What If Adolf Hitler Was Accepted to Art School?
Had Adolf Hitler been accepted to art school, the cascading effects on the United States' rise as a global power would likely have been profound. Without Hitler’s leadership, Nazi Germany may never have emerged, and the course of World War II would have been entirely altered—or avoided altogether.
Without the massive mobilization effort required for World War II, the United States might not have experienced the same rapid economic and industrial growth that propelled it to global dominance.
The Marshall Plan, which cemented America’s influence by rebuilding Europe, would never have existed, nor would the Bretton Woods Conference, which established the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
The Cold War, too, might have taken a different shape—or not existed at all. Without the division of Germany and the spread of communism spurred by the war’s outcome, the geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union might have been less acute. Instead, the U.S. could have focused inward, delaying its global interventionism.
The "American Century" might never have dawned in the same way.