Do you think the world would be significantly different if one or more of the following people had not been killed prematurely?

romkey...yes, I had a hard time wording the question. By prematurely I meant "before they would have died of natural causes," or maybe "before they might have been expected to die."

The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand by Serbians is usually considered the match that lit the flame of WWI.

I wonder if something else wouldn't have started WWI even if Archduke Ferdinand was not killed when he was.

i have to believe it would be "all of the above"...... the world would be significantly different for someone, if not all of us; if these people hadn't been killed/died "prematurely." any change in our history would affect someone!

prematurely is an odd word here; they were killed when they died...

the main ones I'm thinking would have had a lot more influence would have been JFK, MLKjr and Malcolm X... but I'm not familiar with Ferdinand.

*** hunter - my high school history classes kinda glossed over the whole 20th centry, I've been piecing it together ever since :(

Yitzhak Rabin, Julius Caesar, Louis XVI.

Steven Biko?

I knew everyone but Biko. And yes, the death of each of these people caused social and political repercussions.

how about 'yes'. we would be living in a world that would be different in ways that we really can't imagine because these people were killed and we don't know what impact if any they would have had throughout their lives. btw, who is Steven Biko?

Yes. What reality said.

A companion question could be "do you think the world would be significantly different if one or more of the following people HAD been killed prematurely?" Nelson Mandela, for example, or the Shah of Iran...

Gee, I still miss Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper!

I just don't know. I will say that Ferdinand is the one, out of all the list, that I specifically think would NOT have made a big difference--I cannot believe that his death started a war. It may have precipitated a war, but that war was there, ready to be started, and if it hadn't been him it would have been something else.

Steven Biko was a South African (ANC?) activist who died in police custody.

Why does this survey make my head hurt? I don't know enough about what was going on before WWI to know whether or not events would've still led to war without Ferdinand dying. In the case of the others who were involved in movements (Biko, MLK, Ghandi, Malcolm X) I think their deaths speeded the changes they were working toward. So, had they lived longer, perhaps it would've taken longer to end segregation, & aphartied, and get the British out of India.

...but isn't it the ideas these people stood for that mattered more. In some cases they were just in the right place at the right/wrong time (if it wasn't them, it would have been someone else that the focus was put on).
I agree with Kadai about the martyrdom effect. ...though, I think MLK's death was less important than his beautiful/powerful speeches. "I have a dream..." - that must have changed the world (moved the hearts of millions away from racism).

I think Lincoln, (M) Gandhi, (JF) Kennedy, and King would have gone on to make a difference in the world. I think this is less true of Malcolm X and (maybe) Steven Biko but that in these cases as well as the first four, their event of their deaths had a major effect on the course of history. I don't particularly think that the other deaths had any more of an effect on history than the death of any other prominent person would have, or that they were really in a position to change history themselves. And having studied the subject extensively I particularly don't think that Ferdinand's death really had anything to do with World War I, popular perception notwithstanding.

cpierson: yes, Rabin is right up there with Kennedy.

You mean, as opposed to their being killed on schedule?
I'm pretty skeptical about the "heroes and villains" school of history, so in general I'd have to say "No." I could be convinced otherwise.

an interesting story by Isaac Asimov, And he walked around the... (something i can't remember) discusses the causes of WWI leading back to the American Revolution. If any of you have read it or can find it from what i remember about it, it's an interesting story

In a few years, you should mention Princess Di

MJF100, how do you think her absence affects the world? Perhaps if her sons become influential figures, one might argue that they were shaped in part by her and by her death and absence. I could also see an argument that she had a role in the re-popularlizing of the monarchy, but it's unclear to me that wouldn't have happened without her, and possibly in a more healthy way. Otherwise, I don't really see her as having been particularly influential.

All of the above.

We are stardust, we are golden and we got to get ourselves back to the garden.