I'm sure others have posted this question, but are there any major events of history that would sound to you like a straight up deus (or diabolus) ex machina were you to see them written in a timeline posted on this forum?
Here are a few examples I would put out:
A foiled assassination is salvaged just because the Archduke's driver changed course and ran into one of the perpetrators.
A collection of Atlantic colonies with different agaendas recceives aid from the Old World and not only defeats the preeminent naval power of the day, but goes on to expand singlehandedly across the continent and eventually dethrone Europe as the world's major imperial power.
For centuries, the Emperor of Japan did not rule in the same sense as other monarchs but instead was the systematic puppet first of a decadent court that allowed for the rise of countryside feudalism and then of successive series of hereditary feudal lords, not one of which attempted to buck tradition and establish their own dynasty on the Chrysantheum Throne.
The French revolution does not end with a broken France under a foreign imposed government or a simple military dictatorship, but instead ends up in the hands of a military genius who revolutionizes the nation-state, the laws of Europe and the art of warfare.
The Bourbon heir to the French throne refuses his position over a petty dispute over whether the restored kingdom would use the tricolor or the royal standard, with the legislature even ruling out a compromise flag that the heir himself designed.
China and the British Empire fight two wars caused by opium addiction.
The kingdom of Macedon unites the polises into a single force that takes down the Achaemenid Empire and beyond in just a decade.
Imperial Germany knowingly kickstarts the Bolshevik Revolution by allowing Lenin free passage into Russia.
The Mongolian independence movement is aided by a deranged warlord with dreams of being the next Genghis Khan.
American money is sent to aid Mao Zedong due to him taking credit for Chinese victory over the Japanese.
The last emperor of China is allowed to live in his palace after the 1911 Revolution as a local curiosity.
The west experiences a rise in comedian populist candidates as of the late 2010s.
Here are a few examples I would put out:
A foiled assassination is salvaged just because the Archduke's driver changed course and ran into one of the perpetrators.
A collection of Atlantic colonies with different agaendas recceives aid from the Old World and not only defeats the preeminent naval power of the day, but goes on to expand singlehandedly across the continent and eventually dethrone Europe as the world's major imperial power.
For centuries, the Emperor of Japan did not rule in the same sense as other monarchs but instead was the systematic puppet first of a decadent court that allowed for the rise of countryside feudalism and then of successive series of hereditary feudal lords, not one of which attempted to buck tradition and establish their own dynasty on the Chrysantheum Throne.
The French revolution does not end with a broken France under a foreign imposed government or a simple military dictatorship, but instead ends up in the hands of a military genius who revolutionizes the nation-state, the laws of Europe and the art of warfare.
The Bourbon heir to the French throne refuses his position over a petty dispute over whether the restored kingdom would use the tricolor or the royal standard, with the legislature even ruling out a compromise flag that the heir himself designed.
China and the British Empire fight two wars caused by opium addiction.
The kingdom of Macedon unites the polises into a single force that takes down the Achaemenid Empire and beyond in just a decade.
Imperial Germany knowingly kickstarts the Bolshevik Revolution by allowing Lenin free passage into Russia.
The Mongolian independence movement is aided by a deranged warlord with dreams of being the next Genghis Khan.
American money is sent to aid Mao Zedong due to him taking credit for Chinese victory over the Japanese.
The last emperor of China is allowed to live in his palace after the 1911 Revolution as a local curiosity.
The west experiences a rise in comedian populist candidates as of the late 2010s.