Alternate history scenarios you've never seen that would be interesting to explore

[FPLOON]

What if that one episode of The Boondocks involving MLK actually did happen?
What if all the dinosaurs from the prehistoric times did evolve enough to the point that they're still living among us?
What if nerd/geek culture still haven't reached mainstream knowledge nowadays?

...Those are the only ones I can think of off the top of my head... that didn't involve porn, I guess...

 

[Colour Scientist]

Normally I'd go "What if Archduke Franz Ferdinand did not get killed" but I changed it...

Since you are not taking it, I will. The murder of Archduke Ferdinand triggered one the most transformative periods in Western history, and it was triggered by a single man in a very unlucky series of coincidences. If it wasn't for it, there would be no WW 1, no WW 2, no UE or UN, and we would live in something closer to the Victorian era.

That's a pretty simplistic view to take.

The assassination of Ferdinand may have been the spark but there were multiple factors that caused the outbreak of World War One. Europe was at boiling point and the assassination was what tipped it over the edge.

If he had never been killed, I imagine something else would have set it off.

 

[TheSYLOH]

Well this is one WW2 variant thats not discussed often...
What if we mixed up the alliances.

What if it was Nazi Germany + US vs Russia + Japan

A US-Nazi coalition was possible, Hitler could have twisted his ideology to include the Americans as exemplars of the master race.
US ignored lots with Russia, they could be convinced that the threat of Communism would be greater than Facism.
People like JFK's father were nazi supporters.
Also historically Britain and France have never been friends.

So this could all start with a Nazi forces invading France and Britain remaining neutral.
Pearl Harbor happens as normal for the same reasons.
Nazi germany withdraws from its alliance citing Japanese aggression invalidating their defense requirement, moves to increase ties with the US.
Russia counters by strengthening it's neutrality pact pact with Japan to a full alliance.
WW2 ensues...


Rather interesting, with America vs Russia in a pre-nuclear weapon war.

Which ever side wins we get a very different Cold War.

For example, suppose Nazi/US victory.
What would the civil rights movement look like if a central tenant of your cold war opposition is racism.
The civil rights group in our reality was dogged by accusations of communism, what would it look like if they were sticking it to Hitler?

 

[hermes]

Normally I'd go "What if Archduke Franz Ferdinand did not get killed" but I changed it...

Since you are not taking it, I will. The murder of Archduke Ferdinand triggered one the most transformative periods in Western history, and it was triggered by a single man in a very unlucky series of coincidences. If it wasn't for it, there would be no WW 1, no WW 2, no UE or UN, and we would live in something closer to the Victorian era.

That's a pretty simplistic view to take.

The assassination of Ferdinand may have been the spark but there were multiple factors that caused the outbreak of World War One. Europe was at boiling point and the assassination was what tipped it over the edge.

If he had never been killed, I imagine something else would have set it off.

Probably, if it wasn't that specific line of events, the black hand could have triggered a local uprising in Sarajevo and maybe there would be another war for power between Germany and France like the Franco-Prussian war fifty years before (a localized war that lasted less than a year and where less than a million people were killed in both armies combined, with minimal changes in the landscape afterwards).

Instead, that assassination (the murder of an heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the Kingdom of Serbia) dominoes enough countries and international alliances that faced all the powers in a war on a scale unlike anything the world has seen before (almost 40 million people killed, about half of them on the winning side, with thousands dying in a day, every day). That changed the face of the world, marking the beginning of the modern age, with USA rising as the new power, four mayor empires collapsing, enough health problems to cause the deadliest epidemic disease in history, and enough unresolved issues to allow the rise of Nazism and World War 2.

And yes, Europe political landscape was enough of a boiling plate that a war could have been trigger in some place, but its hard to imagine one with such incredibly large repercussions that are felt even today. I am sure Gavrilo Princip didn't expect his actions could trigger such an domino effect, but to me, that is a testament of the consequences the actions of a single person can have, intentionally or not. Funniest thing about that assassination was that it was the result of a series of coincidences itself: Ferdinand didn't schedule to make that stop, the chauffeur tried to take a shortcut he didn't know and Princip wasn't expecting the Archduke in that place.