Alternative History – the Opium War
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Alternate history
If the British did not export opium to China
The opium war was seen as a start of modern China’s humiliated history. In order to make money, British exported opium which grew in their India colony. Before the export, China was still a strong power in the world. It had strong army, but not many advanced weapons as its closing door policies. However, opium weakened the country from inside to outside. Common people spent thousands of money on buying opium. Even soldiers started to eat opium, which was devastating for a country’s military power. Weakened by opium, China was defeated again and again, losing its face completely, and becoming the half feudalism half colonialism area. So the opium and the opium war was quite important to China’s history.
If China was not completely weakened by the opium, the soldiers would not behave like sheets of paper or sets of bones. The Qing dynasty was almost at its end, and China would go into internal turmoil. Probably foreign powers will interfere like they did in other countries’ government. British might still be that foreign power, but at that time they might not send troops and invade directly. Instead, they probably took China like they did in India, support one prince in local civil war. The short term effect of no opium is the health and strength of army and common people. Also Chinese maintained their wealth. The long term effect would be China colonized by Britain or other foreign power, but not by eight countries together. The corruptive and weak Qing government can no longer maintain the country. So China no matter how would go into turmoil.
If Cuba Missile Crisis
The Cuba Missile Crisis was a turning point in the cold war, as it made USSR realize the importance of exploring atomic weapons, and made the world realize how horrible if atomic weapons were used in wars. The event stands in history as one that nearly brought humanity to the brink of destruction and is known as the single greatest political battle between two super powers. The Cuba Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the USA and the USSR concerning American ballistic missile depl0yment in Italy and Turkey wit consequent Soviet ballistic missile deployment in Cuba. This event was marked as a turning point because after the crisis, cold war began to thaw. The cold war did not end, but the two super powers did not continue to wage a tit-for-tat struggle.
If Kennedy and Khrushchev started war directly, the nuclear war would affect the whole world. In short term, the nuclear war would explode. Both countries would shoot their atomic bombs to their enemies’ important cities. The alliance countries of the two superpower would be drawn into the war. It would be WWIII. In long term, the nuclear weapons had devastating effect on the planet’s