Never Was Magazine

[Never Was Magazine]

How Germany Was Divided: A History of Partition Plans

How Germany was divided: A #history of partition plans

The way Germany was divided into Western- and Soviet-aligned republics after the Second World War was hardly a straightforward process. The Allies started thinking about whether and how to dismember Germany in the middle of the war and considered several options.

Some, like the Dutch request for territorial compensation, were ignored. Others, like President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s suggestion…

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What If Germany Had Won the First World War?

What if Germany had won World War I? It could have controlled an empire in Europe from the Rhine in the west to the Baltic states and Poland in the east #ArmisticeDay100

Many a what-if has been written about a German victory in World War II. Alternate histories of a German victory in World War I are less popular, but they exist. Indeed, people started thinking about the consequences of a German victory during the war itself and feared it might give way to a German empire spanning nearly the whole of Europe.

Here is a look at some of the maps that have been…

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[Never Was Magazine]

The Anglo-American Pacific War That Wasn’t

The Anglo-American Pacific War that wasn’t #alternatehistory #whatif

Before the rise of Adolf Hitler in Europe, American military strategists seriously considered the possibility they might do war with Britain in the Pacific.

During the 1920s and early 30s, a Joint Planning Committee (the precursor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff) developed a series of color-coded war plans. “Plan Red” prepared for a conflict with the British Empire, then the world’s declining but…

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How Finland’s Defeat in 1940 Could Have Changed the Cold War

How Finland’s defeat in 1940 could have changed the Cold War

At a glance, this doesn’t look too different from your average Cold War map. Take a closer look, though, and you will notice some oddities. Half of Austria seems to be missing. East Germany is much bigger than it should be. Greece isn’t in NATO, but Sweden is.

What happened here? (more…)

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[Never Was Magazine]

Countries That Almost Existed: Balkan Union

Countries that almost existed: Balkan Union

Still from a 1941 German propaganda film about the invasion of Yugoslavia An alternative to the Intermarium, the Balkan Union would have seen Greece and Yugoslavia leading the way in federating the Balkans and Central Europe. The plan was concocted by Britain’s wartime foreign secretary, Anthony Eden, who convinced the heads of the Greek and Yugoslav governments-in-exile to take the first step.…

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Countries That Almost Existed: SS State of Burgundy

Countries that almost existed: SS State of Burgundy

Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler meet at the Wolf’s Lair military headquarters near Rastenburg, October 13, 1943 (Ullstein Bild) Burgundy, now a region in central France, has historically been all over the map of Western Europe. The medieval Kingdom of Burgundy straddled the Mediterranean coast. The Duchy of Burgundy, at its greatest extent, ran from the Low Countries in the north…

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Countries That Almost Existed: North American Technate

Countries that almost existed: North American Technate

Map of the proposed Technate of America (Technocracy Inc.) The Great Depression gave various new political philosophies a lease on life. Chile lurched to the far left. Brazil and Portugal turned to the corporatist right. Germany elected the Nazis. In Canada and the United States, the technocracy movement arose. It proposed replacing all politicians with specialists: economists, engineers,…

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