Which Is Better?: After 1900

Which of these would have been better?

  • William McKinley is not Assassinated

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Hitler Is Assassinated in 1944

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Watergate break-ins don't happen

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • There is no Iraq War

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    154
How could that even happen? USSR and "democratic-socialist Soviet Union that respects human rights" are two entirely seperate countries
 
Looking this over, I almost chose sparing the Archduke, but Europe back then was such a smouldering rat's nest of treaties and alliances that it was bound to blow sooner or later regardless of weather he lived or died. Therefore I have to go with the failure of the Bolshevik coup.

The rise of Soviet Russia was a human and moral catastrophe of the first water, leading to decades of tyranny, mass murder, and war. It also lead directly to the overreactions known as Fascism and National Socialism, it's mirror images, themselves the authors of far too much bloodshed and horror. And to the Cold War, all those long years of hair-trigger brinkmanship which at several points along the way nearly lead to an even more catastrophic Third World War.

Aborting the USSR might not lead to a world of peace, love and understanding but it's certainly a nice start! :D
 
How could that even happen? USSR and "democratic-socialist Soviet Union that respects human rights" are two entirely seperate countries

I don't care HOW it happens. I just think that it'd be better for the world order than what we got now.
 

Sachyriel

Banned
If the Chinese did not intervene in the Korean War they'd be the worlds premier power because of the increase in relative manpower, material and international relations butterflying away the need for Nixon to open them up.
 
I had to go with the archduke surviving. Maybe without his death at that particular time, WWI would have butterflied away into several smaller regional conflicts, with much lower loss of life, the avoidance of the rise of the Communists in Russia and the Nazis in Germany, and the 20th looking a lot better.

Conversly, however, WWI could have started over something else and been just as bad as OTL, or even worse. Given the alliance system of the time, I know a lot of people think WWI was unavoidable.
 
It also lead directly to the overreactions known as Fascism and National Socialism, it's mirror images, themselves the authors of far too much bloodshed and horror.

Oh, I see. They're merely overreactions, mere pecadillos even. I mean, any person could reasonably become a Nazi when faced with a the damn Reds, eh? What, to prevent moral catastrophe and mayhaps save Western Civilization? How much is too much when something that important is at stake?

So are you a Russophobe, a fool, or a troll, or all three at once?
 
As much as I'd like to vote TR's in 1912, for the world I'd have to say the KMT winning in China... even if they probably would end up as quasi-Fascists.
 
Oh, I see. They're merely overreactions, mere pecadillos even. I mean, any person could reasonably become a Nazi when faced with a the damn Reds, eh? What, to prevent moral catastrophe and mayhaps save Western Civilization? How much is too much when something that important is at stake?

So are you a Russophobe, a fool, or a troll, or all three at once?

My chart:

Post-Stalin Communists>Fascists>Stalin Communists>Nazis
 
i dunno, most countries were gearing up for war during the time anyway, and they were looking for any excuse to start a war.

Yes but most of these options could have a bad side as well as a good. Russian Revolution fails but will the govt that does occur be better?
Stalin dies. Great, less bloodshed but the man who replaces him in this timeline may be a great manager and creates a Soviet Union with a robust economy.

Even if a WWI does occur, events will be different, who fights may be different, and the length and casualty rates may be lower.

All I'm saying we're all just speculating.
 
I voted to save the Archduke from assassination. I've always believed the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires was disastrous, and set the stage for the rise of Nazi Germany and the USSR. Had the Dual Monarchy and Ottomans survived, these aggressive dictatorships could more easily have been stopped. The small states that emerged after 1919 stood no chance.
World War I was the beginning of the end of an older, more civilized world. Unlike previous wars, WW1 wasn't ended by a compromise, and minor transfers of territory, but by the complete disarmament of the losing armies, the dissolution of their governments and territories, and the ruination of their economies. The excessively harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles made WW2 inevitable.
 
I, for one, voted to abort the Communist rising in Russia. I'd have preferred that either the Tsar or the Provisional Government fight a massive civil war against the communists, win that, and end up too weak to keep Poland and other nations in shackles while the western powers beat the Germans.

The Western powers don't want a Communist Germany. As long as Russia is friendly with them, they don't care what happens there. But a Communist Germany is threatening to France and Belgium. So we might rule that out.

No Russian funding-->KMT wins Chinese Civil War, should that break out.
 
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