Bluesman Mike Lindner Wrote:Lemme ask you, Biggles, would it have been a better world if the British and French democracies had gone down? If Kaiserism triumphed in Europe? (I am out of time, will get back to you on Sunday.)
That isn't precisely the issue, or the alternative outcome. What makes you think the British and French systems were more "democratic" than the German and Austro-Hungarian? For that matter, how was the Czar (part of the same alliance) preferable to the Kaiser? Who divvied up the Middle East after the Ottoman Empire was defeated (creating many of the problems we have there now)? It wasn't one of the Central Powers.
But getting to the point, I think the best outcome would have been a negotiated peace, a real possibility if we had not tipped the scale in favor of one side over the other. Then there would not have reparations, a Weimar Republic, hyper-inflation, Adolf Hitler, etc. Then, we certainly
could have been a better world. The Germans would never have defeated the Brits even without our intervention (they proved that in 1940, didn't they?). So, to turn the question around: "Would Kaiser Wilhelm II have been preferable to Hitler?" Because, indeed, THAT was the choice that we helped make.