History Ends in 1918?

kernals12

Banned
It occurs to me that if the Bolshevik Coup had failed, every one of the world's great powers would've come out of the war as a democracy. And without a fear of communism, the rise of fascism in Italy and Germany would've been averted. The only problem child would've been Japan after 1928, but even there the fall of Taisho democracy was partially a product of the red scare. There'd be plenty of issues in the 20th century namely decolonization, the atomic bomb, and trade, but it'd be a far more boring century than OTL.
 
No joke, I honestly thought the title of this thread was asking if something like what if the world ended in 1918 or something. Anyway, even with the Bolshevik revolution a failure, it was almost inevitable for the second world war to happen. You see, the fear of communism was only partially responsible for the rise of fascism. The real lighter of the keg was the tensions between countries and people caused by WW1. Especially in the former central powers. There was also the case of Italy, who was kinda pissed off that they didn't get enough land for their efforts (Dalmatia, Austrian Tyrol, Cameroon, etc.). Mussolini would then exploit this outrage to rise to power and become prime minister (and later dictator) of Italy, then spread his ideals across Europe and beyond. This would be more apparent in Germany since they lost WW1 and got all the blame for it. If Hitler doesn't rise to power, someone else will. Personally, i just feel like this war was going to happen no matter what. I could be wrong, but still.
 
There is always a chance that Russia will end up going fascist, along with Germany becoming communist.
 
Geopolitics abhors stagnation. If Fascism (or a similar State-Society centeric ideology) hadent arisen, semi-liberal democracy would have still flubbed up somewhere, as all systems have shortcomings, as circumstances changed and an ideology that promises to address the concerns would gain traction.
 

kernals12

Banned
No joke, I honestly thought the title of this thread was asking if something like what if the world ended in 1918 or something.
The term "end of history" was coined by Francis Fukuyama who said in his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man that the fall of communism meant that liberal democracy was the final stage of human government and it was only a matter of implementing it everywhere.

Personally, i just feel like this war was going to happen no matter what. I could be wrong, but still.
Everything seems inevitable after the fact.
 
The term "end of history" was coined by Francis Fukuyama who said in his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man that the fall of communism meant that liberal democracy was the final stage of human government and it was only a matter of implementing it everywhere.
As i posted before, that's hubris straight out of a greek tale.

Hopefully we don't end up sexing our moms and gouging our eyes out.
 
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Bomster

Banned
The term "end of history" was coined by Francis Fukuyama who said in his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man that the fall of communism meant that liberal democracy was the final stage of human government and it was only a matter of implementing it everywhere.
No joke that literally sounds like something straight out of a communist pamphlet.

"True communism is the final stage of human government and it's only a matter of implementing it everywhere."
 

kernals12

Banned
No joke that literally sounds like something straight out of a communist pamphlet.

"True communism is the final stage of human government and it's only a matter of implementing it everywhere."
Liberal Democracy has been pretty damn good.
 
No, raise of communism/socialism somewhere is inevitable. Look at brutal crushing poverty of London poor/Russian peasant/African-American in Jim Crow/etc. Sooner or Later demand for redistribution of wealth would resurface.

Similarly Fascism, Fascism didn't raise just because existence of Soviet Union, it raise from Nationalism and resistance to change and hatred of uncontrollable international market forces. It look like about to re-rise in 2010s despite absence of SU.
 

kernals12

Banned
No, raise of communism/socialism somewhere is inevitable. Look at brutal crushing poverty of London poor/Russian peasant/African-American in Jim Crow/etc. Sooner or Later demand for redistribution of wealth would resurface.

Similarly Fascism, Fascism didn't raise just because existence of Soviet Union, it raise from Nationalism and resistance to change and hatred of uncontrollable international market forces. It look like about to re-rise in 2010s despite absence of SU.
Ever heard of the New Deal?
 
No joke that literally sounds like something straight out of a communist pamphlet.

"True communism is the final stage of human government and it's only a matter of implementing it everywhere."

In fairness to Fukuyama, he admitted he was wrong and presumptuous. Since then, his writings have become more apocalyptic.
 
“End of history” is complete nonsense. Forget ideologies, the human species itself has been around for an infinitesimally small amount of time in the cosmic scale. The world is always evolving, and to think that it will conform to a single standard is the height of arrogance.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
The semantic discussion of the term "End of History aside" as @kernals12 had made it quite clear what he means in post #5
It occurs to me that if the Bolshevik Coup had failed, every one of the world's great powers would've come out of the war as a democracy.
...
this seems IMO still rather unlikely.

With - however the bolshevik coup avoided and its main proponents at this time (Lenin, Trotzky, ... Stalin ?) removed - ther 'provisional goverment' was officially still VERY leftish, not to say socialistic. There were also still quite some other 'govermental bodies' - Duma, several Soviets, the govermenmts itself the Zemstvos - that would have to come to terms, not to forget the 'centrifugal forces' in the Caucasus, centralasian as well as far-eastern provinces. ... IMO very questionable they would have.

There would come some kind of russian civil war with whatever outcome. Given the many, many soldiers and officers running around with not much to do some kind of militarised, at least authoritarian if not totalitarian regime - at first ? - seems very likely to me.
Given the prevailing antisemitism in Russia at least before and during WW 1 ... some elements of the racial madness of Hitlerism might even raise its head already here.

Also, as said already, the 'foundations' and beginnings of italian fascism were only rather partially anti-communistic.
So : Fascism in Italy would still rise.

The removal of the bolsheviks from the troughs pf power would also not remove the reasons for the turn to authoriaism in most of the rest of Europe in the 20s and 30s, like the Great Depression.


Very likely, that we could in such a scenario end up with the dichotomy :
parliamentary democrcy vs. fascism​
instead of
parliamentary democracy vs. communism​

... at least as long as t IOTL 'cold war' lasted.
 
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