Would UK have been better off staying out of the World Wars?

Lets consider the likely course of events had Britain stood apart. September 1914 was touch and go. Without the British contribution The Germans would likely have taken Paris and defeated France. And even had they not there would have been no mass British army to support the French who are unlikely to have survived on their own. Nor any Royal Navy blockade of Germany. Germany did manage to defeat Tsarist Russia in spite of the blockade and the existence of a western front. This would have been all the more readily achieved sooner without either to worry about. The Ottoman Empire too would never have endured the knockout blow delivered by the British. In short the Central Powers would have won the war, with German hegemony on the continent.

The Third Reich which was borne out of defeat would probably never have happened but Europe would have been dominated by a militaristic Prussian led Germany. They would have been free to continue building their large navy, and with the increasing development of air power would likely have dominated us too and proved an existential threat to our freedoms. Palestine would continue to have been administered by the Ottomans in the interests of the muslim majority, and Israel is highly unlikely to have come into existence. On the plus side the holocaust might not have happened and the Bolshevik revolution might not have occurred. But we are unlikely to have retained our freedom for long in the face of a German dominated continent, without having to fight for it anyway, and without the Allies we would have had in 1914. So our participation in that conflict was the least bad option.

Had all that happened as it did but we had elected not to participate in the Second World War, it would have made no difference to Poland. But France without us might have bottled it and if it didnt it would have been even more easily defeated. The Germans invaded Denmark and Norway mostly to forestall us, so these countries would probably not have been attacked and remained neutral. But without a western front or war in the med to worry about Hitler could have turned his entire might eastwards and might well have delivered a knockout blow to the USSR. And without us in the war, the USA would likely not have come in against Germany and even if it did it would have had no ready base from which to launch offensives against Germany. So all would have depended on the outcome in the east. But either we would have ended up with Nazi Germany triumphant and hegemonic from the Atlantic to the Urals, or a Soviet dominated Europe. Under the circumstances prevailing the former would have been more likely but neither would have left us free and undominated, inevitably forced into becoming a de facto puppet state. The Jews of Europe would have been entirely wiped out, along with millions of Slavs, most of the rest reduced to conditions of slavery.

It is also likely that without us or the USA involved, the Manhattan project might not have occurred, and the atomic age delayed for many years, possibly decades. And the existential danger in that is that a Nazi or Soviet dominated Europe might have got there first.

So however bad our participation in either war was for for us economically and in terms of lives lost and property destroyed, the eventual outcome would likely have been far worse for us if we hadnt bothered.

Freedom does sometimes have to be fought for, when those who would take it from us are willing to fight to try.