The failure of the German Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.
I’ve thought about this before as well. If German communists succeeded, then there wouldn’t have been a WW2. The rest of Europe would’ve almost certainly become communists, and the US would not have become the superpower it is today. Instead, the workers in US would’ve likely overthrown capitalism as well following the example of Russia and Europe. We literally could’ve been living in the Star Trek future right now.
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This analysis makes a lot of sense to me, well said.
I’m gonna take a guess the stray downvote to your analysis is some European taking offense and to that I say, obviously this sort of thing doesn’t apply to every one at all times as individuals. As I see it, it’s a broad take on material conditions and how those influence people as a whole, not a condemnation of every European individual. But I don’t speak for you obviously.
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stray downvote
This is why we disabled them on hex. That way you actually have to voice your disagreement.
I like that. Downvotes have always tended to bother me in places that have them, partly because no matter what anyone tries to say about how to use them (like reddit subs that say “it’s not a disagree button”), they still seem to get used as basically passive-aggression rather than openly confronting an issue. On top of that, they can cause a person to feel rejected, but be clueless as to why, which ends up being confusing instead of lending clarity as to why their comment got such a reaction. Of course in life sometimes people disagree and it won’t always be resolved to satisfaction, but downvotes don’t seem to bring anyone closer to understanding each other. Upvotes are vague in their own way and I’m not sure how useful they are either, but at least they don’t hide disagreements or frustration behind a (usually anonymous) button.
That is very true as well. The imperialism does a lot to prop up support for capitalism in the west.
I mean, Russia was an imperialist and settler-colonial country back then, and they still became the USSR. We’re talking about right after the First World War, which radicalized many workers even in imperialist nations.
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I think there would have been a WW2 it just would have been communist continental Europe versus the UK/Commonwealth-USA alliance maybe with Imperial Japan as a wild card.
Still probably a better timeline but uncertain.
The labour movement in US was very strong after the great depression, and I expect it would’ve kept growing. Also, if the war was between the US+UK vs all of Europe and USSR, then the balance of power would’ve been very different as well. The reason the US became so dominant was because it sat out the war while the rest of the world burnt.
I think it’s hard to predict as these all have effects on each other. Like the USA could have continued social democratic reforms to appease it’s strong labor whole snatching up European colonies in Asia and South America to subsidize the core.
And an anglo alliance might consider Europe lost and pivot to cementing their grip in South Asia and Southern Africa etc
The weird outcome is I think Imperial Japan would probably have at a minium a non aggression pact with Europe and possibly an alliance. Which is an enormous contradiction of Idealogy versus realpolitik. Possibly leading to an Anglo or US aligned Nationalist China movement etc
You’re right that there are many unexpected ways things can work out, but many of the advantages that the current US empire is propped up on would not have existed. Even the US and UK together would not have been central to the world economy. The Soviet bloc would’ve been by far the bigger player in that scenario. It’s hard to overstate just how much the US benefited from WW2.
I wonder if in that timeline Portugal would’ve been able to turn Communist after the Carnation Revolution…
🤔
I see a massive nuclear war in this scenario.
The US was able to develop nukes because a bunch of German scientists fled there and the war provided the justification for running a massive nuclear research program.
