Page 45 - All About History - Issue 11-14

What if…
GERMANY HAD WON WWI?

How would Britain have responded? would see is something with some kind of form in Europe, an Have your say
Even if there is a complete and spectacular German victory extension of what is known as the Zollverein, the pan-German Do you agree with our
in 1914, which is not likely, as people have been trying to Customs Union of the 19th century, forming into something expert’s view?
make a quick German win with the Schlieffen Plan work which would bear some resemblance to the modern EU but
perfectly more or less ever since the battle actually took only to the extent that it would be a very large trading block. /AllAboutHistory
place. Even if that happens and France surrenders as it did in Its laws, traditions and attitudes towards human rights would
1914, the imperative for the British to avoid the domination have been completely different. But no, with a German victory @AboutHistoryMag
by any one power of Europe is so great that you would get a in WWI, the League of Nations and from it at the end of World
situation similar to that which the British faced with France War II the United Nations, I don’t think there’s any way this
under Napoleon a century earlier, that they would just keep would happen.
rebuilding coalitions against this hostile Germany. And you
could envisage that the British could just about mount the Would Russia still have become the Soviet Union?
equivalent of D-day, taking a British counter-invasion, either Russia had its own problems. It had already had its minor
of France, Belgium or even the German coastline some time revolution, the uprisings of 1905, leading to political reforms
in 1916. So hypothetically you might have seen D-day several and the creation of a Russian parliament, the Duma. If
decades before it took place. France is defeated in 1914, Russia probably makes peace with
Germany and Austria-Hungary fairly quickly. What basis that
If the US hadn’t entered the war, would they still have will be made on is very hard to say at the moment, but it will
grown into the global superpower they are today or almost certainly have been a limited Russian defeat. But what
would they be more isolated? happens after that is not particularly connected with the war;
The US entry into World War I established its position as an it is the strain of fighting the war over the three-year period
important global power. Indeed, one of the effects of World that precipitates the Russian political and economic collapse,
War I is that the new Soviet Union and the US emerge as and without that the idea of a Russian revolution in the way it
non-European powers for the first time, playing a major role actually happened is not a certainty.
in the international system. And the effect of World War II
is to establish the domination of those two non-European Do you think World War II would have still happened?
powers, the US and Soviet Union, with the European powers If you got the Germany I’ve described, that has been
no longer playing the role they had played recently. This lasts successful in World War I and has achieved this kind of
through to the end of the Cold War in 1990 and 1991. Would domination, who is going to fight it and why? The only thing
the US have emerged into its assumption after 1945 of global that works is looking at the British strategy before, against
interests without its involvement in World War I? I would say revolutionary and Napoleonic France, where the British
it’s unlikely. If Germany doesn’t threaten the US or its interests kept putting together alliances, kept being defeated and just
you’re going to see a more isolationist US. If a confident, wouldn’t give up until Napoleon was finally defeated, and
expansionist, aggressive and militaristic Germany starts to that war lasted for a quarter of a century. So you could easily
threaten the US, the US would almost certainly respond. envisage the British drawing on the resources of their empire,
simply refusing to accept German victory and carrying out
Would the League of Nations and, ultimately, the United a long and persistent war on the peripheries of Europe and
Nations still have materialised under a German victory? around the world to prevent this domination, which could
No, the League of Nations was very much the ideal of have gone on for decades. Whether Britain could have brought
President Woodrow Wilson. And of course the US itself doesn’t the US in on their side is hard to construct a scenario for, but
join the League of Nations, but it is a product of the peace that depends almost entirely on whether Germany tries to
of Paris including the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. What you starve Britain into submission by cutting off its supply routes.

O Blockade of Britain O The US enters the war O Brest-Litovsk O Armistice Day
In an attempt to starve the After continued sinking of Russia agrees to a The war comes
British, Germany begins vessels, the US enters the war, negotiated peace to an end as a
unrestricted submarine mobilising troops immediately, with Germany battered Germany
warfare, sinking any while the Great German in the Treaty of signs an armistice
vessels bound for Britain. Withdrawal takes place. Brest-Litovsk. with the Allies.
February 1915 6 April 1917 3 March 1918 11 November 1918

O Treaty of Versailles
O Trench warfare O Blockade of Britain O Invasion O Battle of the Somme O US troops arrive O Spring Offensive The Treaty of
Scrapping the Schlieffen Germany attempts Germany attempts In the bloodiest day of The first US troops The German Versailles is signed,
Plan, trenches are dug to starve the British to invade Britain fighting in British military arrive in France and the Spring Offensive imposing strict
along the Western island nation through after annexing large history, 60,000 Allied soldiers Allies begin significant fails to break limitations on
Front, foreshadowing a their extensive U-Boat parts of Western are dead, wounded or missing advancements against down the Allied Germany following
long stalemate. submarine campaign. Europe. after a disastrous battle. the Germans. front line. their defeat in the war.
November 1914 February 1915 September 1915 1 July 1916 25 June 1917 April 1918 28 June 1919

O Germany attacks O France surrenders O Russian peace O D-day O No US help O Britain loses
The Germans decide The French surrender Russia enters into After resisting a With its resources Ultimately, after drawing
to go ahead with to Germany, with a negotiated peace German invasion, floundering Britain on the resources of their
the Schlieffen Plan, other countries in with Germany Britain decides to makes another failed entire empire, Britain
planning sweeping Western Europe soon before the war launch a ground attempt to bring loses the war, leading to
attacks across following suit, apart with Britain assault on America into the war a dominant Germany
Western Europe. from Britain. escalates further. western Europe. on their side. in Europe.
November 1914 December 1914 June 1915 March 1916 1917 1924
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