AHC: Most nations in the world are Communist

So, the POD has to be after the publication of at least the first issue of Das Kapital. What changes can be made to have Socialism and or Communism as the single dominant ideology on the planet. That is the only stipulation.

There doesn't need to be a single global "Soviet", some nations can be very open free and democratic, others totalitarian and oppressive. Different varieties of the ideology can be everywhere, so long as the main base of political, economic and social thought is rooted in Communism.

Two big divergences will help:

1: American communism is less hostile to religion. Rather than claiming that religion is the opiate of the masses, say that a state-enforced religion is the true tyranny. Americans are far less averse to religion because we were never domineered by the church like Europe was, and so the atheistic part of communism forever prevented Communism from gaining any traction.
2: Mckinley doesn't get assassinated. Roosevelt never becomes president, the Republican party never takes anti-monopoly action, and the socialists gain traction.

This will still be very difficult, because as long as there are multiple great powers opposed to communism (as America, Britain, and France were OTL), it can never become dominant. The odds of America, Italy, China,and the traditional 5 great powers (Britain, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia) falling to Communism simultaneously are near 0, and if too many fall the others will crack down on Communist activity. Unless significant majority of the great powers are Communist, it cannot become dominant.

And, of course, if a capitalist great power develops the atom bomb, Communism is checked where it is, because one wrong move and BOOM!

EDIT: I know both of the reasons are America-centric, but this is necessary: America is quickly becoming a great power by 1867, and if America stays capitalist, such a meteoric rise of communism would be impossible- as it was OTL.

If you can keep the US out of the Great War meaning that it stays isolated during the reconstruction of Europe.

I would also have Leon Trotsky become leader of the Soviet Union, giving the ideology a more friendly face, meaing other communist leaders are happy to join in his community.

Communism becomes the main ideology in Germany with the Communist Party of Germany being supported by the Russians.
With with Ernst Thälmann and Wilhelm Pieck being the main leaders during the 20s to 40s while right wing parties were kept small by their own internal bickering.

So we have Germany and the USSR being th two pillars with Poland, Austria and Hungaria following them.

In Asia, China remins the big domino to fall taking many smaller natins in South East Asia. In 1962, a second big domino fell when the lower class of India revolted turning India into the third biggest communist nation.

With Africa nations becoming independant, the Leon Trotsky seeks to be friend some of these nations by investing into their economy and building their infrustructure meaning African politics is being dominated by how nice foreign help can be trying to make up for the anger many feel at how their land nd history have been destroyed by foreign take overs.

This now sees mostly four of the seven continents covered in red. North America is very hard to see going into communism, the best I can see is if we have a deeply dark depression in 1929 meanin the hard workers blame the bankers and demand a more socialist government.

The only other big nation to fall would be Brazil but is this only because of it being a part of OTL developing country in the "BRIC" and with the three in the red, why not have the last.

OOC: Now i know how PiratePartist fells

WI the Soviet Republics are never unified under a single Supreme Council, and the Soviet Union remains a supranational organisation, comparable to the EU today? If that sets a precedent, then you could well have the majority of the nations in the world being communist, and you wouldn't need any more of the earth's nations to fall under the sway of communism ITTL than those which did IOTL.

If you are too get communism in Germany, you'll need too either have Hitler accepted into the art school, or get killed in the War, so the Nazi Party doesn't grow to prominence and remains a bunch of war veterans with nostalgic feelings for the crushed German nationalism.

Future history.

Tyr said:

Future history.

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Forgotten history

If the Soviet Union had not turned into that Stalinist nightmare coupled with no Nazi invasion I think communism would still be a viable ideology to this day, though more along the lines modern China. Making most of Earth communist would obviously require for the US to fall to the reds early on, dont know how plausible that is though.

This is a chellange that isn't actually that difficult if you go the Socialist Route. After all most Euro Countries have a Decent Socialist Party.

alex costa said:

This is a chellange that isn't actually that difficult if you go the Socialist Route. After all most Euro Countries have a Decent Socialist Party.

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Calling parties which are willing to go along with austerity measures in the middle of a depression "socialist" is pure Dada.

B_Munro said:

Calling parties which are willing to go along with austerity measures in the middle of a depression "socialist" is pure Dada.

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Not really consider Snowden in the 30's

Besides we have to consider how there are limits to non-austeries effectiveness.

I think if the US goes isolationist after WW2, and I mean full isolationist, maybe because of an isolationist becoming president, or because of increased WW2 losses, and stays out of Europe, a Soviet invasion of Western Europe might just rush over everything in its way and take Germany and France by storm, as well as causing Communists to come to power in Greece and Italy.

With Europe communist, but not Britain, still much of the world could over time turn to Communism from military pressure and Russian investment.

If WWI lasted a little longer, most European Armies would have just left and went home.

And the civilian population would have revolted. Have WWI last to 1919, and we have Russia, Italy, Germany, and France go communist.

Most of Europe should follow, especially Spain in their civil war. The Fascists won't get any support but the socialist will.

Have Leon Trotsky be the Soviet Leader, he wanted a global communist state. He could unite all the movements.

Teddy Roosevelt never becomes president, and big business goes unchecked. The socialists get elected.

Great Britain could fall to revolution. Read "Bayonets can't cut coal"

Of China leads to the rest of Asia

Pretty much every country had a Communist Group. The ones in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will come soon enough.

What do you guys think?

Socialist is easy.

Most of Europe alternates between Socialist and Rightwing governments (under various names).

Get Social Democracy to be the gold standard of democracy, and it could happen,

I honestly don't see a viability for this in the long-term. There's just too much economic inefficiency. Not just "we won't develop as fast as capitalists" but "we're running low on toilet paper." Like the old joke about what would happen if the Soviets conquered the Sahara. Nothing for a couple decades, and then a shortage of sand.

So, whatever method leads to this result, it would probably collapse in some fashion rather spectacularly.

DominusNovus said:

I honestly don't see a viability for this in the long-term. There's just too much economic inefficiency. Not just "we won't develop as fast as capitalists" but "we're running low on toilet paper." Like the old joke about what would happen if the Soviets conquered the Sahara. Nothing for a couple decades, and then a shortage of sand.

So, whatever method leads to this result, it would probably collapse in some fashion rather spectacularly.

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Unless I misunderstand the OP, the "communism" involved doesn't have to be the centralised command economies that dominated communism otl. Although I would be iterated to see if a centralised command economy would work better in a highly democratic regime, I remember somebody once making the analogy that expecting it to work without democracy would be like expecting capitalism to work without the choice of what to buy.

The Stalinist FYP kludge happened as a failed transition to capitalism/market economy.

Have Germany go communist after World War I, and ensure that the area between Germany and Russia stays under communist control.

The revolution could spread quickly enough to the old Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Britain and France will start to get worried, at this stage. I think they're the toughest nut to crack. Say they go fascist. Wehave a WW2 in the 30s/40s. By which time, there are communist rebellions in India, China, and Africa.

France and Italy fall fast, and Britain decides to focus on home defence. This turns out to be a bit of a mistake. Rebellions get bad across the Empire.

At the time, American labour struggles were pretty bad. America opts for isolationism for a the first year of the war, and by the time that's over, the world is becoming quite small. It finds itself dealing mostly with rebellions in South America.

The war finally comes to an end in the 40s with the nuking of London, Birmingham, and Manchester. Britain, America, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the strongest South American states enter into a protracted cold war, with proxy wars fought across the third world. But they're in a bad way. South Africa falls in the 70s over apartheid, and Britain struggles with a large labour movement.

The world is, by now, about 50% communist, 20% capitalist, and 30% neutral. Although, communist can mean various things. Some states, particularly the Scandinavian Social Democracies, encourage private enterprise. On the other hand, Britain has a large Communist Party which ocassionally forms coalition governments with Labour and goes on a nationalisation spree. China has a growing class of families that rule the economy. No state is a pure exemplar of any particular ideology or theory. Because this is the real world,and that rarely happens.

Get the spartacist revolution to go through in Germany, as far as I remember it wasn't going too badly before it was crushed.

Give them more support or a couple more opportunities. Communism was always strong in France as well, maybe there's a way here.

Also, if you really want to play on words, technically socialism is an offspring from communism. The big difference only came in the 20's. The basic idea (if I remember correctly) was that communism had to happen via revolution (the Grand Soir) while socialism had to happen through reforms. Then you had another mutation in the post war period with most socialist party recognising property rights (as before Mitterand in France).

So, if you consider socialism as an offspring of it and if it falls on your spectrum, I'd say you have already completed your timeline. Most of Europe is on the spectrum with a strong Welfare state and most states have at least the pretence of it.



If you really wanna have fun with your timeline, you can start not with Russia but with Ireland managing to last through the Lock Out of 1913 and becoming a communist state.
For that, you need it to last a bit longer, until WWI starts. So that's a big stretch, maybe have it start later? Delay it by a year? If it starts in spring 2014 (and I can't really see any reason not to, it was more a boiling over rather than a big event starting it) and if they can get more supplies from the International of Workers to last, they can have it get into WWI era.

At that point, I can see the UK lashing out at it and, if they hold, the UK will need to focus on Germany. Or you can even go all out, the UK gets taken over by the communist revolution (oh the pretty butterflies). After that, the Glorious Revolution spreads across the Empire, setting a big example on the rest of the World.