Lets say that President Wilson never took us into WWI, or someone else was president and did the same. Because of the czar Nicholas in Russia, was it inevitable that the Bolsheviks would win versus the white army or was it that WWI was a sort of “straw that broke the camels back” and the shot that would follow? would WWII have happened if it were not for president wilson, or because of the temptation of empire due to the austria-hungary empire that wanted to rule over central europe? Would the “allies” have won against the germans without US welfare payments in WWI?
Since I have not read Ralph Raico or Riggenbach on alternative history I will start here. I would also like to add; what would the state of colonialism be under the british empire if it were not for WWII because of WWI? Would the countries under British and French subjects get independence earlier or later?
Hoppe had a really good speech “the origins of international conflict” I think and he explains really well the temptation of empire.
I don’t think that the situation is so black and white that one would state “If US wouldn’t have entered WWI everything would have been better for everyone”, at least from European point of view. As you point out, it depends on will Germany win WWI. If it loses and US decides to sit all World Wars on home, ending won’t be quite beautiful for Europe. German loses WWI, Hitler tooks over and we have WWII. UK cannot win alone, so mainland Europe will go to Hitler or Stalin and neither one is good solution. In our history at least West-Europe survived. But if Germany wins WWI, then Hitler don’t have a chance to rise power. History after that is hard to think, but maybe even East would have survived from communism.
Wasn’t communism a preceding step before WWI? But the Bolsheviks already extended their clout far beyond russia. I also would have thought that since WWI created hyper inflation, that maybe something similar to Hitler would have come to power because the “allies” and “axies” both printed alot of money in order to fight each other.
Population explosion in the colonies made decolonialization inevitable.
The Bolsheviks would have never gotten into power without WWI (or a similar sized conflict) and it is doubtful they could have survived without German support. Monarchy in Russia was deposed by efforts of Social Revolutionaries and Kadets, not Bolsheviks.The White Army included monarchists, but was dominated by non-monarchists. It included monarchists in its leadership (Wrangel), but did not fight for the restoration of the monarchy.
Obviously WWII would not have happened, but some other wars would.
Well, I was talking about countries between Russia and Germany. Russia would have become communist of course.
THE hyperfinflation which we remember from interwar-Germany was so huge because German government had to pay so much for winners. Hyperinflation, defeat and Treaty of Versailles were main reasons for Hitlers triumph and none of these would have existed if Germany had won WWI.