www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall What Would have been the Fate ofIf Germany Won WW1?

An interesting question thats often buzzed through my mind is - What would have the history of Eastern Europe (And the Byzantine Catholic Church along with it) If Germany had won the first World War? They Germans, in the Treaty of Brest Litvosk, had already forced Russia to succede Poland, the Baltics, White Russia and Ukraine to them.

But does anyone think that, if such a victory occured, the hisotry of Eastern Catholics in the region would have been alot easier then it has turned out?

Just a thought.

Robert

Hmmm... tough question.

Had Germany won, I would guess the situation in the east, where it had already defeated Russia would be as it became -- independent Baltics and Poland with Poland grabbing Belarus. With victory Germany might have avoided the revolution of 1919 and the Weimer Republic, but the course had already been set. I would assume the Kaiser would have still lost power to a parlimentary democracy. Without the western punishments of Germany, a stable demoracy might have emerged and no Hitler.

I don' think a German victory would have saved Austria. The Hapsburgs were going down. So again much the same.

The question would be, without Hitler, would Stalin have won control of Central Europe?

Axios

Dear Friends,

An interesting and provocative question. One factor to take into account in reply is that the Hapsburg regime was more accepting of the Greek Catholics than any of the other empires.

If there was a parliamentary democracy implemented under the Hapsburgs, there might have been more true freedom than came to be under a group of nationalist regimes intent on "ethnic cleansing" within their territories by supressing other cultures and religions.

Remember that Metropolitan Andrew was imprisoned by the Tsar for suspected loyalty to Austria-Hungary and later by Poland for suspected Ukrainian nationalism (both of which were somewhat true, but Andrew's primary duty was to the care of his flock}.

The rampant nationalisms of the 1920s and 1930s led Poland and Hungary to demand their pieces of flesh from Czechoslovakia at the time of Munich. This in spite of the obviously expansionist Nazi regime knocking on the western doors of all East European countries. One year later, Poland was gone for another 50 years.

Since the forces of ethnic nationalism seemed to dominate all of Europe during this time, the real questions would have been:

1. Would a victorious Germany been able to reform in a way that kept their empire together?

2. If the German Empire had disintegrated, would the Ukrainians have been able to sustain their independence against the Bolsheviks any better than they did, caught between Russia and Poland?

3. If the Ukrainians were independent, would they have been an effective counter to Stalin's Russia in Eastern Europe?

4. Could the Eastern European nations work together to defend against the threats from the Germans and the Russians?

History suggests that they would not have. We seem to prefer fighting each other rather than defending the rights of all of us to be ourselves.

Have a Blessed New Year!!!!

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck