h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

And alot of Americans grate...apart from the ones I know because I want a holiday over there next year so......if they are lurking...and since she won't be voting for Palin...sorry McCain...she is great.

The Saints V Chargers game at Wembley yesterday was fantastic (and I was able to watch it without having to stay up into the small hours of the morning) I can't say I'm a big fan of basketball andor ice-hockey but gridiron and baseball are great. Not to mention the US's contribution to other sports; Carl Lewis, Lance Armstrong, Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods are four US sportsmen who have given me goosebumps (wasn't sure how to phrase that so no dirty comments please!)

A world without The Doors would be a poorer one; as would a world without Poe, Henry James, The Beach Boys, Star Wars, Coca~Cola, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlie Brown, The Simpsons, Steinbeck, Chet Baker, NASA, Nike Air trainers, Twin Peaks, Naked Gun films... I could carry on ad nauseam.

The world without the defeat of nazi Germany, and the subsequent regeneration of Europe, would also be a poorer one and that would not have been possible without the US.

It may still be fashionable to ignorantly bash America but, unfashionable as I may be, I feel warmth and admiration for my cousins across the pond. I celebrate our similarities and our differences.

Van

sever-it man

Without the US there might not have been a First World War which led to the 2nd World War.

Nazism would not have happened and the Communism in Russia would not have happened as we would probably have lost the 1st World War as the Yanks would not have got involved(big assumption but we are making the assumption that we would have lost WW2).

Without America Europe might have become a superstate a long time before it has done(oh, it isn't a superstate now though..is it?)

Also, there is the American Civil War. The Germans had alot of land over in some of the states in the 1800's. If history had taken a different path Germany may still have had a large part to play in some of the states.

Whether Germany would have felt the need to 'help start' WWI would then be a question. The US would not have been as big a player overall on the world stage as the North and South would still probably be separate and quite possibly Germany would have more interests in the states and not feel the need to extend their empire over here.

My history of the time isn't complete enough to get a proper scenario
together suffice to say the Nazis would probably not have been an issue had the America of that time not been in existence.

Hopefully, some one else might be able to help here.

Oh and if Germany hadn't kick started WWI then the IRA might not have become the force it had done. Germany gave the IRA a lot of their first weapons to rty and destablise Britain.

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that was all down to the Austrian empire and some Serbian terrorists

everyone else became involved because of treaties and alliances.

britain declared war on Germany in the WW2 for the same reason, a treaty with Poland.......

Yes, you are correct. They became a driving force though in the end didn't they?

I thought they also got involved for other reasons than the treaty.

they also got stuck in for expansionist reasons but the initial kick off was arch duck ferdinand being bumped off

Indeed, by Yugoslavian separatists or something like that.

It really is amazing how 'just' one assination by a small group of people set off a world war.

That's the worrying thing about NATO now. Had Georgia been a part of it we would have been obliged to go up against Russia..scary thought...whether Russia would have gone into Georgia had it been in NATO is another question.