What if WW2 had never happen ?

[Knight of Judgment]

If Germany after the occupation of Austria , had not attack other countries and live peacefully . Perhaps Germany would be NationalSocialist until today ?And the ideology could become as powerful as Communism is ? :hmmm:

[Каие]

Shouldn't this be in the VV?

on topic: I couldn't possibly begin to answer, it was such a huge event no one can possibly predict the chain of events that would have replaced it.

[Kiljan Arslan]

the only way it probably would never have happened or at least not happen the way it did would have been if my country had stayed out of the Great War.

[Каие]

America would never have become the super power it is today without the Great War, which they call in America the "1917-1918 war''.

[Kiljan Arslan]

Oh it still would have, we already had the burgeoning economy.

[Salazar]

who knows, fascist ideologys were quite popular at the time, so it's quite possible we would live in a much less pleasant world.

[Каие]

In 1917?

[Oglethorpe1983]

Let me take my shot at this...

The only way we can answer this (and keep in mind this is ALL merely supposition) First we will assume Hitler still rose to power...but instead of gearing Germany up for a war economy...simply developed regular industy....

First...Spain most likely would not have become Fascist...(as germany used the Spanish Civil War as a practice war sent lots of equipment and men to fight) So Spain would have remained Socialist... the effects that would have had are very hard to concieve.

With Germany the persecution of the Jews would have continued...unchecked by foreign powers...they would have most certianly been completely wiped out in Germany.... but in Poland and other places they would have survived.... (most likely the forgotten victims of the holocuast Catholics, gypsies, gays, the handicapped, Slavs would have all been killed or sent out of Germany...but these groups in other area would have been spared)

As for the Soviet Union.... They certianly wouldnt have expanded as far west as they did... without a whole collection of weakened former axis/occupied nations to exert their sphere of influence in they wouldnt been seen as a threat

Japan... would have continued to rape China (literally and metaphorically)...they would have extended theie influence in both mainland China and the Pacific...(leading to a possible seperate US-Japan war...or if we joined with England which is very likely a Anglo-Japan War)

Italy... well since Mussolini was basically Htler's puppet he would have been ousted much earlier...

The US... we would have continued to grow (it just may have taken longer) our economy/industrial cpacity would still have been impressive... but without a war to stimulate it...it would have taken longer...

Now for larger geo-political issues

No WWII would mean No Cold War...thats obvious... but it can be taken much further

No Cold War means no US/Soviet Intervention into places like the middle east...
As such it can be argued the Iranian Revolution wouldnt have happened.... some notable actions would be the US in keeping Iran from becoming a Societ Bloc nation..and subsequently part of the eventual outcome of the Iranian Revolution....

Stemming from that...had Iran not become an Islamic State... and the drastic decline in US Iran relations...with the Iran-Iraq war...we wouldnt have supported Iraq...which means no Saddam... which means...no 1st/2nd Iraq Wars....

I could go on and on...but I think you get the point...the possibilities are endless

[Calamari]

We can only speculate about things that would not have happened. Such as the Gulf Wars. Military thinking would be much different without a major war to evolve it. There are examples such as in the Red Alert series of games. Hitler was assassinated but without Germany to fight the Russians become very powerful and try to take over the world.

[Captain Blackadder]

The World would be much the same just instead of the cold war been between Russia and the U.S it would be Germany and the U.S however there would be many more differences since German scientest were what allowed for America to get such a large head start in the arms race and space race but since men like Braun would remain in germany which would make that particular area much more dangerous for America.

[Gelgoog]

german-english alliance against the threat of soviet expansion in 1952 maybe?

[Arto]

There would probably no Jews in Germany (aka German Reich) by small chance.
Berlin would be a beautiful culture place of nice buildings that Albert Speer had designed.

[Garrigan]

Wouldnt there have been a Cold War between the Third Reich and the USSR?

To be honest, I think if Hitler had been a good boy, and stopped after Austria, he would be the one that the "Allies" wouldve picked to ally with.

I suppose Germany would have been the first nucleur power as well, and that would have given it enormous power and influence.

[Philos Sophos]

WW2 had to come someday,even if not in 1939...the world just couldn't stand Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia,Fascist Italy etc...it had to come,there was nothing to prevent it.

[Guy de Yoyo]

WW2 had to come someday,even if not in 1939...the world just couldn't stand Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia,Fascist Italy etc...it had to come,there was nothing to prevent it.

Maybe you should read "The Man in the High Castle". In the book Germany and Japan win WW2 and divide the world into spheres of influence. What I want to say with this is, that while reading it one get's the idea, that nothing in history happened or happens automatically. For example, some figures believe that WW2 had to come out this way. That the allies could impossibly win the war. They probably believe this, because it just happended that way in their universe.

Topic: Many people seem to assume that the world would be worse, if WW2 had a different outcome. What if the allies (USA, Britain,...) would have conquered Berlin first? Perhaps Germany wouldn't have been divided.

[Perkele]

Germany would have collapsed, or at the very least the economy was going to collapse. The only way the nazi's were able to keep the economy from collapsing was to switch into war economy. And thus, instead of being a 'big player' they would have eventually became a minor power. Something similar to Spain and Italy.

[Ketzerfreund]

Indeed, Perkele.
The plans used for the war had existed since 1925, conceived by Hans von Seeckt, chief of army-command of the Reichswehr. However, they were destined to be executed in the second half of the 1940s. The reason why the attacks were begun (too) early was that Germany was broke, it was internationally not creditworth, the bond funds were completey given in mortgage. Germany needed the gold of it's victims.

Back then there was a funny saying:

Nach dem ersten deutschen Tank kommt sofort die Dresdner Bank.
Behind the first German tank swiftly comes the Dresdner Bank.

-Der Ketzerfreund.

[Caelius]

I think many people here are failing to realize that WW2 was just the continuation of WWI, just with a 20 year recess in between.

Yoiu can't postulate what the world would look like today if the war had never occurred without also making such adjustments to the causality of The Great War as well.

In 1917?

Yes.

The US had eclipsed Great Britain as the world's leading industrial power well before WWI even broke out.

It was also recognized geo-politically in the international arena as being a rising great power at the turn of the 20th Century.

[Gelgoog]

I like the idea of what would the world be like had the allies invaded the rhineland and germany proper right after the czech fiasco.

[phowa]

Wouldnt GB still be a Super Power and lots of african asian colonies etc still be well colonies?