#4349484 - 04/06/17 02:24 PM
100 Years Ago Today
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Joined: May 2016
Posts: 1,523
BuckeyeBob
Member
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Member
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 1,523
Ohio, USA
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The United States of America declares war on Imperial Germany. Here's an interesting "What if" article: "Should America Have Entered WWI?" https://nytimes.com/2017/04/06/opinion/should-america-have-entered-world-war-i.html "If the Allies, led by France and Britain, had not won a total victory, there would have been no punitive peace treaty like that completed at Versailles, no stab-in-the-back allegations by resentful Germans, and thus no rise, much less triumph, of Hitler and the Nazis. The next world war, with its 50 million deaths, would probably not have occurred."
Basically, the author argues that without the impending arrival of 1.5 million fresh American troops, England and France, in the face of increasing war exhaustion, would eventually not have been able to continue to carry out the war, and Germany would not have launched (also faced with the prospect of impending war exhaustion) a last-ditch Spring 1918 offensive, which, of course, hastened the eventual collapse of the German army. No Treaty of Versailles, no humiliating war reparations, no eventual rise of Hitler -- at least that is the argument. Also, although the article doesn't raise the question, without the arrival of the Americans and the eventual collapse of the German armed forces, would Kaiser Wilhelm have had to have abdicated? Eventually, the whole thing might have started all over again, with or without Hitler.
“With Major Lawrence, mercy is a passion. With me it is merely good manners. You may judge which motive is the more reliable.”
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#4349505 - 04/06/17 03:42 PM
Re: 100 Years Ago Today
[Re: BuckeyeBob]
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 7,993
Robert_Wiggins
BWOC Survivor!...So Far!!
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BWOC Survivor!...So Far!!
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Joined: Jun 2012
Posts: 7,993
Lindsay, Ontario, Canada
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The authors comments are all very interesting but Hypothesis. It's the "What if" scenario which is only valid if it bears fruit and of course it never can when one is looking back at history. C'est la vie!
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#4349511 - 04/06/17 04:18 PM
Re: 100 Years Ago Today
[Re: BuckeyeBob]
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Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 718
SkyHigh
Member
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Member
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 718
Ireland
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It is plausible that the entry of the US to the war motivated the Germans to allow Lenin free passage to Russia, in the hope that he would cause trouble and hamper the Russian war effort. Whether or not this was the case, Lenin certainly did some hampering. Of course, it would be ludicrous to pin any responsibility for this sequence of events upon the US. Even the Germans could have had no idea they were about to open the gates of hell upon the Russian people.
Last edited by SkyHigh; 04/06/17 04:22 PM.
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#4349588 - 04/06/17 09:17 PM
Re: 100 Years Ago Today
[Re: BuckeyeBob]
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Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 3,696
Fullofit
Senior Member
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Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 3,696
Ajax, ON
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I'm thinking if US doesn't enter the war, Germans don't initiate the Amerika program and they lose the war even faster. And Mexico attacks America and steals Texas. In 1941 Japanese attack Acapulco and not Pearl.
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
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#4349906 - 04/08/17 06:49 PM
Re: 100 Years Ago Today
[Re: BuckeyeBob]
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Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 890
Creaghorn
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Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 890
N�rnberg Frankonia
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Couple days ago I was thinking about this sort of butterfly effect. Obviously this is far-fetched, but interesting nonetheless.
I was thinking, what if the chauffeur of the Archduke's car would have been informed about the change of route. Or maybe he was but didn't pay attention. Then he wouldn't have turned into the wrong street how initially planned. Then he wouldn't have stopped to make a turn, coincidentally right next to Gavrilo Princip, when realizing his wrong route. Then the Archduke wouldn't have been assassinated (since all other assassins failed badly). If that wouldn't have happened, then Austria-Hungary didn't have to make an ultimatum with such harsh demands which Serbia could not accept. Then Germany wouldn't have been so cocky to give Austria-Hungary such a Blanco-Cheque. Then maybe Austria-Hungary wouldn't have declared war on Serbia. Maybe they would for some other reason, since Serbia was a PITA for them, but maybe on a smaller scale without the backup of Germany. Then the whole machinery wouldn't have started. (Russia wouldn't come to Serbias aid, Germany wouldn't have to declare war on France and Russia. There wouldn't be a need for the Schlieffen plan to go through neutral Belgium, which triggered the involvement of the UK etc.) Then there would be maybe a smallish war in the Balkans, but no Great war. Then Germany wouldn't be treatet as the lone aggressor, which humiliated them. Then the monarchy in Germany would maybe still be here today, like in the UK etc. That means no Weimar republic, no fights between bolshevics, nationalists, monarchists etc. No Lenin unleashed in Russia, still monarchy probably. Hitler would have stayed a bum in Austria instead of fighting for the German army, becoming a German citizen. No stab in the back myth, no rise of nationalists. No humiliated German nation where many were thankful for such a "strong and loud leader", who gave them promises and sort of pride back (look at Turkey today, this small Sultan there is about doing the very same). No enemy image of Jews or Bolshevics, at least not at this scale. Rather a not so nationalistic state as it was before the Great war. The arab countries wouldn't have been divided by the allies into nations with pencil and ruler. No such inferiority complex as you can see nowadays, or maybe not at this scale. The Windsors would still carry their original German name.
Later on maybe no Hitler, no Stalin (because of no Lenin before). No cold war, No Vietnam war, no Korean war, therefore no Northkorea, no communist Cuba, no Eastern Germany etc. Also this means no Atomic bomb, no such a fast progress with rocket science, Wernher von Braun would stay in Germany, maybe the first moonlanding would have been about today. America wouldn't have been what it is today, because their rise in all regards has begun after WW1.
Probably all this would turn out about the same, because of other reasons, who knows. But still, even if far-fetched, an interesting thought, that maybe a chauffeur was reading a comicstrip in the newspaper, while the change of route was announced, so he missed it, and that triggered all these events. How a small, unimportant moment can change the world completely for centuries.
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Exodus
by RedOneAlpha. 04/18/24 05:46 PM
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