The bitter European state rivalry also lead to industrialization. The particular sequence of necessary things like a shortage of expensive labour, wet coal that needed constant pumping, an arms race with other European powers (Whitworth rifles, screw threads, standardization, his micrometer, boring breakthroughs. Uh, I mean boring as in hole boring) and then finally the Newcommen steam engine which was truly revolutionary but was also utter shit.

James Watt's improvement of the Newcommen engine sparked the steam era. Also with heavy machinery we got the Bessemer process for mass steel making that was good enough. Puddling furnaces or crucible steel were something you did if you needed better control.

All of that shit was to spite the French. And the Spanish. And the Germans. And the Italians probably, maybe even the Greeks? Who knows. It was these interstate rivalries that created a tech arms race and now we are where we are.

go further back, kill alexander the great no HRE, none of their bastard splinter empires, we all end up speaking mongolian cause the Khan faces far kess resistance invading europe

If anything, Hitler cemented that fascist rule was a bad thing since he also carried around the baggage of intense racism.

Seems like fascism was reasonably well received by the world of interwar period (at least in the west). Its primarily because they Nazis did a genocide that we associate fascism with "the big bad" in modern times.

I don't doubt that the Weimar Republic was headed to fascism, but if they'd had a more rational leader, it would probably have been a slower/steadier boil that didn't kick off WWII for a few extra years + was more content to rest on its laurels (i.e. content with dividing Poland, taking the Sudetenland, etc) with significant breaks between claims.

I think this all culminates in a more sympathetic looking Germany post WWII (if it even becomes a World War), which then changes the dynamic of modern Neo-Nazi movements (probably less racist, less overlap with confederate sympathizer movements, more political reformation focused).

Idk, its interesting to think about.

Most individuals, sure. There's an argument to be made that Taft royally screwed the 20th century by not conceding the primary to Teddy. If he had stepped aside, Wilson cannot win the presidency. Without Wilson keeping us out of WWI, Teddy likely gets Congress to declare war after the sinking of The Lucitania. That gets us into the war quickly enough that Russia doesn't pull out. Sure the Tsar is still gonna get overthrown, but the interim government won't be, as they just helped win the war, and so Russia is at the table when Armisice Day (or the equivalent) happens. That prevents Russia from losing territory. Here's where it gets interesting. Without the purge of the interim government, the Bolsheviks don't have the momentum to purge the Menchaviks, making communism more moderate and preventing Lenin, and therefore Stalin from rising to power. Without Stalin yelling that he intended to kill all non-communists, Germany probably doesn't go full fascist. In fact the European theater of WWII might just not have happened. Sure the baltics are still a thing, and the Pacific still exists, and we probably still would have cut Japan's oil supply, but we wouldn't have been distracted in Europe.

It's entirely possible that without Wilson, the US wouldn't have ever gained the superpower status we got after WWII.

At least, we would have have much less losers walking around that look up to Nazi losers.