Disasterous wars averted

[tom]

Could Paraguay have avoided the War of the Triple Alliance?
How about Germany and the Thirty Years War?
What wars are inevitable and which are butterfly sensitive?

[ConfederateFly]

The American Civil War, WW 1, Napoleonic Wars, and WW 2 were wars that were inevitable. Spanish-American War, Vietnam, and Korea were wars that could have been avoide, but in the Spainish-American War neede to happen b/c the U.S. needed to show the European powers that we were not a push over, Vietnam and Korea needed to happen b/c the U.S. needed to stop the threat of Communism and the Soviet influence.

[Beck Reilly]

WW2 was not not really inevitable. The only factors that made it inevitable was the German loss in WW1 and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Had Germany won or had the terms been less harsh, WW2 could have been avoided.

[DominusNovus]

The American Civil War, WW 1, Napoleonic Wars, and WW 2 were wars that were inevitable. Spanish-American War, Vietnam, and Korea were wars that could have been avoide, but in the Spainish-American War neede to happen b/c the U.S. needed to show the European powers that we were not a push over, Vietnam and Korea needed to happen b/c the U.S. needed to stop the threat of Communism and the Soviet influence.
World War I was no more unavoidable than World War III. If WWIII happened, all the survivors would agree that it was as inevitable as WWI.

[Grey Wolf]

World War I was no more unavoidable than World War III. If WWIII happened, all the survivors would agree that it was as inevitable as WWI.

A very sane, sensible and highly intelligent comment that I am sure I will plagiarise and use frequently in the future

Grey Wolf

[Guilherme Loureiro]

[QUOTE=tom]Could Paraguay have avoided the War of the Triple Alliance?
QUOTE]

Most certainly. The Paraguayan War(as it's called here in Brazil) was the direct consequence of Brazilian intervention on the Uruguayan Civil War in 1864. The intervention itself almost didn't happen; it took people really dedicated to screwing up on both the Brazilian and Uruguayan sides. Remove that and you don't get a Triple Alliance. I still think a war between Brazil and Paraguay would happen later, and this would be a war where the odds would be much more favorable to Paraguay.

[DominusNovus]

A very sane, sensible and highly intelligent comment that I am sure I will plagiarise and use frequently in the future

Grey Wolf
lol, don't worry about it. To be honest, I think I got the idea from someone who said something along those lines on CTT.

[Otis Tarda]

World War I was no more unavoidable than World War III. If WWIII happened, all the survivors would agree that it was as inevitable as WWI.

In early 20th century, almost everyone wanted war. But only idiot would wish WW III.

WW II was avoidable - imagine taht Hitler died in accident, or Allies act braver.

[Steffen]

WW II was avoidable - imagine taht Hitler died in accident, or Allies act braver.[/QUOTE]

It depends on a definition of wwII. If you define it "maniac takes over my country, murders millions etc.", it is avoidable. (Remove Hitler);

But you still have the revision of the outcome of 1918 as a cause for -some kind of- war.
And a war in the middle of Europe is most likely -forgive my eurocentrical way of thinking- to affect the rest of the world.

[aktarian]

In AltHist every war is avoidable. You need to push POD further back for some.

However after certain point wars bcome unavoidable.

[wkwillis]

I think that if we had treated the Germans after WWI the way we treated them after WWII, there wouldn't have been a WWII.
After WWII we took away their territory and made them pay reparations. After WWI we didn't take away their territory and we paid them reparations. The Czechs did take over nomial government of the Sudetenlands, but they didn't take away the German farms from the owners, the way they did after WWII.
Also, and perhaps more importantly, in WWII we were very blunt about unconditional surrender and making them pay reparations. In WWI they surrendered on terms, the 14 points. If we had had victory discussions with the Allies before the war ended instead of afterwards, the war would have lasted till 1919 and the Germans would have know they were defeated, instead of feeling that their surrender terms had been violated.