this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2026
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Which one is it?
If WWII never happened, the US never would have built up bases all over the world nor would they have been able to get the head start on pushing American manufacturing standards as ISO standards (due to being physically removed from the conflict in Europe). In that case, the US never sees the boom that it did from those situations, and never would have nearly as much economic, military, or social power as it did from being involved in the war.
How they would manage to take over all of north and south America in that situation is beyond me. Clearly written by someone who believes in American exceptionalism
Good point.
I heard a podcast recently (99% invisible) that talked about how the "60 degree" screw became standard in the world. Before that, there were many competing types of screw, which meant that there were all kinds of incompatibilities.
What they mentioned only in passing was that the British Empire already had a standard at 55 degrees. At that point, the British empire was huge. The smart thing to do would have been to simply adopt the British standard and make it the worldwide standard. Instead, the US forced the rest of the world, including the whole British Empire to adopt the new standard.
I imagine if the US hadn't entered WWII the world might be using German standards, or it might be using British Empire standards, or maybe even Soviet standards, but it definitely wouldn't be using American standards.
Forced is kind of a strong word. The US was the first to a strong independent standardization system, even though other countries had some individual standards. The US system was effectively the inspiration for ISO in the first place, as Hoover started the US system in the 30s.
The catalyst was that American manufacturing was removed from the conflict, so the US was in the best position to become a world supplier of anything it could manufacture. Especially arms and planes etc. Everyone knew what a pain in the ass sharing arms and vehicles during WWI had been because of the lack of standardized parts, so the allies were already primed to pick a standard either way. The reason the US became the standard is because situationally it became the largest supplier of goods, and also because it had already spent thousands of hours more time on committees to decide why its standards should be what they were. Other countries hadnt done much of that legwork, nor were they risk free areas to produce things in
Bonus cat fact: Hoover had a cat that he named “Mr. Cat”
That also means that Ford never rises to the global powerhouse it is, which means that the Phillips screw head doesn't proliferate.
Excuse me, I have a time machine to build.
Monkey's Paw Time Machine: Slotted screws becomes the standard instead.
Just tell the people to stop using them outside of aviation!
Also, scientific papers would be as likely to be published in German or French as in English, and when computers appear, technical terms and keywords would probably not be in American English. This universe’s equivalent of FORTRAN or the UNIX command line may be based on German grammar.
US likely would have had a civil war without WW2
LOL, America's Hat doesn't count as a real separate country, silly!
disclaimer
(The sentiment expressed above is in furtherance of a bit and does not reflect the actual opinion of the commenter.)