Would the world be better if Germany won WWI?

[jluetjen]

Sid;
To be honest, I'm not sure that Germany offered a whole lot that was different from a victorious Britain and France. The German and English "cultures" of the time were not vastly different. Both had political systems (although the British system was a little more mature) where a limited Monarch, landed gentry, middle class and the military (Army in Germany, Navy in Britain) vied for power. France too -- without the monarch.

Would the victorious Germans have forced an armistice on Britain and France that was significantly different than what was actually put in place in 1918? Possibly. The armistice terms with Russia certainly provide a clue. The outcome of such an armistice is open for discussion. Maybe a British "Hitler" would have appeared in the UK to build on the resentment of losing the war...

[Terry Duncan]

Would the victorious Germans have forced an armistice on Britain and France that was significantly different than what was actually put in place in 1918? Possibly. The armistice terms with Russia certainly provide a clue.

The peace set by Germany in 1918 would have been just as punitive as Versailles and Brest-Litovsk as too many lives had been lost and too much money spent on winning the war, not forgetting the many promises made to the public for all the sacrifices they had been forced to make during the war years. If anything a German peace would have been more punitive as the Germans had been forced into far more extremes such as digging up water piping for the lead and actual starvation in some cases.

[jluetjen]

Terry; Do you have citations for those last two points -- digging up the pipes and deaths by starvation?

[Terry Duncan]

Terry; Do you have citations for those last two points -- digging up the pipes and deaths by starvation?

There are a few pictures that show the effects of the poor starving such as children with Rickets though I cannot find them online at present, also a notable picture of a dead horse being butchered on the streets of Berlin in 1918;

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/0c/2d/fc/0c2d ... erlin-.jpg

The picture of digging up lead pipes is in a book, I have no idea which one, I will look but really cannot recall when I last saw it. With regards deaths by starvation in Germany during WWI, I am not referring to the 700,000 figure the Gemans quoted at the time as this is certainly exaggerated.

[Sid Guttridge]

Hi jluetjen,

I tend to agree. The stark differences in political systems and ideology that marked WWII did not exist in WWI. Thus, while it is easy to distinguish distinctive "baddies" for WWII, it is much less easy to do so for WWI.

One thing seems certain, whoever won WWI, there was going to be an extension of imperialism. Would the Germans have been harsher imperialists? The evidence in South West Africa and Tanganyika implies they would. However, Germany with a bigger empire may also have found it more advantageous to be more compromising with larger local population than in its small existing colonies - perhaps more like the French or even British.

If Germany had won there would also probably have been no League of Nations and therefore less restraints on international bad behaviour.

Cheers,

Sid.