People Imagine Which Historical Figures Would've Made A Bigger Impact If They'd Lived Longer

No matter who you are or where you come from, life is never long enough.

There will always be more to do and more to say.

Certain people's stories though are cut entirely too short.

Some people's impacts are enormous.

History is littered with what-ifs.

What if this person or that person had lived just a little longer?

Could the course of the world have changed?

All they needed was a little more time.

Redditor BeardedWonder8675309 wanted to take a sharp and sobering look at world history;

"What person would have made a bigger impact in the world if they had lived ten years longer?"

Follow the Numbers

"Évariste Galois."

"Mathematicians made significant contributions to maths. Died at age 20 in a duel. Worried that he would die in the duel, he wrote a letter the night before the duel with all the mathematical ideas he was working on."

- BadJimo

"If I was going with a mathematician, this would be my answer. He invented a whole new branch of mathematics and solved 3000-year-old family problems before he died. I took a grad course on Galois Theory, the hardest class I ever took, and it was in my general wheelhouse."

- fnord_too

The Unifier

"Henry V. He essentially succeeded in finally unifying England and France but died before the plan came to fruition. European and world history may have been wildly different had he not died of dysentery."

- AlexEmbers

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Tides of History

"Alexander the Great. He died very young and his power over the conquered territories wasn't properly consolidated. After his death, his empire fractured fast. Given more time he might have consolidated it more and chosen a good successor."

- millennial_link

"I’m actually listening to his era on Tides of History right now! Host Patrick Wyman was interviewing a historian (Prof Fred Naiden) who made an interesting point: that Alexander’s top generals — the folks who split his empire up upon his death, were largely each pretty capable administrators themselves. Combined with the preexisting Persian bureaucracy and maintenance of trade routes, it helped cement Hellenistic culture throughout Western and Central Asia for centuries."

"Counterfactual of course, but it’s actually quite possible his death helped usher in peace, which helps boost economies. He basically never stopped fighting, and that’s expensive and disruptive, and may eventually have led to rebellion. It seems that, while not all was rosy, the successor kingdoms were relatively stable for a pretty long period afterward."

- wbruce098

The Music Man

"Mozart. He died only 35 years old and still managed to create so much incredible music. Imagine all the music we would have had if he had lived longer."

- vidarfe

"Mozart influenced Beethoven. Imagine the synergy that could have happened if Mozart had lived long enough that they could influence each other or perhaps even collaborate!"

- ac54

"Came here to say, Mozart. He was really just hitting his stride, too. His Requiem was way ahead of its time. I figure if he lived even just ten more years, the kind of stuff he could have made, and the impact it would have had on the course of music, is crazy to think about."

- tuckkeys

Genius

- theassassintherapist

"Absolutely. To have his life and genius ended because the world was incapable of tolerating something as meaningless as homosexuality is one of our greatest sins as humans."

"I can only imagine how many geniuses we have lost because they seemed to break some arbitrary cultural norm stupid people had chosen mattered."

- kroghsen

"Absolutely, He is widely considered as 'Father of Modern computer science.' He designed and programmed the Ferranti Mark 1, the first commercially available multipurpose digital computer, and developed the Turing test and concepts for Artificial Intelligence in the early 1950s. He would likely have revolutionized Computer science and Artificial intelligence for the better if he had lived 10 more years."

- Cresomycin

Mr. President

"Abe Lincoln. The post-civil War era would have played out very differently. I believe he wanted to focus his integration of the newly freed slaves but instead, we got southern reconstruction and Jim Crow."

- Dreddlaw

Unsolved Problems

"Srinivasa Ramanujan. One of the greatest mathematicians in human history, and no one really knows why. He died extremely young and is still one of the single most impressive minds in all of history. I truly wonder what mathematics would be like with one of the absolute greatest and least understood minds in history still alive. So many questions about him remain unanswered."

- khamul7779

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The Unheard Music

"Buddy Holly. I reckon he could have been as big as Elvis if he hadn't passed away at 22."

- PublicClear9120

"What's intriguing is that before his death Buddy Holly and his wife moved to Greenwich Village, which was the epicenter for the growing folk movement. It's fascinating to think about what might have happened if he'd met up with Bob Dylan a few years later.
And it's also intriguing to think about what Waylon Jennings' career would have been like had Holly lived. Would they have started the outlaw country movement a decade earlier? The possibilities are endless."

- Aggressive_Class6259

All Lost

"Caesar - he had put in motion his plan to take on the Sassanid Persians. This alone would have had an unquantifiable impact on the rest of Human history. His reform agenda was also being implemented. He foresaw the problem Latifunda (large-scale proto-industrial farms run by slave labor) caused and was looking to reform those, land settlement in the Balkans for legionaries, etc. All these would have had a profound impact on how the world shaped up... all lost."

"I wouldn't put Napoleon here as he had been defeated and 10 more years would only mean misery in Helena."

"Raja Hemu - a strategic genius, he lost his life to a stray arrow in the only battle he lost in his life (even this he was winning 'til an 'arrow caught his eye'). That battle alone would have possibly ended any Mughal power in India. No Mughals have a humongous impact on world history and how it shaped up."

- ilma420

Superpower

"Fred Hampton. Our greatest superpower is unity; he brought everyone together for good purposes."

- bahamapapa817

"I was about to come and say this."

- TheNerdDown

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Star Wars

"Qui-Gon Jinn."

- Cookiecrisp_Bandit

"It seems like a small change but would have likely changed SW dramatically. He was never a friend of the Jedi council and their dogma. It's why he chose to never be part of it and do his own thing while being the most powerful Jedi master of the time. If Qui-Gon was still alive Yoda and his teachings to abandon all love for Anakins mother would have played out differently. As would have how to deal with emotions like rage which pushed Anakin closer to the dark side even before the death of his mother."

- Cirenione

A Different White House

"JFK seems like an obvious answer if for no other reason than his job at the time of his death."

- RUKnight31

"JFK I believe would have kept us out of Vietnam had he lived. One of our most tumultuous periods, the 60’s would have been so different without that War."

- Know_nothing89

"The evidence suggests that JFK along with Kruschev would have pushed for a detente between their respective nations. How this would have looked in regard to Vietnam is debatable. A thawing of Cold War hostilities in the 60s would have been very interesting in regards to its impact on both Soviet politics during the 1970s and 1980s as well as the resurgence of right-wing American politics that we see under Nixon and Reagan."

"Current American right-wing politics are, in many ways, the natural culmination of Reagan’s rhetoric and policies. It’s quite possible that both Russia and the United States would be more moderate politically today, had JFK not been assassinated."

- Bucksandreds

England's Rose

"Princess Diana. She was making waves already and changing how everyone viewed people with AIDS and was generally viewed as down-to-earth. I'm curious how the royal family would’ve changed had she been alive."

- Qaeoss

"I feel like she is the legend that she is today because she died young and people made her a martyr. Had she stayed alive or if she were alive today I think she would have probably begun to lose the spotlight as she started to age."

- Accomplished-Cap6833

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The Animal Lover

"Steve Irwin."

- WibblywobblybitsyWho

"If it helps, his son has carried on most of his conservation work and has a big following on social media teaching about the various animals he encounters. He’s even doing some shows soon in the original 3 croc ponds his dad used to do shows in. It’s very cool to see the same passion for animals, conservation, and education continued by his son."

- MastarQueef

Laugh it Up

"George Carlin. He would have had a field day with politics today. If not him, Bill Hicks."

- rdewalt

"As a massive George Carlin fan, I would honestly give it to Bill Hicks. Carlin lived a full life. 72 isn't much today but had he been given 10 years more it is very likely that mental decline would set in as it does for most people in their 70s. Bill Hicks was only 32 when he died. In many ways, he was still maturing as a comic when he died. Letting him mature would have been incredibly interesting as he most likely would just get sharper."

- OceanBlueSeaTurtle

Well, this was a nice history lesson.

I wish we were taught more about a lot of these people.