Name: Butterfly Effect
Uploaded: 2023-11-09T03:38:12.000Z
Description: Big movements of change that have often started with tiny events or personal decisions, and ended up affecting history.

Big movements of change that have often started with tiny events or personal decisions, and ended up affecting history.

Hatch Farm - Curiosity Stream

An exploration into what would be different in today's world if Alexander had not died at the age of 32, and had listened to advisers and returned to Macedonia instead of going on his worldwide conquest.

Alexander The Great

Speculating how things might be different if there had not been a Cold War and a space race.

Race To The Moon

Martin Luther King Jr.'s role in motivating change during the Civil Rights movement, and how the legacy of the Civil War still affects American democracy.

A Bus For Martin Luther King

Questioning what might have happened if Richard the Lionheart had not been wounded, or if Philippe Auguste of France had fled the battlefield.

King Philippe Of France And Richard The Lionheart Of England

Possible outcomes if Kong Qui, known in the West as Confucius, had been as opportunistic and corrupt as other officials.

Confucius And Chinese Thought

The impact the events of his childhood had on shaping the man who would become Genghis Khan, and how the Mongol invasions affected the history of Asia and the psyche of Europe.

Genghis Khan: The Empire Of The Steppes

The possible development of scientific conversation over the last 200 years had Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" never been published.

Darwin Discovers The World

The decisions of only a handful of individuals determined the course of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl and the impact it would have on the world.

Chernobyl: A Reactor Out Of Control

Japan's internal politics and the country's response to external influences can be traced back to the choices of two warlords and a decisive battle during the Edo Period.

Sekigahara: The Battle Of The Samurais

Albert Einstein's influence changed the face of war and the world when he chose to write to the President of the United States.

Einstein And The Manhattan Project

The untimely death of the Roman Emperor of the Western Empire, and the poor decisions of the Roman Emperor of the Eastern Empire, change the fortunes of the Roman army in its battle with the Goths.

Rome Vs. Barbarians

The possible outcome if the source codes for the Internet had remained with the U.S. military, rather than being released to the world.

Internet: The Origins Of The Web

Examining whether rock and roll would have evolved differently without the impact of Elvis Presley and other artists.

The Birth Of Rock

Unable to bring mob boss Al Capone to justice for many of the crimes ascribed to him, the U.S. government takes a new tack to end the rule of gangsters in the Depression.

Al Capone: Child Of Prohibition

In late Victorian England, women begin to organize to gain the right to vote in a struggle that lasts well into the early 20th century.

The Suffragettes: Battle For The Ballot Box

The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848 impacts the development of California and the history of the United States.

The Gold Rush: For A Fistful Of Nuggets

The encounter between Spanish conquistador and opportunist Hernan Cort©s and the indigenous peoples of Central America is one of history's tragic tales of greed, conflict, imperial weakness and superior weaponry.

Cortés At The Heart Of The Aztec Empire

The Cuban Missile Crisis becomes one of the defining moments of the mid-20th century and of the presidency of John F. Kennedy, bringing the USSR and USA to the brink of nuclear war.

Cuba: Nuclear Standoff

The Black Death, a disease that develops and kills within days, decimates Europe and changes the course of history.

Black Death: The Invisible Enemy

The story of fabled city Constantinople and its history of power and conflict through the ages.

Istanbul: From One Empire To The Other

The former Soviet Union's 1950s development of cotton-growing around the Aral Sea has proven to be an ecological nightmare.

Aral: A Sea For Cotton

The battle between the French and English for New France hinged on the presence of the British navy, and the battle on the Plains of Abraham is tipped to Great Britain by the trained soldiers of the British army.

The Fall Of Quebec: France Loses America

In the 17th century, rebellious members of the French Parliament, dubbed the Fronde, defy the monarchy.

The Fronde: An Overthrow Of The Power

One man succeeded in re-launching the Olympic spirit and turned the games into a global event.

The Olympic Games: A Mirror To Society

In the 15th century, inventor Johannes Gutenberg designed the moveable type printing press, a machine that would change the history of the entire world.

Gutenberg: A Visionary Inventor

The story of defending France against Hitler's invading army, to enable over 300,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force and Allied troops to be evacuated across the English Channel in 1940.

Dunkirk: Resist At All Costs

After successive failures at Moscow and Stalingrad, Germany goes on the offensive again in the spring of 1943 and clashes with the Soviet Red Army at Kursk, which is considered the greatest tank battle in history and a turning point of World War II.

Kursk: The Ussr Strikes Back

In 885, hundreds of Viking longships launch an assault on the Frankish Empire and the Norsemen besiege Paris.

Vikings: Assault On The Frankish Empire

The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes in the Gulf of Mexico April 20, 2010, causing a gigantic oil spill.

Deepwater: An Ocean Of Oil

In 1415, the Portuguese launch an era of explorations that lead to European discoveries around the globe and fierce competition between Britain and France for possession of North America and the West Indies.

Cook: In Pursuit Of The Southern Lands

French Gen. Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Egypt leads to 1799's chance discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which proves to be the key to deciphering ancient hieroglyphs, opening a window into Egyptian history.

Champollion: Unravelling The Mysteries Of The Stone

Young Indian lawyer Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is thrown off a train in South Africa for daring to sit in a first-class compartment in May 1893.

Gandhi: The Force Of Willpower

British officer T.E. Lawrence helps spearhead the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Lawrence Of Arabia: For A Fistful Of Sand

After several months on the run, South African black leader Nelson Mandela is arrested by police and imprisoned on Robben Island off Cape Town in 1962, beginning a long ordeal.

Apartheid: The Spiral Of Fear

After civil wars weaken the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar proclaims himself dictator for life. However, he is assassinated by Senate conspirators March 14, 44 B.C.

Augustus: Emperor Of The Republic

Founded as a Phoenician colony on the African coast, Carthage rises to dominate the Western Mediterranean until being challenged by Rome in a series of three Punic Wars.

Carthage: Rome's Rival

Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer and chemist James Watt's steam engine innovations power the Industrial Revolution.

Miners: Fodder Of The Industrial Revolution

Frenchman Denis Diderot becomes a prominent figure of the 18th-century Enlightenment and edits the groundbreaking Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts.

Encyclopedia: Dare To Know

Viet Minh forces fighting for independence in Indochina besiege French troops and score a decisive victory in 1954.

Butterfly Effect

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