Multipolar World After WWII

A stronger Western European showing in 1940 means Britain and France aren't so spent.

If the German assault through the Ardennes is detected and blocked, perhaps the Germans are contained in the Low Countries. The march on Berlin starts at a more easterly point in the West--however, what happens on the East depends on whether there's a Barbarossa or not.

Hmm...we end up with a negotiated peace in the West in 1940 with the Low Countries and Scandinavia vassalized and then Hitler attacks East anyway?

The Soviets bounce back, Hitler goes bonkers and screws around, the German Resistance overthrows him and manage to get a compromise peace?

(No Nazi dominance in the West means no or less Lend-Lease, and Soviet mobility depended on American trucks.)

So we have a stronger Britain and France, and stronger Germany, and a bloodied USSR that might well use its blooded army for a war of revenge against the Japanese (if there's an Americo-Japanese War in TTL).
 
How can we get a much, much more multipolar world then in OTL after WWII?

Gotta keep the USA not only neutral, but non-involved.

Here goes:

1937 - Roosevelt dies. Wallace takes over.
1939 - Under orders from Moscow, Wallace keeps the US firmly neutral. No lend-lease, no issues with the Japanese in China. The US is navel-gazing. Japan continues into China.
1940 (March) - the British and French - with no prospect of US Aid and a virtual communist in the Oval Office (and terrified of a potential Nazi-USSR-USA Alliance against them - even though that's a fantasy) - tenatively negotiate with Hitler. Hitler agrees to a cease-fire and a Plebicite in Poland. A secret codecil is that the WAllies will not object to further German expansion in Eastern Europe in exchange for a German leash on Mussolini.
1941 - Germany invades the USSR. Again, under orders from Moscow, the US begins massive aid to the USSR. Germany recieves economic aid from Britain and France. Wallace tries for a DoW against Germany, but is shouted down in Congress.
1942 - 1944 - Massive battles of material in Russia. The Nazis and Soviets batter each other. The USA and WAllies glower at each other across the Atlantic. US ships to Murmansk are shadowed by German U-Boats, but they do not attack.
1944 - Wallace overwhelmingly defeated - loosing all 48 states (how he won in 1940 is left as a thought exercise for the reader) in the election. Thomas Dewey becomes President.
1945 - US curtails aid to the USSR. Military build-up commences.
1946 - Hitler dies from chewing on some bad carpet. Nazi-Soviet negotiated peace.

1947 - Several power groups. 1. The Axis - Germany, Italy and Satellites. 2. The WAllies - Britain, France, and Empires, plus white dominions. 3. Japan and conquered provinces. 4. The USSR. 5. The USA.

The USA is still strongest, but isolationist and militarily weak. Deep distrust between all power groups. USA and WAllies natural friends, but Wallace's pro-moscow legacy keeps them apart.

Mike Turcotte
 
How can we get a much, much more multipolar world then in OTL after WWII?
US and USSR agree to pull out of Europe, leaving Europe to form an EU equivalent early, not aligned with either side. Without a Marshall Plan, Europe's economic development is slower than OTL.

US goes 'America first' with continued marginalizing of women and blacks in the work force.

China ... Mao and Chiang are both ousted/killed/marginalized, and Chou En Lai and the next Nationalist leader work out a modus vivendi. China cracks down on Nationalist corruption - but doesn't suffer from Mao's wilder schemes.

India goes more capitalist.

So... By the 1990s, USSR, US, Europe, China and India are all World Powers.

Secondary powers might include 'The Commonwealth' (if the US 'America First' policies were bad enough), and Japan (if Japan got to keep Taiwan and made arrangements with Philippines e.g. in the '60s, she might be a serious power).

That sufficiently multi polar?
 
Mike,

Wallace was a "useful idiot," not a full-blown Communist. He might ignore or excuse Soviet misbehavior, but he would not take orders from Moscow, if the Soviets were stupid enough to try to give them.

The greater danger was two of his proposed Cabinet picks WERE Soviet agents (I think SecTreas and another one).
 
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