I can just imagine whatifalthist's alternate reality self in this world making a video about "what would happen if there was a big f*cking war in the 1910s?"
I mean, not to be a well actually person but, ww1 wasn't really a predictable thing pre Wilhelm 2 (according to this video) but idk, something else could've come up
Probably something like "What if Germany allied with Austria?" Then there would be a more positive part for if Germany won with it being the sole superpower and a more pessimistic one if they lost with both Britain & Germany destroyed in the aftermath(our TL) He wouldnt predict communism, but he predict the russian revolution going worse and the increase of ideologies such as marxism due to people in this world "straying away from God" His final notes would be how even a small conflict could have destroyed western civilisation and how important Otto's policies were for the 20 century The video would receive heavily mixed reviews with some considering it a masterpiece of storytelling and praising it's representation of Bismarck "truly he was the greatest man of the modern age, we own everything we have to him and God who put him there to ensure that his providence- white men's civilisational mission- would prevail", while some would consider it inacurate, saying a world like this would never come to be "the West was destined for greatness! You think ONE war could have destroyer centuries of stability and legacy? Ridiculous!" and it's take on the german emperor "going insane" being seen as ultimately ludicrous as well
@@ale-xsantos1078that make sense, I mean, if in an alternate world WW3 broke out and someone (of course assuming humanity and technology would survive) made a video where he describes a world where the Cold War never got hot and USSR just collapsed on itself without a fight, would you take him seriously?
Actually as an alt-historian I think this alternate world would be much better. No pointless territorial skirmishes (i.e. India/Pakistan, Armenia/Azerbaijan, etc.). A far more centralized world were order reigns supreme.
Stability in this era is like a house of cards just like our own. It can all hit the fan withen a year or 2 If you think 2020 is bad for the disease just look at what happened in the saHELL this year.
So this timeline is basically what a 19th century English gentlemen would expect to be _the natural order of things_ in the future? It does seem to correlate with a Victorian speculative fiction [sci-fi] view of the 20th century.
i would like to point one thing out though. holy war. if people were more religious, this would lead to conflict. the same as lack of religion. even ethnic rebellion in the colonies, as you have radical missionaries sewing descent in exotic parts of the world, on the basis that all men are god's children, and therefore it's unfair for them not to have equal rights. also, some religions, like the LDS church, were somewhat feminist at the time. for example, women had the right to vote in Utah almost a hundred years before they did any where else in america.
@@1lobster I wouldn’t put liberalism caused by religious ideology as a negative, but I think it is worth noting that religion is used like many other ideologies or beliefs systems, as a means of justifying a war, not necessarily the cause of the war itself, and Europe generally had it’s fill of religious wars after the 30 years war.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 i don't think it would be a bad thing ether. but i think it would lead to violence, the same as secular liberalism in our time line.
@@1lobster This is not the point you've been making, but I read LSD church at first and was very interested in what I have missed about religion in the 19th century.
oh nukes wont prevent another world war... governments will just not use them... i suggest watching whatifist video on ww3 but then again we can only speculate 🤔 and maybe we are both completely wrong and governments with an iq of 1 will use them in war
The fact that he only lived for a few weeks in the throne is why I think this is excluded. Sure, you can see his behavior before becoming Kaiser but still, absolute power corrupts absolutely
@@demun6065 A contential Europe under imperial German Hegemony as a sort of proto-EU would have been nice. If only they had respected Belgium's neutrality.
@@melvinklark6950 weren't you just apologising for Wahabbism in another comment? Don't lecture me on extreme right wing ideas. At least the German's respected women...
And the more I learn about history I learn that they are two of the most consequential and necessary happenings of all time. A world with the hapsburgs and continued imperial power would have horrifying.
Wasn’t Japan generally anti-Russia and pro-Britain? Why would they join Russia’s side- Japan was mostly focused on trying to take over China, and Russia was a hindrance to those efforts. Also, I would like to see more medieval alternate histories.
I agree. I think the events that lead to WW2 in that region is largely unaffected by WW1 not happening. I would predict that Japan goes after China the same, but instead of invading European colonise they still have an alliance with Britain to trade so they invade Russia, probably with Britain and Germany on their side
Indeed, the Japanese had already won a war against Russia and were extremely wary of their attempts at meddling in China. It's very unlikely that they'd forgo their British alliance for a Russian one.
Your country is a great place to live in, but only in alternate history scenarios where the Bolsheviks didn't take power. Fuck Lenin fuck Stalin fuck them all...
@@Perrirodan1 I wouldn't blame EVERYTHING on them, whole 20th century was hell for Russia. Incompetent tsar Nicholas the second, russo-japanise war, WW1, Russian Civil War, Stalin's repretions, WW2, Cold War, Dissolution of the Soviet Union. If just one of this things go differently Russia now wouldn't be a shithole.
??? As soon as oil would become strategically important, other european powers would return to good old days of "support local independence movement to chip away from Ottoman Empire" i.e. what they've done pretty much since Greece independence and up to WW1. That's not "stable"
@@Poctyk yes, this could happen, but in a much more controlled manner than had happened in WW1. They would probably choose the Hejaz in the west of the arabian peninsula, who were much more liberal, and force the ottomans out of this part, but not necessarily out of mesopotamia, too keep them a stable buffer against russia in the caucasus. There was no need to dismantle the ottoman empire completely, they already westernized and would have seized the chance to become trade partners instead to secure their own position and stop their decline.
at the end of the day, ww1 and the players on the allies are exactly why ww2 even happened at all which also lead to a more modern word due to the acceleration of tech because of rivalling powers during and post ww2, hell- half of us wouldnt even exist at all if a world like this even happened.
@@odiadordeisrael WW2 was awful, but has the virtues of being interesting and resolving things for a while. Post WW2 the great European powers lost all their colonies, the USA was ascendant, the defeated parties were rebuilt along democratic lines with strong economies. Post WW2 clearly handled far better than post WW1
That could've happened. The first examination which a leading cancer specialist at the time performed on Frederick III's throat gave him a false negative and a clean bill of health. It wasn't until months later that another physician examined him and gave his 2nd opinion that it was throat cancer. By that point in time, while they were able to remove the main nodules of growth, it had (unbeknownst to them at the time) spread beyond the initial malignant site, and more surgeries were needed to remove the spread, eventually resulting in the complete removal of his vocal chords in a later surgery. If an earlier examination had caught the initial malignancy in time, it is feasible that even 1880s surgery could have prolonged his life at least a few years, if not a decade or more.
@@tooboukou8ball702 It's really hard to get stuff done when you are getting paid to vote so you can continue to do nothing. My cousin is 24, has 3 kids already. Not married, doesn't work, got a free house from my uncle (not her dad) and still complains. TBH we deserve it all.
It’s like the story of the man who flees his home city because of foreknowledge of his death there the next day. He travels to another far city, thinking he has escaped his fated death, but is surprised to see an equally surprised Death walking toward him on the street. Death exclaims, “I thought we would meet tonight at your home city, but here you are now!”
With regard to the Ottoman Empire, I think of two futures happens. One is the prosperity future given in this video. The other however, is UGLY. Imagine a scenario in which the European powers mostly settle their feuds on the continent and with their conquering spirit still strong, begin looking for new areas to colonize. One possibility is South America, but the Spanish-American War might have given most of them second thoughts, so the Middle East is the best option. Having discovered they could all potentially work together during the Boxer Rebellion, the hungry European powers form a huge coalition out of mutual interest and viciously attack the Ottoman Empire. Many of the public back home are thrilled, as it doesn't affect them personally and some likely think of it as a modern-day crusade. Without any major allies, the Ottomans are destroyed in the ensuing war and the Europeans divide up their lands among themselves. A Jewish state is made so that the Europeans can get rid of a "troublesome" minority, so Israel is reborn several decades early. Jerusalem is made a neutral city, thus frustrating both Jews and Muslims. Constantinople meanwhile is reclaimed from Islam and either managed by Russia or given to Greece. The result is that the empires become even more rich thanks to oil discoveries in the region and much of the ME becomes a hotspot for westernization similar to Africa. Basically, the Ottomans were either going to become a fabulously wealthy and prosperous realm, or they were gonna frickin die. And knowing how hungry for land and power the European empires of old were, I lean toward the second fate.
Argentina esta en la realidad mas insoportable e insostenible existente, incluso para los responsables y lo extraño es que no explote todo a la mierda, es un infierno literalmente y nos da igual, nos cagamos de risa, somos un chiste, una joda para nosotros mismos
Hardly. France built the Entente so they'd be able to punch above their weight against Germany because they had not accepted the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. Germany had no designs on France.
@Let's Travel It was Germany's attempt to cozy up to Britain that broke up Bismark's Three Emperors' League. The British rejected the German overtures and the Germans ended up with a two front scenario.
@@Vitorruy1 I'd call it a course correction though. Everyone in the west was so far up their own a** they couldn't see reality any more. The only difference between civilized men and barbarians is having a nice chat and a cup of tea before brutally slaughtering each other after all.
What if the USSR never collapsed? Let's just say that Gorbachev is a genius or Leonid Brezhnev was also a Genius. Edit: From what I've read, I propose a third option could work as well. In order for the USSR to probably survive they needed to get rid of the corruption that grew under Brezhnev and then start to reform. The increased cynicism of the Russians people could have been stopped if the USSR diversified the markets and had more diverse choices and light industry. The centralized planning was also extremely tedious and inefficient because it was done manually. But it would have been made much better if the Soviets computerized the planning system. Its possible that this could be achieved by Gorbachev but there was one man who probably could've got it done OTL as well. This man was Yuri Andropov who died shortly after he succeeded Brezhnev from Renal disease. Perhaps if he lived up to let's say, 1995, the USSR could reassert itself and the Soviet people could be happier. In the OTL Andropov was already about to start a massive anti corruption purge so it could work. Dengism on steroids indeed.
reforming the system into a more federalized variant of itself would have just lead to discontent in a number of soviet states as the communist party would fail due to democracy existing. It would take a lot for Pro soviet parties to maintain power maybe a rebranding as a democratic socialist party, but its hard to say beyond the parts of the soviet union who suffered the least or where closest to Russian would stay communist. Though they would only be a regional power and still technically being the soviet Union would give the American left more justification in seeing Russia as the big bad power when it is china by every metric.
National movement in USSR began not because of nationalistic splash of enthusiasm, but because Mr. Gorbachev had big problems with soviet old guard, witch he wanted to replace. That's why he let people to speak their minds in hopes to demolish old guard from top ( government) and bottom (annoyed people) but it provoked discussions not only of the government, but also of national independence. Gorbachev actually supported China's style rule. Now that's my opinion further, but I believe SSRS could survive by using something of the Breznev's doctrine and China's economic module. This would result in strong SSRS, but about her satellite nations I have no idea. Plus they would become main terrorist target for atheism. Actually Whatifaltfist made youtube video about USSR a long time ago, although it is different.
My favorite "what if" question of alternate history (which is directly related to this subject) will always be "what if Victoria had been allowed to ascend the Hanoverian throne after the death of William IV in 1837?"
7:55- 8:00 "Russia today would be the world's second largest economy and it would have a population of 400 million peoples" Me: cries in russian and "why dont i live in this reality" thoughts
well, even in this world you could have achieved it if not for Uncle Stalin who killed millions of his own ppl, and that 90% of the money is kept by a small group of the richest Russians
@Black Box Painting I know that is quite the exeption, especially on social media. But I think I am not really getting my point through here. Racism in general is not nearly as socially acceptable as it would be in this timeline, where it likely could still be found in most countries' legistlation. And the racism this video talks about seems to refer mostly to the 20th century white supremacy type, not the more modern anti-white racism.
An alternate history change point could involve in Kaiser Wilhelm’s family having better luck with health care. His father died young from misdiagnosed throat cancer, and Wilhelm was crippled from a bad delivery that resulted in a withered arm. His father would have been unlikely to have been as erratic as Wilhelm, and a healthy Wilhelm might have been less of a loose cannon.
Hmm yes a very nice and interesting alt history changing point indeed as I now realize that Kaiser Wilhelm's Piss poor luck with healthcare has caused the downfall of Western civilization as a whole
@@patolenho3732 They would and the Bzyantine Empire would continue their campaign in the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia and eventually try to conquer the Franks
@@patolenho3732 They would have still had kept Italy and Rome even if the Plague happened. It was the Sassanid and Slavic invasions that made them lose it
@@thorpeaaron1110 Do you know about Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan these two men were the last wall for the British in invading India these two rulers of the kingdom of Mysore, until their death British thought that they cannot make India their colony After Haider Ali died his son Tipu Sultan or the tiger of Mysore was the last wall for British East India company to rule India. He had asked help from Napoleon to help him fight against the British, Napoleon thought that after invading Egypt, Syria and Iraq from the ottoman empire he would go and help Tipu but the British defeated the French Navy in Egypt and Napoleon couldn't get Syria and Iraq and his plan failed if he could succeed Tipu Sultan would have been George Washington of India.
Just my two cents: a first world war may still have been unavoidable for two reason: (1) Large scale European wars seem to occur in cycles throughout the centuries, and the last major conflict(s) were the Napoleanic Wars 100 years earlier. So, in a way, Europe was overdue. (2) Until new weopons of the 20th Century were tested on the battlefield, European militaries completely misestimated their impact--meaning they also, near incompetently, underestimated the cost-benefits (to say nothing of a stalemate, that occurred)--, making going to war a naively easy decision.
I always enjoy your videos, but I enjoyed this one one a new level. There's just so much information across so many topics that you summarized in only 15 minutes. This was a rollercoaster and I loved it! Thank you so much for such great content.
Eh..I'm not sure Spain could project power to reasonably conquer England. Perhaps they could assert Spanish supremacy but the long-lasting implications are murkier.
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist With the support of English Catholics Spain would install a puppet Catholic monarch on the English throne making England a puppet state of Spain in all but name
@@thorpeaaron1110 That would have possibly destroyed the Protestantism in England & avenged Catherine of Aragon & Mary I. If only that had been true! In fact, had Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon's son Henry lived, there probably wouldn"t have been a religious switch at all( if only!).
Depends on definition of success. Depending on whom you ask, the Armada was a response to persecution of Catholic minorities on the continent and had tacit support from other powers. There might have been ground support from Catholics... I don't see an issue with the invasion successfully taking over the UK - just holding it for more than a generation seems iffy. Even if initially successful, it might've gone eventually like Poland conquering Russia - held for a while, then had to leave. Spain would then withdraw.
Here are two of my favorite what-ifs: 1) What if the Confederacy didn't attack Fort Sumter but instead just allowed it to sit there undisturbed? Remember, Lincoln was determined to not fire the first shot, and there wasn't a lot of support in the north for a bloody war. 2) What if the Pearl Harbor attack found the four US aircraft carriers tied up at Ford Island, and those obsolete battleships off somewhere on maneuvers?
This and my other comment about how the not western world would be poorer, women and lgbt more oppressed, culture less advanced and colonialism remaining longer I'm sure I prefer our time-line
@@alezar2035 this alternate history would’ve been best for the most long term technological development and stable world order. Instead of worrying about if a male is female and vice versa, we could be focused on greater things like reaching towards the stars
@@alezar2035 I highly doubt that, Eastern culture would generally stay the same or be better, for instance, no Mao in china = the relatively equal gender society compared to what it was during communism
@@alezar2035 For instance, the lgbt weren't opressed in all european powers, while in the UK it remained even after WW2. Also i doubt that non-western world would be poorer: in colonialism there is a certain point in time when the colony becomes essentially like Europe in the level of development-the reason why Africa is so poor while Australia or Canada are prestigous first-world countries. Exception to this is India, which was so important for the UK, that they artificially tried to prevent progress there.
I always did love the Edwardian era. Just that transitionary period from the 19th to 20th century combined with other elements makes it my favorite (or most interesting to me) period of the 20th century.
I managed to do this with a HOI4 mod by literally just ignoring Austria’s plea for me to join the war and leaving them to their fate. Honestly, just derailed the entire first world war...
Follow up question: if you could travel back in time, would you have stopped the assassination, if it was in your power? Another question: Would that have made any difference; as there would surely have been other provocations with the same result?
Without WWI, wristwatches would be a women-only fashion-item. Before WWI, men had pocket-watches and women wore wristwatches. For a man to wear a wristwatch was considered feminine. Then in WWI pilots wore wristwatches, transforming them into battlefield-equipment and making them a masculine item.
Nah it was just a matter of time before the 'great' austro-hungarian empire fell aparat with austria and the habsburgs putting more and more different people and culture under them
I think you are right about the Ottoman Empire not falling, especially due to oil resource revenue. I couldn't see the US expanding to Canada, but perhaps the country breaking up as anglo influence in Quebec is diminished by British attentions elsewhere. Great vid!
12:30 Different take, perhaps Germany would support the Hungarians to weaken the Austrians so that they could be annexed into the German empire almost without a fight, and Hungary and Germany could co-exist as potential allies
What if gunpowder never existed? I think this would be interesting as the Chinese might not have been able to defend their land from the Xiongnu and the Ottomans might not be able to defeat the Byzantines
The main takeaway I always get from these videos is that things happened exactly the way they did for a reason. He always does a good job of breaking down the social, economic, and political pressures that led to things happening just the way they did.
What if the Appalachian Mountains were full of gold? What would local indigenous cultures look like? How would the first colonists react? Would Sweden and Holland invest more to maintain their territories? What would English colonization look like? Would the era of piracy have a new focus? Which country would invest the most in piracy and which country would profit the most from gold? What would the future look like on the North American East Coast?
I feel like a lot of the things in your “What if decolonisation never happened”’ video still applies here. For example, rising populations in the third world would allow the colonies to become independent or at least have far more antonymy eventually. India industrialising might also speed this up. On top of that I think that the birth control pill and the wealth in western countries would lead to some kind of second wave feminism, sexual revolution etc appearing. The rise of Russia, Japan, the Ottomans, and eventually China and India along with socialism discouraging hierarchies will help in decreasing racism. Later on, increasing literacy rates and the invention of the internet will lead to minorities having more power. I don’t see South Africa being majority white for long but I could see Apartheid lasting longer. The lack of Islamic extremism in the Middle East due to the Ottomans and no Afghan War will significantly decrease terrorism and its side effects but I could see extremists gaining power in majority muslim colonies as the Western powers will be more desperate to hold on to them, albeit the islamic extremists will be less pervasive without help from Saudi Arabia. I think that the main effect of WW1 was that it accelerated the fall of the West and helped the rise of both communism and fascism. Without the war, the West would still decline, just more gradually.
that's bullshit ahaha don't make that up out of nowhere the birth rate wouldn't blow up if British never invented vaccine against basically all disease plus , what the fuck is sexual revolution this has never been a thing
@@gutsjoestar7450 Vaccines were invented way before WW1 and even though the war helped medical technology, medicine would still progress enough to help increase birth rates. It is also likely that something like the Spanish Flu pandemic would still happen and encourage technological growth in medicine. Another reason why birth rates increased was due to better farming technology which would happen regardless of the war. Even though the world wars played a part in the West’s debt, it was not the only factor, with government bonds also playing a large role. The world economy to some extent encourages debt and cycles of recessions. No world wars also doesn’t mean that there won’t be any wars at all, the video even mentions some potential large wars that would likely bring a lot of debt to the warring nations. The sexual revolution was a movement in the 1960s that pushed for a separation between sex and intimacy. It accompanied feminism in the 60s by encouraging promiscuity and bringing sex into the conversation around feminism. It was mostly caused by the invention of the birth control pill, which allowed women to have sex without as much of a risk of pregnancy. The internet would still exist as it was more or less inevitable in the electronic age and the US military would benefit greatly from it (the military helped in the development of the internet). The internet greatly increases the speed of communication and thus allows atrocities and inequality to be easily seen and spread to practically everyone. Many white people weren’t against racism simply because they didn’t know how bad it was, but the internet would have changed that. Support from white people would cause massive change, especially in white majority urbanised nations like the US, which could then help stop racism worldwide. Racism would probably still be more widespread in this world but not as significantly so as described in the video.
Arch Duke Ferdinand was told of the plot to assassinate him. He was advised to leave the area immediately and return home. He decided against that. His motorcade was his by a grenade attack. Instead of getting on the plane and leaving, he decided to visit the hospital where the police officers who were injured in the attack, were taken. His driver got lost and stopped to ask for directions, leading to his death and WW1 and WW2, the Cold War, the rise of the USA, and defeat of Colonialism.
13:42 The West (i.e. those in the highest positions of power) did not, in earnest, believe that the motivation for colonialism was to civilise the savages. That was merely an ex post facto contrivance. Europe sought one thing, and one thing only - wealth. In reality, colonialism wasn't some grand rescue mission. That was simply used as an excuse. Also, the rise in crime rates in the 20th century can be linked to socioeconomic factors. Religion doesn't cause people to commit fewer crimes. I don't think it's reasonable to speculate that a preservation of religious norms in public life would lead to lower crime. A hungry man will steal a loaf of bread to feed his starving daughter in the ghetto, whether he's religious or not. Religiosity does not address the underlying reasons why people commit crimes - especially given that most crimes are subsistence crimes, or crimes that result directly from socioeconomic precarity.
Although I am atheist, I know that all people depend on a greater cause for living(which is oftentimes filled with religion but there are some exceptions). Without a far far greater meaning to life you create a degenerate society like the present which causes extra crime.
Instead to assume that Wilhelm II. suddenly changed in character, it would be more likely to assume, that his father, Friedrich III. didn't died from cancer in 1888 but ruled at least for 20 years, dieing in his mid seventies (kind of a normal age for Hohenzollern). The man was at very good terms with Greatbritain and a supporter of liberalism. Despite being a capable veteran of the wars with Austria and France he was a pacifist and didn't wished for another war. Although he despised Bismarck as a person, he understood that the chancellor was needed. They even made an agreement, that Bismarck would stay in office, when Friedrich would inherit the throne. With him in power and Bismarck still dieing in 1898 there would be several changes. For example, it would be likely that they agreed on the renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty with russia in 1890, making an alliance with France obsolete. Also there would be no naval arms race between GB and Germany. The democratic forces would have a better stand; especially after Bismarcks death, they would likely seize control of the gouvernment and changing the system, implementing reforms similiar to thus made in the October of 1918, which gave the parliament the right to demand the resignation oft the chancellor and made the declaration of war and peace subject to parliamentary approval. This way, Wilhelm II. could have never behaved like he did in our timeline, when Friedrich III. died, without violating the constitution.
Fredrick's wife was English, & that worked together on things, so it is very likely that had he/ they had more time on the throne( more than the 3 months) things would be radically different. Or, even more dramatic...... Had WilhelmII's mother been a carrier of hemophilia( rather than his Aunts Alice &Beatrice Whoes daughters brought the mutation to the Royal houses of Russia & Spain), Willhelm might never had been Kaiser.
@@ladyagnes7781 The other possibility could be, that he would have been Kaiser, but that he wouln't have been the Wilhelm we knew. Becaus a lot of his unstable and irritable personality was based on how his mother treated him as a child. When Viktoria got the diagnosis, that her sons left arm was partially paralyzed, she couldn't accept that and enforced a series of treatments on him, like sewing the sick arm into a freshly slaughtered rabbit, or trying to strengthen the muscles via a painfully electrotherapy, to correct that "failure", but none of it was of use. If he had hemophilia, like the son of Tsar Nikolaus, she would probably have acted in a more protective way, which may have resulted in a very shy and reserved character.
as an argentinian, the argentina part is 100% accurate. of course this time the blow on opportunities would be more or less equal to that of europe, by adopting more and more socialistic measures until everything collapses over and over again.
A conflict on the scale of the world wars was inevitable in my opinion. It was an underlying tension that took advantage of some very specific events to make it happen at the right time. If it didn’t happen in 1914, it would have happened probably not long after. The growth of the predominant nation states through the nineteenth century was so cataclysmic that imagining a world without a conflict of power is nearly impossible to think about.
Loved your visual summaries! Really evocative. They were the perfect suggestion, while leaving plenty of room for imagination. Awesome, basically! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 😎👌
I can just imagine whatifalthist's alternate reality self in this world making a video about "what would happen if there was a big f*cking war in the 1910s?"
I mean, not to be a well actually person but, ww1 wasn't really a predictable thing pre Wilhelm 2 (according to this video) but idk, something else could've come up
@@uniquely.mediocre1865 ik lmao that's why my theoretical title is so random .
Probably something like "What if Germany allied with Austria?"
Then there would be a more positive part for if Germany won with it being the sole superpower and a more pessimistic one if they lost with both Britain & Germany destroyed in the aftermath(our TL)
He wouldnt predict communism, but he predict the russian revolution going worse and the increase of ideologies such as marxism due to people in this world "straying away from God"
His final notes would be how even a small conflict could have destroyed western civilisation and how important Otto's policies were for the 20 century
The video would receive heavily mixed reviews with some considering it a masterpiece of storytelling and praising it's representation of Bismarck "truly he was the greatest man of the modern age, we own everything we have to him and God who put him there to ensure that his providence- white men's civilisational mission- would prevail", while some would consider it inacurate, saying a world like this would never come to be "the West was destined for greatness! You think ONE war could have destroyer centuries of stability and legacy? Ridiculous!" and it's take on the german emperor "going insane" being seen as ultimately ludicrous as well
@@ale-xsantos1078that make sense, I mean, if in an alternate world WW3 broke out and someone (of course assuming humanity and technology would survive) made a video where he describes a world where the Cold War never got hot and USSR just collapsed on itself without a fight, would you take him seriously?
@@antoniomariamacri7500 no
"It's a far more stable world than ours, and that always disturbes me."
--Whatifalthist, 2020.
I Heard From Someone I Think That We Live In The Worst Timeline
Actually as an alt-historian I think this alternate world would be much better. No pointless territorial skirmishes (i.e. India/Pakistan, Armenia/Azerbaijan, etc.). A far more centralized world were order reigns supreme.
Stability in this era is like a house of cards just like our own.
It can all hit the fan withen a year or 2 If you think 2020 is bad for the disease just look at what happened in the saHELL this year.
Stable for whom? The white ruling class.
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist it would kinda be better but the problem with that world would have racism and inequality
So this timeline is basically what a 19th century English gentlemen would expect to be _the natural order of things_ in the future?
It does seem to correlate with a Victorian speculative fiction [sci-fi] view of the 20th century.
i would like to point one thing out though. holy war. if people were more religious, this would lead to conflict. the same as lack of religion. even ethnic rebellion in the colonies, as you have radical missionaries sewing descent in exotic parts of the world, on the basis that all men are god's children, and therefore it's unfair for them not to have equal rights. also, some religions, like the LDS church, were somewhat feminist at the time. for example, women had the right to vote in Utah almost a hundred years before they did any where else in america.
@@1lobster
I wouldn’t put liberalism caused by religious ideology as a negative, but I think it is worth noting that religion is used like many other ideologies or beliefs systems, as a means of justifying a war, not necessarily the cause of the war itself, and Europe generally had it’s fill of religious wars after the 30 years war.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 i don't think it would be a bad thing ether. but i think it would lead to violence, the same as secular liberalism in our time line.
@@1lobster This is not the point you've been making, but I read LSD church at first and was very interested in what I have missed about religion in the 19th century.
@@1lobster Eh. Religion in the Victorian era did not mean war. The world had evolved past that to some degree to an imperialistic view of the world.
Kaiser Wilhelm was so destructive that he was immortalised in the _Wilhelm scream…_
Shame his arm wasn't as destructive
Why is your profile picture a banana peel on a dog
@@sharkronical Well, basically his arm was all that ruined him.
@@MickeyMouse-lx3nw Why not?
@@MickeyMouse-lx3nw why are you mickey mouse, you corporate shill?
WW1: how to destroy your entire civilization in just four years
ww1: the biggest mistake in modern history where everyone looking back at it face palmed
Tutorial
@@widgetcardau218 And all of this could have been avoided. We just needed to maintain peace until nukes and globalization made war obsolete.
oh nukes wont prevent another world war... governments will just not use them... i suggest watching whatifist video on ww3 but then again we can only speculate 🤔 and maybe we are both completely wrong and governments with an iq of 1 will use them in war
@@widgetcardau218 chances are someone will use them eventually
Instead of imaging what if Kaiser Wilhelm II were different I would just try to imagine what if Fredrick III had lived.
The fact that he only lived for a few weeks in the throne is why I think this is excluded. Sure, you can see his behavior before becoming Kaiser but still, absolute power corrupts absolutely
The more I learn about the history the more I lament the existence of WW1 and Communism.
@@demun6065 A contential Europe under imperial German Hegemony as a sort of proto-EU would have been nice. If only they had respected Belgium's neutrality.
@@demun6065 but it would have been extremely right wing and the world would've been overallmore racist because of that
@@melvinklark6950 weren't you just apologising for Wahabbism in another comment? Don't lecture me on extreme right wing ideas. At least the German's respected women...
And the more I learn about history I learn that they are two of the most consequential and necessary happenings of all time. A world with the hapsburgs and continued imperial power would have horrifying.
@@melvinklark6950 why can't I live in such a based reality?
So sealand won’t exist in this timeline. :(
sadly no my friend
A great tragedy
@@midnightoil725 indeed. SEALAND SHELL NEVER DIE!
Rhodesia would still exist in this world which would be Rhodesians never die would be true.
It's the darkest timeline then
"Heligoland are tiny islands"
As a German: this hurts...
F
F
F
F
F
Wasn’t Japan generally anti-Russia and pro-Britain? Why would they join Russia’s side- Japan was mostly focused on trying to take over China, and Russia was a hindrance to those efforts.
Also, I would like to see more medieval alternate histories.
I agree. I think the events that lead to WW2 in that region is largely unaffected by WW1 not happening.
I would predict that Japan goes after China the same, but instead of invading European colonise they still have an alliance with Britain to trade so they invade Russia, probably with Britain and Germany on their side
Yes I think they would team up with the British like they already did.
Hey Fredinno, remember me from the argument about the sudentland awhile back lol?
Indeed, the Japanese had already won a war against Russia and were extremely wary of their attempts at meddling in China. It's very unlikely that they'd forgo their British alliance for a Russian one.
@@francesconesi7666 what?
As a Russian your videos make me more depressed than living in Russia
RIP tovarish
Your country is a great place to live in, but only in alternate history scenarios where the Bolsheviks didn't take power. Fuck Lenin fuck Stalin fuck them all...
@@Perrirodan1 Long live the Romanov Dynasty.
@Arkady Yes.
@@Perrirodan1 I wouldn't blame EVERYTHING on them, whole 20th century was hell for Russia. Incompetent tsar Nicholas the second, russo-japanise war, WW1, Russian Civil War, Stalin's repretions, WW2, Cold War, Dissolution of the Soviet Union. If just one of this things go differently Russia now wouldn't be a shithole.
Middle East would probably be more peaceful to be honest
You'd have to go back a bit further and not allow Wahhabism to happen, imo.
@@demun6065 the suadis are wahibist so if the ottoman controlled the land that made them powerful wahibism wouldn't be popular
??? As soon as oil would become strategically important, other european powers would return to good old days of "support local independence movement to chip away from Ottoman Empire" i.e. what they've done pretty much since Greece independence and up to WW1. That's not "stable"
@@Poctyk yes, this could happen, but in a much more controlled manner than had happened in WW1. They would probably choose the Hejaz in the west of the arabian peninsula, who were much more liberal, and force the ottomans out of this part, but not necessarily out of mesopotamia, too keep them a stable buffer against russia in the caucasus. There was no need to dismantle the ottoman empire completely, they already westernized and would have seized the chance to become trade partners instead to secure their own position and stop their decline.
@@melvinklark6950 Ottomans were Hanafi Islam Fiqh a.k.a orthodox traditional Islam.
I used to find WW1 boring (compared to WW2) and depressing. You've made WW1 interesting and depressing.
at the end of the day, ww1 and the players on the allies are exactly why ww2 even happened at all which also lead to a more modern word due to the acceleration of tech because of rivalling powers during and post ww2, hell- half of us wouldnt even exist at all if a world like this even happened.
Go check epic history tv also
You don't find WW2 depressing?
@@odiadordeisrael WW2 was awful, but has the virtues of being interesting and resolving things for a while. Post WW2 the great European powers lost all their colonies, the USA was ascendant, the defeated parties were rebuilt along democratic lines with strong economies. Post WW2 clearly handled far better than post WW1
@@marcsylvestre3637 I kind of agree but the world almost came to total destruction during the cold war lol thank nuclear weapons
For another point of departure, somehow keep Wilhelm II's father Frederick III alive instead of dying months after ascending the throne.
True. Wilhelm II's problem was his premature ascention and his childhood injury which gave him a permanent inferiority complex
That could've happened. The first examination which a leading cancer specialist at the time performed on Frederick III's throat gave him a false negative and a clean bill of health. It wasn't until months later that another physician examined him and gave his 2nd opinion that it was throat cancer. By that point in time, while they were able to remove the main nodules of growth, it had (unbeknownst to them at the time) spread beyond the initial malignant site, and more surgeries were needed to remove the spread, eventually resulting in the complete removal of his vocal chords in a later surgery.
If an earlier examination had caught the initial malignancy in time, it is feasible that even 1880s surgery could have prolonged his life at least a few years, if not a decade or more.
So, one doctor caused the decline of Western Civilization. Who woulda guessed.
@@jwil4286 To be fair, no one could had seen it coming. Nor were the events far from inevitable even afterwards.
@@TheVoiceOfReason93 yeah, you're right. i'm not going to hold it against them.
Even on a timeline where everything is a lot better, Peronia still goes down the shitter, lol.
🇦🇷🇦🇷💪 still waiting the timeline where we are a free capitalist superpower
Somos boludos por naturaleza
@@santimonfe5743 Poor Argentina 😅
Me, an Argentine: God damn that burns. True though.
pensé exactamente lo mismo
Es triste pero real todas las oportunidades que desaprovechamos
"Never before have i been so offended by something I 100% agree with"
Poor Argentines, always seem to get shat on around here.
@@tooboukou8ball702 It's really hard to get stuff done when you are getting paid to vote so you can continue to do nothing. My cousin is 24, has 3 kids already. Not married, doesn't work, got a free house from my uncle (not her dad) and still complains. TBH we deserve it all.
Can you make "What if the Western Roman Empire survived, while the Eastern one fell?"
Arabs it is free real estate
@@domenstrmsek5625 Slavs as well
*goths
I like that idea, it is clever.
People actually realize killing Aetius and Majorian is a bad idea.
It’s like the story of the man who flees his home city because of foreknowledge of his death there the next day. He travels to another far city, thinking he has escaped his fated death, but is surprised to see an equally surprised Death walking toward him on the street. Death exclaims, “I thought we would meet tonight at your home city, but here you are now!”
Damn. This is giving me some deep existential crisis at 4:00am.
I'm escaping the reaper by avoiding salmon mousse....
If the Ottoman survive and discover the oil the Osman sultan would likely have diamond toilet by middle 20th century.
The sultan of Oman lives in zanzibar now
@@angelmiau8445 ottoman dynasty name is Osman not Oman
With regard to the Ottoman Empire, I think of two futures happens. One is the prosperity future given in this video. The other however, is UGLY. Imagine a scenario in which the European powers mostly settle their feuds on the continent and with their conquering spirit still strong, begin looking for new areas to colonize. One possibility is South America, but the Spanish-American War might have given most of them second thoughts, so the Middle East is the best option. Having discovered they could all potentially work together during the Boxer Rebellion, the hungry European powers form a huge coalition out of mutual interest and viciously attack the Ottoman Empire. Many of the public back home are thrilled, as it doesn't affect them personally and some likely think of it as a modern-day crusade. Without any major allies, the Ottomans are destroyed in the ensuing war and the Europeans divide up their lands among themselves. A Jewish state is made so that the Europeans can get rid of a "troublesome" minority, so Israel is reborn several decades early. Jerusalem is made a neutral city, thus frustrating both Jews and Muslims. Constantinople meanwhile is reclaimed from Islam and either managed by Russia or given to Greece. The result is that the empires become even more rich thanks to oil discoveries in the region and much of the ME becomes a hotspot for westernization similar to Africa. Basically, the Ottomans were either going to become a fabulously wealthy and prosperous realm, or they were gonna frickin die. And knowing how hungry for land and power the European empires of old were, I lean toward the second fate.
Damn where do I have to sign to have been born in that dimension
can't
you can play video games
you can think about it
but that's it
I bet you are Auth Right
@@lucasbakeforero426 how could you tell
@@rm-1575 That dimension sounds like the Auth Right paradise; and you definitely seem onboard with it
@@lucasbakeforero426 im just white
We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I. 😉
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of.
@@Pro-nz9fj You won't get this from any other guy.
@@WhatifAltHist I just wanna tell you I'm feeling
@@Pro-nz9fj gotta make you understand
Well you’re not wrong about Argentina lol
Argentina esta en la realidad mas insoportable e insostenible existente, incluso para los responsables y lo extraño es que no explote todo a la mierda, es un infierno literalmente y nos da igual, nos cagamos de risa, somos un chiste, una joda para nosotros mismos
Let me guess Argentina stays Rich because no ww1
@@mrlonghead Because no Perón, no fascism. Without that fascist pedof, we would be a first world country still
But argentina has blown so manie arpotonites
Conclusion: it’s all Wilhelm II’s fault.
God damn it Willy
Damnit Willy why are you so charismatic but so stupid
Hardly. France built the Entente so they'd be able to punch above their weight against Germany because they had not accepted the loss of Alsace-Lorraine. Germany had no designs on France.
@Let's Travel it would have been a war in German favor that for sure.
@Let's Travel It was Germany's attempt to cozy up to Britain that broke up Bismark's Three Emperors' League. The British rejected the German overtures and the Germans ended up with a two front scenario.
To someone from this timeline, modern day America/Europe would look like a Lovecraftian horror come to life
To your great grandparents the modern world would look like a lovecraftian horror cone to life
Crazy to think how the european view of the world was turned on its head, and niche ideologies became mainstream.
@@Vitorruy1
I'd call it a course correction though. Everyone in the west was so far up their own a** they couldn't see reality any more. The only difference between civilized men and barbarians is having a nice chat and a cup of tea before brutally slaughtering each other after all.
@@Alias_Anybody I agree, every nation tought they would win WW1 easily because they started believing their own BS.
Watching WhatIfAltHist > Doing my math finals
wait, thats the channels name?
@@MisterHunterWolf no it’s obviously Ryan’s Toy Reviews
Based lol :)
"What if the world were a better place?"
Nice one.
Very true
What if the USSR never collapsed? Let's just say that Gorbachev is a genius or Leonid Brezhnev was also a Genius.
Edit: From what I've read, I propose a third option could work as well. In order for the USSR to probably survive they needed to get rid of the corruption that grew under Brezhnev and then start to reform. The increased cynicism of the Russians people could have been stopped if the USSR diversified the markets and had more diverse choices and light industry. The centralized planning was also extremely tedious and inefficient because it was done manually. But it would have been made much better if the Soviets computerized the planning system. Its possible that this could be achieved by Gorbachev but there was one man who probably could've got it done OTL as well. This man was Yuri Andropov who died shortly after he succeeded Brezhnev from Renal disease. Perhaps if he lived up to let's say, 1995, the USSR could reassert itself and the Soviet people could be happier. In the OTL Andropov was already about to start a massive anti corruption purge so it could work. Dengism on steroids indeed.
It would turn into the Union of Sovreign States. Watch Mr Z 's video about that.
@@ivanf.482 I think he means they don’t lose their territories
reforming the system into a more federalized variant of itself would have just lead to discontent in a number of soviet states as the communist party would fail due to democracy existing. It would take a lot for Pro soviet parties to maintain power maybe a rebranding as a democratic socialist party, but its hard to say beyond the parts of the soviet union who suffered the least or where closest to Russian would stay communist. Though they would only be a regional power and still technically being the soviet Union would give the American left more justification in seeing Russia as the big bad power when it is china by every metric.
The Space Race never ends and we have more motivation to go to Mars
National movement in USSR began not because of nationalistic splash of enthusiasm, but because Mr. Gorbachev had big problems with soviet old guard, witch he wanted to replace. That's why he let people to speak their minds in hopes to demolish old guard from top ( government) and bottom (annoyed people) but it provoked discussions not only of the government, but also of national independence. Gorbachev actually supported China's style rule. Now that's my opinion further, but I believe SSRS could survive by using something of the Breznev's doctrine and China's economic module. This would result in strong SSRS, but about her satellite nations I have no idea. Plus they would become main terrorist target for atheism. Actually Whatifaltfist made youtube video about USSR a long time ago, although it is different.
10:20 holy shit that irish famine was no joke
The Irish hatred of the British is more than social
My favorite "what if" question of alternate history (which is directly related to this subject) will always be "what if Victoria had been allowed to ascend the Hanoverian throne after the death of William IV in 1837?"
7:55- 8:00 "Russia today would be the world's second largest economy and it would have a population of 400 million peoples"
Me: cries in russian and "why dont i live in this reality" thoughts
well, even in this world you could have achieved it if not for Uncle Stalin who killed millions of his own ppl, and that 90% of the money is kept by a small group of the richest Russians
@@Dread_2137 if ww1 didnt happened then he would be a monk in georgia an maybe a saint, because of his charisma, weird
@@Salv2137 Wow, imagine Joseph Stalin becoming a famous priest in that timeline and being remembered as 'saint Joseph' or something.
@@mr.normalguy69 renowned for organizing help for Ukrainians during famine
@@Salv2137 Lol. Yeah, but without Stalin becoming a dictator there won't be any famine.
A man can dream though
A man can dream
It looks like such a world would be whole lot better place than the one we got after WWI.
Our world is "horrifying, insane and crass". The people of this timeline would be correct to think this.
I wish I lived in this timeline
Me too brother... me too...
same
The world would be so much better if ww1 never happened
@@DivineOrange Serbia fucked everyone over and they never even got punished for it
As a Chinese person practically any timeline that doesn't have the Commies take over is better in my opinion.
"Godless Bolshevism"
What a dude 😂
I mean, given the soviets were literally anti-theist, it's not really idiomatic.
@@davilimalol4612 if you lived in USSR you'd know how silly this statement is. It looks a bit like Christian America meets fairy tale communism.
@@NeoZondix did you live in USSR lmfao
@@melvinklark6950 my parents, grandparents, and great grandparents did
Literally North Korea, China and the former eastern bloc have more atheists for that reason and it's why Afghanistan is also messed up
Can we just appreciate all the research and speculation that goes into these? What a masterpiece
I can't though
he does no research. He makes a lot of shit up just to fit his narrative.
Is this a joke?
@@everburn i made this comment two years ago, before he started seriously doubling down on his alt right takes
This timeline sounds so beautiful it makes me sad
@@fishizu413 sounds great to me
It sounds great apart from the whole racism thing
@Black Box Painting The fact that racism is pretry much condemned today and is nit concidered acceptable by most of western civilization.
@Black Box Painting I know that is quite the exeption, especially on social media. But I think I am not really getting my point through here. Racism in general is not nearly as socially acceptable as it would be in this timeline, where it likely could still be found in most countries' legistlation. And the racism this video talks about seems to refer mostly to the 20th century white supremacy type, not the more modern anti-white racism.
@@fishizu413 fuck them
"What if the world was heaven?" Basically
An alternate history change point could involve in Kaiser Wilhelm’s family having better luck with health care. His father died young from misdiagnosed throat cancer, and Wilhelm was crippled from a bad delivery that resulted in a withered arm. His father would have been unlikely to have been as erratic as Wilhelm, and a healthy Wilhelm might have been less of a loose cannon.
Hmm yes a very nice and interesting alt history changing point indeed as I now realize that Kaiser Wilhelm's Piss poor luck with healthcare has caused the downfall of Western civilization as a whole
Could you make: “What if the Justinian plague didn’t happen?”
Oh... oh fuck, I wanna see this one
I'm not a historian, or an Alt History Expert, but i think the Eastern Roman Empire would keep the lands they got in Italy.
@@patolenho3732 They would and the Bzyantine Empire would continue their campaign in the Visigothic Kingdom in Iberia and eventually try to conquer the Franks
@@patolenho3732 They would have still had kept Italy and Rome even if the Plague happened. It was the Sassanid and Slavic invasions that made them lose it
By the Uymaad Caliphate arose Bzyantine froces under Emperor Justinian would repel them back the Arabain Peninsula
What if Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign succeeded?
He would hurt Britain's trade route to India
it did succeed, its just his invasion into the levant failed
Then Britain couldn't rule India.
@@abdulmoiz9026 India would still be a British Colony but it would still but under the control of the British East India Company
@@thorpeaaron1110 Do you know about Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan these two men were the last wall for the British in invading India these two rulers of the kingdom of Mysore, until their death British thought that they cannot make India their colony After Haider Ali died his son Tipu Sultan or the tiger of Mysore was the last wall for British East India company to rule India. He had asked help from Napoleon to help him fight against the British, Napoleon thought that after invading Egypt, Syria and Iraq from the ottoman empire he would go and help Tipu but the British defeated the French Navy in Egypt and Napoleon couldn't get Syria and Iraq and his plan failed if he could succeed Tipu Sultan would have been George Washington of India.
Just my two cents: a first world war may still have been unavoidable for two reason: (1) Large scale European wars seem to occur in cycles throughout the centuries, and the last major conflict(s) were the Napoleanic Wars 100 years earlier. So, in a way, Europe was overdue. (2) Until new weopons of the 20th Century were tested on the battlefield, European militaries completely misestimated their impact--meaning they also, near incompetently, underestimated the cost-benefits (to say nothing of a stalemate, that occurred)--, making going to war a naively easy decision.
I always enjoy your videos, but I enjoyed this one one a new level. There's just so much information across so many topics that you summarized in only 15 minutes. This was a rollercoaster and I loved it! Thank you so much for such great content.
"Russia collapsed to godless Bolshevism..." I like this Whatifalthist guy.
He's pretty fucking good
Unequivocally based
Absolutely based indeed. Communism kills.
@Matricx700 maybe you're poorly read on the bolsheviks.
@Matricx700 Oof Rip for you
4th day of asking
What if the spanish armada succeed
Indeed I would love watching this on my island
Eh..I'm not sure Spain could project power to reasonably conquer England. Perhaps they could assert Spanish supremacy but the long-lasting implications are murkier.
@@scholaroftheworldalternatehist With the support of English Catholics Spain would install a puppet Catholic monarch on the English throne making England a puppet state of Spain in all but name
@@thorpeaaron1110 That would have possibly destroyed the Protestantism in England & avenged Catherine of Aragon & Mary I.
If only that had been true!
In fact, had Henry VIII & Catherine of Aragon's son Henry lived, there probably wouldn"t have been a religious switch at all( if only!).
Depends on definition of success. Depending on whom you ask, the Armada was a response to persecution of Catholic minorities on the continent and had tacit support from other powers.
There might have been ground support from Catholics... I don't see an issue with the invasion successfully taking over the UK - just holding it for more than a generation seems iffy.
Even if initially successful, it might've gone eventually like Poland conquering Russia - held for a while, then had to leave. Spain would then withdraw.
Hey man, you have always been a big inspiration and the reason I started to make alt-history videos of my own! Thank you
Thanks for advertising yourself :) new chamnel to watch
@@absolutelynothing3621 No problem, man. Thank you for watching!
The effort and thought you put into your videos is amazing. Keep making videos man. You are really good at it
Here are two of my favorite what-ifs: 1) What if the Confederacy didn't attack Fort Sumter but instead just allowed it to sit there undisturbed? Remember, Lincoln was determined to not fire the first shot, and there wasn't a lot of support in the north for a bloody war. 2) What if the Pearl Harbor attack found the four US aircraft carriers tied up at Ford Island, and those obsolete battleships off somewhere on maneuvers?
Sidenote: it's interesting that, aside from the two great wars, the most devastating wars in history were Chinese wars (many of them civil wars)
Yeah we have the worst luck in history LOL.
Also, it would probably be a lot less technologically developed. Flying, for instance, would probably be commercially viable far later.
This and my other comment about how the not western world would be poorer, women and lgbt more oppressed, culture less advanced and colonialism remaining longer I'm sure I prefer our time-line
@@alezar2035 B-b-b-but muh law and order!!
@@alezar2035 this alternate history would’ve been best for the most long term technological development and stable world order. Instead of worrying about if a male is female and vice versa, we could be focused on greater things like reaching towards the stars
@@alezar2035 I highly doubt that, Eastern culture would generally stay the same or be better, for instance, no Mao in china = the relatively equal gender society compared to what it was during communism
@@alezar2035 For instance, the lgbt weren't opressed in all european powers, while in the UK it remained even after WW2. Also i doubt that non-western world would be poorer: in colonialism there is a certain point in time when the colony becomes essentially like Europe in the level of development-the reason why Africa is so poor while Australia or Canada are prestigous first-world countries. Exception to this is India, which was so important for the UK, that they artificially tried to prevent progress there.
I always did love the Edwardian era. Just that transitionary period from the 19th to 20th century combined with other elements makes it my favorite (or most interesting to me) period of the 20th century.
So the British equivalent of the French Belle époque ?
@@ffls775 its got a different name in each country. Americans call it the progressive era, Germans call it the wilhelmine era, etc
I managed to do this with a HOI4 mod by literally just ignoring Austria’s plea for me to join the war and leaving them to their fate. Honestly, just derailed the entire first world war...
This guy when ever talking about any what if scenarios: "And have I told you how mutch I fucking hate commonisum"
I dont blame him!
There was and is a lot too hate.
@@oldtree7584 you shuld, at least in history Videos he shuld be neutral
@@militaristaustrian Hating communism is the neutral and natural position, as much as hating its twin brother, fascism
@@EdricoftheWeald no it isnt and fashisam is the dark twin of the socdem
Follow up question: if you could travel back in time, would you have stopped the assassination, if it was in your power? Another question: Would that have made any difference; as there would surely have been other provocations with the same result?
I think we can agree that the Great War was the most important event in at least the past millennium. It completely changed our world.
Without WWI, wristwatches would be a women-only fashion-item. Before WWI, men had pocket-watches and women wore wristwatches. For a man to wear a wristwatch was considered feminine. Then in WWI pilots wore wristwatches, transforming them into battlefield-equipment and making them a masculine item.
I was watching another whatifalthist video and got the notification for this one. It's a friyay indeed
I love all the new collabs, good work man.
Austria would be strong and cool and not small and unemportant
As a Turk I wish we never went in to war
@@adems.2600 Yeah Austria dragged Ottomans and Germany down with them in this war.
Nah it was just a matter of time before the 'great' austro-hungarian empire fell aparat with austria and the habsburgs putting more and more different people and culture under them
@@SaleGudmen We want to reform snd with Germanys help we would create a third crown for the slavs.
@@cantdebunkthetruth We asked Germany if they would help us and they said yes
I think you are right about the Ottoman Empire not falling, especially due to oil resource revenue. I couldn't see the US expanding to Canada, but perhaps the country breaking up as anglo influence in Quebec is diminished by British attentions elsewhere. Great vid!
12:30
Different take, perhaps Germany would support the Hungarians to weaken the Austrians so that they could be annexed into the German empire almost without a fight, and Hungary and Germany could co-exist as potential allies
"They would certainly find our world horrifying" I think our world is horrifying and want to live in that one
this year, my christmas present came earlier. This was the present
What if gunpowder never existed? I think this would be interesting as the Chinese might not have been able to defend their land from the Xiongnu and the Ottomans might not be able to defeat the Byzantines
OR... what if The Kaiser didn't have a mangled arm? That defect from a bad birthing created the monster we all know and love.
Talk about butterfly
What monster is that? The mostly utterly false piffle that fills (or at least filled) UK secondary school History text books.
"What if WW1 never happened?"
Who are you and what have you done with Whatifalthist?
The main takeaway I always get from these videos is that things happened exactly the way they did for a reason. He always does a good job of breaking down the social, economic, and political pressures that led to things happening just the way they did.
"The rest of the world was in shambles as America had the only stable economy"
Japan: are you sure about that
Back then Japan was still using medieval technology
as they where still industrializing
@@darth3911 Still
This is your best one yet, i really enjoyed it!
There exists an alternative history novel called „Der Komet“ (the comet“) from Hannes Stein, Berlin 2013, that describes such a scenario
9:35 That is one fascinating later WW1 scenario
Short summary: It would have been a much better world.
I wish I lived in the described timeline tbh . Damn Wilhelm 2 . That dog 🐶 had not only blood on his hands but also the fall of western civilization.
I'm glad this was uploaded on my lunch break so I have something new to watch
The intro music sounds quieter than usual, I like it.
What if the Appalachian Mountains were full of gold? What would local indigenous cultures look like? How would the first colonists react? Would Sweden and Holland invest more to maintain their territories? What would English colonization look like? Would the era of piracy have a new focus? Which country would invest the most in piracy and which country would profit the most from gold? What would the future look like on the North American East Coast?
This video is kinda a continuation for Mr Z’s video, in which he stated that another war was coming at some point if not ww1
*Sees whatifatlhist posting on my birthday*
Best day ever
Happy birthday mate
@@dust1077 Thank you
Happy birthday!
@@gametmane1093 thank you
Yes! Thank you! Excellent video.
I feel like a lot of the things in your “What if decolonisation never happened”’ video still applies here. For example, rising populations in the third world would allow the colonies to become independent or at least have far more antonymy eventually. India industrialising might also speed this up.
On top of that I think that the birth control pill and the wealth in western countries would lead to some kind of second wave feminism, sexual revolution etc appearing. The rise of Russia, Japan, the Ottomans, and eventually China and India along with socialism discouraging hierarchies will help in decreasing racism. Later on, increasing literacy rates and the invention of the internet will lead to minorities having more power. I don’t see South Africa being majority white for long but I could see Apartheid lasting longer. The lack of Islamic extremism in the Middle East due to the Ottomans and no Afghan War will significantly decrease terrorism and its side effects but I could see extremists gaining power in majority muslim colonies as the Western powers will be more desperate to hold on to them, albeit the islamic extremists will be less pervasive without help from Saudi Arabia.
I think that the main effect of WW1 was that it accelerated the fall of the West and helped the rise of both communism and fascism. Without the war, the West would still decline, just more gradually.
Interesting opinion
that's bullshit
ahaha don't make that up out of nowhere
the birth rate wouldn't blow up
if British never invented vaccine against basically all disease
plus , what the fuck is sexual revolution
this has never been a thing
if WW1 never happen
the west would keep rising
and wouldn't have debt
plus the invention of internet is mainly made by US
in the sillicon valley
@@gutsjoestar7450 Vaccines were invented way before WW1 and even though the war helped medical technology, medicine would still progress enough to help increase birth rates. It is also likely that something like the Spanish Flu pandemic would still happen and encourage technological growth in medicine. Another reason why birth rates increased was due to better farming technology which would happen regardless of the war.
Even though the world wars played a part in the West’s debt, it was not the only factor, with government bonds also playing a large role. The world economy to some extent encourages debt and cycles of recessions. No world wars also doesn’t mean that there won’t be any wars at all, the video even mentions some potential large wars that would likely bring a lot of debt to the warring nations.
The sexual revolution was a movement in the 1960s that pushed for a separation between sex and intimacy. It accompanied feminism in the 60s by encouraging promiscuity and bringing sex into the conversation around feminism. It was mostly caused by the invention of the birth control pill, which allowed women to have sex without as much of a risk of pregnancy.
The internet would still exist as it was more or less inevitable in the electronic age and the US military would benefit greatly from it (the military helped in the development of the internet). The internet greatly increases the speed of communication and thus allows atrocities and inequality to be easily seen and spread to practically everyone. Many white people weren’t against racism simply because they didn’t know how bad it was, but the internet would have changed that. Support from white people would cause massive change, especially in white majority urbanised nations like the US, which could then help stop racism worldwide. Racism would probably still be more widespread in this world but not as significantly so as described in the video.
@@gatuarhin the most important vaccine were made by a british guy in the 1920's
he made the basis of modern antibiotics
It's amazing that anyone actually takes this video seriously
Instead of changing Wilhelm II. personality, the only thing we need for this scenario is Friedrich III. not dying.
Moral of the story: idiocy influences history far more than genius.
Can we get Isekai'd to this timeline please?
finally a collab with the best mapper out there!!!!
13:12 i’d like to say that they’d be able to retain their wealth without some dictatorial madman in charge of argentina
Other than that, the Portuguese empire might get partitioned
Arch Duke Ferdinand was told of the plot to assassinate him. He was advised to leave the area immediately and return home. He decided against that. His motorcade was his by a grenade attack. Instead of getting on the plane and leaving, he decided to visit the hospital where the police officers who were injured in the attack, were taken. His driver got lost and stopped to ask for directions, leading to his death and WW1 and WW2, the Cold War, the rise of the USA, and defeat of Colonialism.
Dude, our world IS horrifying, insane, and crass.
13:42 The West (i.e. those in the highest positions of power) did not, in earnest, believe that the motivation for colonialism was to civilise the savages. That was merely an ex post facto contrivance. Europe sought one thing, and one thing only - wealth. In reality, colonialism wasn't some grand rescue mission. That was simply used as an excuse.
Also, the rise in crime rates in the 20th century can be linked to socioeconomic factors. Religion doesn't cause people to commit fewer crimes. I don't think it's reasonable to speculate that a preservation of religious norms in public life would lead to lower crime. A hungry man will steal a loaf of bread to feed his starving daughter in the ghetto, whether he's religious or not. Religiosity does not address the underlying reasons why people commit crimes - especially given that most crimes are subsistence crimes, or crimes that result directly from socioeconomic precarity.
Although I am atheist, I know that all people depend on a greater cause for living(which is oftentimes filled with religion but there are some exceptions). Without a far far greater meaning to life you create a degenerate society like the present which causes extra crime.
The strangest thing is that in this alternate world Guatamala would have sunk beneath the ocean.
@@augustuslunasol10thapostle Just look at Guatamala on the map at the very beginning or the very end
Instead to assume that Wilhelm II. suddenly changed in character, it would be more likely to assume, that his father, Friedrich III. didn't died from cancer in 1888 but ruled at least for 20 years, dieing in his mid seventies (kind of a normal age for Hohenzollern). The man was at very good terms with Greatbritain and a supporter of liberalism. Despite being a capable veteran of the wars with Austria and France he was a pacifist and didn't wished for another war. Although he despised Bismarck as a person, he understood that the chancellor was needed. They even made an agreement, that Bismarck would stay in office, when Friedrich would inherit the throne.
With him in power and Bismarck still dieing in 1898 there would be several changes. For example, it would be likely that they agreed on the renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty with russia in 1890, making an alliance with France obsolete. Also there would be no naval arms race between GB and Germany.
The democratic forces would have a better stand; especially after Bismarcks death, they would likely seize control of the gouvernment and changing the system, implementing reforms similiar to thus made in the October of 1918, which gave the parliament the right to demand the resignation oft the chancellor and made the declaration of war and peace subject to parliamentary approval.
This way, Wilhelm II. could have never behaved like he did in our timeline, when Friedrich III. died, without violating the constitution.
Fredrick's wife was English, & that worked together on things, so it is very likely that had he/ they had more time on the throne( more than the 3 months) things would be radically different.
Or, even more dramatic...... Had WilhelmII's mother been a carrier of hemophilia( rather than his Aunts Alice &Beatrice Whoes daughters brought the mutation to the Royal houses of Russia & Spain), Willhelm might never had been Kaiser.
@@ladyagnes7781 The other possibility could be, that he would have been Kaiser, but that he wouln't have been the Wilhelm we knew. Becaus a lot of his unstable and irritable personality was based on how his mother treated him as a child. When Viktoria got the diagnosis, that her sons left arm was partially paralyzed, she couldn't accept that and enforced a series of treatments on him, like sewing the sick arm into a freshly slaughtered rabbit, or trying to strengthen the muscles via a painfully electrotherapy, to correct that "failure", but none of it was of use.
If he had hemophilia, like the son of Tsar Nikolaus, she would probably have acted in a more protective way, which may have resulted in a very shy and reserved character.
Fuck now i want to live in this timeline so badly
Me too.
as an argentinian, the argentina part is 100% accurate. of course this time the blow on opportunities would be more or less equal to that of europe, by adopting more and more socialistic measures until everything collapses over and over again.
Please do what if the USSR never collapsed or what if the collapse of the USSR broke out into civil war
I want full movies about your alt histories 😅
A conflict on the scale of the world wars was inevitable in my opinion. It was an underlying tension that took advantage of some very specific events to make it happen at the right time. If it didn’t happen in 1914, it would have happened probably not long after.
The growth of the predominant nation states through the nineteenth century was so cataclysmic that imagining a world without a conflict of power is nearly impossible to think about.
There's alot to unpack here... alot of BASED
Loved your visual summaries! Really evocative. They were the perfect suggestion, while leaving plenty of room for imagination. Awesome, basically! Thank you for sharing your knowledge. 😎👌
Great videos man keep up the great work!
Commenting for the algorithm, great as always.