Web Animation / Possible History

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...

• Affectionate Parody: Interbellum; The Mistakes Of Versailles is one to Kraut, complete with the use of Polandball.
• 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. Parodied in the ending where a Vietnamese YouTuber goes on to create a video on what would have happened if World War III was reenacted in the modern day.
• Alternate History Wank: Enforced in the What If Everything Went Perfect? series, albeit limiting it to logical events and not (as he puts it) having France suddenly sink into the ocean.
• 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: The entirety of 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.
• 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.
• 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 ironically allow the African kingdoms to further develop than in OTL. By the time of World War I, many of them have grown massively and are 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.
• Dramatic Irony: All the Future Predictions From X in Y videos run on 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 get delayed unless Austria-Hungary decided to blame Serbia for the earthquake.
• 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.
• 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 monarch ultimately surviving on.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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, being the most populated country in the world by a long shot, Britain's economy would still be in third place behind the United States and China.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The videos focusing on utterly ridiculous scenarios tend to focus on this.
  • 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, 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; combined with that would be the massive economic crash that would occur, easily dwarfing 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 actually be a major embarrassment towards the Kaiser and further steer the U.S. towards the Entente's side 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.
• 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).
• United Europe: Subverted in What If The European Union Was Founded During The Cold War?. The large authority the EU would have over its members would drive potentional members away and join the UK's less strict alternative, with it either remaining an exclusive union for its founding members, or eventually reforming to have less power.