What if Germany would win the WWII?

A more original name   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:18 am GMT
What if Germany would win the WWII? Which languages would be spoken?

German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and English, in my opinion, would be the most important languages.
German guest   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:49 am GMT
It depends on several factors: If Russia would be eliminated or not, if Germany would sign a Peace Treaty with USA with their influence area (Europe for Germany and the Americas for USA).

There are several theories to win the War.

For example, if Franco (Spain) wanted to join the Axis, a German-Spanish Army would have Gibraltar, and the Med strategy would be the most important, with two Med friends (Italy and Spain).

A German-Spanish-Italian Army would focus on Morocco, Malta, Suez and the oil of the Arabic countries, a much more intelligent strategy than the Russian attack.

In 1942 all the Med would be for Rommel without any doubt.

So, if the Axis would have all North Africa, the Med and the oil, I would bet for the Axis (a German-Italian-Spanish-French nazy Army) against UK.
hiri motu   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:50 am GMT
Nah, it would be Hiri Motu. In 1952, an expedition of Papau New Guinean sailors, fleeing from the Germans, would have set off for Antarctica and built a settlement there. They like sex and the colony would have grown very fast. So fast, that there would now be 3 billion people in the Papua Empire, which eventually, after a series of expansionist wars, would eventually include Australia, New Zealand and Southern Africa and South America. Hence, the most spoken language would be Hiri Motu.
Federico   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:52 am GMT
German would be the most important language in Europe, then English, French, Italian, Spanish, ranked in this order, and of course, Japanese would be the most important in Asia.
Federico   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:59 am GMT
SOrry, it should be in this updated order, as FollowS,

(German + Japanese) > Italian > Spanish > (French + English) > Russian .
???   Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:38 am GMT
>>What if Germany would win the WWII? Which languages would be spoken?<<

Should be 'What if Germany HAD WON the WWII?'. Or possibly in AmE you get away with 'What if Germany WOULD HAVE WON THE WWII?', but it's still not standard English anywhere. And you should probably miss out the 'the' as well. We say 'the second World War, but for some reason if you refer to 'World War II or I', the 'the' is omitted.
???   Wed Oct 14, 2009 10:39 am GMT
>>Or possibly in AmE you get away with<<

Sorry, I meant 'you COULD get away with'.
Just Guest   Wed Oct 14, 2009 11:21 am GMT
That's interesting.

If Spain would enter in the World War, the Hitler's attention would have been drawn to the Med. And Raeder and Goering both pushed for a Med strategy, instead of the Russian attack, to knock England out of the war.

With Gib, Malta, And Crete in German-Spanish-Italian hands, Rommel's supplies would have gotten through. That would have given him the means to take Egypt, the Suez Canal and the oil.

So, it was almost decissive that Spain was neutral.
Harman   Wed Oct 14, 2009 1:23 pm GMT
Spain had just finished its civil war by the wwII, it was a destroyed country, no way to enter in wwII, we hadn't enough resources then. That's why spain was neutral, no choice.

By the way, german weapons were test and enhanced in spanish civil war. Spanish civil war was the prelude, a training towards wwII, if Franco would have been defeat, Hitler wouldn't be so brave.

Allies should have taken part in spanish civil war because it would craven Hitler.
Grammar   Wed Oct 14, 2009 2:01 pm GMT
What if Germany would win the WWII?

Shouldn't it be:

What if Germany had won the WWII?
PARISIEN   Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:21 pm GMT
Had Germany won WWII, the situation wouldn't have been much modified compared to pre-war era:

- German would be lingua franca in Central and Eastern Europe, as it used to be for over hundred years.

- English would still be predominant in Western and Northern Europe. Before WWII, English and German were in a 60:40 ratio in the educational systems of France and Scandinavia, as well as in the Netherlands.
Strangely, German military presence in France, Holland, Denmark etc. didn't bring about any change.
After 1944 the Anglo-American occupation forces were much more agressive to impose their language and culture than the Germans ever were.

- Ironically, despite their poor military contribution to the Axis, Italy would have benefited a lot more from a German victory. Italian would be today the only acknowledged international language in Croatia, Albania, Greece, Turkey and from Tunisia to Cairo... — in all the Eastern Mediterranean. Palestina included possibly!
Grammar Nut   Wed Oct 14, 2009 5:26 pm GMT
Your question should be re-written:
"What if Germany would have won the WWII?"
upstater   Wed Oct 14, 2009 7:48 pm GMT
<<Your question should be re-written:
"What if Germany would have won the WWII?" >>

In US English, you normally don't see "the" in front of WWII:

"What if Germany [had | would have] won WWII?"

"What if Gernany had won World War II?"

but

"What if Gernamy had won the Second World War?"

Of course, things may be different in the UK, Australia, NZ, Canada, Ireland, etc.

BTW -- I thought Germany and Japan had a plan to split the US and Canada in half, with part being occupied by each power. The Germans considered us "mongrels", and they might well have carried out massive ethnic cleansing/genocide in their half of the US.
Caspian   Wed Oct 14, 2009 8:05 pm GMT
No 'the' in British English either. 'Would have' wouldn't be correct either though.
Kein upstater   Wed Oct 14, 2009 9:22 pm GMT
"BTW -- I thought Germany and Japan had a plan to split the US and Canada in half, with part being occupied by each power. The Germans considered us "mongrels", and they might well have carried out massive ethnic cleansing/genocide in their half of the US."

Most stupid nonsense ever delivered here!

Germany didn't want the demise of the British Empire and of the USA, they saw them as counting among the greatest achievements of the Germanic race. Which is why they thought they were buying Anglo gratefulness when the refrained from destroying the British Army in Dunkirk.

Their strategic goal was to destroy communism and take control of Russia. That way they would have unlimited access to mining resources, oil from the Caspian area and foodstuffs from Ukraine. Thus they would achieve superpower status.

The Germans never fully realized the hostility of English speaking powers. Till the end they really believed Churchill and Roosevelt would allow them to smash Soviet communism. Or that otherwise the Germanic backbone of US white population would overthrow Roosevelt Jewish-led regime.

Similarly, the Nips just wanted full control over China and South-Est Asia (hey, do you imagine what industrial power it would be today?), and to oust the US of A from their Pacific islands, for safety's sake, that's all.