Here they are:

1. What if Prussia is defeated by Austria, and Germany never forms
2. What if the Byzantines won the Battle of Manzikert (Turkish forces overran the Byzantines, and they ended up losing most of inland Turkey in real life)
3. What if China remained an empire?
4. What if the USA never bought Alaska?

1) If Austria, a greater Germany would form.
2) Byzantines would last a bit longer.
3) If China remained independent by following the Japanese model, the Japanese empire would not have gone to war with China, and the Japanese may have survived.
4) America would not have Alaskan oil w/o Russia. US and Soviet tensions would have been high. Palin would not have been governor.

4) We'd have a damn odd flag.

1. South Germany would become more under Austrian influence, and eventually, an isolated North Germany could be conquered/come into high influence/unite with greater Bayern-Östereich.
3. Most the Qing dynasty seemed pretty incompetent, though the republicans were even worse. So I think possibly a China that has had a one-child policy for a longer time, with perhaps 3/5 the power it has now, and fighting Japan, Japan would advance more easily.

4) We'd have a damn odd flag.

How does Alaska influence the American flag?

Edited 11/18/2015 03:39:37

The stars in the top left corner of the US flag represent the 50 states of the country. Without Alaska, there would be only 49 states and therefore 49 stars in the corner, an odd number, hence my bad pun.

I honestly think that part of why we made Hawaii a state was so we had an even number of them.

EDIT: There are also 13 stripes, another odd number.

Edited 11/18/2015 03:57:58

Why could not they just make a state instead of Alaska, like Puerto Rico or just split California?

Puerto Rico's economy is tourist-based only, from what I know, and to split California, the state itself would need to agree to it. The only time this happened to a state was with Virginia (split with West Virginia), and that was during the Civil War. California sees no reason to split itself.

1. Austria would be a Major Power Player in Europe for the 20th Century
2. ??? (still have to look it up)
3. Japan could possibly conquer China and even last well into the 21th Century
4. Alaska could become Independent or will remain part of Russia and even be admitted as a Republic in the USSR

Edited 11/18/2015 05:00:49

Puerto Rico's economy is tourist-based only, from what I know,

Why does that matter?

and to split California, the state itself would need to agree to it.

Make them agree.

Other possible states, Guam and vicinity, American Samoa, American Virgin. (they're not very well populated, but the population of the least populated state, Wyoming, is 600.000? Puerto Rico: 3.700.000; Guam vicinity: 200.000, Virgin Islands: 100.000. And what happened before Alaska was a state?

Alaska and Hawaii became states on the same day(So we had 48 states before). Wyoming is a state due to the fact that it used to have a larger population, as Chyenne used to be an actual city, this applies to most states with low populations.

Puerto Rico is thought to be the candidate to become the 51st state, it just requires a large number of legal hurdles to create a state. Republicans would most likely oppose Puerto Rico, as it is a heavily democratic district, and as such probably fall at the legal hurdles.

Guam and other Islands are not currently under consideration to become a state.

Finally, most states are added in pairs, as the US is generally polar, and as such to maintain senate balance, both parties agree to add new states in pairs.

Why could not they just make a state instead of Alaska, like Puerto Rico or just split California?

The US Government doesn't create new states to make sure the flag has an even amount of stars.