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Originally Posted by DJ's left nut
Funny thing is that the nation that would've REALLY been hit by a swift German victory is the United States.
The transfer of wealth from traditional European powers to the US because of WWI was staggering. It fast forwarded our ascent to superpower status by probably 50 years.
And it fundamentally altered our national consciousness from 125+ years of relative isolationism to our present status as de facto world police.
I get bored by studying WWII because it's a black and white conflict. It's democracy vs. authoritarianism and good vs. evil. There are clear white/black hats there and catastrophic outcomes of the bad guys had prevailed.
But man, WWI is so fascinating in so many ways because so many of the evils that impact us to this day would've been diminished or avoided outright had things gone differently. Had all the authoritarian regimes that cropped up as a result of WWI been snuffed out in the womb, imagine how much human suffering would've been avoided.
And the most likely avenue to that would've been a swift, relatively bloodless german victory that would've given them the 'credit' they were so desperate for on the world stage. It would've just calmed them the !@#$ down and gotten that chip off their shoulder.
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Dan Carlin's Hardcore History has 30 hours of content on WWI. Magnificent.
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"When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”--Abraham Lincoln
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