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One thing that always stands out to me when reading about 20th century history is Spain's experience. A bloody and divisive civil war was somehow followed by 35 years of sort of sitting out of historical events while everybody else politely ignored the last big fascist regime. Then it was all topped off by a relatively uneventful transition to democracy.

So what would have happened if Germany had its own Franco? In other words, as the wheels started falling off of the Weimar Republic in the 1930s, what if there were a successful coup launched by a general who prized social stability above all else and who had a realistic assessment of the country's ability to achieve territorial gains through violence? What happens if 1930s Germany adopts a strict foreign policy of "please leave us alone" and gives up on regaining lost territory?

Does somebody still kick off WWII? Soviets? Japan? Habsburg revivalists? A stupid series of accidents in the Balkans?

Or do we jump straight into some kind of Cold War? What would that even look like without a big European war as the lead in?

I feel like there was a ton of interesting stuff happening in the 1930s that all got swept up into or drowned out by WWII.
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