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plomme | 1 month ago

Please make the case that the UK should have (and could have) stayed neutral during WWs 1 & 2 and gained from it.

discuss

order

ifwinterco|1 month ago

What the guy below said - the UK would have become more like switzerland, much richer, not had a lot of its historic architecture destroyed and two generations of young men slaughtered.

I think it's actually really difficult to make the case for entering either war

plomme|1 month ago

What makes you think that the UK would fare like Switzerland and not like Norway, who also tried staying neutral?

What makes you think a Europe with, for example, Nazi Germany as hegemon would be safer for the UK, or that the UK would have a choice in fighting or not?

My point is that projecting some future based on choices not taken is purely historical fiction and there is no reason to believe anything would go the way you or I think it would have gone had UK done this or that. There are far too many variables to consider, and it is impossible to experiment. I think you can make the case the other way just as well that politics of appeasement in the time leading up to WW2 led to the war being even more devastating.

EDIT: Here's some actual plans that the Nazis had for Switzerland btw https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Tannenbaum

bratwurst3000|1 month ago

this is so wrong. Hitler wanted switzerland and they had allready the operation "tannenbaum" rdy but mussolini failed hard and the eastern front didnt go as expexted. That Hitler did exclude anyone because of "neutrality" is utter bs