Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
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Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
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Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#2Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before Poland. This could've given Poland and France time to prepare for the Blitzkrieg, which they sorely were not.
Hitler was increasingly poor as a leader over time. Megalomania, hubris, over confidence, narcissism, he definitively lost the war by invading USSR, a very stupid decision. Stalin's reaction wasn't even rapid, Hitler's enemies dithered and paused, it took Churchill and a delayed awakening by Stalin and that was enough to stop "mighty" Germany. It didn't hurt that the USA provided the material and the bulk of the final push, that was key.
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#3Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
"which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts"
Hopefully we would've offered great resistance, but the belt of fortifications was far from complete and we had Hungary and Poland ready to jump on our throats as well. There is no way that a noodle-shaped country like Czechoslovakia of 1938 was can survive attack from all sides simultaneously, with one of the attackers on very high military level.
From the Allies' point of view, the fact that Hitler gained access to Czech heavy industry was probably worse than anything else. Subjugated Czech factories played a huge role in arming Germany for the coming war.
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#4Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
"which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts" Hopefully we would've offered great resistance, but the belt of fortifications was far from complete and we had Hungary and Poland ready to jump on our throats as well. There is no way that a noodle-shaped country like Czechoslovakia of 1938 was can survive attack from all sides simultaneously , with one of the attackers on very high milita…
Already manufactured Czech tanks played a big role in the early years of the war, it wasn't just the capture of the factories that was important.
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#5The counterfactual is explored in Philip K. Dick's "The Man in the High Castle"
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#6Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
The idea that Germany came even close to winning the war has always seemed aggressively idiotic to me. We weren't lucky to win the war, Germany was lucky to even make it out of the 30's
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#7Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
Remember politics. Poland and neighbors knew of Germany's invasion plans, but were not allowed to mobilize or prepare, so they "wouldn't antagonize the Germans." The British were playing politics hoping that talks would solve everything. So in that sense, you are correct, his rhetoric prevented an appropriate response.
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#8Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
The idea that Germany came even close to winning the war has always seemed aggressively idiotic to me. We weren't lucky to win the war, Germany was lucky to even make it out of the 30's
It wasn’t luck.
After two devastating wars look at where Germany is now. An economic and industrial superpower
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#9Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
The idea that Germany came even close to winning the war has always seemed aggressively idiotic to me. We weren't lucky to win the war, Germany was lucky to even make it out of the 30's
In May 1940, as the British were evacuating Dunkirk, Churchill met the Cabinet to discuss a possible armistice with Germany, mediated through Mussolini.
At that point, UK was the only significant power fighting the Germans. Churchill prevailed against Halifax, but if the decision went the other way, Germans would have uncontested control over most of the continent either directly or through satellite states, with exception of the USSR and small holdouts like Malta.
Re: Economic history of World War II and the 18th Brumaire
#10Hitler relied on risk, rhetoric, and gambling to achieve his modest conquests. Recall, he didn't actually conquer Austria and he used rhetoric to gain Czech lands, which would've offered great resistance in heavily fortified mountain forts. He gambled multiple times and got lucky. If the other Germans, French, Austrians, or Czechs had actually stopped him boldly, he would've received much more bad press long before P…
The idea that Germany came even close to winning the war has always seemed aggressively idiotic to me. We weren't lucky to win the war, Germany was lucky to even make it out of the 30's
They had won the war. Then, they decided to invade the USSR...
Same mistake Napoleon did and it played out almost the same.