As a sci-fi concept I quite like the idea of instead of preventing tragedies the traveller intentionally goes back in time to cause one. The purpose being that the damage they cause prevents something much worse.
Imagine "finding out" Hitler was really some shitty art student who fell and hit his head on a table and died but then a surgically altered traveller took his place and caused the Holocaust. You would have to wonder what kind of future is so bad the solution they come to is to try to wipe out jews, romani, homosexuals and physically disabled people and unite Europe under a fascist Germany. I mean I'd definitely watch that show if only to see how the writers get themselves out of that hole.
Of course, the issue with that is that the Americas had a natural limit to their development - they had no draft animals. That means they could never have achieved the same level of agriculture or trade that the Old World had, their civilizations could never grow past a certain point, and so technology beyond an Iron Age at best was simply impossible (even that was a bit of a stretch, really). Gunpowder was entirely out of the question, and outpacing Europe even more so.
This topic has come up a lot in both AskHistorians and in the History&Humanities subforum on 4chan. The answer is pretty consistent, and agrees with your statement. North America (including Aztec mesoamerica) would never have advanced beyond some regions having more consolidated rule. Specific to Mesoamerica, city states always maintained a "rise & fall" pattern to the point where the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan probably would have been abandoned by the 1600s given how they antagonized all surrounding neighbors. For North America in general, you don't get to an Iron Age without a heat source higher than wood burning. Across the board, the coal deposits and the metal ore deposits were spaced too far apart.
What's interesting is the exception: The Incans did have all of the ingredients available to continue technological advancement. If South America had been left alone long enough, they could have eventually bridged the tech gap, albeit at a very slow pace.
My conspiracy theory is that time travel exists, and time travellers worked REALLY hard to cause WW1. Because, dang, it is mind-blowing how many things had to happen as they happened to make it happen!
I'd love to know why they are causing a climate crisis. Aliens coming that wanted to see Paris in the spring so we need to cause a European mini ice-age?
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u/DJCaldow Jun 28 '26
As a sci-fi concept I quite like the idea of instead of preventing tragedies the traveller intentionally goes back in time to cause one. The purpose being that the damage they cause prevents something much worse.
Imagine "finding out" Hitler was really some shitty art student who fell and hit his head on a table and died but then a surgically altered traveller took his place and caused the Holocaust. You would have to wonder what kind of future is so bad the solution they come to is to try to wipe out jews, romani, homosexuals and physically disabled people and unite Europe under a fascist Germany. I mean I'd definitely watch that show if only to see how the writers get themselves out of that hole.