DBWI: The US did not stay neutral in the Great War

As we all very obviously know, the US stayed neutral in the Great War, which ended in a status quo ante bellum on the Western Front. What if the US joined the entente in the war? Likely by Charles Evans Hughes winning the 1916 election, but earlier pods are welcome. Would the entente win?

Bonus points if you don't copy Führerreich
 
As we all very obviously know, the US stayed neutral in the Great War, which ended in a status quo ante bellum on the Western Front. What if the US joined the entente in the war? Likely by Charles Evans Hughes winning the 1916 election, but earlier pods are welcome. Would the entente win?

Bonus points if you don't copy Führerreich
Well, I’m not sure it can really be called Status Quo Ante Bellum, Germany pretty much won the war and the only reason terms weren’t imposed was because of the fall of the third republic to a Syndacalist uprising and the establishment of the commune of France and Union of Britain, which invalidated any agreements the third republic made. As for the actual question, all sides were pretty exhausted by 1916, so if America actually joined the war instead of staying neutral than it would be a massive morale boost too whichever side it joined, and a major blow too the morale of the side they were fighting. I doubt that it would result in immediate victory, but it would still be a major help too whichever side they joined.

Edit: Also, Great War? Are you from an Entente Country? I thought Weltkrieg was the mostly accepted name.
 
Last edited:
Well, I’m not sure it can really be called Status Quo Ante Bellum, Germany pretty much won the war and the only reason terms weren’t imposed was because of the fall of the third republic and Britain to Syndacalist uprisings and the establishment of the commune of France and Union of Britain, which invalidated any agreements the third republic made. As for the actual question, all sides were pretty exhausted by 1916, so if America actually joined the war instead of staying neutral than it would be a massive morale boost too whichever side it joined, and a major blow too the morale of the side they were fighting. I doubt that it would result in immediate victory, but it would still be a major help too whichever side they joined.

Edit: Also, Great War? Are you from an Entente Country? I thought Weltkrieg was the mostly accepted name.
The timeline I'm trying to see this from is supposed to be more realistic than Kaiserreich
 
Well, if America had joined the Great War, everyone could have seen that it was a military great power (or at least had the potential to quickly become one, if it wanted). For decades, US military was comparable in size to Bulgarian or Belgian military, and quality was lacking too, so America looked like a paper tiger, but Americans had never needed the military power as they mostly weren't interested in foreign adventures (except in Caribbean where their existing military was enough), and were protected by oceans.

Also, if America had joined the war, Russia, Britain and France might still have lost to Germany in Europe, but wouldn't have been so utterly crushed (it would have been more a "defeat with honor") nor would have collapsed economically.

As a result, Japan would have been unable to gobble South-East Asia from collapsing French and British Empires (as well as the Dutch who couldn't resist without Entente support), or to bring China to heel (as Russia, Britain and France would have, of course, interfered). Japan would have been much less successful. They would have conquered Korea and Manchuria, for sure, but not much else.

And ironically, that might have saved Japan ultimately. Alas, stupid Emperor Yoshiro and the IJN (with full-on victory disease) thought "Hey, we have defeated Russia in 1905, and then after the Great War, we acquired all South-East Asia from Europeans... How difficult can be an invasion of Filipinos ? Americans are wimps anyway". And then, they learnt the hard way that Americans are not wimps.
 
Well, I’m not sure it can really be called Status Quo Ante Bellum, Germany pretty much won the war and the only reason terms weren’t imposed was because of the fall of the third republic and Britain to Syndacalist uprisings and the establishment of the commune of France and Union of Britain, which invalidated any agreements the third republic made. As for the actual question, all sides were pretty exhausted by 1916, so if America actually joined the war instead of staying neutral than it would be a massive morale boost too whichever side it joined, and a major blow too the morale of the side they were fighting. I doubt that it would result in immediate victory, but it would still be a major help too whichever side they joined.

Edit: Also, Great War? Are you from an Entente Country? I thought Weltkrieg was the mostly accepted name.

Well, maybe in large chunks of Europe, but not the world. British Commonwealth and the USA's influence means English is still the more widespoken language compared to German.

The USA staying neutral was namely because of President Woodrow Wilson, who doubled down on "no war fronts", though it also meant his attempts at trying to form a sort of "League of Nations" thing just became a farce given how the US tried to dictate terms with no real power or influence. The rise of the syndicalists over in Britain and the French Commune did change a fair bit on how it was percieved, but the fact that the countries, even to this day, remain prominent and nice places to live in, just crushed a lot of irrational worries about socialism (yes, it has problems, such as regarding fossil fuel positions.)

Germany got what they wanted, but the rise of the social democrats meant they had to work alot within. Besides, the Russian Revolution which led to democracy there also changed a lot. Germany had to make more than a few puppet states, though with Southern Europe, they just fed most of it to Bulgaria with the exception of the neutral Romania.

The Ottoman Empire crushed the House of Saud before using German assistance to help the House of Rashid unite all of Arabia and formed the Osman-Rashid Dynansty. Then the oil came in and they basically became BFF's with Germany as they forced some much needed modernization.

Ho boy, China... that was basically the thing that broke the relationship between the Japanese and the USA. The Japanese got thoroughly crushed and the USA proceeded to rebuild China and put them in charge of southeast Asia when they and Russia went to help China out. President Sun Yat-sen got his wish and managed to help China alot.

((OOC: Sun Yat-Sen would probably be viewed like OTL's Nelson Mandela.))
 
Well, if America had joined the Great War, everyone could have seen that it was a military great power (or at least had the potential to quickly become one, if it wanted). For decades, US military was comparable in size to Bulgarian or Belgian military, and quality was lacking too, so America looked like a paper tiger, but Americans had never needed the military power as they mostly weren't interested in foreign adventures (except in Caribbean where their existing military was enough), and were protected by oceans.

Also, if America had joined the war, Russia, Britain and France might still have lost to Germany in Europe, but wouldn't have been so utterly crushed (it would have been more a "defeat with honor") nor would have collapsed economically.

As a result, Japan would have been unable to gobble South-East Asia from collapsing French and British Empires (as well as the Dutch who couldn't resist without Entente support), or to bring China to heel (as Russia, Britain and France would have, of course, interfered). Japan would have been much less successful. They would have conquered Korea and Manchuria, for sure, but not much else.

And ironically, that might have saved Japan ultimately. Alas, stupid Emperor Yoshiro and the IJN (with full-on victory disease) thought "Hey, we have defeated Russia in 1905, and then after the Great War, we acquired all South-East Asia from Europeans... How difficult can be an invasion of Filipinos ? Americans are wimps anyway". And then, they learnt the hard way that Americans are not wimps.

I don’t think any president since teddy rossovelt JR has been able to unite the US under a cause such as defending the phillipines as he did

It’s why most Filipino people see themselves as American’s today because TR Junior defended that island with the same fervor that Davy Crockett did the Alamo


Regardless of accusations of him being a bit of a closeted Socialist I think he’s still the greatest president we’ve ever had
 
I don’t think any president since teddy rossovelt JR has been able to unite the US under a cause such as defending the phillipines as he did

It’s why most Filipino people see themselves as American’s today because TR Junior defended that island with the same fervor that Davy Crockett did the Alamo


Regardless of accusations of him being a bit of a closeted Socialist I think he’s still the greatest president we’ve ever had
Teddy Roosevelt Jr? Wasn't his name Quentin Roosevelt?
 
I don’t think any president since teddy rossovelt JR has been able to unite the US under a cause such as defending the phillipines as he did

It’s why most Filipino people see themselves as American’s today because TR Junior defended that island with the same fervor that Davy Crockett did the Alamo


Regardless of accusations of him being a bit of a closeted Socialist I think he’s still the greatest president we’ve ever had
Yeah, that’s the main reason their still such close allies and U.S developmental aid in the aftermath is a big part of why the country is a rich first world nation today, especially since a lot of the modern Philipino identity is based around the war, which the U.S helped them win.

Well, if America had joined the Great War, everyone could have seen that it was a military great power (or at least had the potential to quickly become one, if it wanted). For decades, US military was comparable in size to Bulgarian or Belgian military, and quality was lacking too, so America looked like a paper tiger, but Americans had never needed the military power as they mostly weren't interested in foreign adventures (except in Caribbean where their existing military was enough), and were protected by oceans.

Also, if America had joined the war, Russia, Britain and France might still have lost to Germany in Europe, but wouldn't have been so utterly crushed (it would have been more a "defeat with honor") nor would have collapsed economically.

As a result, Japan would have been unable to gobble South-East Asia from collapsing French and British Empires (as well as the Dutch who couldn't resist without Entente support), or to bring China to heel (as Russia, Britain and France would have, of course, interfered). Japan would have been much less successful. They would have conquered Korea and Manchuria, for sure, but not much else.

And ironically, that might have saved Japan ultimately. Alas, stupid Emperor Yoshiro and the IJN (with full-on victory disease) thought "Hey, we have defeated Russia in 1905, and then after the Great War, we acquired all South-East Asia from Europeans... How difficult can be an invasion of Filipinos ? Americans are wimps anyway". And then, they learnt the hard way that Americans are not wimps.
I’m not sure, that rapid expansion after the wars end was what gave them the confidence too attack the Philippines yes, but that kind of arrogance and delusions of grandeur was not unique too that situation, and the goals of Japan too expand throughout Asia naturally put them at odds with the U.S, so I feel like they would likely have gone too war eventually anyway. It probably would have taken longer and cost more for America if Japan wasn’t massively overextended trying to hold down all their new territories like in OTL, but they still would have eventually lost.
 
I don’t think any president since teddy rossovelt JR has been able to unite the US under a cause such as defending the phillipines as he did

It’s why most Filipino people see themselves as American’s today because TR Junior defended that island with the same fervor that Davy Crockett did the Alamo

Regardless of accusations of him being a bit of a closeted Socialist I think he’s still the greatest president we’ve ever had

Yeah he was pretty all right though the accusations of socialism was from basically from the super-rich who got the screws tightened on them. US has universal single-payer healthcare after all and UBI got passed a decade back.

I would see the USA helping the Entente and things probably would go topsy-turvy pretty fast
 
Top