This is the conclusion to an All Things Considered series that imagines a counterfactual history of World War I.
This year marks the centennial of the outbreak of World War I. What started as a beef between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia unleashed a clash that brought in Russia, Italy, France, Germany, England and eventually the United States.
All Things Considered has been underlining the war's historical importance by imagining the world if it had never happened: How would politics, science, literature and music have been different without that conflict?
We asked listeners to carry this idea of a counterfactual history and received more than 1,500 thoughtful — and often hilarious — stories.
We've included a small selection below; some have been edited for length.
World Leaders
Josef Stalin would never have been more than a hairy, disaffected Georgian coffee shop habitue. He might have owned a shop in Tbilisi, and helped to care for his aging parents. He would have married a village girl and possibly become a drunken lout. At best, he would have become a town alderman.
— Marcy Troy
Without a revolutionary cause, Fidel Castro focuses on improving his fastball and becomes a journeyman pitcher for the Chicago White Sox of the American League, helping pave the way for more Cubans to play in the United States.
— Rich
There is no Harding "return to normalcy," and Governor James M. Cox of Ohio is elected president in 1920 and Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected Vice President. As Vice President, Franklin Roosevelt does not vacation in Campobello and does not contract polio, or, if he does, he receives treatment and does not become paralyzed. Cox is remembered as a better-than-average president, and Franklin D. Roosevelt is forgotten as someone who was vice president in the 1920s.
— James Norquist
Benito Mussolini eschews teaching and politics, choosing instead to open up a small coffee/pastry shop in Switzerland called "Bene, Bene!" He goes on to write several dessert cookbooks, which become very popular in Spain and Italy. While on a book signing tour he is given the nickname "Il dolce" by his fans.
— Charles Foerster
Woodrow Wilson's nativism policies destroying all hyphenated Americans' culture never happens. He loses mid-term elections and falls into obscurity. German-Americans continue to help create and build 20th Century America, resulting in a dual language nation with strong ties to more European homelands other than England.
— Roland Kerner
People
Gavrilo Princip gets hooked on sandwiches, loses 50 pounds, and lands a lucrative endorsement deal advertising Subway sandwiches. Gavrilo becomes immortalized as a weight loss icon, forever relegating Jared to the dustbin of history.
— Robert Tobey
Albert Einstein stays in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1914 instead of moving to Berlin without Maric and his sons. Zurich becomes a world center for physics. Einstein spends the rest of his life there — never marrying Elsa and never teaching at Princeton. With no World War II, atomic and nuclear warfare do not occur until after his death in 1955.
— Jon Werner
Eugene V. Debs is never arrested for making a speech in Canton, Ohio, urging resistance to the military draft of World War I. He is a founding member of many unions in the United States and runs for office under Democratic tickets. Finally, he is brought on board FDR's administration as Secretary of Labor to ease tensions with unions and business leaders.
— Derek Wilmott
Roy Disney served in the Navy and his younger brother Walt Disney, too young to join the military, found a ticket to the action as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. So I am going to go out on a limb here: No World War I, no Mickey Mouse!
— Dan Lovelady
Without World War I, T.E. Lawrence would have continued his career in archaeology in the Middle East without pause. Without British encouragement to weaken the Ottoman Empire as part of WWI, the Arab revolts would have withered on the vine as the Ottoman Empire would have no external conflicts to keep them from dealing with their internal ones. Lawrence would not have become Lawrence of Arabia but instead Lawrence of Oxford, a traveling professor with extensive ties to the Ottoman Interior Ministry.
— David Thompson
No World War I means no influenza pandemic in 1919. Among the millions who do not die is American intellectual Randolph Bourne, advocate of rights for the handicapped (a term he coined) and opponent of U.S. military intervention, which he condemned in his work "War is the Health of The State."
— David Hostetter
Baron von Richthofen would not have become a flying ace and folk legend, leaving Charles M. Schultz at a loss for what to do with his Snoopy cartoon character. We would have been spared bad novelty songs by the Royal Guardsmen and at least one frozen pizza company.
— Keith Osterberg
World Power
Canada would have maintained stronger ties to the political and economic powerhouse of the time, England, rather than gravitate toward the U.S. sphere of influence. As a result, Canada (with the support of England and its European allies) would control the Arctic and dominate North America.
— Peter O'Larry
Without World War I and hence, II, Britain would still have a strong military presence in India and have continued its colonial rule in the subcontinent for more years. There would not have been a partition of India in 1947, and Mahatma Gandhi would have lived longer.
— Kalyani Chaganti
I imagine that if the Bolshevik revolution had failed, then Communism might have failed to find a major foothold in Europe or elsewhere; without Cold War sentiment or McCarthyism, there may have not been a conflict in Vietnam, which was focused upon stopping the spread of Communism in that region.
— Rob Ross
As the 20th century progresses, the colonial territories of Asia and Africa enjoy a steady improvement in standard of living, but over time simmering nationalist movements turn into terrorist cells. The United States, after briefly flirting with Imperial possessions gained in the Spanish-American war, becomes a supporter of many of these nationalist movements and by the end of the century is widely vilified in the world community for its steadfast opposition of colonialism and for tacitly supporting anti-imperial movements all around the world.
— A. I. Michalus
The Ottoman Empire would not have fallen. At least, not the way it did. The nation of Turkey would not have had Kemel Attaturk to pull it into the 20th century. Maybe no Armenian genocide, either.
— Phillip Gathright
China would probably not be a world power. The First World War greatly weakened Western powers such as France, Great Britain and the United States, all of which were engaged in China at the time. Had their power remained considerable, the Beiyang Government, the entity that controlled China between 1912 and 1928, may not have fallen to Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang forces.
— Desmond Molloy
Equality Movements
The Civil Rights Movement of the '50s and '60s would have been delayed by decades. Black soldiers would not have been able to showcase their bravery or experience a more tolerant Europe. The soldiers would not have become frustrated at the ironic indignity of fighting for freedom abroad while serving in a segregated military and returning home to Jim Crow. That frustration help lay the groundwork for the movement.
— Darlene Millender
Without WWI, USA doesn't ramp up its production capacity which brings women into the workplace and sets into motion the sweeping changes career and employment opportunities for women. Contraception is not promoted as a liberating option for women, and birthrates of American women continue to rise.
— Lauren
Food & Drink
This is a very minor thing, but potato bread and carrot cake would not be common if WWI did not happen, because they were popularized as K-bread, or Kriegsbrot — war bread, a type of ersatz material. Germany had to use ersatz (or substitute) materials since they were a food importing country and the British blockade cut off a majority of the food supply.
— Katherine Lynch
Without World War I, the Progressives continue their push for nationwide prohibition but fail because there is no anti-German (beer makers) craze or war effort shortages of grain that is used to in the production of alcohol. The final vote in Congress on the proposed 18th Amendment is barely defeated. As a result, there is no reason for Al Capone to move to Chicago to start his bootlegging and prostitution rings. Capone remains in New York where he is appointed as a judge and eventually is elected to the U.S. Senate.
— Kathleen Jackson
Without the two world wars we may not eat turkey for Thanksgiving. Turkey is an Army tradition for Thanksgiving and the popularity of turkey really didn't start until soldiers, who had acquired a taste for turkey during the war years, came home and requested turkey during the post-war Thanksgiving.
— Steve Pilger
If the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) wasn't sparked, Forrest E. Mars Sr. may not have begun making hard shelled chocolates called M&M's. The main success of this product was the chocolate's resiliency in the Pacific Theater's warmer climate, making them a staple for C-rations.
— Joseph Barber
Transportation
The development of the airplane was greatly accelerated and influenced by the aviation needs of the war. By the end of the war, aircraft were being designed with enclosed cockpits and metal fuselages.
— Karen Kubal
In the U.S. it would be unlikely that the interstate highway system would have developed as it did. Instead of the U.S. system being modeled after the Autobahn, and built in a furor over twenty to thirty years with standardized construction, likely our highway system would have evolved piecemeal with little cohesion and connectivity would likely have remained robust only on a regional level.
— Chris Chaney
Without WWI, German zeppelin production was not halted in 1918 and planes were not advanced as quickly for use in warfare. There was open trading between Germany and North America, allowing the German based Zeppelin company to procure sufficient helium supplies. Consequently the Hindenburg disaster never occurred, and zeppelins became the travel method of choice well into the 20th and 21st centuries.
— Kenny Byers
There would have been no need to nationalize the railroads during WWI under the United States Railway Administration. There would have been no standardized locomotive designs, and we would be without some truly beautiful steam locomotives.
— Keith Hayes
Sports
World War I was a watershed in golf. When it was over, for the first time, the best British golfers were no longer the best golfers in the world. Surely, many potential British golfing stars were lost, outright, in the war or injured in ways that ended their competitive careers. Where golf before the war was dominated by the British, Americans took over the heights of the British game.
— Curt Fredrixon
Without WWI (and hence WWII), the ski industry in the US never takes off. With no 10th Mountain Division veterans coming home after WWII, major ski resorts across the U.S. would never have existed.
— Steve Ascher
Science & Technology
Our understanding of weather and climate would not be nearly as robust without satellites looking back at our planet and less powerful supercomputers to model the complex interactions. Climate change would probably still happen but our ability to understand and model its effects would likely be diminished.
-- Bryan Dagerman
Healthcare delivery would likely follow a different path: Employer-based health insurance came about, in part, due to wage limits in the 1940's during WWII. To recruit workers without increasing pay, companies began adding health insurance packages.
— Alex
There would be delayed introduction of home radio, absence of the crucible that gave birth to modern electronic news reporting and an America different from ours in untold ways — one where the socio-political imperative that gave us National Public Radio may not have existed.
— Chuck Howell
There would not had be the necessity of developing a military need to communicate within computers (Internet) hence the World Wide Web would had been delayed probably 20 more years and you would be receiving this piece of information in the form of a written piece of paper.
— José Rivadeneyra
When soldiers who had been exposed to mustard gas during WWI came home, doctors noticed nitrogen mustard had adverse effects on bone marrow and white blood cells. At the time hematologists were looking for ways to combat blood cancers and the idea of using small doses of nitrogen mustard to treat leukemia was one of the first forms of chemotherapy, and it was surprisingly successful.
— Andrew Fiedler
The science of geophysics would never have come to be. During the fighting on the Western Front, scientists attempted to triangulate the location of enemy artillery fire by placing sound microphones on the ground and using time and distance calculations to determine their position when they shook the earth firing shells.
— Daniel Bille
Without World War I, farmers did not over-invest in infrastructure to feed the warring continent. Instead, their growth remained slow and steady with attention to the health and well-being of the soil. They did not suffer catastrophic debt in the 1920s but continued to refine techniques, save seeds, breed culturally appropriate animals and transition farms from generation to generation. The petrochemical industry grew at a similarly modest rate and thereby did not need to rapidly transition production and marketing from the military industrial complex to domestic agriculture. Synthetic fertilizers would eventually become one tool in the farmer's toolbox rather than the predominant method of crop production.
— Laura Edwards-Orr
Art
Hitler's rise to power included a stigmatization of most modern visual art by labeling it "degenerate." How would European modern art be viewed if this hadn't happened? Certainly more artists may have remained in Europe. Would the modern art movement of Expressionism become German Expressionism? Would Dada have been born? The migration of European artists to the U.S. influenced our first homegrown modern art movement: Abstract Expressionism, which led to New York becoming the center of the art world.
— Robert Tavani
As a visual artist, I realize how much less zany Western art would have been. Sure Picasso and others got Cubism started before the war, but it could have remained a minor movement like Futurism or Rayonism and other not-so-famous offshoots.
— Terry Ward
Without World War I, Marcel Duchamp never would have moved to New York City, exhibited his controversial work Fountain in 1917 (a urinal he signed R. Mutt) and changed art history. He might have stayed in France and been remembered as a Cubist painter and chess enthusiast.
— Vicky Pass
Architecture would be much more decorative. WWI spelled the end of the aesthetic movement in architecture, and spurned us into the modern age of sleek and simplified design due to a lack of artisans and money to pay for the cost of aesthetic design.
— Robert Thomas
Literature
Agatha Christie might not become a world-famous detective novelist and playwright. Christie worked in a hospital dispensary during the First World War. It was here that she began to plan her first detective novel, in response to her sister's earlier challenge to write a mystery that the reader could not unravel before the end of the book. The ample time the dispensary job gave her to ponder her sister's challenge and plan the story, alone with the knowledge of drugs and poisons she had gained on the job, lent themselves to the writing of The Mysterious Affair at Styles, the novel that launched her career as a mystery writer and introduced the world to Hercule Poirot.
— Michael J. Haas
We would not have the powerful verse of poets like Wilfred Owen, nor would we have the heartbreaking and wasteful loss. War defined so much of the macho literature of the 20th century from writers like Hemingway. No Great War would have left more room for women's literary voices to rise to the heights of Hemingway, because those voices would sound like so much macho posturing.
— Janet Williams
Without World War I, science fiction writers create radically different futuristic worlds. Dystopias based on the horrors of alien invasions, repressive regimes armed with obliterating or all-seeing technologies and post-apocalyptic survivors are absent. Instead, science fiction relays on themes like fear of death or disease and humanity's problematic relationship with progress. Less War of the Worlds and more World War Z.
— Luisa Flores
J.R.R. Tolkien does not fight in the trenches in France, and is not exposed to the horrors of war. Drawing on his linguistic studies at Oxford, he writes a stunning reimagination of the folktales of northern Europe, producing a new synthesis, drawing on diverse, obscure, and often startling tales of magic, heroism, and suffering. The thread combining his narratives is an earthy, rootless man, somewhat short and given to epicurean delights, who journeys throughout Europe, writing down his experiences just for the pleasure of doing so.
— Steve Shea
Music
If no war for the U.S. to enter, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels might not have closed down Storeyville, the red light district in New Orleans near the port. If that had not happened, jazz musicians might have stayed instead of traveling to Chicago; as a result, jazz would not have been disseminated throughout the country in the 1920s.
— Sandy Small
Pianist Paul Wittgenstein would not have lost his right arm to amputation, thus eliminating the left hand concerti of Ravel, Prokofiev, and others. It's also highly unlikely that Stravinsky would have written "L'histoire du Soldat."
— Brian Hughes
Without World War I, a man by the name of James Reese Europe would never become the "Martin Luther King" of music. Europe was the bandleader for the 369th Infantry Regiment (the "Harlem Hellfighters") Regimental Band. His unique jazz-influenced arrangements introduced American Jazz to both French citizens as well as American soldiers who would later return to the U.S., thus giving rise to the "Jazz Craze." This laid the foundations for musicians including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and many other early Jazz pioneers.
— Dean Wiseman
Culture
Without World War I and its inevitable successor, World War II, there would have been no GI Bill. My father was a veteran who came from a poor Italian immigrant family in Hartford. Thanks to the GI Bill he was able to attend college and buy a home. He was one of thousands who was lifted from the working class to the middle class and built the exceptional country America became in the last half of the twentieth century
— Arlene LaPenta
World War I traumatized a generation worldwide. If it hadn't happened, there would have been no Spiritualist Movement which grew out this trauma, as thousands of people, in search of solace, desperately tried to contact their lost loved ones through seances conducted by mediums.
— Pat Sachs
I can imagine a world where Superman and any hero based in science fiction does not appear. Captain America, a hero based completely in World War II does not exist since there would be no need for an American based hero whose costume is very based on the American flag. The later heroes of the Marvel universe of the 1960s which were based in science fiction or were cold war heroes might never have come to thought.
— Andrew DiNunzio
The United States would be much more polyglot than it is. Without World War I, the German language (and, by association, other immigrant languages, like Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, and Greek) would never have been banned from schools in the American heartland.
— Michael Erard
Without the horror of the Holocaust, eugenics would continue to flourish. The United States, Britain, and other countries had eugenics-influenced policies in place before World War II, and these policies didn't stop until we witnessed the resulting genocide.
— Jeff
Film & Television
Without WWI and no need for German Jewish refugees to escape to the U.S., many of the great studio leaders, directors, screen-writers, and film composers would not have made the journey to Hollywood.
— Pamela Starr
Without World War I, the horror genre in films would never have been born. The horrific injuries of returning vets gave rise to films such as The Phantom of the Opera, Frankenstein and The Wolf Man: Creatures who were essentially sympathetic but whose disfigurement made them repulsive to society.
— Bill Shriver
Downton Abbey wouldn't have existed and I would have hours of my life back. Damn you Princip!
— Beth Simpson
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