If we had always had a decimal calendar what difference, if any, would it have made to history?

Answer 1

But the French tried this on out, poor fools

The French Revolutionary Calendar (or Republican Calendar) was officially adopted in France on October 24, 1793 and abolished on 1 January 1806 by Emperor Napoleon I. It was used again briefly during under the Paris Commune in 1871. The French also established a new clock, in which the day was divided in ten hours of a hundred minutes of a hundred seconds - exactly 100,000 seconds per day.

The calendar was adopted more than one year after the advent of the First Republic (there was no year 1), after a long debate involving the mathematicians Romme and Monge, the poets Chénier and Fabre d' Eglantine and the painter David. The mathematicians contributed equal month division, and a decimal measures of time. The poets contributed the name of the days, choosing the names of plants, domestic animals and tools; the months rhyme three by three, according to the "sonority" of the seasons.

A year consists of 365 or 366 days, divided into 12 months of 30 days each, followed by 5 or 6 additional days. The months were:


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Vendémiaire 7. Germinal
2. Brumaire 8. Floréal
3. Frimaire 9. Prairial
4. Nivôse 10. Messidor
5. Pluviôse 11. Thermidor
6. Ventôse 12. Fructidor

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


The year was not divided into weeks, instead each month was divided into three décades of 10 days, of which the final day was a day of rest. This was an attempt to de-Christianize the calendar, but it was an unpopular move, because now there were 9 work days between each day of rest, whereas the Gregorian Calendar had only 6 work days between each Sunday.
The ten days of each décade were called, respectively, Primidi, Duodi, Tridi, Quartidi, Quintidi, Sextidi, Septidi, Octidi, Nonidi, Decadi.

The 5 or 6 additional days followed the last day of Fructidor and were called:



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1. Fete de la vertu (Celebration of virtue)
2. Fete du genie (Celebration of genius)
3. Fete du travail (Celebration of labor)
4. Fete de l'opinion (Celebration of opinion)
5. Fete des recompenses (Celebration of rewards)
6. Jour de la revolution (Day of the revolution) (the leap day)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Each year was supposed to start on autumnal equinox (around 22 September), but this created problems

Leap years were introduced to keep New Year's Day on autumnal equinox. But this turned out to be difficult to handle, because equinox is not completely simple to predict. Therefore a rule similar to the one used in the Gregorian Calendar (including a 4000 year rule) was to take effect in the year 20. However, the Revolutionary Calendar was abolished in the year 14, making this new rule irrelevant.

The following years were leap years: 3, 7, and 11. The years 15 and 20 should have been leap years, after which every 4th year (except every 100th year etc. etc.) should have been a leap year.

The historicity of these leap year rules has been disputed. One source mentions that the calendar used a rule which would give 31 leap years in every 128 year period.

Answer 2

History wouldn't be any different only the dates would change . We would still have had two world wars, they would last the same length of time but be measured differently and the same amount of poor working class people would have died.
Blair and Bush would still have invaded Iraq . And we still would be cruel to animals .Most of Africa would be poverty stricken and many children of the world would be starving to death while the rest of us were wandering around supermarkets picking up Christmas cakes and wondering if a 15 kg turkey would be big enough for 4 people. So I am afraid history would not change and we still would not have learnt from our mistakes if the calendar was decimal. Sorry if my answer is to depressive !

Answer 3

But we don't have a decimal calendar now - 12 months, 52 weeks, 7 days.... none divisible by 10 which is definition of decimal...

Answer 4

A higher proportion of months would be named after Roman Emperors.