What are the greatest examples of the butterfly effect / chaos theory in history?

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One of the greatest butterfly effects in history is in 1171, when some Tatars decide to poison a local clan chief.

How can this be a big deal, stuff like this happens all the time in the Steppes of Siberia. Well, it drove his family to live in poverty, and his Son was left with a desire for revenge. That son, who was named Temujin, and his ambition to control the Mongolian plains gave him the name of Genghis Khan, leader of all Mongols.

His warriors take over China, Persia, Korea, Central Asia, Iraq, and Russia, killing roughly 10% of the entire human population on Earth in the course of the conquest.

But the Butterfly effect doesn’t end there.

First: The Turks displaced by the Mongols find settlements in Anatolia. The climate of the region is very similar to Central Asia, but far more valuable due to the Black and Mediterranean Sea coasts.

Out of this region, a kingdom ruled by the House of Osman takes over Anatolia and what’s left of The Byzantine Empire in 1453, becoming the Ottoman Empire.

Second: With the Ottomans blocking off the Red Sea ports from Europe, the Kingdom of Portugal invests in long distance trade. Being the first nation to sail across Africa and into the Indian Ocean. This cuts the prices of valuable spices by 90% and encourages other European countries to do the same.

Portugal’s newly united neighbor, Spain decides to sail across the Atlantic to get to India, but they “discover” two new continents instead.

Third: Back in Asia, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty is overthrown by the Ming.

But with the fear of any future Mongol invasions, they take a far more isolationist policy to invest in building the Great Wall of China.

This isolationism eventually backfires on China centuries later, leading to its century of Humiliation.

Fourth: In Eastern Europe, a duchy called Muscovy that built itself on trade with the Mongols, rises up and unifies the region.

This was how Russia was created.

Summary: The death of a local Mongolian tribesman motivated his son to establish a large empire, whose legacy displaced the Turks into forming the Ottomans, the weakening of China, the creation of Russia, and the discovery of the Americas, and Europe’s power in the following centuries.