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Originally Posted by Squiffy Or if Germany had successfully beaten Russia, they'd have the resources of Europe and a significant portion of Asia to call upon. If Germany had beaten Russia there is no question in my mind that the British would have been forced into a negotiated peace.
I love all this alternative history stuff. I generally don't believe in the grand sweep of history and inevitabilities. History turns on great individuals and the choices they make. |
However, they didn't.

I must admit, I don't have any time for alternatives, interesting as they are, as quite simply they didn't happen, so its irrelevant.

In my line of work such speculation is meaningless as so much is still being uncovered that
is relevant, and could change the reading of the history anyway.
I am a firm believer in the underlying currents of history, and the Second World War is very much an example of that. It was, and even amongst right wing 'great individuals' theorists, this is accepted, the result of events beyond the control of any one or even many men.

Had Germany not collapsed in the way it did in 1918, then the general staff could not have blamed the Socialists or the Jews, and then a certain Austrian, working as a secret agent in 1919, could not have slowly won people over to his views. At the same time, had the Russians not driven out the Jews in the pogroms launched by Alexander III's govt, then anti-Semitism would not have risen in Germany the way it did, directly as result of the huge influx of poor, Eastern Jews. None of this is down to 'one man' or 'great men' but all of it led to war.
Nor were events in the US in the 1920's down to 'great men'. It was a national move (overspending fueled by the post war boom) that led to the first collapse of the US economy, and then the clamp down on immigration that led to huge Japanese resentment - which then resulted in Japan becoming anti-Western. And further to this:-
Japan was also a society with an unresolved problem. On the one hand it was moving towards capitalism, on the other it still held to 'traditional' views on the role of it's emperor and leadership. No one man, no matter how 'great', ever resolved this, only the defeat, and manner of defeat, in WW2 produced the situation for it to be reconciled under true democratic rule.
It was also a national problem, again not led by anyone that saw the crash of 1929. Arguably, it was the feeling that traditional methods could no longer cope with the scale of the ensuing problems that led to the election of Roosevelt and his attempts to introduce a govt led answer to the nations problems. In other words, political heresy in the pre Great Depression years. However, he
could not have done so had the currents of history not been with him.
However, each to his own. History should be enjoyable, is always open to debate, and there is no 'right'.
What worries me is when groups of people led by the likes of Nial Ferguson who is on the
right (New Right) claims there is - and this is the guy who believes (going on is books) that evidence is for the birds........