Hypothetical question: What if Germany won WWI?

[mdk]

I get "No Authorization".

It's just a PDF from the UN of the financial contributions of member nations from 2012. The USA contributes 22% of the UN's budget, more than the next two leading nations combined (Japan at 12% and Germany at 8%). The point being made was that okay, yeah, everyone else is using our ammo now, but by and large we're also the ones footing the bill, so that'll happen.

[MorningWood]

MelonHead has a point. Germany was a massive instigator in the events leading up to WWI. Nationalistic Serbia was refusing to reprimand those responsible for Ferdinand's death, and Austria-Hungary was preparing to take things into their own hands. Russia offered Serbia its support, and began mobilizing against A-H. Germany saw Russia's mobilization as an immediate threat, and when Russian refused to halt its mobilization, Germany declared war. Knowing France was Russia's ally and wanting to avoid a two front war, Germany thought it best to take France as quickly as possibly. So Germany crossed through neutral Belgium, an immediate path to Paris (this route would lead to stalemate, of course). The violation of Belgium's neutrality provoked England, and so they too entered the war against Germany. Later in the war, Germany attempts to send a message to Mexico, promising them territory in California and Texas if they would attack the United States. This message will be intercepted, and will be the the U.S.'s ultimate reasoning behind entering the war.

Germany winning WWI is another matter, though. Without the harsh punishments of the Treaty of Versailles, Germany most likely wouldn't have experienced such horrible inflation, and Hitler wouldn't have had the appropriate means in which he could seize power. The League of Nations wouldn't have existed, but it's not like that mattered, it didn't do shit anyway. Austria-Hungary might not have collapsed. Germany would have had to enact its own treaty against the Allies, and if it had been as harsh as the Treaty of Versailles was against Germany, France and England would probably have suffered the most. Germany would have also gained those warm water ports in the Baltics.

The violation of Belgium's neutrality was a nice casus belli on paper for Britain. It was their excuse to go to war against Germany, while their real motivation lied in the a more imperialistic sphere. (Germany had been building a large fleet before the war, and Britain felt threatened by it as well as by the few German colonies...)

[Wolf]

Also: just wanted to apologize to anyone, and everyone who may have found my previous post offensive, in poor taste, etc. I've just been stressed out to hell lately, and the that topic is one of the few that gets under my skin.

I am sorry for letting myself get carried away, and none of the cursing was intentionally directed at anyone among these boards.

Again, my apologies.

All good. Happens to us all. I merely said what I did, for as I was preparing to correct some posters for this or that, persons already beat me to it or something else caught my funny bone.

Basically, everything has been back on track now. Indeed Germany was building up. Indeed Imperialists wanted to continue growing. Yes several countries were itching to get into war. But had Germany actually come away as the winner, outcomes would include how the end resulted. I.E. The total devastation of an entire country? {any smaller country occupied to any nearby, France, Netherlands, so on] would the country be destroyed from bombs [though, Britain did recover] or devastated as was Germany post WWI with the Treaty? Then, taken into account who was most hurt, if they would return bigger and badder later on, to test who's authority? Germany I feel would have grown, would have established their footing in the world, then most possibly would have gone out as aide afterward. What better than to confuse an enemy and gain any trust? Besides, even after all we did TO Germany, didn't stop my grandfather from having to secretly deliver goods under Soviet radar to East Berlin via the Navy.

[SinerAthin]

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[MorningWood]

The biggest problem for the Third Reich would be to avoid collapsing.

Assuming they conquered the entire world, they would have a helluva hard time keeping it under control even if they did wipe out any unwanted race.
Also, their iconic leader, Adolf Hitler, would eventually die away.

Would the Third Reich's next leader be as charismatic or successful? Would the Third Reich tear itself to pieces in a power struggle.

It would all depend on Hitler's successor and his supporters.
The Third Reich could crumble and leave the world in infighting, and have many minor nations rise up and fight each other, or we could see a progressive, solid model of a unified world all working under the same goal and banner.

Integrity would be their biggest problem.

You're looking at the wrong World War.

[Wolf]

Yeah. There was a German Cpl. in WW1 that was in infirmary for mustard gas once...

[Brovo]

Hmm...

If Germany won WWI, you'd see a much larger Germany today. It's possible that Hitler would have never risen to power though. It might even affect if the Soviet revolution even occurred or was successful, it would affect the global economy in that America would have had a real competitor through the 40's instead of like... Nobody, assuming that nobody fought Germany after it won. It's quite possible that France would have gone fascist instead if they got the beating end of the stick.

There are too many variables. The only consistent variable here is if Germany won, it'd have been in a much stronger position, thus lowering the chances of Hitler rising to power dramatically, thus increasing the chances that Germany would have had a different leader later on in an integral part of history, and thus changing an extremely important catalyst in history that resulted, directly and indirectly, in several powerful entities coming to creation or falling from grace.

[Wolf]

We already established that.

America was badass in massproduction of killing machines back in the 40's. Had it down to but 1 week for total completion of a warship.

There is also that possibility that regardless Hitler could have risen ranks and taken some power. But doubtful. With none of the help of the vengeful and the weak needing strength and hope, he probably would have just been a governing figure or officer instead. France probably would have been taken control of, Paris if anything imagine a reverse-Berlin [Ich bin ein Eu Clair..]. If this were the case, my thoughts are it would last only for so long. Either a revolt of the people of France, or Germany showing enough of a power owning country to back off unless necessary.

Who knows. Many days would have turned out different for so many millions of lives if the outcome of some small moment could have been otherwise.

[Brovo]

We already established that.

America was badass in massproduction of killing machines back in the 40's. Had it down to but 1 week for total completion of a warship.

There is also that possibility that regardless Hitler could have risen ranks and taken some power. But doubtful. With none of the help of the vengeful and the weak needing strength and hope, he probably would have just been a governing figure or officer instead. France probably would have been taken control of, Paris if anything imagine a reverse-Berlin [Ich bin ein Eu Clair..]. If this were the case, my thoughts are it would last only for so long. Either a revolt of the people of France, or Germany showing enough of a power owning country to back off unless necessary.

Who knows. Many days would have turned out different for so many millions of lives if the outcome of some small moment could have been otherwise.

That's history in a nutshell, though.

What if a few of the 300 Spartans deserted and fled instead?

What if Christopher Columbus' ship sank midway across the Atlantic? How many years would this have delayed the discovery of the "new world"? May not seem like much on the surface but the ramifications of that are huge.

What if Hitler died before he could rise to power? Would someone have taken his place? Why or why not? Would they have done the same thing or something different? Why or why not?

Some "what if" questions can have a few logical answers, but only when you narrow down the possibilities with additional variables. Changing one variable, especially one as fundamental as an entire nation winning or losing a war, is difficult to answer, if at all possible.

[SinerAthin]

You're looking at the wrong World War.

Stuff happens when you combine sleep deprivation, excessive intoxication and pointless arguing about WW2 before going to a thread about a WW :P