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What if that baby born in 1889 had died of disease at three months old?
WW1 would obviously have happened but what about the period between 1927 and 1933 especially?
War with Japan most likely would have happened anyway but what about Europe?
I think WWII was "baked into" the Versailles Treaty, and if there had been no Hitler, someone similar would have showed up, and things would have taken their course, probably remarkably similar to what actually happened.
I wonder why the British and French felt so hellbent to attack Germany for invading Poland when it was Britain and France that had colonies all over the world and were large participates in the slave trade.
Pretty hypocritical - pretty sure they went to war because they were afraid of another European power more powerful than them.
I wonder why the British and French felt so hellbent to attack Germany for invading Poland
The foremost reason would be the fact that both had signed defensive alliances with Poland and the existence of Poland was a guarantee set forth in the Treaty of Versailles. Both were simply honoring their obligations and the invasion of Poland also made it apparent that Germany was no longer willing to restrain itself and gain territory through appeasement. Poland was a line-in-the-sand and it was apparent the Nazi's no longer had a problem taking militarily what they wanted.
A better quibble might be why didn't Britain and France also declare war on the Soviet Union at the same time, since the Soviets invaded Poland as well? The only answer I could come up with is that Britain and France knew the German-Soviet non-aggression pact was most likely a very short-lived thing. Hitler himself was quite clear about who his enemies were. Declaring war on the Soviets may have simply forced them into greater cooperation with the Nazi's.
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when it was Britain and France that had colonies all over the world
How does one wrong justify another? Colonies were a hold over from a past era and the colonial possessions of even Britain were in various processes of moving towards independence. How does the fact that Britain and France have/had colonies justify the invasion of a sovereign nation by the Nazi's?
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and were large participates in the slave trade.
Again, how does something that had been banned for almost 150 years by the two nations in question have any bearing on the Nazi invasion of Poland? Further how can one possibly condemn Britain and France for what they did almost 150 years ago when Nazi Germany was one of the largest modern users of slave labor during the war?
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Pretty hypocritical - pretty sure they went to war because they were afraid of another European power more powerful than them.
I don't agree with the hypocritical part. There are many actions that are hypocritical, but I do not agree with what you present as evidence of Allied hypocrisy vis-a-vis the actions of Nazi Germany.
On the last part, of course they went to war because they were afraid of a powerful and united Germany. Everyone would have been fine with a powerful and united Germany if the Nazi's had not set their sites on conquering large areas of Europe. No European power was going to tolerate a German hegemony over most of Europe. Parity would have been acceptable, but not domination.
The foremost reason would be the fact that both had signed defensive alliances with Poland and the existence of Poland was a guarantee set forth in the Treaty of Versailles.
Something not frequently pointed out in the accounts of the Allies heroic suppression of the Nazis...Britain and France went to war because Poland was being occupied by an autocractic invader. When the war was over and the Allies victorious, Poland was occupied by an autocractic invader.
Something not frequently pointed out in the accounts of the Allies heroic suppression of the Nazis...Britain and France went to war because Poland was being occupied by an autocractic invader. When the war was over and the Allies victorious, Poland was occupied by an autocractic invader.
How true, the fate/sacrifice of Poland is one of the saddest results of the war. Churchill did all he could short of declaring war on the Soviets to preserve Poland, but the United States had other interests, Britain was too weak, and Poland was just a pawn in the opening moves of the Cold War.
You know, the big guy upstairs works in mysterious ways. I wonder what Stalin would have done to occupy his mind without Hitler? I'll bet it wouldn't have been good.
And why did Hitler go more insane as time went on, taking any chance of victory away from Germany, but also pushing the Russians to the brink but in the end giving them a victory.
A religious man would think maybe everything happened for a reason, even though so many people had to die. In the end, the evil was vanquished.
You know, the big guy upstairs works in mysterious ways. I wonder what Stalin would have done to occupy his mind without Hitler? I'll bet it wouldn't have been good.
And why did Hitler go more insane as time went on, taking any chance of victory away from Germany, but also pushing the Russians to the brink but in the end giving them a victory.
A religious man would think maybe everything happened for a reason, even though so many people had to die. In the end, the evil was vanquished.
The big guy upstairs keeps "check and balance" in everything.
If you think that Germany and Russia historically are mortal enemies that could never find common language, think again. They are much closer to each other that you might guess; do not let WWI and WWII fool you.
"Germany's special relationship to Russia goes back decades, if not centuries. Some trace it back to the arrival of German settlers who colonized great swaths of the Volga plain in the 17th century. Others point to the policy of Ostpolitik in the 1970s that sought closer relations to the Soviet Union, including the financing and construction of the first Russian-German gas pipeline against Washington's vehement objections. In its own complex and tortuous history, Germany, like Russia, has veered between Western and Eastern orientations politically, culturally, and intellectually. Perhaps this historical kinship is why, to this day, there is a widespread feeling, expressed in statements like Schockenhoff's, that Germans have a special affinity to the Russian "soul."
So if Germany would have become Socialist back in the thirties without Hitler, guess what kind of union it would have had with Russia. Now combine Germany's technological ( and organizational) potential with Russian resources and figure out why things are happening ( or not happening) for a reason.
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Well the Nazi party would have continued with or without Hitler, I think Hitler just fueled the more extremist views in the party and appealed to the German people's prejudices against those whom they perceived were to blame for the economic and social problems in Germany. I think it's about 50% likely that Germany would have still invaded other states, but it took Hitler with his Napoleonic complex to expand with such a fierce sense of national superiority. I think anti-Semitism would exist as a much weaker force in the Nazi party without Hitler.
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