Quote:
Originally Posted by Mandolin1
The Romans and Mongolians did have huge empires and relativly small armies, but Germany would have to deal with the effects of modern technology.
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Naw, they just needed to put more effort into 'hearts and minds.' The Romans held onto their Empire because they treated the locals slightly less like shit than the people who had ruled the locals before, and the Mongols showed that people who think you're going to remove their hearts and minds if they cross you in any way tend to do what you tell them to.
Basically, Germany couldn't really count on much local support since their army was full of bastards, but they weren't bastardly enough to scare people into helping them further their goals without constantly sabotaging them, either. Except on the Russian front where they were so bastardly there was no point in surrendering or helping them out since they'd kill you anyway.
Granted, Germany got as far as it did largely due to all the other European leaders being amazingly stupid for about 50 years beforehand, but had they actually managed to draw serious, reliable manpower from the countries they were invading rather than recruiting all the people who would normally become dinner ladies and traffic wardens, they might have held onto their empire, at least for a while. Then again, this puts you back in the "Nazis not being Nazis" school of alternate history.