If time travel is possible, the 5 disastrous events in world history that Humans would like to undo.

Hello Folks! For many years humans have been trying to figure out whether time travel is possible or not. There are many theories, sci-fi movies, and books on time travel. But time travel is yet to become a reality.

I have been thinking that what if time travel is possible? There must be so many things we want to be undone in our past. We may want to undo our past mistakes such as bad career choices, mistakes done in our relationships, etc. if we can time travel to our past.

Similarly, there are so many past events in world history that change the course of the world and mankind certainly wants to undo them, if given a chance, probably by time travel.

In this blog, we will see five major events from world history that surely need to be undone. So, keep scrolling.

1. World War II (1939-45)

Source: Wikimedia Commons

World War –II, which was fought from 1939 to 1945, was the largest and deadliest war in which more than 50 nations fought on land, air, and sea for six long years. The war started on 1 September 1939 when Germany, led by Hitler, invaded Poland; and two days later Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

The war was fought between Axis Powers led by Nazi Germany, the Empire of Japan, and the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies whose principal members by the end of 1941 were the United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, and China.

World War II grew mostly because of the issues that were left unresolved after the Great War (World War I) and the repercussions of the Treaty of Versailles. Due to political and economic instability in Germany, and lingering resentment over the harsh terms imposed by the Versailles Treaty, Adolf Hitler was able to rise and became Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He believed in the supremacy of the German race which he called “Aryan,” and that war was the only way to gain the necessary “Lebensraum,” or living space.

It was believed that World War II took 60 to 80 million lives which also includes 6 million Jews who were killed by Hitler-led Nazis during the Holocaust. More than this, World War II also led to the development of the atom bomb by Nuclear physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer in the Manhattan Project. The nuclear bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August 1945 and 9 August 1945, respectively, marked the end of the world war.

There is no doubt that World War II changed the course of history. It led to the Cold War (1947-1991) between two powerful powers left after World War II, the USA and the Soviet Union, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and the advancement of arms and warfare. As of 2023, nine global powers, the United States, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea, have nuclear weapons. Many geopolitical tensions of the present times may also be attributed to the aftermaths of the Cold War.

What will happen if another global war breaks out in the future? Well, we have all reasons to believe that another global war, like the previous world wars, will be a nuclear war and may cause the extinction of humanity and most of the biological life on the earth.

We can see how World War II changed the course of history and therefore, if humans could travel in the past, they would like to prevent World War from happening, by course-correcting the Treaty of Versailles, which many historians believed led to the resentment in Germany, by preventing the rise of Hitler in Germany. Well, this a detailed topic for discussion but I believe, if time travel is possible, mankind would do anything to prevent World War II from happening.

2. Slavery (Early History to 1948)

Slavery was a condition where one person was owned by another person and was deprived of most of the rights and freedom generally enjoyed by a free person. Slavery is believed to have existed since the beginning of recorded history and was practiced all over the world.

In most cases, slavery was usually involuntary and the slave was deprived of liberty and human rights. There were many ways slaves were generated such as through wars, offspring of slaves, as a punishment for crime or debt, and through trading of women and children by their relatives.

In recorded history, slavery was of two types. The first one was ‘Domestic Slavery’ where the enslaved persons served their owners in their homes or wherever their owners wanted. Another form of slavery was ‘Productive Slavery’ where slaves were used to produce marketable commodities like slaves used in plantation or mining.

Almost in every part of the world slavery existed during the same and/or different periods. It had various variants also such as serfdom which was most common in medieval Europe among the land owners.

As slavery was as old as recorded history, the attempts to abolish slavery were also as old as ancient history. For example, Ashoka, who ruled the Maurya Empire in the Indian subcontinent from 269 to 232 BCE, abolished the slave trade.

The Qin dynasty, which ruled China from 221 to 206 BC, abolished slavery and discouraged serfdom. However, many of its laws were overturned when the dynasty was overthrown. In the United States, in 1863 slavery was abolished by Abraham Lincoln.

In 1839, the world’s oldest international human rights organization, Anti-Slavery International, was formed in Britain by Joseph Sturge, which campaigned to outlaw slavery in other countries. However, after the Second World War, the United Nations (UN) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declared freedom from slavery as an internationally recognized human right.

The history of slavery is vast and cannot be completed in a small blog. However, it is one the cruelest practices humans used to practice where one man treats another human being as an animal. Atrocities against any man, woman, or child should not be acceptable to any human being and definitely, need to be abolished. The effects of slavery can still be seen in modern societies. Racism, and casteism in India, are still visible in the modern era. If a man could change his history and undo slavery, who knows the present world would have more equality and less stratified society.

3. Climate Change

Yeah, climate change is real and we have to accept it. In 1985, three scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) discovered an ozone hole above Antarctica, which shocked the world. However, before this discovery, numerous studies had already discussed the topic of climate change.

In 1938, a steam engineer named Candell discovered that global temperatures had risen by 0.3°C over the previous 50 years, likely due to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from industry. Unfortunately, his discovery was mostly ignored.

In 1958, Charles David Keeling, a young postgraduate geochemist, reported that CO2 concentrations were rising, which he attributed to the use of fossil fuels.

Similarly, in 1968, Dr John Mercer, a glaciologist at Ohio State University in Columbus, warned that global warming could cause Antarctic ice sheets to collapse, leading to a disastrous rise in sea levels.

These were some of the few significant findings which suggested that global warming and climate change are real. However, the first significant steps taken to address climate change were taken in 1987 when in the Montreal Protocol a call for reduction and then a total ban on CFCs (Chlorofluorocarbons), which were responsible for Ozone depletion, was made.

Later in 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Later in 1994 the first international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was ratified by 197 countries to limit greenhouse gas emissions and prevent climate change. Since then, many steps have been taken to face the challenge of climate change.

Despite that, climate change has become one of the biggest threats to the Planet Earth. In 2021, it was confirmed that many aspects of climate change are inevitable and irreversible. Scientists believe that by 2040 the global temperature will increase by 1.5°C from the pre-industrial levels. This will lead to more heatwaves, intense storms, droughts, and floods.

I agree that these days, climate change is being taken seriously. Alternatives to fossil fuels are being considered. Steps are being taken for carbon reduction. But, is it too little too late? Well, it appears so.

Therefore, if time travel is possible then Humans would want to travel in the past so that they can at least slow down the process of climate change if can’t prevent it. Had the steps that are being taken now, such as the development of electric vehicles, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, reliability on solar power and wind energy, etc., been taken 50 years ago, we definitely would have a better climate in 2023.

4. Atomic Bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (1945)

As discussed above, the Second World War was the deadliest fought in the history of mankind. During the final stages of this war, America detonated two atomic bombs (Little Boy and Fat Boy) over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 August 1945 and 9 August 1945.

These bombings killed 1,29,000 to 2,26,000 people, mostly of them civilians. This was the first and only instance of the usage of nuclear warfare in an armed conflict. Atom Bombs were developed by Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer in 1945 as a part of the American atomic program known as the Manhattan Project.

Apart from a huge number of instant killings, those who survived these bombings, also known as Hibakusha, had to suffer the aftermath of the Acute Radiation Syndrome. In the 1987 Life Span Study, conducted by the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, a statistical excess of 507 cancers, of undefined lethality, were observed in 79,972 hibakusha who had still been living between 1958 and 1987 and who took part in the study.

The hibakusha’s stories depict the horror and suffering they endured, including physical and psychological trauma, loss of loved ones, and enduring health consequences that have haunted generations.

It is still a debatable issue whether the atomic bombing by the Americans was legal and ethical. Many argue that this bombing was necessary to end the war. However, many people also believed that the use of the atomic bomb was immoral and equivalent to a war crime.

It is important to ensure that such a tragedy never occurs again. This event is a dark stain on humanity, and if time travel is possible, humans would undoubtedly want to undo this horrific attack.

5. The Holodomor (1932-33)

The Holodomor was inarguably one of the biggest blots on mankind. The Holodomor, also known as The Great Ukrainian Famine, was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930-33. It is believed that the soviet famine of 1930-33 was the result of rapid soviet industrialization and collectivization of agriculture. However, when it reached Ukraine, starvation was selectively weaponized and the famine was “instrumentalized” and amplified against Ukrainians for their fight for independence.

Some scholars also argue that it was one of the biggest acts of genocide. Whether this was an act of genocide or not is a debatable issue but the cruelty of the soviet regime under the leadership of Josef Stalin on Ukrainians cannot be denied. He refused to provide any relief to the Ukrainians. He diverted the food shipment away from Ukraine and even confiscated the food that was available to them.

According to historians, 7 million to 10 million people lost their lives during the period 1932 to July 1933. Instances of widespread ‘cannibalism’ during Holodomor were also documented. The cannibalism was mostly necrophagous, i.e., feeding on corpses. The murder of children for food was also common. The police also documented cases of children being kidnapped, killed, and eaten.

The event of the Holodomor is considered a genocide by Ukraine and the European Parliament. Even the lower house of parliament of Russia condemned this event. In 2003 at the UN 25 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, and the United States signed a joint statement on the seventieth anniversary of the Holodomor with the following Preamble.

“In the former Soviet Union millions of men, women, and children fell victim to the cruel actions and policies of the totalitarian regime. The Great Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor), took from 7 million to 10 million innocent lives and became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people. In this regard, we note activities in observance of the seventieth anniversary of this Famine, in particular, organized by the Government of Ukraine.

Honoring the seventieth anniversary of the Ukrainian tragedy, we also commemorate the memory of millions of Russians, Kazakhs, and representatives of other nationalities who died of starvation in the Volga River region, Northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan, and in other parts of the former Soviet Union, as a result of civil war and forced collectivization, leaving deep scars in the consciousness of future generations.”

(Source: Wikipedia)

We must never forget the horrors of the Holodomor. This is definitely one of the biggest crimes done by humans against humans. Therefore, if time travel is possible, man would like to undo this harrowing event.

Conclusion

Well, these are some of the biggest blots on mankind. The list may include many more events like the Crusades, the Black Death, the First World War, or the forced extinction of many species. But this is my list which I think man would definitely want to undo if time travel is possible.

At present ‘Time-Travel’ is merely a fiction or wild imagination. We also don’t know whether time travel will be possible in the future. Therefore, it is unlikely that this event can be undone by traveling in the past. But we can learn from these events and can make every possible effort the make sure that such events do not occur in the future. But are we learning?