AHC: 20th Century as Peaceful as Possible

[Emperor Norton I]

War is inevitable in human history, but the 20th Century was an especially nasty century in regards to war, death and human misery. The key points do not necessarily require repeating but nonetheless, there were two World Wars, a Depression, the rise of Fascism, the Holocaust, colonial wars, nuclear weapons used twice with the threat of use in a Cold War, an Iron Curtain and the brutality of dictators, assassinations and anything in between those bullet points.

The challenge is to make the 20th century as peaceful as possible. That is not to say eternal world peace, but as much as can be done.

 

[Lalli]

Make CPs win WW1 early (before 1917) so Germans dominate Europe and no Bolshevik revolution so Commies are not waging war and Russians and French are unable begin WW2.

 

[TripleCitizen]

Make CPs win WW1 early (before 1917) so Germans dominate Europe and no Bolshevik revolution so Commies are not waging war and Russians and French are unable begin WW2.

That actually sounds worse than OTL. Imperialism will probably last till the end of the twentieth century. Is peace really better under a European boot?

 

[New Hampshire]

Avoid World War 1.

 

[Lalli]

That actually sounds worse than OTL. Imperialism will probably last till the end of the twentieth century. Is peace really better under a European boot?

OP asked more peaceful not necessarility better world. And after WW1 decolonisation and fall of imperialism at least colonies was quiet inevitable altough colonialism probably would last longer.

Avoid World War 1.

That would be quiet difficult. WW1 was anyway going happen. If Franz Ferdinand not be assassinate the war would begin later.

 

[Gancio The Ranter]

That would be quiet difficult. WW1 was anyway going happen. If Franz Ferdinand not be assassinate the war would begin later.

That's your personal opinion based on hindsight, in actual 1914 Europe nobody has a massive war in mind

 

[Gancio The Ranter]

War is inevitable in human histor

It's really not, nothing is inevitable beyond the basic rules of our universe. Tell me the last war between countries you can think of

 

[Bernard Woolley]

In terms of likelyhood of dieing by a violent act, even when the two world wars are included, the 20th Centuty was the safest in human history.

 

[Lord_Vespasian]

It's really not, nothing is inevitable beyond the basic rules of our universe. Tell me the last war between countries you can think of

20th Century Europe didn't have nukes and did have Kaiser Bill, Emperor Nicky, and the Balkans

 

[racevedo88]

You need a POD before 1900, system of alliances existing prior to the beginning of the century are proximate cause of ww1

 

[jerseyguy]

Lenin gets hit by a car or a tram leaving a coffeehouse in Switzerland. On the western front, an artillery shell goes in a slightly different direction and kills a certain Austrian corporal with a toothbrush mustache.

A librarian in Shanghai named Mao Zedong is shot and killed in the process of a mugging. His short obituary in the back of Shanghai newspaper is only remembered by a graduate student doing sociology research on crime statistics in Shanghai or a historian writing about China's obscure, inconsequential communist movement in the early Republican era.

 

[xsampa]

Lenin gets hit by a car or a tram leaving a coffeehouse in Switzerland. On the western front, an artillery shell goes in a slightly different direction and kills a certain Austrian corporal with a toothbrush mustache.

A librarian in Shanghai named Mao Zedong is shot and killed in the process of a mugging. His short obituary in the back of Shanghai newspaper is only remembered by a graduate student doing sociology research on crime statistics in Shanghai or a historian writing about China's obscure, inconsequential communist movement in the early Republican era.

Just because these dictators die doesn't mean that other countries won't have their own.

 

[Lalli]

Lenin gets hit by a car or a tram leaving a coffeehouse in Switzerland. On the western front, an artillery shell goes in a slightly different direction and kills a certain Austrian corporal with a toothbrush mustache.

A librarian in Shanghai named Mao Zedong is shot and killed in the process of a mugging. His short obituary in the back of Shanghai newspaper is only remembered by a graduate student doing sociology research on crime statistics in Shanghai or a historian writing about China's obscure, inconsequential communist movement in the early Republican era.

These deaths not yet secure more peaceful world. Some other dictators might replace them.

 

[victhemag]

Avoiding World War I will do it. This isn't implausible by any means. Imperial Germany wanted to go to war earlier in order to avoid going to war with a stronger Russia. Simply put, come 1920, Russia will have industrialized and grown so much that it will be viewed as too strong to fight by Germany. This equals no blank check to Austria-Hungary. Avoid Ferdinand's assassination, and you have a very good chance of avoiding the Great War altogether and all of the terrible conflicts and genocides which came after it as an effect of the war.

 

[jerseyguy]

These deaths not yet secure more peaceful world. Some other dictators might replace them.

Lenin was the dominant personality in the Bolshevik seizure of power, as was Hitler in the NSDAP from '23 onwards. Democracy isn't assured without them, but a dictatorship or military junta of mediocre brutality would still be an improvement over OTL.

Turkey, Thailand, and Pakistan, and most Latin American countries have had to endure military juntas or dictatorships in the past, but none of them has been as brutal as the totalitarians whose death scenarios I just listed.

 

[anotherlurker]

Turkey, Thailand, and Pakistan, and most Latin American countries have had to endure military juntas or dictatorships in the past, but none of them has been as brutal as the totalitarians whose death scenarios I just listed.

Ultimately they all are "not as brutal" due to bigger nations keeping an eye over them. Turkey has issues with all its neighbors that have the potential for a dozen wars but the neighbors arent stupid and are part of various organizations for protection, Pakistan and India have been at each others throats since they exist, they were kept from going fully at each other by their Cold War masters, but now with nukes the threat of MAD seems to be working, and Latin America has for the longest time been a quasi colony of the USA with them telling others to stay away if they know what's good for them.

So to have a more "peaceful" 20th century just have everyone be part of alliance blocks (voluntarily or not) with nukes pointing at the other side.

 

[jerseyguy]

Ultimately they all are "not as brutal" due to bigger nations keeping an eye over them. Turkey has issues with all its neighbors that have the potential for a dozen wars but the neighbors arent stupid and are part of various organizations for protection, Pakistan and India have been at each others throats since they exist, they were kept from going fully at each other by their Cold War masters, but now with nukes the threat of MAD seems to be working, and Latin America has for the longest time been a quasi colony of the USA with them telling others to stay away if they know what's good for them.

So to have a more "peaceful" 20th century just have everyone be part of alliance blocks (voluntarily or not) with nukes pointing at the other side.

I like it, balance of terror; here, there, and everywhere. If every independent country, from the largest empire to the smallest micro state was given a sufficient quantity of hydrogen bombs, the costs of starting a conventional war would be too much to bear. The Dr. Strangelove School of International Relations.

 

[anotherlurker]

I like it, balance of terror; here, there, and everywhere. If every independent country, from the largest empire to the smallest micro state was given a sufficient quantity of hydrogen bombs, the costs of starting a conventional war would be too much to bear. The Dr. Strangelove School of International Relations.

There is of course the problem that one of these days one country or another goes "you will live with us or die with us, change your policy towards us within 7 days or else". Remember, during the Cold War there was plenty of shooting in Africa and Asia.

 

[jerseyguy]

There is of course the problem that one of these days one country or another goes "you will live with us or die with us, change your policy towards us within 7 days or else". Remember, during the Cold War there was plenty of shooting in Africa and Asia.

Yeah, because every country in Africa and Asia didn't have weapons. The African Union could pool their arsenals together to tell apartheid South Africa "allow majority rule by X date or else" or get the EU to lower tariffs on their orange industries or something.

 

[Alternator]

The core of the alliances in WW1 was France-Russia and Germany-Austria/Hungary, and that's largely inflexible post-1900, but we can flip one of the big boys: alienate Britain from Russia, hard. This is fairly easy to do:

Dogger Bank goes worst-case due to the Russians having better aim (or more likely, just getting lucky) and the trawler fleet is trashed - more deaths, more destruction, and especially more outrage. The Russians manage to grovel their way out of a war declaration, but relations with Britain are utterly ruined - enough so that it's an open secret the British are providing direct support to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War, not that the Russians can do anything other than stew.

The poisoned relations mean that the British look more favorably on anyone willing to oppose the Russians, which benefits the Triple Alliance, and Kaiser Willy is *just* competent enough to accept the gift horse, modifying the naval buildup to avoid antagonizing the British. When some damn fool thing in the Balkans triggers war between Austria-Hungary and Russia, Italy honors her alliance and the Germans, needing to keep the British happy, avoid Belgium.

Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy beat the stuffing out of France and Russia in a much shorter Great War, while the British make money hand over fist selling supplies and the Ottomans are able to conduct reforms, strengthening their state. The Russians are crippled (only outside help props up the Tsar, but nobody wants to unleash the chaos that his overthrow would trigger), and the French, despite wanting revenge over the harsh terms imposed, are unable to really get anything going.

The British Empire remains strong, the German Empire is preeminent in Europe without truly dominating the continent, the Ottomans are able to keep the Middle East under control and peaceful, and the Japanese claim French colonial possessions in Asia, a large enough prize to appease their desire for expansion. France is revanchist, but lacks the strength to do much, while the Russians are hemmed in by stronger powers (Germany to the west, Japan to the east, the Ottomans and British to the south) and forced to settle for internal improvements.

Eventual decolonization is less messy, as the British, Germans, and Japanese (the French possessions being split between all three) boast stronger, wealthier empires and are able to leave on their own terms. It's not nicer, but it's more peaceful.