World Without World War II

[Greeney]

Having actually studied the period in a huge amount of detail, Hitler was absolutely crucial to the formation of the Nazi state. Every other party in the Weimar Government was content to keep up the charade of democracy except the Communist Party, and they didn't have enough popular support. Hitler on the other hand was an incredibly charismatic man and Goebbels was a very skilled spin-doctor. Without Hitler, the Nazi Party wouldn't have had a figure to rally around and as such would never have built up the following they had. The Weimar Republic would have continued on for a long time had Hitler not userped Hindurberg's position as President on his death and invoked Article 48 to effectively install an Autocracy.

That's putting it in incredibly simplistic terms, but to properly explain I'd have to write paragraph upon paragraph of background and political attitudes etc.

To be fair, that comment "it wasn't all him" is a debatable comment. The gullible fucks who followed his every word religiously deserve their fair share of blame. Even though Hindenburg seemed to have good intentions and intensely disliked Hitler, he did (eventually) help Hitler get in the position to declare himself the Head of State. The political media that led Germans to believe that even in 1918 they were still going to win World War I played a big part in starting World War 2 thanks to that whole "backstab" conspiracy. Frick and Klagges deserve an extraordinary amount of blame for greatly assisting Hitler in becoming a German citizen. After looking on Wikipedia (yeah, not the best source, but this isn't exactly an assignment) it seems Ribbentrop convinced Hitler to invade Poland even though Hitler was hesitant. And Drexler was probably the person most responsible for Hitler becoming Hitler.

Altogether though, I don't think he can argue that it would have happened without Hitler. Perhaps one in a million politicians have been able to captivate an audience a portion of the way Hitler managed to do it. It wasn't exactly something "another person" could just do. Especially since so many people in this world hate and fear public speaking.

[Heathy]

its a good topic but its wrought with so much hypothetical.

Some things are certain but the advancements in technology are very questionable, given that lots of the great minds were working on weapons or other such, I would argue that we lost the potential to advance given the shift in priorities.

the casualties more than likely included some geniuses that could of gone on to invent something amazing, we will never know.

I know I probably wouldn't be alive, I think my grandmother was an evacuee so if WW2 never happened she probably wouldn't of got together with my gdad etc etc.

[Ferg]

it is not the person, but the idea and the actions that are inevitable; one will always pick up the mantle and continue; there is always an inevitable conclusion to any set of events

[openair]

Command & Conquer Red Alert explores this idea. Einstein uses his Chronosphere to go back and murder Hilter around 1920. Their idea is WW2 happens a short time after it would have anyways, but with an even more industrialized, built up, and prepared aggressor: the USSR. The USSR marchs across Europe even faster than Germany did. And is even harder to defeat than the Nazis.

[Ferg]

Command & Conquer Red Alert explores this idea. Einstein uses his Chronosphere to go back and murder Hilter around 1920. Their idea is WW2 happens a short time after it would have anyways, but with an even more industrialized, built up, and preprared aggressor: the USSR. The USSR marchs across Europe even faster than Germany did.

the USSR would have stood 0 chance of taking europe, the sheer military power of france and great britain would have stopped them. add to that that germany would have then been an Allied force and it makes it completely unbelieveable

[Deleted]

Britain would be in a better economic state, that's fo sho. The war completely shattered us, economically and spiritually. My grandad says it was a terrible time to live, everybody was on a downer and in complete misery. Even those who hadn't lost family members... It just hung around the air.
Edit: I dont think another world war would of started... Hitler had the 'just right' history to become a leader: A man's shattered hopes of going to Art School, dead parents... He had a way with words that no one else had.
I heard a British soldier had the chance to kill him in WW1, but he let him go out of mercy. Hitler, when he was in power, then sent a letter to the man, thanking him. Y U NO KILL HIM, SOLDIER? http://www.omg-facts.com/view/Facts/44978

[Vargur]

So everyone admits that Hitler is evil, there's no getting around that. But what would have happened if everyone's least favorite art reject with an interest in eugenics and politics had never started WWII? Lets just say in 1923, during his putsch, he got shot and died.

Considering how WWII shaped our modern world, what would 2012 look like if WWII had never happened?

Would the US still have gotten involved in a war against Japan? Would the Soviets rose to power? Would atomic power have been developed so early?

No, there would be no nukes probably. USA wouldn't be a police world power also.
Probably no cold war, but a history PhD would probably be better suited to answer this thread.

[Ferg]

No, there would be no nukes probably. USA wouldn't be a police world power also.
Probably no cold war, but a history PhD would probably be better suited to answer this thread.

this is largely wrong; regardless of WWII the cold war would still have happened, but it would have probably involved actual conflict because there would be no history of the USSR and the USA being allies

[Baloneyz]

Now I would not say Hitler was "Evil"...

I think we might be more populated and somewhat less advanced. But who knows, another war was going to happen sooner or later. The world wars was just not about killing jews, it was about communism(this might not be the right word) vs. demo/other. A world war would have happened evidently, I would rather sooner rather then later.

You're a dumbass.. Germany was not a communist state, they were Nazis, as Italy was a fascist state! ( Nazis and fascist are not the same! ) USSR was a communist state and they fought AGAINST Hitler if you didn't know that...

I can only guess you're from America as you're oblivious about Europe at that period.

OT: It would be very different as USSR would grow stronger and stronger, Germany ( if they would put their resources in non-military way as there is no WW2 plans ) would go stronger. Britain would not be so strong 'cause France and Germany are directly near it ( France was in a much better place in "world leading state" race then now ) China would eventually begin to grow, Japan would still be a Monarchy but there would not be so many deaths on their side, they would grow much stronger.
America would have a BIG grow in military supplies ( Some war between them and some nation would still happen often ( as it is now, more then 30 wars America fought after the cold war ) ) Yugoslavia in the Balkans would grow much stronger ( they were not weak at that time at all and would not cease to exist because there would not be a war that would tear it apart. And so on, it would be a different world if there was not a single BIG war like WW2 for 20 more years.

[Wayne25uk]

Command & Conquer Red Alert explores this idea. Einstein uses his Chronosphere to go back and murder Hilter around 1920. Their idea is WW2 happens a short time after it would have anyways, but with an even more industrialized, built up, and prepared aggressor: the USSR. The USSR marchs across Europe even faster than Germany did. And is even harder to defeat than the Nazis.

Lol @ this,you do know C&C is just a game dude dont you? Its not fact or anything its not a legitimate test to see what life would be like without hitler,it was just a story to put in a game that somebody made up trolololol would you have still used this quote if they made Einstein travel back in time,bring a T-Rex to kill hitler then gone forward in time to bring back some aliens to shoot up the place then gone to an alternate universe to enlist some unicorns and fairies into the SUPER DUPER JUSTICE LEAGUE OF SILLY THINGS! .... i went too far didnt i? sad panda is i :'(

[kosuko]

Jews... Everywhere!

[Low Hanging Fruit]

I think a worse world. Human's learn from their mistakes and without the lessons we learned from ww2 the likely hood of learning them with nuclear fire instead of fire bombing, I feel, goes way up (we aren't totally out of the woods on that though). Mostly because the war didn't create the political and economic problems that would have eventually sparked a large world conflict so honestly it being speed up by a madman in all likely hood saved us a lot of trouble. We were luckly a nut job like Hitler was our foe; he was the enemies worse enemy.

[Deleted]

It was inevitable. The real question would be: if there hadn't been a world war ONE, what world would we have today? Hitler was a consequence of time. If it weren't him, someone else would have done it.

I saw an article about this very same subject, but it was different from the OP's perspective. It said that without Winston Churchill's constant pushing and shoving for America to get involved Europe might have been lost completely.

Remember, back in 1938 and even up till 1940, Americans were like 68% against getting involved with Europe. Then shit went down and that changed and it went up to about 70% for the war effort....... then pearl harbor came, and thats when we wanted blood. So much so that we threw japanese into interment camps and have sense quietly hushed that history away lmao.

Lets not forget that America was supplying weapons and armament to the British and the French, during the years before the war (the "waiting war" period). The US were already as involved as anyone else, against the German/Italy/Japan.

When you are fighting someone, and a third party keeps feeding them arms... that third party is as involved in the conflict as the ones actually fighting it. Even before Pearl Harbour, American planes and pilots, were already participating on raids over Germany.

[haxartus]

Lets just say in 1923, during his putsch, he got shot and died.

Someone non-insane gets chosen as a leader and begins WWII, doesn't attack USSR and wins the war. In the result America and USSR are both not superpowers and the new superpower is Germany. USSR and America see the new superpower as a threat and they start arming themselves, preparing for World War III.

[Deleted]

a world without ww2:

no churchill
no british sportscars
no spitfires

DO NOT WANT

[Blaschnack]

Lol @ this,you do know C&C is just a game dude dont you? Its not fact or anything its not a legitimate test to see what life would be like without hitler,it was just a story to put in a game that somebody made up trolololol would you have still used this quote if they made Einstein travel back in time,bring a T-Rex to kill hitler then gone forward in time to bring back some aliens to shoot up the place then gone to an alternate universe to enlist some unicorns and fairies into the SUPER DUPER JUSTICE LEAGUE OF SILLY THINGS! .... i went too far didnt i? sad panda is i :'(

When did he say he thinks this is a realistic scenario? ^^ I was coming here to make some C&C RA fun comment aswell, because the plot just happens to be what the OP asked for, a world without world war 2. And funny that you mention the T-Rex, in the later episodes of Red Alert they actually travel back into the time of dinosaurs, because the franchise became very trashy, while the original still was somewhat serious (even if time travel is just unreal, but I guess that's the best way they could think of to realize this "World without WW2"-scenario).

The german version of the game made it absolutely unrealistic then, because of censorship the soldiers weren't people but cyborgs... ye... the realistic "no WW2" scenario where people around 1950 or 1960 suddenly had access to huge cyborg armys... makes sense! xD (I just assume it's around that time, since in the intro where you see the time travel scene it is 1946 and einstein is still alive during the game)

[Deleted]

I think we would have experienced a far more devastating war between Communist and Capitalist states, possibly even involving nuclear weapons.

I that regard WWII might have actually saved the world in that it showed everyone just how ugly, horrible and destructive war can be. That's a lesson humanity needs to re-learn on a regular basis and without such a recent lesson, the Cold War would have turned Hot eventually.

[Derpleton]

The UK would've lasted longer as a major power because they wouldn't have been bankrupted. The USSR most likely would've become the big bad and would have tried to spread communism and most likely would have won because the US would still have sucked like it did when it first entered WWII.

[Lumocolor]

50 million people who might be grandparents now.

Think about that. There would probably be 100+ million more people on this planet.

I think your math is a little off those 50 million people that died would probably mean an extra billion people today and the world is overpopulated with what we have now.

Wars are inevitable, it's how the rich people thin the herd, you never see any multi millionaires or their families on the front lines.

[Dendrek]

Well honestly I believe it was not all him. I think another person would and could have picked up his ideas an ideologies. He had plenty of supporters and a couple of right hand men.

Germany was in shambles and people needed someone to blame.

It pretty much was all him. He drove a lot of change in that nation -- some good, a whole lot bad -- that was necessary for it to turn around as quickly as effectively as it did. No other man could have accomplished what he did. He was a brilliant man and an expert at the use of propaganda.

On topic: The US and China would likely both have far less economic power than they do, and the US would be a much different nation as a consequence as would be its influence on the rest of the world. We wouldn't be in such a heavy economic crisis right now. Technology and technological development would probably be in a completely different place as well.