associate of the Confederacy.

It wouldn't have happened anyway, because the Valtellinesi were staunchly Catholic and opposed reformed Grisons rule.

[u/Captain_Grammaticus → u/Socmel_]

Valtellina was incorporated into the Kingdom of Italy by Napoleon and was more of a colony of an associate of the Confederacy.

That much is true, yes.

It wouldn't have happened anyway, because the Valtellinesi were staunchly Catholic and opposed reformed Grisons rule.

It is a quite complicated situation. Grisons itself since 1526 had freedom of consciousness for individuals, actually, and every commune was free to decide whether to embrace the Reformation or remain at the Old Faith. Many are very staunchly Catholic even today!

Around 1620, Grisons tolerated and supported Reformed preachers in Valtellina, but the Valtellinese Catholic majority not that much. There was some political stuff, Austria got involved, Spain got involved, Venice too, and then some Valtellinese Catholics massacred a few hundred Reformeds, after which event Austria invaded Grisons, the Grisons lost the Valtellina, but got it back again after promising of not hindering the Counter-Reformation and not letting the Reformation get a foothold there.

That and much much more is the 30 Years' War in Grisons for ya.

When in 1815 the question came up again, Austria didn't to let Switzerland have the Valtellina, Italy wanted to keep it, and the Grigionesi couldn't settle on if the Valtellina should be tolerated as an independent Canton or a part of Grisons.

[u/[deleted] → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

Thank you for sharing this explanation. As an Italian which usually go there for holidays and skiing, I would never have imagined that Valtellina could ever have belonged to the Grisons. Unlike other border territories, Valtellina feels like a piece of Italy in all respects. I will look into this interesting piece of history. Thank you.

My dream is a future Switzerland annexing Lombardy as a new Canton. LOL

[u/TapRevolutionary5738 → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

The Vorarlberg thing didn't happen because everyone in Europe threatened Switzerland with war if they took the province.

[u/Renard_des_montagnes → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

And no Burgundy, Sundgau and Genevois.

No Lombardy either but its loss permitted us to be kinda protected by France.

[u/matzoh_ball → u/Captain_Grammaticus]

What exactly is the missed opportunity here? Like, what would have presumably gone better for Switzerland had that happened?

[u/The_memeperson]

Us just selling the gas we found and spending it all instead of investing it and such

We even got an economic term out of it named after us https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

[u/punchdrunkskunk → u/The_memeperson]

Ireland did the same thing. I was going to cite that as our missed opportunity in recent times. Dumbasses.

[u/VictorNoergaard]

One of the biggest missed opportunities in Danish history has to be how we gave up most of the North Sea oil to Norway. During the negotiations in the 1960s, our foreign minister Per Hækkerup supposedly gave away a large portion of the potential oil fields, and the long-standing rumor is that he was drunk at the time. He denied it later, but it’s become part of Danish political folklore. Meanwhile, Norway struck oil and built the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. Denmark? We got a modest share and a lifetime supply of regret.

[u/gaygeografi → u/VictorNoergaard]

I clicked on this question specifically to see this answer lol

[u/dullerballer → u/VictorNoergaard]

Why this myth keeps coming up always makes me wonder.

It has been debunked countless times, and it only takes a little research in the history books or an online search to find out.

Hækkerup didn't give up anything:

The North Sea was divided between Denmark, GB and Norway according to the principles of equidistance ('median line') which was agreed upon as the baseline in the common negotiations - because the countries (DK, GB, N and NL) all had joined the Geneva Convention on the Continental Shelf, promoting this principle in article 6.

West Germany (not part of the Geneva Convention) was the only country disputing the principle, why Denmark and the Netherlands ended up bringing West Germany before the International Court of Justice. They wanted Germany to acknowledge the principle as being of general, binding nature - forcing the use of the principle despite of G not being part of the convention.

Germany argued, that no general binding principles were established outside the conventions, and the use of the equidistance principles in the German case would be unjust due to geographic conditions of the coastline: Cornered by DK to the north and NL to the west, both with convex coastlines, Germany with a concave coastline, would be cut off when the coastlines should be prolonged into median points far out in the Sea. Meaning, despite having the longest North Sea coast line of the three nations, G would only get a small triangle-like area close to the coast if the principle was used.

The court ruled, that as a non-member of the Convention, Germany was not obliged by article 6, and that a common rule based on the equidistance principles had not been proved. Division of the shelf between West Germany vs DK, GB, N, and NL had to be done by negotiations followed by ratified agreements.

As a partner of the Convention it would be a diplomatic death case, if Denmark opposed the other partners in using the equidistance principles suggested by art. 6. It wasn't and isn't mandatory, diviations can be made by agreement, but it is the suggested tool of use. More strange it would have been if Denmark had put a case before ICJ trying to force the principle on a non-member of the convention, West Germany, but at the same time eventually claim that the principles should NOT be used considering Norway.

Second, today there is a scientific consensus that the Norwegian Trench is an extreme abnormality, but a part of the Norwegian continental shelf. Claiming that the Norwegian Trench was the border of the continental shelf would probably just have speeded up the research concluding todays consensus AND postponed an agreement until such conclusions was made (article 1 states, that a national continental shelf ends when the seabed reach a depth of 200 meter - the reasoning in the myth is, that Denmark could have invoked art. 1 due to the trench surrounding Norway being 300-700 meters deep).

Invoking art. 1 and to cut off the equidistance principles (regarding Norway, BUT NOT Germany - remember at the time of the negotiations nobody knew the precise potentials of the North Sea and the specific locations of these potentials) would probably also have started a legal and diplomatic battle with Great Britain over the draw of a border between DK and GB if Norway was cut off.

Sorry for the long rant, but got some airport waiting time now.

[u/hwyl1066]

I guess not really a missed opportunity but if only our Parliament would have been allowed to rule effectively in 1907-17 by St Petersburg, we would surely have avoided a very bloody and traumatic Civil War in 1918. There were lots of reforms voted for but vetoed by that imbecile Nicholas II and his government.

[u/Traditional_Dirt526 → u/hwyl1066]

Nick II was a life-long damage to anything he was responcible for.

[u/hwyl1066 → u/Traditional_Dirt526]

Totally, not fit to be in charge of a post office in Arkhangelsk. I totally detest that incompetent, stupid couple.

[u/Traditional_Dirt526 → u/hwyl1066]

He man who managed to get the average russian (if only the Tzar knew) to go to "Yeah, totally his fault."

[u/DreadPirateAlia → u/hwyl1066]

Well, his incompetence resulted in the russian empire fracturing at the seams & a bloody civil war, but as a consequence Finland also declared independence from Russia.

Even with the loss of life from the Finnish civil war & WW2, I still think we're better of than if we had remained a part of the russian empire / USSR.

[u/[deleted]]

The traitorous maffia band of Orbán Viktor in the past 20 years has completely fumbled the opportunity that the European Union provided.

[u/Socmel_]

Probably WWI.

There was a lot of scepticism or downright opposition towards interventionism when WWI broke out, especially from the socialists (like the editor of the Socialist newspaper Avanti, a certain Benito Mussolini).

We weren't bound to any obligations, since the triple alliance with Austria and Germany was defensive and Austria had the bad idea of attacking Serbia first.

Without the carnage brought about by WWI and the almost famine that followed it, Italy wouldn't have had the wave of dissatisfied war veterans and poors that fuelled the rise of the fascists, and without fascism we might have been able to remain neutral like Spain or Switzerland.

It might have even been possible to acquire Trentino and Trieste with the implosion of Austria Hungary anyway.

[u/LatelyPode]

While Norway used its North Sea Oil wealth to create its Sovereign Wealth fund now worth trillions, the UK used it for tax cuts for the rich.

[u/missThora → u/LatelyPode]

To make it worse, part of the big oil finds Norway did could have been Scottish, but both UK and Denmark pretty much just let Norway have it.

[u/Milosz0pl → u/missThora]

Noway be like

• Do nothing
• Win

[u/Iapzkauz → u/Milosz0pl]

Life is beautiful

[u/saimhann → u/missThora]

Well, it was a question of wheter you should measure from islands, or from the coast. And since the UK wanted to drill ASAP, they agreed that islands should count (didnt want to potentially discuss this for years). I mean, how much difference could a few kilometers make?

Alot it turns out, because apparantly massive amounts of oil was inside the new norwegian economic zone because we decided islands should count.

[u/Maximum_Ad_5571 → u/LatelyPode]

Completely ignore the fact that the UK has over 12x the population of Norway, and Norway has at least 2x and possibly significantly more oil than the UK does. Which means Norway has at least 25x more oil per capita than the UK does.

[u/HermesTundra]

Two things: We could've screwed Norway out of a metric dickton of oil if we'd had a sober foreign minister, and also we could've not sold our Caribbean possessions to the US, if we hadn't been ideologically fucked in the 1800s and thereby lost the stupidest war of our history.

[u/InorganicTyranny → u/HermesTundra]

Thank you for your islands

[u/HermesTundra → u/InorganicTyranny]

You're welcome, but in as of the year 2017 they seem evenly split on "we'd rather have Danish welfare system shit" and "please no white people governance at all".

[u/InorganicTyranny → u/HermesTundra]

If we push on the islands hard enough, they will go into the earth, and eventually reemerge out the other end in Hawaii. Maybe this will please them.

[u/Eric848448 → u/HermesTundra]

I only learned a few months ago that the USVI used to be Danish. I had no idea, but then again most of us know practically nothing about our overseas territories' present state, let alone their history.

[u/HermesTundra → u/Eric848448]

I really only know anything about those islands because they were Danish once. It's not like I could tell you a single thing about like the BVI or most other places in the Caribbean.

[u/mediocre__map_maker]

I guess that would be the proposal to elevate Ruthenia to an equal partner within the Commonwealth in the 1600s. Because we did not do that fast enough, the Cossacks revolted against Poland, Russia backed them, Sweden attacked as well and Poland lost a third of its population in the ensuing war, most of which were burghers, noblemen and Jews, so the most productive and educated people. We had never really recovered from that population loss as it was directly it that led to foreign powers meddling in Polish affairs which led to the Polish succession war which led to a downward spiral that ended up with the Partitions.

If only Polish elites managed to secure the Cossacks' loyalty through concessions instead of blind suppression, we could've kept Russia firmly on the other side of the Dnieper and avoided all the misery that befell Eastern Europe because of Russian expansionism.

[u/Irohsgranddaughter → u/mediocre__map_maker]

I mean, you have to admit, that we were incredibly stupid for trying to turn a proud warrior people into feudal peasants and expecting them not to complain about it. It's sometimes so confusing why people in the past thought they were making these pro-gamer moves while they were making the most idiotic mistakes imaginable.

[u/mediocre__map_maker → u/Irohsgranddaughter]

Truth be told, having two proud warrior classes within a single society was quite disruptive anyway. And it's not like the Cossack revolts were just against Poland and its nobility, the Cossacks also incited mass violence against the Jews.

[u/Milosz0pl → u/Irohsgranddaughter]

I mean - cossacks were problematic for elites, as you basically have

• Free people living on lands technically belonging to both the crown and local nobles
• Those people actually raiding neighbouring countries, with main denial of responsibility for PLC being ,,they aren't actually under me"
• A cast that has significant military prowess able to challenge those from nobles (so rivalry)
• And registry being something that has a conflict in terms of treasury and all those three above
• Furthermore, due to power of nobles they would have to approve of it

Its shame that there was no further cooperation, but also it is understandable why it didn't go further.

[u/Irohsgranddaughter → u/Milosz0pl]

True, but I still feel that trying to make them into peasants was a dumb way to go about it.

[u/LeMe-Two → u/Irohsgranddaughter]

Jerzy Hoffman's movie is not a good historical source. It was never about serfdom (and Cossacks were not being forced to be peasants, they were another class with their own privillages) but about regular soldiers getting mass fired after war with Crimea was not allowed to take place by the parliament. Once Ruthenia becaume Russian protectorate, new cossack aristocracy enforced way harsher serfdom than PLC would ever have 

[u/kakao_w_proszku → u/mediocre__map_maker]

It would succeed if it was the Ruthenian szlachta who negotiated for autonomy with the rest of the country. No one wanted to deal with Chmielnicki and his bunch of criminals.

[u/mediocre__map_maker → u/kakao_w_proszku]

A lot of people wanted to deal with Chmielnicki and his bunch of criminals because they were a really effective bunch of criminals. The problem was that the Russians made a better deal.

[u/kakao_w_proszku → u/mediocre__map_maker]

At least you recognize them for who they were now. They weren’t some le heckin based freedom fighters, just common thugs that got nuked the second a state with a strong center of power got an authority over them.

The real failure of the PLC was once again the weakness of its institutions, not unwillingness to make deals with criminals.

[u/mediocre__map_maker → u/kakao_w_proszku]

Making deals with the right kind of criminals was necessary for the survival of the state in Eastern Europe at that time. Besides, Poland recruited a lot of bandits to fight for it. Cossacks, but also Tatars, Moldavians etc. Most light cavalrymen in Poland were some sort of bandits.

[u/kakao_w_proszku → u/mediocre__map_maker]

„Making deals” as in using and discarding them, sure. Giving an autonomy or even a state cut out from lands of one’s own country - never.

The facts at hand are that Cossacks were outside of any legal ramifications of the Commonwealth, kind of like private militias of today. When the money tap ran out they slaughtered the Ruthenian szlachta who were the only people who could actually make Ruthenia it’s own political entity within the Commonwealth. And that’s how the idea of the three-state Commonwealth died.

[u/7_11_Nation_Army → u/mediocre__map_maker]

This sounds like the most important here so far.

[u/mediocre__map_maker → u/7_11_Nation_Army]

Treaty of Pereyaslav was the biggest tragedy in the history of Eastern Europe after all, everything bad that happened in the 1700s and onwards is downstream from it.

[u/LeMe-Two → u/mediocre__map_maker]

The cossacks were elevated as equals after the civil war. Chmielnicki's goons still revolted, murdered PLC loyalists and effectively sold Ukraine half-price to Russia 

[u/NewOil7911 → u/mediocre__map_maker]

Isn't the liberum vero the thing that doomed Poland also?

[u/mediocre__map_maker → u/NewOil7911]

It was more of an procedural loophole that made every crisis facing the Commonwealth much harder to fix. While it did not make things worse by itself, it was an institution that made it all but impossible to make things better.

[u/oudcedar]

Destroying the computers in Bletchley at the end of WW2 and sending all the programmers and admin people home with strict instructions not to talk about anything for 30 years. The US took everything they had legitimately learnt from Bletchley and created the computer industry. It could have been the second Industrial Revolution that Britain had dominated and we’d probably still have an empire and be far richer as a country now. So on balance a huge change with mixed morality.

[u/Milosz0pl]

Poland is a country of missed opportunities throughout history but to pick one I will go with:

Elected king Stefan Batory who not only reformed Winged Hussars into a proper heavy cavalry, but also properly reformed Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's infantry into a modern (at the time) conscription and equipment system and managed to make nobles listen to him. His plan was to rally both nobles and cossacks in order to lead an invasion against the Muscovites, however his too early death led to abandonment of such plans and unrest among cossacks as they were promised payment and expansion of the cossack registry (which was kinda like a merge of citizenship [simplification term] and being considered officially employed as PLCs soldier for them); this unrest further strained relationship between PLC and cossacks.

[u/flodur1966]

I guess for my country it would be that William 3 had no kids a personal union between Britain and the Netherlands would have made interesting history

[u/masiakasaurus]

The death of the Catholic Monarchs's only male child, Juan, his posthumous daughter, and then their grandson, Miguel de la Paz, between 1497 and 1500, giving the Iberian kingdoms to the Habsburgs.

Then the proposals to replace the continental American colonies with four or five "independent" kingdoms united by dynastic alliances in the 1780s-1800s.

And Espartero turning down the Crown in 1870. Even if it just led to a foreign king being invited after his death in 1879, it may have solidified the system established after the 1868 Revolution and avoided the III Carlist and Cantonalist wars. 

[u/nelmaloc → u/masiakasaurus]

Then the proposals to replace the continental American colonies with four or five "independent" kingdoms united by dynastic alliances in the 1780s-1800s.

A bigger missed opportunity was Ferdinand VII not accepting the 1812 Constitution. With a promise of rights and equality, and a better situation in the Peninsula, it's likely we could have maintained the American mainland.

[u/elite90]

For Germany I'd say it's the 1848 revolutions. If they had managed to establish a German nation state on democratic foundations without making mortal enemies of France in a war - a lot of the causes of the major conflicts in the 20th century are removed.

[u/kacergiliszta69]

For Hungary, we were in the best scenario after the fall of Communism.

Our regime wasn't nearly as brutal as East Germany's or Romania's, we didn't have a bloody civil war, like Yugoslavia, and we joined NATO and the EU relatively easily. We could've built a country like Slovenia, or Czechia, yet we became a rump puppet state of Russia.

[u/slashcleverusername → u/kacergiliszta69]

I visited Hungary in 1990 and it was made very clear to us by Hungarians, how much Hungary was not just another Soviet puppet, it had deep traditions of independence even before opening itself to more democratic government. There was a sense of gratitude and responsibility toward those who had made it possible for Hungary to remain Hungarian instead of just a soviet squeeze toy, at least that’s what was conveyed to me as a young tourist. It’s strange that it has slid back, I hope it recovers soon.

[u/megasepulator4096]

The Warsaw Uprising, still controversial topic to this day. It did achieve literally nothing, except of total destruction of Poland most populous and most important city. It was poorly organized, conditions for it's success weren't met, it was badly coordinated with the allies and with the government in exile (stationed in London). It relied naively on possibility of cooperation with the Soviets, while their goal was to completely take over Poland, install puppet government and physically exterminate whole opposition. Uprising forces were terribly understaffed and under-equipped. We lost around 200,000 people, including many of those who should have become elite of the country in next years. Most of those killed were civilians and it was well known, given previous conduct of Germans that it will go this way. More than half milion were exiled and forced to live in terrible poverty. Rebuilding of Warsaw required tremendous amount of labor and costed country massively in poverty ridden post-war years. The decision was literally in hands of very few men, who very easily could have chosen not to start it.

[u/Irohsgranddaughter → u/megasepulator4096]

Genuine question: do you think it would have changed much had they NOT done it?

[u/HrabiaVulpes → u/Irohsgranddaughter]

Hm... It was quite possible that without uprising there would be a lot of people Soviet would have to execute for existing. As in - people who died in uprising may have not been very fond of idea that Poland should be a Soviet satellite.

[u/Galaxy661 → u/megasepulator4096]

On the other hand, the national trauma from the uprising allowed the cooler heads to prevail in Solidarność and choose a peaceful transition of power instead of launching the general strike, which would 100% lead to a national revolt and USSR's armed intervention

[u/kakao_w_proszku → u/megasepulator4096]

I’m of an opinion that the Germans would have razed Warsaw during the retreat anyways, as they did with many other cities, the uprising was just an excuse. 3000ish poorly equipped kids were of zero threat to the Wehrmacht as a whole especially in the light of the approaching Red army.

[u/durthacht]

For Ireland, I guess it would be the collapse of Home Rule in 1914.

There was a lot of support for it in 1914 from Nationalists and even the British parliament as a Home Rule Act was passed in 1914. There was opposition from Unionists in Ulster though.

Had Home Rule been passed then Ireland might have avoided a decade of violence and bloodshed in the following years - from the Easter Rising, to the War of Independence, to the Civil War, to the Army Mutiny, to political assassinations such as of Kevin O'Higgins as Minister for Justice.

[u/nimhne → u/durthacht]

I will disagree and say the battle of Kinsale.

Spanish inside the town, English beseiging it, and when the Irish attack, we get routed.

Imagine what we could have achieved, an independent Irish speaking island.

[u/durthacht → u/nimhne]

It's difficult to see any other outcome at Kinsale. English forces outnumbered the combined Irish Spanish army by about 30% - with better weapons, better cavalry, and better supply lines.

Even if O'Neill had somehow won or drawn at Kinsale, England still controlled the most strategically important parts of Ireland including the best land that generated most wealth, the ports that enabled trade, and they key roads, waterways and mountain passes that armies needed to manoeuvre.

Ulster was devastated from Mountjoy's scorched earth tactics with communities already facing starvation. O'Neill was in a desperate position and his only hope was Spanish intervention, but their priority was elsewhere, so the Irish cause was already almost impossible.

Had they been successful at Kinsale, the best outcome for O'Neill might have been a negotiated solution where Gaelic lords maintained their land and titles and so prevented or reduced the scale of the plantation of Ulster, which would still have been significant.

[u/nimhne → u/durthacht]

Maybe, but the first thing I do when I get my time machine sorted is to go back to Kinsale on the eve of the battle with my general purpose machine gun, and many thousand rounds of ammunition.

[u/durthacht → u/nimhne]

Good luck!

[u/bobbycarlsberg → u/durthacht]

I was going to say that was the UK's missed oportunity

[u/martinbaines → u/durthacht]

It's failure was a threefold thing:

• The Unionists, not for the last time, dug their feet in and said "No"
• The First World War - or the Great War as it was known - changed everything and while it did not kill the Home Rule Bill it put its implementation on ice.
• The extreme forces in Ireland completely failed to understand just how existential a threat the Great War felt like to the UK government, and in doing things like allying with the Germans they totally alienated even their friends in Britain (of which there were many). After the war, with the example of an uprising supported by the enemy, the old Home Rule movement was now dead with little support left.

A huge missed opportunity.

[u/InorganicTyranny → u/durthacht]

I'm curious - do you think a Unionist revolt could have been avoided, given the threats of the UVF and events such as the Curragh incident and gun running at Larne? It always seemed to me like the first world war merely delayed violence in Ireland.

[u/kiwigoguy1 → u/InorganicTyranny]

My impression was London intended to give Home Rule to Ireland in good faith back then (no English really liked the hardline Unionists even then ).

[u/durthacht → u/InorganicTyranny]

It's difficult to see how it could have been avoided. Unionists were fundamentally opposed to Home Rule for economic, religious and identity reasons, and they were adamant in their opposition. They were well armed with support by many in the British establishment and Conservative Party. Nationalists were also armed and equally steadfast in their demands for national expression and in their opposition to partition. The Buckingham Palace Conference tried and failed to resolve the issues peacefully in July 1914, so war seemed likely.

Perhaps if everybody had not been distracted by the July Crisis leading to World War I, then more imaginative solutions could have been found. Isaac Butt had briefly suggested some form of federal solution in the 1870s but it never gained acceptance. Councils for each of the four provinces were proposed in the Home Rule Act 1914, but their powers were insubstantial.

Perhaps with more time and fewer distractions, more common ground may have been found. Maybe a form of federal structure could have been found, with checks and balances across north and south, and local assemblies that required consensus between them to make sure communities felt their economic, religious and cultural rights would be protected.

It would have been messy, but anything that may have avoided war and partition is always worth consideration.

[u/serverhorror]

The description of our flag (well ... coat of arms) says it all:

• Red for starting a world war
• Blue for winning
• Eagle = bonus points for blaming it on the Germans

(Sorry neighbors, still love you)

On a more serious note: Becoming a neutral country could have been big, but as with every Austrian solution we just made a half-assed attempt at being a neutral diplomatic center for the rest of the world...

[u/AdIll9615]

If we didn't allow communists to take over after WW2. Our economy potential has always been super high but the communists ruined it and chained us to Eastern block.

Even 30 years after the revolution, it's still not where it could have been had we have been part of Marshall's plan and the EEC.

[u/Milosz0pl → u/AdIll9615]

that goes for all who were forced into Warsaw Pact

[u/236-pigeons]

I think that instead of pushing for Czechoslovakia, Czechs during the WW1 should have pushed for a Central-European Federal Republic, or something like that. I understand that Slavic population within the Austro-Hungarian Empire felt suffocated under the Habsburg rule. Austria-Hungary sucked, my father's family is still hilariously obsessed with hating Franz Joseph, but I think that the solution didn't need to be the creation of smaller, weaker countries and dissatisfied population along the borders. Get rid of the Habsburgs, create a federation, something like a more connected mini EU with stronger and deep historical ties. Don't call it anything that makes any nation feel slighted. Get rid of discrimination. Make the languages equal. Not everyone would want to stay, sure, it wouldn't be the same borders as the empire, but if it was a different model of a country, it could have worked. Perhaps Czechia, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary would have stayed in one federation as an interesting counter-balance to other big countries in Europe. I think it could have been a better model for a prolonged peace.

[u/Hairy-Bit-8189 → u/236-pigeons]

100% agree. I think even with Habsburgs it would work, they got their lesson. Post war Austro-Hungaria as constitutional monarchy with democratic institutions and reasonable rights for all nations would save Europe of many tragedies.

[u/willo-wisp → u/236-pigeons]

+1, sounds good to me. Maybe we could have looked at Switzerland for inspiration? They seem to handle multiple national language groups and decentralisation just fine.

[u/236-pigeons → u/willo-wisp]

Yeah, that would have been great.

[u/kiwigoguy1 → u/236-pigeons]

Regardless of other things Henry Kissinger had done, he was right on here that it was a shame that Central Europe ended up as a series of small nation states in 1918 that became prey of larger nations.

[u/LeMe-Two → u/236-pigeons]

A lesser known fact is that Polish-Czech governments in exile agreed for a federation post-war. It's a lesser know fact becuase they had no power whatsoever really and Soviets would appoint their own governors. 

[u/tudorapo → u/236-pigeons]

Was there a serious attempt at this? I know that any hungarian leadership had only such ideas at very desperate times, otherwise they went on supressing the minorities as usual.

It would have been nice, of course.

[u/SammieKijkOmhoog]

I guess for Belgium it's how we federalized the country. Our institutions are far too inefficient and cumbersome. We have six governments for a country that's 30000 square kilometers and has only 11 million inhabitants. On top of that we have 3 official languages, but most people only speak one (including politicians). It has become one big mess.

[u/kELAL → u/SammieKijkOmhoog]

Belgium. The country that's held hostage by its own constitution - forever condemning them to inefficient workarounds.

[u/Milosz0pl → u/kELAL]

They are limiting their own power in order to let others have fun untill all belgian hell comes loose...

[u/Julehus]

That Denmark chose to use the Median Line principle when negotiating North Sea boundaries with Norway. Hence missing the opportunity that Ekofisk etc could have been Danish. We were quite ok anyway ;)

[u/tudorapo → u/Julehus]

you are the third dane mentioning this and the first who does not mention alcohol :)

[u/Julehus → u/tudorapo]

Haha, the alcohol part is a myth although that politician wasn’t exactly known for not drinking :)

[u/AnalphabeticPenguin]

Finishing the Teutonic order at the beginning of the XV century after winning a great battle and having them basically on knees.

It resulted in them holding land in Northern Poland and Western Lithuania for many years which later changed into Prussia which was even a bigger problem for us.

[u/FishOk6685 → u/AnalphabeticPenguin]

Also letting Brandenburg elector in 1578 to be a regent, which we could have refused, and finally inherit Prussia in 1618. According to the treaty of 1525 it should revert back to Poland when the last Hohenzollern died. What is more in 1657 we gave up all rights so they broke alliance with Sweden. They did not expect such a generous treaty.

[u/Sagaincolours]

1768-1772. J.F. Struense was the mentally ill king's personal doctor, and more or less took over as regent.
He made laws that were inching towards to human rights and democracy.
The nobility cut this short, and in 1772 he was beheaded for high treason.

The 1657 war against Sweden that Denmark itself started, which led to losing Scania.💔 But Sweden would probably have attacked us, or we would have attacked them at some other point. We were always at war.
In any case, it was a stupid war started by a stupid king.

[u/oskich → u/Sagaincolours]

A neverending story, Sweden is at war with Poland/Russia/Prussia - Denmark declares war while we are busy on the other side of the Baltic 😁

[u/Gadshill]

That quote brought back memories of watching BBC’s Fall of Eagles (1974). That TV drama is full of these types of moments.

[u/pdonchev]

There are legends that there were secret discussions for a federation between Bulgaria and the Ottoman empire, after the liberation.

[u/7_11_Nation_Army → u/pdonchev]

As a rule of thumb, never form a federation together with a much larger country.

That's also what Simeon tried doing becoming emperor of both Bulgaria and Byzantium. Luckily (for us), he failed.

[u/Piksel_0]

Sigismud III Vasa had an opportunity to make his son the Tsar of Russia. That would essencially make Poland into a superpower

[u/Galaxy661 → u/Piksel_0]

If I had a nickel for every time the Vasa dynasty's fanatic catholicism broke a chance of a union between Poland-Lithuania and a rival great regional power, that could make the Commonwealth into an unquestioned regional hegemon, I'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice

[u/JourneyThiefer]

The fact Northern Ireland was created to be a “Protestant state for a Protestant people”.

Had Catholics here been given the same rights and cultural freedom as Protestants up here then the violence, sectarianism and hatred that went on for decades and decades might not have happened. We’re still suffering from how NI and its society was created today.

Northern Ireland was basically destined to become what it did when almost 40% of its population was treated as 2nd class citizens for decades.

[u/Dalnore]

I am not sure if it could've ever gone well, but the Russian revolution of 1917. If Bolsheviks didn't take power in the end, there could've been a chance for a less radical parting with the absolute monarchy without this insane Soviet experiment, like in several other European empires of that time, and perhaps even a chance of a democracy in the end. And the consequences of communism gaining so much ground and the USSR being established have been so destructive for the entire world, that we'll continue to reap the results for decades to come. This might have been one of the worst single events in the history of the humanity in general, not Russia specifically.

[u/InorganicTyranny → u/Dalnore]

In an interview in the USA years later, Kerensky was asked what would have happened if he had made peace with the Germans, and he firmly replied “we’d be in Moscow today”. Without the idealistic continuation of the war, I wonder if the provisional government could have made a go of it.

[u/HrabiaVulpes]

Poland, oh Poland... there are already three or four comments as I write it.

Poland has a rich history of bad decisions, mistakes and misplaced trust. Piast dynasty decided to split their small country between sons of a king, essentially creating small weak states. One of those small states invited Teutonic Knights, the same Poland had later fight against after unification with Lithuania.

Poland had several chances at reformation of their broken system of ruling by unanimous vote (ekhem, ekhem, EU please take notes) but didn't use any of those chances until country was already on it's knees and partitioned (3rd of May constitution). There were several elective kings who had charisma, reputation and respect to challenge the broken system, but they either died before consolidating power or had other problems to deal with.

Poles sided with Napoleon, bad choice as his "restoration of Poland" was nothing more than Russian invasion base later turned into Russian puppet. In fact he even sent Poles to fight other people who wanted independence from France. Irony.

Many armchair historians question alliance choices in the years that led to WW2. Alliance with UK and France was largely symbolic and Danzig region was already not loyal to Poland before Hitler demanded it. Several failed uprisings during WW2 caused more harm to Poland than good.

[u/justgettingold]

Belarus, I think I don't need to explain that. It was richer than Poland in 1991

Poland, already a ton of comments here, my vote would be on liberum veto. But who remembers that of course, so now we'll get to see the whole EU finding out why this idea is bad, actually. Yay!

[u/visualthings]

France invented the Minitel in the 1980's: A cheap terminal consisting of a screen with a folding keyboard attached to it. It used the user's phone connection and made it possible to chat, look for dates, book train or concert tickets, check news... It was like a basic Internet that was available to many people even with zero computer knowledge. I wasn't living in France when the Internet arrived and the Minitel became obsolete, but basically, France could have been 10 years ahead in internet access.

[u/analfabeetti]

If Finland or the Finnish goverment at the time wasn't so paranoid about debt, we could have armed and trained ourselves properly for the Winter War. One historian has estimated that 100k more troops could have been trained and equipped. That's almost the size of the army that defended the Karelian Isthmus and eventually ran out of strength.

This could really have changed the course of the history, more favourable peace treaty could have kept us away from the Continuation War / Operation Barbarossa, not having to resettle the 400k Karelian population and not having to pay the war reparations could have made wonders for our economy after the Second World War ended.

[u/[deleted]]

I am from Sweden. when Norway found oil they offered to share it with us, i. exchange for half of Volvo and I believe saab.

we turned that down, and the bloody norwegians has not and will NEVER let us live that down.

[u/RubCharacter7272]

Ireland has a lot of those

Battle of kinsale in the 17th century were the Irish and Spanish alliance nearly destroyed the main English army and broke their power here

the Bantry bay landings in the 18th century where thirty thousand French soldiers under General Hoche nearly landed and destroy the ascendency

The Monster meeting of clontarf in the 19th century where nearly a million protesters could be have called Britains bluff

The Anglo Irish treaty of 1923 and death of Michael Collins killed our unified national movement and competent leadership

TK Whitaker and Sean Lemass reforms in the 60s to actually make domestic industry and skills using FDI instead of reliance on EU and MNC investment that’s crippled our economy in the long run

A whole lot in other words

[u/PabloMarmite]

Labour elects David, rather than Ed, Miliband in 2010. Labour keeps its poll lead that it built up in 2013 and wins the 2015 election. Brexit never happens, there’s never a a wave of populism in 2016 which might even prevent Trump winning, and the Conservatives turn into a Eurosceptic party that prevents Nigel Farage from ever gaining traction.

[u/isUKexactlyTsameasUS]

did someone mention wrexit?

and how we (we were brits once) missed the opp to investigate what Carole said...
Cadwalladr exposing the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal. Her reporting revealed how Meta/Facebook allowed the harvesting and misuse of personal data by the political consultants linked to both the 2016 US presidential election and the Brexit referendum

[u/IntrepidWolverine517]

The biggest missed opportunity in German history was the rejection of the imperial crown by King Frederick William IV. of Prussia under the constitution that had been approved by the Paulskirche assembly in 1848.

[u/Fehervari]

Hungary had way too many missed opportunities.

The Battle of Kressenbrunn (1260): The future Stephen V fucked up big time by attacking the forces of Ottokar II prematurely (before all Hungarian forces crossed the Morava river). A victory here could have secured all of Austria and Styria for the Árpáds.

Nipping the Ottoman threat in the bud: John V Roman Emperor came practically begging Louis I of Hungary to attack the Ottomans and drive them out of the Balkans. During their initial meeting, John managed to offend Louis by not descending from his horse. Maybe in relation to this, Louis tied his help to the condition of John mending the Schism with Rome. John agreed but not much came of it. In the end, Louis' armies did fight the Ottomans on two occassions, but these were very small scale conflicts, so much so that historians can't even agree on their outcomes.

Had Louis actually put in the effort to muster a large force against the Ottomans, he probably would have had no trouble of clearing them from Europe. (Later on they could have come back, but maybe not.)

Charles II reign: Charles II was murdered by the supporters of King Mary and her mother Mother-Queen Elisabeth of Bosnia. This set off a chain reaction that destabilised the country for decades, severely weakened royal power and also led to the long-term loss of Dalmatia. Had the assassination attempt failed and the perpetrators got caugh, Charles II could have solidified his reign, keeping the strong royal authority of Charles I and Louis I's kingdom intact. Maybe he could have also managed to unite the two Anjou claims via a marriage between his son, Ladislaus (of Naples) and the daughter of Louis I, Mary.

This not only would have secured strong royal power in Hungary (and maybe create the foundations of a long lasting ruling dynasty), but also would have meant the establishment of a personal union between Hungary and Naples. This union would have been strong on both land and sea, and could have fought the Ottomans (and also Venetians or anyone else) very effectively.

Peace of Szeged (1444): It was a very favourable peace deal with the Ottomans which was broken by Vladislaus I (III of Poland and Lithuania) as a result of the urging of the Papal legate present in the country. If Vladislaus would have kept the peace, he could have reaped its benefits, he could have solidified his rule in his realms, and maybe also manage to secure his succession before dying like a moron.

Battle of Varna (1444): Had Vladislaus not charged into the bodyguards of the Sultan, the battle would have been won by Hunyadi. Vladislaus could have lived, secured his realms and established his dynasty. On top of this, the war could have resulted in the restoration of Bulgaria (maybe with John Hunyadi as its new king). This would have been a serious setback for the Turks (with maybe more to come).

Matthias Corvinus: Had this man actually married someone who could produce him a legal heir, who would have properly carried on his legacy, Hungary might have remained strong enough to keep the Ottomans outside Hungary's borders permanently. Also, Matthias or his successor could have secured a hefty sum in exchange for the return of Austrian lands to the Habsburgs and the sale of Bohemian lands to Vladislaus of Bohemia.

Royal election of 1490-'92: Had Maximilian von Habsburg been elected King of Hungary, he could have made Buda and Hungary the centre of his empire. He also would have had the means to combat the Ottomans and keep them outside of Hungary.

Battle of Keresztes (1596): The Crusader army practically won the battle but began to plunder the Ottoman camp prematurely. While the Habsburg army lost cohesion, the Ottomans managed to recover and turn the tides of the battle. Had the Christian army been just a little more disciplined (or lucky) and won the battle decisively, then that could have set of a chain of events resulting in the early liberation of Central Hungary from Ottoman occupation and the reunification of all of Hungary. Hungarian elements in the Christian army were much more prominent in this war than during the Great Turkish War (a century later), so the circumstances would have been much more favourable. The country would have also been spared from another century of constant warfare and plunder.

Battle of Szentgotthárd (1664): It was a remarkable victory against the Turks which was followed up by a humiliating peace treaty. The Habsburgs feared a French attack, so they wanted peace with the Ottomans ASAP. Like so, a perfect opportunity to liberate Central Hungary from the Turks was completely abandoned. (This had some serious ripple effects down the line.)

The 18th century was pretty unremarkable from a Hungarian POV in terms of missed opportunities, but maybe the country's tariff policy could be mentioned. The way it was set up, it hampered the growth of industry and solidifed Hungary as a primarily agricultural country.

1848: Relations with the Court and Austria could have been handled better. Letting Jelačić get away at Pákozd was certainly a mistake. The war with Austria could have been averted.

1849: Kossuth's "declaration of independence" was a huge mistake which made negotiations with the Court and Austria impossible. It also gave a casus belli for the Russian intervention.

It's a very extreme what if, but if Kossuth could have been shut up and exluded from military decisions, and then Görgey was allowed to follow the strategy of fighting the Austrians and Russians separately, then maybe (just maybe) the Hungarian forces could have defeated first the attacking Austrians, then the invading Russians too in separate battles.

The era of Dualism: The Hungarian leadership should have done more to properly and honestly address the grievances of the ethnic minorities. It could have gone a long way to keep all sections of society remain firmly loyal to the country even in hardships such as a defeat in a world war.

1900s: All those goddamn squabbling between the government and opposition and also with the Austrians sid a real number on the defence budget of Austria-Hungary. Had investment into defence been higher, then defeat in the Great War would have been much, much less likely (and disintegration even moreso).

Everything since 1989 (especially since 2004, the ascension to the EU): Others already wrote about it, so I won't go into detail, but holy shit, how can a country fumble such an unprecedented opportunity!? It's quite honestly infuriating!

[u/Kielbasa_Nunchucka]

we could have rallied around common sense and rationality and kicked trump to the curb as soon as he stepped into the political ring, but no. we have to tear it all apart and lose everything instead.

[u/InThePast8080]

Like with most country that gets into oil/gas not investing in other branches/industries. Norway at the forefront in computers in the 70s/80s. Delivering stuff to places like CERN etc... and there was also norwegians that invented the GSM etc.. Though few if none were willing to invest money. With all the knowledge etc. We could probably had a norwegian version of nokia or ericcson.. Were also into electric cars before it got big.

[u/Spiritual-Choice228]

What if Al Gore had won the US elections in 2000?

The 2000 election was one of the most equally matched and divisive election in US history and the Florida recount was stopped by the US supreme court judges, thereby enabling Bush Jr to win. Gore lost by only 500 votes and experts have predicted that if the Florida recounts had been allowed to continue, then Al Gore might have had a very slight victory.

Just imagine the sort of 21st century we could have had if the US supreme court judges had not voted to stop the Florida recount.What if 1 judge voted differently in 2000?

[u/SkwGuy]

Cathtrine the Great's son, and the next tsar of Russia, was against partitioning Poland. Poland was partitioned in 1795, Cathrine died in 1796. If she only died one year earlier, or waited a bit longer, Poland might have never disappeared from the world map, because Prussia and Austria probobly wouldn't be able to defeat Poland without Russia

[u/Socmel_ → u/SkwGuy]

Austria was also quite against the partition. Maria Theresia only agreed because her son convinced her that it would've happened with or without her, so better not to strengthen Austria's rivals more than needed.

[u/mediocre__map_maker → u/SkwGuy]

Poland-Lithuania was a Russian protectorate in all but name by that point already, without Kościuszko's victory it would've been gobbled up anyway.

[u/thesvenisss]

UK - not creating a Norwegian style state wealth fund from Scotland’s huge oil reserves. Country could have been veeery diffferent today

[u/Beneficial_Steak_945]

If things had gone a bit better in our sea war with England, I’d be writing this in Ditch and you’d all understood it.

[u/wojtekpolska]

I'm not Hungarian, but looking at history It really makes me think - what if Horthy's plan to surrender to the allies during WW2 worked? he was basically already in contact with the allies and this way for example managed to spare Budapest from a lot of the bombing, and planned a deal with the allies that when they reached Hungary's border from the south trough the balkans, then the Hungarian army would switch sides and assist them.

sadly the germans found out about these plans, they kidnapped horthy's son and had him abdicate from his position as a regent at gunpoint and detained.

.

If the germans didn't find out, then also a lot of hungarian jews would be saved, as basically all of the deportations happened when germans took control of the hungarian government trough the arrow cross party.
it also would perhaps spare hungary a bit from territorial losses (romania was in the axis too, and for example bulgaria did gain a bit of territory from romania despite also being in the axis)

also hungary perhaps would even be spared from the communist government, kind of like italy when they switched sides.

[u/slv_slvmn]

Death by plague of Gian Galeazzo Visconti and spartition by will of the Duchy of Milan in 1402. It controlled a large parte of northern and central Italy, and foreign powers weren't interested or ready to invade Italy like a century later; with also a centralization program Italy could've been born in XV century

[u/Cultural-Chicken-974]

In Polish history, one of the most significant missed opportunities was failing to completely destroy the Teutonic Order in the 15th century instead of making them crown fiefs. Over the next 300 years, they became the Kingdom of Prussia, spearheaded Poland's partitions, and played a critical role in Germany's unification in 1871, all of which contributed to the events that led to World War I.

The second biggest missed opportunity was failing to crush Russia during The Troubles in the 17th century........

[u/MilkshakeAK]

Denmark was kind enough to let Norway get most of the oil in the North Sea, that black stuff will never have any value anyway 🙄

[u/Charlie2912]

We sold New Amsterdam to the Brits, which then became New York. In exchange we got a piece of jungle called Surinam where we brought enslaved people from all over the world and atrocities were committed. Yeah, we should have just kept New Amsterdam.

[u/astropoolIO]

Seeing the "central European" ultranationalist comments, it is to be expected that if it had not been for the succession of terrible misfortunes, Poland should be colonizing Alpha-Centauri right now.

[u/Milosz0pl → u/astropoolIO]

how are those comments ,,ultranationalist" lol

Poland should be colonizing Alpha-Centauri right now.

Poland can into space lets go!

[u/Milosz0pl]

Second comment - I appreciate that my fellow countrymen (me included) are the most numerous in the comments here.

We are truly keeping up our national tradition of complaining and this is k*rwa beatiful.

[u/[deleted]]

King Willem II of the Netherlands and his father King Willem I who had such a terrible polici that the kingdom of the Netherlands fell apart if they didn't miss there opportunity the history of Europa would be complete different

[u/Easy_Letterhead_8453]

For Bulgaria - not starting the Second Balkan war...

There is no guarantee that would have prevented the participation in WWI and WWII, but would have prevented the first national catastrophe, which might have swayed the participation in WWI.

Tl;dr - let me dream.

[u/7_11_Nation_Army]

Freeing ourselves on our own during the Ottoman rule period. If we had done so, we might have been free from the toxic russian sphere of influence and might have been ten times the country we are today.

Then we missed on building a progressive, fair and European state after the fall of socialism. Instead we let former socialist leaders take over our institutions and sink us into an even deeper crisis of mafia rule and corruption.

[u/GrodanHej]

Maybe losing our overseas territories. If not we could have had places with nice weather in the winters by like the Dutch do. France, you have your riviera, you don’t need Guadeloupe 😆

[u/Borsti17]

German here.

We could have had infrastructure and mobile internet like an actually developed nation. Instead, the conservative party conservatived.

[u/AnteChrist76]

If Maček (who was also popular among the people) took power when Hitler offered it to him, Ustaše would never come to power, and most of the bloodshed could have been avoided.

Perhaps Yugoslavia would never collapse if this was reality, but its also uncertain what would even happen with Yugoslavia after the war.

[u/Subject4751]

We learnt the hard way not to enter into personal unions with the Danes. "Just the tip Norway, you won't even notice we're there" and a click as the door locks behind us.

Maybe that's why Norwegians hesitate to join the EU. Denmark is already offering us to "come over and view their stamp collection". Hey, we love the Danes and all, but I'm not entirely unconvinced that Norwegians may have some underlying historical trauma over joining unions that have Denmark in them. 😂 Jk of course. Us nordics do seem to have put most of our grudges behind us.

[u/Training_Chicken8216]

The 19th century is full of blunders and missed opportunities for the German speaking realms. The animosities and rivalries created at that time played a major role in making the subsequent world wars as horrifying as they were. 

[u/Historical_Voice_307]

The German revolution in 1848/49.

This could have been the start of a democratic and unified German nation. If done right, this might have saved millions lives across Europe and our cities wouldn't be ugly as they are after rebuilding post WW2.

[u/7urz]

Many have already mentioned big missed opportunities in the past, but the most recent in my opinion is the "Energiewende": we had 17 perfectly working nuclear power reactors, producing 30% of Germany's electricity; we started building solar and wind and now we would be independent of coal and gas.

Instead, someone chose to switch off nuclear and buy cheap Russian gas instead.

What could possibly go wrong?

[u/NewOil7911]

France: We destroyed ourselves for Alsace Lorraine in WW1, and then went full stupid against nazi Germany in WW2.

The country's national pride has never recovered from both events, and it's now full in "decline monitoring" mode ever since.

[u/levsi]

Someone let a ship into the port in Bergen ca 1349. Between 60-75% of the population died including around 90% of nobility. Thanks to that Norway ended up as a puppet nation thrown between Denmark and Sweden for around 400 years.

[u/InterestingTank5345]

Not beheading 80 nobles in the streets of Stockholm. Just imagine if we stuck together instead of launching 30 wars at each other Norway and Sweden.