European Empires without WWI?

What do you personally believe would've befallen the "big six" European empires (British, German, French, Russian, Austrian, Ottoman) throughout the 20th century, had there not have been a giant, continent-wide war between them at the beginning? There can be smaller wars involving several of them, but I'd like to avoid a giant, WWI-style conflict and see how they "live out" without a war tearing several of them apart. Extra credit if you avoid destroying them via war (i.e. German or French Empire collapses after defeat in a Franco-German conflict).

I'd assume that they probably won't make it to the 21st century (The Austrians and Ottomans are certainly screwed barring massive changes, with Russia close behind), but I'd like to see the scenarios you guys can come up with.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
Russian Empire- Huge social unrests inevitable, the empire's survival is tied to the handling of these.

Austria- Hungary: Loads and loads of problems. Have been discussed to death on the board.

Ottoman Empire: I doubt the CUP dictatorship will hold, and a new Constitutional Era will probably start around 1920. The CUP and the LU will be the huge parties, but probably joined by Socialists and Islamists soon. Armenian and Arab nationalism will cause more and more problems down the line, and soon Kurdish nationalism too.

Germany: Will have to reform itself at some point, but probably not without a fight from the Conservative Junkers and the Kaiser where they try to hold on to as much power as possible.
 
British Empire - Could survive but loses much areas.

German Empire - Surviving GE without WW1 is very plausible. I can't say could Germany keeps its colonies but monarchy survives surely if it makes enough reforms.

French Empire - Unsure. Many colonies of France had much willing for independence.

Russian Empire - Not any hope. It collapses sooner or latter.

Austro-Hungary - Surviving possible but not plausible. Internal problems probably dissolve empire some decades later.

Ottoman Empire - Surviving very plausible but some nationalities causes much problems.
 

Esopo

Banned
The ottoman and the italian empires (admitting that the first survives) will have a huge load of wealth because of all the oil they are sitting on.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
The ottoman and the italian empires (admitting that the first survives) will have a huge load of wealth because of all the oil they are sitting on.
For Italy it would depend a lot on
a) finding the Libyan oil
b) being able to benefit from said oil
c) holding on to Libya (Libyan Arab nationalism etc.)
 
I'd assume that they probably won't make it to the 21st century (The Austrians and Ottomans are certainly screwed barring massive changes, with Russia close behind), but I'd like to see the scenarios you guys can come up with.
Well for the British one of the main changes of no Great War is that they still remain one of if not the richest creditor nations in the world with London remaining the global financial capital. It's simply mind-boggling the amount of money they made off of it or the amount of foreign assets they owned. Generally the Empire was always going to slowly fade away. India the 'jewel in the crown' already had the start of a nationalism movement before the turn of the century and was very slowly moving towards some for of independence in the far future as illustrated by the Indian Councils Act 1909 and the two later Government of India Acts, when she goes the impetus for the rest of the British holdings go as well - especially as most were net losses. You also had the way that Britain often ran its colonies via indirect rule, as more of the locals get educated and exposed to western ideas they're going to want more say in the running of their own countries. The one good advantage to come from this though is that if it's done over a much longer period and by a Britain that is still pretty wealthy then hopefully they should be more developed and stable.


The Ottoman and the Italian Empires (admitting that the first survives) will have a huge load of wealth because of all the oil they are sitting on.
Well that's if they survive or retain control of those areas long enough to exploit them. In Italy's case with Libya the oil and gas deposits weren't technologically viable until after WW2 when new techniques were discovered, and whilst there was a some development in what had been the Ottoman Empire it wasn't really until the late 1940s going into the 1950s that you started to see the really silly amounts of money being made.
 
For Italy it would depend a lot on
a) finding the Libyan oil
b) being able to benefit from said oil
c) holding on to Libya (Libyan Arab nationalism etc.)

I doubt that there will be many Arab left on the good parts of Libya, as that colony was always thinked as 'settler' colony and the rebels were really a problem, a policy very similar to the fascist one will be surely use without a world war sucking all the nation resources.
 
For Italy it would depend a lot on
a) finding the Libyan oil
b) being able to benefit from said oil
c) holding on to Libya (Libyan Arab nationalism etc.)

The first two will happen, just a matter of when. As for the third, if we're going by no WW1, which means no WW2, Libya would have been swamped with Italian settlers so it's a moot point.

In OTL, even with both World Wars, if Italy was not stripped of Libya it could have easily held onto it nigh indefinitely.
 
great britain: rule britannia, but india will go independant anyway, cant hold on a billion people very long when they want out. most likely some form of close diplomatic and economic cooperation with all colonies and former colonies.

germany: stable, no need to say much more.

french: stable, but losing much of the colonial empire - far too large to hold it permanently.

russia: brewing with revolution for decades, occasional shooting of protesters and strikers, there will be reforms that will fix many of the problems, it will hold onto the borders at any price.

a-h: more stable than people are willing to admit. it took 4 years and catastrophic losses for austria and hungary to divorce, and treaties at gunpoint to dissolve the two.

otto: they'll burry all problems under money, just like saudi arabia does. and as long as they sell their oil for the right price, they'll enjoy support of everyone.

italy: libya becomes italian, and later an oil rich province, all in all far less problems than OTL.

japan: goes much like OTL, but seen less of a threat lacking the island grab that happened during ww1

china: in a beter position, there's many european powers to buy support and development to keep up with japan.
 
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