Posted on 09/16/2024 4:42:19 AM PDT by Red Badger
But as I hinted in post 127:
"Of course the larger stage, for WWII, was set by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, but fixing that wasn’t part of the exercise"
A WWII would still happen, Hitler or not. It might have been stylistically different, but Germany suffering under the draconian strictures of the Treaty would have to kick over the traces, much as Japan had to respond to having it's access to rubber, oil, and quinine cut off.
Still a WWII, maybe no 'final solution', maybe no invasion of The Soviet Union, maybe Japan attacks the Philippines as expected, depriving the US of the Pearl Harbor casus belli to enter the fray just yet.
A world war with the western hemisphere on the sidelines until it was too late to make much of a difference.
Would the world be a better or worse place today?
You make some interesting points
First to ww2 was inevitable. I disagree unless the Soviets started it and it looks like they were taken so easily in first months in part because they were in offensive positions, not defensive, and didn’t hurt that Stalin had purged the leadership and finish winter war.
Another thought experiment.
A Hitler like figure rises, takes back the Rhein valley, tears up the treaty and is given Czechoslovakia and then stops.
Perhaps even later gets his “polish corridor “ after entering a self defense pact with Poland
Now to Japan
The sanctions to Japan didn’t start till around 1940 and didn’t really ramp up till
July-august of 1941 in response to invasion of French Indonesia and alliance with Germany and Italy
lol I guess a strongly worded letter would have been more appropriate?😂
Here is another thought exercise
Germany declared war on the US first, what if they hadn’t and take it one step further what if Germany and Italy had not signed the tripartite pact with Japan
As far as I can see Germany gained nothing from this agreement, and perhaps lost some. Would Germany have declared war without this agreement, and Japanese stabbed Germany in the back by signing soviet-Japanese neutrality pact, which freed up vast numbers of men and equipment that arrived just in time to save Moscow and likely later Stalingrad.
Fun ain’t it
Yep!
But then I've always shared Tolstoy's perspective.
"In historic events, the so-called great men are labels giving names to events, and like labels they have but the smallest connection with the event itself. Every act of theirs, which appears to them an act of their own will, is in an historical sense involuntary and is related to the whole course of history and predestined from eternity." - Leo Tolstoy
The people that sent him are the people that need to be waterboarded.
Don't despair lol, history turns on its heel, and turns on its heels, quite often.
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