What single decision had the greatest effect on history?

[Guest]

Aside from the obvious story of Eve eating the forbidden fruit and causing untold suffering afterward I will pick a more secular large event to focus on.

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Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and a member of the Argead dynasty. He spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, and he created one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the age of thirty, stretching from Greece to northwestern India. He was undefeated in battle and is widely considered one of history's most successful military commanders.

Fueled by success, substance abuse and drinking he decided upon sailing south down the Indus River where he fought a group called the Malli, becoming severely wounded after he himself led an attack against their city wall. After reaching the Indian Ocean he split his force in three. One element, with the heavy equipment, would take a relatively safe route to Persia, the second, under his command, would traverse Gedrosia, a largely uninhabited deserted area that no large force had ever crossed before. A third force, embarked on ships, would support Alexander's force and sail alongside them.

The Gedrosia crossing was a miserable failure with up to three-quarters of Alexander's troops dying along the way, his fleet being unable to keep up with them due to bad winds. "The burning heat and the lack of water destroyed a great part of the army and particularly the pack animals," Arrian wrote.

Why Alexander chose to lead part of his force through Gedrosia is a mystery. It could simply be because no one had ever attempted to bring such a large force through it before and Alexander wanted to be the first

He died on June 10, 323 B.C. in Babylon. there is still speculation over the exact cause of his death, it is likely that he expired after contracting Malaria or Typhoid fever. He made a fateful decision to NOT DECIDE upon an heir.When asked before his death who should succeed him … he simply said “To the strongest man”. History shows his empire crumbled into quarters over the next couple centuries.

Had he not died at 32 years of age he probably would have not only formed the World Power of his time and establish the Lingua Franca for hundreds of years afterward… BUT he might have actually succeeded in conquering all of Asia and Europe. His fateful decision? Heavy drinking and substance abuse.

In 30 B.C., after the last of these states (Ptolemaic Egypt) was conquered by Rome, the Roman Emperor Octavian went to see the body of Alexander. The great king had been dead for nearly three centuries but was revered by the Romans.

"He (Octavian) had a desire to see the sarcophagus and body of Alexander the Great, which, for that purpose, were taken out of the cell in which they rested and after viewing them for some time, he paid honors to the memory of that prince, by offering a golden crown, and scattering flowers upon the body," wrote Suetonius Tranquillus in the late first century A.D. (Translation by Alexander Thomson, through Perseus Digital Library)

What can we learn? Avoid indecision, heavy drinking and substance abuse.

[Melinda Mills]

It did not just depend on Alexander's  decision.  God has a say in these things.

Satan is the ruler of this world (1 John 5: 19) but Jehovah is the Supreme ruler in the kingdom of mankind (see scripture below)

(Daniel 4:34, 35) 34 “And at the end of the days I, Neb·u·chad·nezʹzar, lifted up to the heavens my eyes, and my own understanding began to return to me; and I blessed the Most High himself, and the One living to time indefinite I praised and glorified, because his rulership is a rulership to time indefinite and his kingdom is for generation after generation. 35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are being considered as merely nothing, and he is doing according to his own will among the army of the heavens and the inhabitants of the earth. And there exists no one that can check his hand or that can say to him, ‘What have you been doing?’

(Daniel 4:16, 17) . . .Let its heart be changed from that of a human, and let it be given the heart of a beast, and let seven times pass over it. ¹⁷ This is by the decree of watchers, and the request is by the word of the holy ones, so that people living may know that the Most High is Ruler in the kingdom of mankind and that he gives it to whomever he wants, and he sets up over it even the lowliest of men.”

 (Proverbs 21:1) A king’s heart is like streams of water in Jehovah’s hand. He directs it wherever He pleases.

Remember, too, that Jehovah said that Babylon was not be rebuilt, but Alexander had plans to do just that.

 

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

 

 

What single decision had the greatest effect on history?

I think it was arguably when the Dinosaurs "were just not working out...", and God dropped a big rock on what later came to be known as the Yucatan Peninsula.