Page 44 - All About History - Issue 11-14

What if…
GERMANY HAD WON WWI?

WWI saw true industrial warfare for the
first time in history

What would a German victory in World War I have
meant for the United States?
A dominant Germany in Europe does not pose a direct
threat to the United States and given the physical distances
involved with the Atlantic it is entirely possible that the United
States would simply accept this position. President Woodrow
Wilson had been re-elected in 1916 on the basis of having
kept the United States out of World War I, but when German
submarines start sinking American transport ships on the
high seas in early 1917, they are compelled to enter the war. So
in the short term, the United States might well have taken the
view that this was no threat to it. What might then happen
A company believed to be the Public Schools Battalion half a century on is an open question, but if Germany had
(16th Battalion), prior to the Battle of the Somme, 1916
developed into the kind of powerful, aggressive state most
historians think it would, it’s entirely possible it would have
“ We might well have seen a war against challenged in South and Central America, or it might have
that kind of German empire […] in a challenged in the Atlantic or the Pacific [Oceans]. We might
well have seen a war against that kind of German empire,
manner not too dissimilar to WWII” going to war with the United States in a manner not too
dissimilar to World War II.

How would it be different? O The Schlieffen Plan
Germany must decide whether
to try for an immediate outright
victory in western Europe with
O Declaration of war their Schlieffen Plan, or engage in
After Austria-Hungary declares war a longer war with the Allied nations.
on Serbia, Germany in turn declares September 1914
war on Russia and, two days later, also
on France. After Germany invades
Belgium, Britain feels forced to enter
Real timeline the war as well. Real timeline
1 August 1914

1914
O Franz Ferdinand O Germany offers
assassinated support
The heir to the Kaiser Wilhelm
throne of the II offers German O The Battle of Mons
Austro-Hungarian support for Austria- The British Alternate timeline
Empire, Franz Hungary against Expeditionary Force
Ferdinand, and his Serbia. This leads (BEF) retreats after
wife Sophie are to Austria-Hungary the Battle of Mons
assassinated while ultimately declaring with the advancing
on a visit in war on Serbia on German First Army
Sarajevo, Bosnia. 28 July. making ground.
28 June 1914 5 July 1914 23 August 1914
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