Pondering the damage that the World Wars did to Europe- ending it's hegemony but setting the stage for their colonies independence and America's ascendance- I became curious as to how to most minimize that damage. The ideal would be for WW1 to have been avoided totally, but it seems one was inevitable. It seems to me however that the same cannot be said of a second world war, and the subsequent cold war- if only Germany had won the first, they would have lacked a continental rival to cause the carnage of WW2.
Is that assumption correct? The only potential threat I can see is Russia, but seeing how Russia had been hamstrung I can't see the German's allowing them to reestablish themselves as a threat. This of course leaves open the question of whether Germany would let them become communist or not.
But either way, Germany would presumably stomp them if they looked to be reestablishing themselves as a threat(that was the primary motive for WW1 in the first place, curbing Russia's ascent before they industrialized to the point of standing a significant chance against Germany).