Web Animation / Possible History

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Possible History is, as the name suggests, a YouTube channel created by Dutch history student dedicated to Alternate History scenarios, as well as discussing other historical topics not often discussed. His first video was uploaded in August 2022, and he has more than 130K subscribers as of January 2024.

Also see Alternate History Hub, another channel focusing on Alternate History.

Possible History contains examples of...

• invokedAccidental Innuendo: In r/AlternateHistory Reddit Recap #1, the creator admits he didn't fully think out the title of What if WW2 Was a Three Way War? until one Reddit user edited it to become What if WW2 Was a Threesome?.
• Affectionate Parody: Interbellum; The Mistakes Of Versailles is one to Kraut, complete with the use of Polandball.
• All for Nothing: Greece in How My Viewers Messed Up the World After WW1. They end up losing every last one of their gains from WW1 after a combined Italo-Bulgarian-Ottoman war against them.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • The entirety of What If WW2 Was REENACTED In The Modern Day?, based on World War II taking place in the modern day with the countries swapped around. Ends up being Parodied in the ending as well, involving a Vietnamese YouTuber going on to create a video on what would have happened if World War III was reenacted in the modern day.
  • This trope is repeated in What if WW1 was REENACTED In The Modern Day? with World War I taking place in the modern day, with China being Imperial Germany, the United States being Great Britain, et al.
  • How Josip Broz Tito Formed The Fifth Rome has Not Not Adolf Hitler flee to Australia and become its prime minister before being killed by a Mossad shark agent. This acts as a direct parallel to Harold Holt, who disappeared in December 1967 while swimming and is believed to have either drowned or been killed in a shark attack, with conspiracy theorists also believing he was a Chinese spy.
  • Germany still launches an invasion of Russia in What if America went fascist because of the Titanic?, except here Germany is communist while Russia is under a far-right dictatorship.
• Alternate History Wank:
  • In the What If Everything Went Perfect? series, albeit limiting it to reasonably logical events and not (as he puts it) having France suddenly sink into the ocean.
  • Inverted in the What If Everything Went Terrible? series, similarly limited to logical events.
  • Pretty much any scenario resulting in global hegemony by one nation (Germany in Reichsadler's Nest and America in WW3 in 1949) also count by proxy.
• Ambiguous Syntax:
  • In "How Germany Can Win WW2" - According to Twitter he looks into two meanings of what the "demand Mussolini not to be a retard with Balkans" could be. Either it means that Germany just demands Italy to do better, or (the funnier meaning) Germany demands Italy not do any of their invasion plans for the time being.
• America Is Still a Colony: Subverted in What if the American Revolution NEVER Happened. If the revolution was successfully avoided through negotiations, America would eventually become a series of dominions not unlike Canada (even possibly one gigantic megastate).
• April Fools' Day:
  • For 2024, he did What if Everything went Terrible For Poland?... which is just real life history.
  • 2025 saw an entire April Fools month with the spotlight being put on Montenegro.
• A Rare Sentence: From What if the Taiping Rebellion Defeated The Qing?
  Possible History: The Taiping Rebellion was a wild story. A Chinese Christian theocratic absolute monarchy, under the leadership of the self-proclaimed brother of Jesus Christ revolted against the Qing Dynasty. Yes, you heard that right.
• Avoiding the Great War: What If WW1 Was Avoided In 1914?
• Balkanize Me: One possible scenario in Alternate WW1 Peacedeals sees Germany either lose the Rhineland, or be completely dissolved back into smaller states. The Ottoman Empire would undergo the same thing assuming the Turkish War of Independence never occurs.
• Bittersweet Ending: For What if America went Fascist because of the Titanic?, basically the only good thing that can be said is that the fascists have been mostly defeated (barring Italy and the French colonies). Other than that, China and America are now in open civil war, and Europe is near-entirely under communist (albeit not totalitarian) governments, with Britain now worried about the future of the world.
• invokedCliché Storm: Discussed in The Most Cliche Alternate History Map (an analysis of this Reddit post), in which he attempts to explain all clichés the single map includes.
• Christmas Episode: What If A Christmas MIRACLE Ended WW1?
• Darkest Africa: Subverted in What if Portugal Got All Of Africa In 1884? The amount of time it would take for Portugal to spread across would allow the African kingdoms to further develop than in OTL. By the time of World War I, many of them become regarded as too developed to colonize. Not to mention, when decolonization starts, the less rigid borders and more gradual collapse of their colonial empire would allow the countries to be better split across ethnic lines, ensuring less conflict in the future.
• David Versus Goliath:
  • What If Czechoslovakia Refuses To Give Up the Sudetenland? examines what would happen if Czechoslovakia refused to give up the Sudetenland. He notes that the German economy practically relied on the agreement happening, as it was bordering on collapsing due to the massive military build up that was occurring. The Wehrmacht also had little confidence in Hitler until the Munich Agreement, and were considering a coup if things went south. As a result, Czechoslovakia wouldn't even need to win in the war, just last long enough that the West either intervenes directly, or the Nazi government folds on itself.
• Detective Animal: Apparently a shark working for the Mossad, who kills Not Not Adolf Hitler while he is swimming as the Australian prime minister.
• Didn't Think This Through: In general, all the audience vote scenarios don't tend to take into account any balance of power or how nations would react to the treaty, almost always resulting in another continental/global conflict later on. The exception was the post-World War I treaties where, outside of Greece, Transcaucasia, Romania, and Japan eventually collapsing, the world manages to remain rather peaceful.
• Dramatic Irony: All the Future Predictions From X in Y videos run on this.
• Early-Installment Weirdness:
  • Some of his earliest videos made use of Polandball illustrations for thumbnails. Barring his Author Avatar, this was dropped quickly in favor of the country shapes.
  • Most maps earlier on were rather crude edits of stock maps found on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, until they were gradually replaced with custom maps.
  • Many of the first uploads were response videos to Whatifalthist (though all have since been delisted), as well as examinations of various Alternate History tropes (again, mostly delisted aside from one video on future Tsarist Russia tropes).
• Episode of the Dead: What If Stalin Commanded Zombies with Grigori Rasputin hijacking Stalin to command the zombies for himself. Also doubles as a Halloween Episode.
• Evil States of America:
  • Becomes this in What if America became fascist in the '40s? and What if America went Fascist because of the Titanic?, although the latter takes a lot longer to manifest.
  • In What if the North Seceded in 1860, the US continues slavery well into the 20th century and eventually devolves into this.
• Fictionalized Death Account: Diving Into R/AlternateHistory On Reddit - June 2023 includes a post where an earthquake strikes Vienna in 1913 and kills Sigmund Freud, Emperor Franz, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, Josef Stalin, and Adolf Hitler. He notes that this will mean World War I would need a different trigger unless Austria-Hungary decided to blame Serbia for the earthquake.
• invokedFridge Logic: Out-of-Universe in How Germany Can Win WW2" - According to Twitter, the narrator is confused on why "ignore Africa" is a part of the list, being under the idea that the continued German bombings of Royal Air Force targets would have meant a surrender meaning there shouldn't be an African front.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • What if Brazil Wasn't Poor?, in which the Brazilian emperor isn't overthrown and remains in power. Its international influence would be too low to cause any major effects; it would, however, be in a much better state than OTL, and be seen as an anti-imperialist empire by many African nations.
  • Could Germany Conquer The Soviet Union?, which focuses on whether the Soviets could defeat the Germans without the help of lend lease (made in response to people calling him biased for having the Soviets win WWII without American support). While the war would drag on for far longer and cause millions more casualties, the speed at which the Soviets could replenish their troops, in addition to the high resources they already have would make German defeat inevitable.
  • In spite of how much land Italy gains after World War I, Benito Mussolini will still likely rise to power thanks to the poor economic situation and Red Scare in Italy.
  • Even if Spain joined the Axis, it wouldn't push them to victory, nor delay the war by much longer or change the borders at all. At most, Franco's regime is overthrown in the 40s and the monarchy never gets restored later on.
  • What if Argentina Joined the Axis? is a bit of a Subversion. History would mostly place out until 1982 when there would be no Falklands War, meaning that Margaret Thatcher possibly wouldn't get a chance to get a second term as British prime minister due to a no massive boost to her popularity. The sheer Butterfly Effect this has on British politics leave it nearly unrecognizable compared to the current landscape.
• Irony:
  • What if America went Fascist because of the Titanic? has a few examples, such as a communist Germany invading an ultranationalist Russia, and the nationalist French government led by Petain (who in OTL led a collaborationist government in Vichy following the initial French surrender) fleeing to Africa.
• Historical In-Joke:
  • In How Josip Broz Tito Formed The Fifth Rome, Lee Harvey Oswald ends up being hired by the KGB to assassinate Dwight D. Eisenhower. In our history, Oswald attempted to apply for the KGB, but was rejected for being deemed untrustworthy by the Soviet Union.
• Historical Villain Downgrade: What if Tsar Nicolas II was competent? sees the Tsar industrializing his country far quicker and maintaining peace with Japan until the Great War. While it would still eventually undergo revolution and surrender, it would be a much more peaceful one that sees the country transition towards democracy, and the monarchy ultimately surviving on.
• Oppressive States of America: Overlapping with Evil States of America in the two fascist America scenarios and the North Seceding scenario.
• invokedPoe's Law: Discussed in An Amazing Timeline From The Comment Section, in which he's unsure if the America Takes Over the World timeline from a comment was legitimately serious or not.
• Master Race: Deconstructed in Future Predictions From Britain In 1938. Possible History notes that the West's treatment of Japan including the unfair trade deals, condemnation of the First Sino-Japanese War (specifically, the planned annexation of Liaodong Peninsula only for Russia to go ahead and annex it for themselves), rejection of a League of Nations law that would require all members to allow immigrants in their countries regardless of nationality, 3-for-5 naval treaty, and treatment as a minor nation during the Treaty of Versailles, was what ultimately lead it down the path of militarism and treating themselves as superior to everyone else.
  Possible History: Ever since Japan was forced to open up by the U.S., it had, from their perspective, been humiliated by the Europeans time and time again. Before, during, and after World War I.
• Mêlée à Trois: What if WW2 Was a Three Way War? pits the Allies versus the Axis versus the Soviet Union.
• Never Trust a Title: Lampshaded in What If The Taiping Rebellion Defeated The Qing?; as soon as the Qing is deposed, China would near instantly collapse into civil war, so the video is really about how the region would be if it collapse in 1860, and not 1916.
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: What if the UK Invaded the Netherlands in 2021? (Yes, really), which focuses on the UK considering an invasion of the Netherlands so they could get more vaccines during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• People's Republic of Tyranny:
  • What If the 1956 Hungarian Revolution Succeeded? is a Zig-Zagged example. Hungary becomes a democracy, albeit one that (due to pressure from the Soviet Union) ends up remaining firmly left-wing until the Hole in Flag revolutions,^note Which gets its page name from the 1956 revolution. not unlike the short lived Second Hungarian Republic of 1946-1949.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: What If Czechoslovakia Refuses To Give Up the Sudetenland? makes a point that the Czechoslovak nation had one of the best armed forces of Interwar Europe, one that ended up greatly benefitting Nazi Germany when it seized the nation in early-1939, enough so that it was nicknamed "the Arsenal of the Reich."
• Pyrrhic Victory:
  • What If Paraguay Became "the Prussia of Latin America" ends up being this for Paraguay. Most nations had sympathy towards the Triple Alliance and would invest much more heavily into them than Paraguay could ever dream of. If it joined World War I as part of the Central Powers, Argentina and Brazil would simply use the war as an opportunity to settle the score, and that's assuming that they wait that long to begin with.
  • What if Mexico "won" the Mexican-American War (or lost less hard) is a major one towards Mexico. Being an unstable nation, they have no way to effectively rule over their northern territories which are inevitably flooded by Mormons and American settlers illegally crossing the land (especially when gold rushes occur) that form de facto independent states. The video notes that their complete defeat and loss of northern lands was arguably beneficial for them in the long run since it at least meant the state could more easily consolidate control.
  • What if the Entente Won WW1 in 1916? is one for Russia specifically. Even though they won the war, they are now beset by massive debts towards France and Britain as well as now needing to manage even more territory filled with people who really do not want to be in Russia, which will invariably lead to the fall of the Tsar. Whether or not Russia would still see Red October is left ambiguous however.
  • Germany defeats Italy in What if Everything went TERRIBLE for the Axis?, but their annexation of Austria results in France immediately intervening and forcing them to release it under French supervision, meaning that both sides just fought a long war for nothing.
  • What if Iran won the Iran-Iraq War? has this for both Iran and America. Iran's victory in the war would just make America far more involved in isolating Iran's influence (with the support of Saudi Arabia), and America's war and nation-building in Iran would likely either cause them to simply adopt an anti-American policy, or completely collapse into total anarchy not unlike Iraq.
• Second Place Is for Losers: Constantly Lampshaded in What If We Had 1914 Borders In The Modern World. Even with all of her colonies and dominions and being the most populated country in the world by a long shot, Britain's economy would still only the third largest in the world behind the United States and China.
• Sliding Scale of Alternate History Plausibility: For the more serious scenarios (including ones with an otherwise ridiculous opening, they tend to be somewhere around Hard and Hard/Soft, although a few may occasionally slip into Soft, Utterly Implausible, or outright Alien Space Bats.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The videos focusing on utterly ridiculous scenarios tend to deconstruct the real life consequences:
  • Portugal would have a nightmare attempting to fully colonize Africa due to their limited size, meanwhile many European countries and their people are very vocal on wanting to break the congress and begin their colonization plans, particularly Germany. By the time this timeline's World War I ends, the Allies finally limit Portugal's spread on the continent due to promising former Ottoman Libya independence.
  • Germany and her people getting exiled to Kazakhstan in 1945 (based on a joke scene from this video) would see mass deaths from migration and with the region becoming an economic burden for the Soviet Union. By the time it gains independence, it becomes an undemocratic, authoritarian state, not unlike the other Central Asian states.
  • Even with all its superiority, the United States would be unable to conquer the world if everyone had declared war on them simultaneously. And that is not even getting into the massive economic crash that would dwarf the Great Depression.
  • Conversely, even if everything went perfectly for the German navy in What if Wilhelm II invaded the United States?, the American forces in the region would be too strong to fight against, ultimately making it an American victory. If anything, it'd effectively steer U.S. towards joining the Entente immediately when World War I breaks out.
  • If the Taiping Rebellion succeeded in overthrowing the Qing, China would near-instantly collapse into civil war while the Europeans colonize and influence the new warlords.
  • If the East China Sea was drained as shown in Diving Into R/AlternateHistory On Reddit - June 2023, it would lead to mass water shortages in China (whom would also annex Taiwan), as well as practically all Korean trade crashing and burning.
  • "How Germany Can Win WW2" - According to Twitter, which deconstructs a Twitter post. He notes how every single argument made barring maybe "ally with Slavs" would just backfire in Germany's face to the point of them losing the war faster than OTL. The only real change it would result in is a weaker USSR and Eastern Bloc.
• Suspiciously Small Army: Discussed in Future Predictions From Britain In 1938. Germany had a population of 68 million, but the Treaty of Versailles limited its army to 100,000 (about the same size as Belgium, whom had a population equal to 8 million in the same time period).
• Take That!:
  • In What if VIEWERS Carved Up Africa, he notes during the video that a certain group of people (i.e. those clearly wanting Imperial Germany to sweep the votes) kept attempting to rig it in their favour. Similar incidents with Ethiopia and Portugal resulted in the survey being redone.
  • He also makes it clear in What If EVERYONE Declared War On The US? about his dislike towards people seriously thinking the American military could defeat the whole world, followed by a thumbnail for an Infographics Show video popping up (in which they do defeat everyone).
  • The Reichadler's Nest is a much more blunt one towards Imperial German sympathizers with it disparaging their deliberate ignorance of German war crimes in the Great War and misinterpreting Wilhelm II's overtly imperialistic attitudes as being one of peace and defense.
• United Europe: Zig-Zagged in What If The European Union Was Founded During The Cold War?. The large authority the EU would have over its members would drive potential members away and join the UK's (potential) less strict alternative, with it either remaining an exclusive union for its founding members, or eventually reforming into a looser confederation.
• World War III: Muliple examples:
  • Breaks out during The Korean War in What if Douglas MacArthur Became President in 1948? after he authorizes dropping 50 atomic bombs on the Sino-Korean border.
  • Happens again in How My Viewers Caused WW3 In 1949 due to the viewers utterly screwing over Stalin.