Alternate Causes of the World Wars

If Gavrilo Princip did not assassinate Archduke Ferdinand, what else, if anything, would likely have sparked WWI instead?

On a separate tangent from OTL, if Hitler were killed in WWI, what else, if anything, would likely have led to WWII instead?

Though I'm not exactly a noob, I apologize in advance if these questions seem noobish.
 
There was a large element of determinism in the World Wars. The geopolitical landscape of 1914 was mostly formed a century earlier and the determinants of power had be drastically altered by the Industrial Fevolution. For example in 1815 France was very powerful, but in 1914 due to a lack of native coal and iron deposits France was a long way down the power ladder. So, IMHO, a drastic re-ordering of the geopolitical order was inevitable, to sort out who were the new top dogs in the age of superpowers which was possible due to the Industrial Revolution, and this re-ordering was bound to be resisted by those who stood to lose from it.

So if a war is inevitable then it could be started by the handling/mishandling of any crisis in the period.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
If Gavrilo Princip did not assassinate Archduke Ferdinand, what else, if anything, would likely have sparked WWI instead?

Nothing in history is inevitable, so if Franz Ferdinand had not been killed, it is atleast possible that World War I would never have broken out and we would be living in a much more peaceful and stable world today (with, incidentally, much better art). Possible, but not likely.

In the twenty years before 1914, war had nearly broken out between France and Britain over a tiny hamlet in Sudan, between Russia and Britain over a few mountain passes in Central Asia, and between Germany and France over influence in Morocco.

As the events of 1905 show, Russia was already on the brink of revolution a decade before the war broke out. Suppose it had happened, and Germany sought to take advantage by moving in to "protect" Poland and the Baltic states. Russia wouldn't take kindly to that, and already had a defensive alliance with France by that point.

Oil was becoming increasingly important, and both British and German companies were competing for access to Persian oil fields. I can see potential trouble there.

On a separate tangent from OTL, if Hitler were killed in WWI, what else, if anything, would likely have led to WWII instead?

My view- no Hitler, no WWII. Simple as that. I could see a communist Germany aligned with the USSR against Britain and France, but that's a rather different proposition.
 
On a separate tangent from OTL, if Hitler were killed in WWI, what else, if anything, would likely have led to WWII instead?

WWII was not a necessity imo. and any future wars completely depend on how peace is settled in WWI. Without Hitler, maybe another fascist party comes to rise- maybe a Hitler of communism comes up, tons of possibilities. There might not even be a WWII :D.
 
In An Alternate History of the Netherlands, the Great War was started by the Succession Crisis of 1913, where a German and a Swede were both candidates for the Polish-Lithuanian Crown.
 
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