Alternate history AKICOLJ

[philmophlegm]

Help me out with an alternate history scenario.

Alternate histories where Germany won the Second World War are pretty common - off the top of my head I can think of Robert Harris's 'Fatherland', Philip K. Dick's 'The Man in the High Castle' and that Star Trek episode with Joan Collins in it*. However, the scenario I need help with is one where Germany won the First World War.

What has happened is that the war of attrition of 1915 to 1917 dragged on into a stalemate. The United States stayed out of the war. The Russian Revolution happened as it had happened in our timeline. Germany was able to reduce British industrial capacity through Zeppelin raids. German U-Boats cut off the flow of raw materials from the British Empire. And slowly Germany was able to advance through France.

Britain and what is left of France and the rest of the allies surrender to Germany in 1934. Southern Britain is a lawless place with much of its infrastructure destroyed. Many people have fled to the north. The Royal Family has moved to Canada. Under the terms of the surrender, Ireland has been granted independence, guaranteed by Germany. Large parts of France have been carved off as vassal states of Germany, most notably Burgundy. The same has happened to Italy, with Lombardy now a separate kingdom subject to the German Kaiser.

That's about as far as I got. My question is: what does the world look like in 1935, with Germany the dominant European power?







* Well, ok that isn't actually set after a German victory, but it does show how the non-death of an American pacifist leads to German victory.

Comments

[eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com]

I'm reading Armageddon by Max Hastings at the moment, and his take on the WW2 allied bombing campaigns was that it did little other than made civilians miserable, until the Americans switched from trying to bomb cities/industry and started bombing fuel supplies. Then there was a massive impact, with Germany still churning out planes but not getting enough fuel to fly them. The book also asserts that the personality of Bomber Harris meant he stuck to his guns on keeping the British bombing industry/cities and was very reluctant to switch to bombing oil production/distribution centres.

Was Germany suffering from rationing or the like in the First WW? If it dragged on longer than normal there might be a huge exodus of people to the more 'prosperous' colonies after the war.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Food was extremely short, both in WW1 and towards the end of WW2. We're talking about starvation levels here- and after WW1 the blockade, and starvation continued until the Treaty of Versailles.

That's why I said upthread that British would have had to have retreated after Jutland, so that the naval blockade of Germany ended.

food

[(Anonymous)]

Food never approached starvation levels in WW2 in Britain despite warnings to the contrary. That was because Britain was prepared after the shock of the uboats in WW1. Even then Britain didnt get that close to starving. It did get closento running out of certain foodstuffs and certain minerals but Germany got a lot closer. British farms are some of the most efficient in the world for a reason and its usually well less reported that even in 1916 the government was drawing up contingency plans for alternate food sources and planting requirements.

The convoy system, which was resisted by the merchant marine for a long time effectively prevented the uboats from blockading Britain through force. Absent WW2 style wolf packs, and I dont see how the Germans co-ordinate those without communications and snorkel systems not available to them in WW1 (nor French ports), then I cant see a uboat blockade working. It might make things more tricky in WW1 Britain but not unlivable. Meanwhile the Ottoman Empire is still crumbling from within and the Austro-Hungarian empire is still doomed.

Apologies for any spelling or formatting errors. Posted from my phone.

[danieldwilliam.livejournal.com]

Germany was severely blockaded during the First World War leading to rationing, industrial problems and perhaps half a million deaths.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany