What if World War II never happened?

• Xentaros wrote on 2011-10-03 15:01
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"][SIZE="4"]I had a strange dream this morning right before I woke up where I was in the military. It wasn’t in the United States, but rather an imaginary country somewhere within the geographical borders of the United States. In a brief moment of lucid dreaming, I asked someone in my dream why this country existed, and not the US. He told me that there were actually 13 smaller countries with completely different names. When I asked him why, he responded “No Nazis!”, implying that Hitler never rose to power and there never was a second world war. Why this drastically changed the political landscape of North America, I don’t know; it was a stupid dream and those things rarely make sense anyways. But, it did leave me with an interesting question.
  
  What would the US, and the rest of the world for that matter, be like if World War II never happened? How would life be different for the average person, or how would we look to other countries? Would we still have the same level of technology we have now? How about economy? Would we even still be a superpower?
  
  I’ve thought about things like a smaller population without a post-war baby boom, a much smaller economy due to a lack of military prodution/build up, maybe even a delay of women’s rights since there wouldn’t have been a reason for them to start taking up the kinds of jobs and responsibilities needed to support fighting troops.
  
  There’s got to be an unimaginable amount of differences between a post-WWII America and an America that had a very peaceful 30s and 40s. I’m sure people much smarter than myself and with a more educated understanding of things like economics, politics, anthropy, military, technology, music, art, literature, activism, etc…. could come up with more nuanced ideas.
  
  What do you think?[/SIZE][/SPOILER]
• Akemii wrote on 2011-10-03 15:10
  Depression might've lasted a lot longer :U
• Mjoshua wrote on 2011-10-03 15:16
  Depression would have lasted ALOT longer. Cold war might never have occured since Soviet Union wouldn't be bickering with U.S. over German territories. Germany would probally be taken over. (???) No korean and vietnam wars due to no expansion of Communism by the U.S.S.R. U.S. might not have become the super power that it is today? Possibly Japan or U.S.S.R. becoming the super countries of our modern world. Worlds currency in Yen or w/e the soviets used. No bickering and constant wars in the middle east, since the state of "Israel" wouldn't exist. So many theories of what would happen if WWII didn't happen. It's quite interesting to see how history all ties together like this.
• Cheerios wrote on 2011-10-03 15:25
  Wars lead to development, wars force human and technology development. To be better than the adversary
  
  We'd be using sticks and throwing rocks if it wasn't for the wars
• Dempsie wrote on 2011-10-03 16:27
  The world would be very different; just imagine all the people who died in World War II living out a full life. They alone would cause drastic changes in the world. Also, I think we wouldn't be as advanced in our weapons for war. World War II served as a place for a lot of new techniques and weapons to be used.
• Cynic wrote on 2011-10-03 17:12
  errything said above.
  
  No Mengele Doctors to study and analyze would make me sadface.
  
  /is shot
• Zid wrote on 2011-10-03 17:16
  We would have went to war with the Soviet Union, in my certainty. And it won't be as "nice" as the Cold War.
  
  The main reason why we didn't because of WWII is because of that treaty between the West and the USSR.
  
  I'd imagine the communist manifesto would get so out of hand, the Soviet Union expansion would have conquered almost all of Western Europe. Israel and the surrounding countries would have been under a police state to deal with religion.
  
  Not only that, but Imperial Japan (if they were wise enough not to launch the attack on Pearl Harbor) also would aggressively expand to deal with US embargo on oil and such (because the US still dislike what Japan was doing). This is only my guess, but China would suffer a similar fate like Korea and Vietnam, a civil war between communist China and China under Japan's control.
  
  In this case, there would be three world powers at play: the West or Allied nations (consisting of the US, Great Britain, and Australia), the Soviet Union (which has already covered most of Europe and Asia), and Imperial Japan.
  
  And all are pretty war-ready at this point. Sure, Japan's arsenal is laughable, but their tactics would more or less be the same as their WWII tactics, so I wouldn't push it past them. The Allies would be at war with the Soviet Union, and I expect that war to be equal or more deadly than WWII. Possibly even longer too. At this point, Japan would either side with the Allies (which is more likely) or the Soviet Union, because who ever heard of a three-way war?
• ZazieTheBeast wrote on 2011-10-03 17:20
  no world war II would mean no atomic bomb( or at least not one so soon). no atomic bomb means no reason for the more developed nations to be afraid of going to war with each other. which would have eventually lead to another big war taking its place.
• Chillax wrote on 2011-10-03 19:09
  China might never have become communist and remained under Nationalist rule.
• Guyverunit4 wrote on 2011-10-03 20:10

  Quote from ZazieTheBeast;607361:

  which would have eventually lead to another big war taking its place.

  
  This.
  World War 2 would eventually happen. Just would be different.
• Paul wrote on 2011-10-03 20:12
  Then we wouldn't be watching Grave of the Fireflies next Stream Night.
• Royale wrote on 2011-10-03 20:45
  A war was going to happen sooner or later in the 1900s. If it weren't for the world war 2, tensions between U.S and Russia would escalated in to a full war and possibly more devastating as Russia was much stronger than Germany.
  Also world war 2 saw the fastest technological advance in human history, we fast forwarded approximately 100 years in technology in the span of 5~6 years;The first modern computers where invented to decrypt and encrypt secret massages, jets, rockets were invented to travel faster, further, and later satellites for commutation, the invention of nuclear technology during a war also taught us how not to use it. those are the basis of so many things we have today.
  And lastly without the signing of the Geneva Conventions and the forming of the United Nations the world would be a much more violent place.
  So really in the the long run, world war 2 actually benefited humanity and taught us not to do it again.
• rzetlin wrote on 2011-10-07 21:08
  Having taken a Cold War course I can provide some insights:
  
  - The Old World Nations (United Kingdom and France) would be still an influential Super Power
  
  - There would be still colonial countries under the Old World Administration (India, Parts of Africa, Vietnam and Hong Kong)
  
  - The United States would obtain an isolated domestic policy
  
  - The Depression would have lasted longer
  
  - Due to the effects from World War I and the Depression there might be more of a localized war to fight over resources in Europe
  
  - The League of Nations would still exist
  
  - Technological advancement would not have been made (Nuclear energy, Synthetic Rubber, Synthetic motor oil and Silly Putty)
• Chinaboy475 wrote on 2011-10-09 03:45
  Actually, idk about the part about China not being communist if WWII didn't happen because the communist party was already fighting against the government before WWII but then both sides agreeed to put their differences aside to fight Japan during WWII.Then they fought again after WWII passed.
• Chillax wrote on 2011-10-09 06:05

  Quote from Chinaboy475;613212:

  Actually, idk about the part about China not being communist if WWII didn't happen because the communist party was already fighting against the government before WWII but then both sides agreeed to put their differences aside to fight Japan during WWII.Then they fought again after WWII passed.

  
  
  The Nationalists were greatly weakened after the war, so it was easy for the Communists to turn on them and defeat them.