My point was that extreme ideologies thrived Post-WW2. There’s no real reason to think that people would try to topple the regimes in Iberia or other parts of the Mediterranean and Balkans whether the Soviet Union exists as America’s rival or not. These regimes collapsed OTL, because fascism was...
Extremist ideas like communism? Franco’s Spain saw significant growth after World War 2. I think that was just their natural trajectory.
Italian fascism was Catholic. Being religious doesn’t preclude being fascist. I think we migh separate fascism broadly from the specific variant found in...
You mean per capita, right? It might be better off actually. Turkey is an industrialized country. Having access to that much oil would also give them much greater bargaining power with the Europeans.
In 1940, the French and to a lesser extent the British were open to concessions. I think a readjustment of Italy's Balkan border would have definitely been on the table fo neutrality. At the very least, I can see them getting what they were promised in the Treaty of London. Yugoslavia would...
A controversial take, but I don’t think supporting Franco was wrong at all politically. I’m not talking about morality. Invading Ethiopia was wrong, because it was indefensible. When the war started, they had hundreds of thousands of soldiers garrisoning a large and densely populated country...
South Korea and Taiwan became successful primarily through the efforts of the people leading them. I wouldn’t attribute their success to the US, although you could argue they helped. The Americans have invested in many countries across the globe. Almost none of them have seen that level of success.
Did he actually commit atrocities? Or did he just have bad politics?
Without Germany, I agree that he wouldn’t rush a war with Britain and/or France, but a lot of his gambles were successful. He wanted Ethiopia. He conquered it. He wanted Franco in power in Spain and he got it. He wanted...
I used to accept the idea that colonization screwed over a lot of third world countries and zi do think there might be some validity to it, but South Korea and Taiwan were colonized. Look at them now.
I don’t think the Americans would accept that. The two power standard was effective when Britain was the worlds leading industrial power and there were only a handful of major powers preoccupied with continental affairs. That time has passed. Accepting parity with the Americans was wise from the...
I love France and I think there’s criticism that can be levied at both sides, but I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect the British to 100% commit their forces to the defense of France. Obviously, Britain should take priority. The big mistake was not invading Germany when they started...