History Literature / Worldwar

* FutureSlang: Well, Alternate [=60s=] Slang. By ''Colonization'', human teenagers who grew up with the Race being a fact of life, learn stock phrases in their language such as "I greet you" and "It shall be done" and treat them as slang. Additionally, American teens adopt the word "hot" to have the same connotation as modern-day "cool". Note that their "hot" is different from modern-day "hot" (which means "sexy").

* CanadaEh: When the post-war United Kingdom falls more and more under the sway of the Greater German ''Reich'', David Goldfarb and his family emigrate to Canada. While technically still a British Dominion, Canada is effectively an independent ally of the USA and thus immune to Germany's anti-Semetic influence.

* FailedASpotCheck: Race aircraft fail to identify the ''Dora'' super artillery piece being set up to fire on one of their major landing bases, despite having five days of air supremacy to do it. The resulting attack is catastrophic for the ships at the base - and even worse for the Race's expedition. One of the destroyed ships by chance was the ''fleets'' nuclear weapon carrier.

* PeaceConference: Atvar holds one with the foreign ministers from Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States, with non-nuclear wielding Great Britain and Japan as observers. [[spoiler:It results in the Race agreeing to let all these countries (plus Canada) remain independent but the Race ruling the rest of the world. The biggest point of contention is over Poland. Since the Nazis and Soviets still dispute control over Poland, the Race decides they will maintain control of it. The Soviets accept this, but not the Nazis – until the Nazis’ plan to detonate a nuclear bomb in Poland fails. The Nazis then accept this settlement for twenty years until restarting their war with the Race, resulting in Germany’s devastation.]]

* PretextForWar: In the ''Colonization'' series, the Greater German ''Reich'' reaffirms its territorials claims to Poland and makes a lot of public noise about its rights and security concerns. All of the other human powers note many similarities to what happened in 1939, and recognize that it means the Germans ''want'' war and cannot be talked out of it by logic or persuasion.

** Finland voluntarily becomes one for the Race after the ''Reich's'' defeat, correctly fearing that the Soviets will now try to bully it into submission. That said, the Finn's puppet status is pretty much nominal as they make it clear to the Race that they will court the Soviets if Finland's independence is actually threatened.

** In the time between the ''Worldwar'' and ''Colonization'' series, the United Kingdom has slowly slid towards puppet status as it needs to rely more and more on the Greater German ''Reich'' for supplies and protection after the Race occupied the entirety of its overseas empire. They're not quite there yet, but many see it only as a matter of time.

* PyrrhicVictory: Atvar describes the Race's victory over the ''Reich'' as such, even quoting [[TropeNamer King Pyrrhus of Epirus]] when talking about how hard-won the right was.

* GiveMeASign: Moishe Russie twice asks god for some sort of sign:
** Before the Lizards come, he asks for a sign that god has not forgotten His people trapped in the Warsaw ghetto. Immediately afterwards, the Lizards detonate a high-altitude nuclear warhead. The fact that god apparently answered him so directly gains Russie a lot of respect amongst the other Jews of the ghetto, who start to regard him as a holy man.

* NoNameGiven: "The Doctor" is never provided with any other name.

* PosthumousCharacter: The Doctor was intended to be the USA ambassador to the Race on Home, but never awoke from the cold sleep process. Afterwards, characters frequently discuss how he would have handled the different situations that arise, and debate whether it would have been better or worse.

* ThoseWackyNazis: Forced by circumstance to be "the good guys" the story. Or, at least, ''allies'' of the good guys.

** Same Yeager continues to be a viewpoint character in ''Colonization'', but his son Jonathan Yeager receives his own perspective and plotline as well.

* BluntYes: When Ttomalss is debriefing Straha after his re-defection to the Race, Straha asks if enjoys being able to be rude to somebody whose rank is so far above his own. Ttomalss has to consider for a moment, but then he answers that yes, he does. This wins him some respect from Straha.

** General Patton criticizes the Race for getting bogged down in street fighting at Chicago, saying that unlike the Germans the Race are slow to learn from their mistakes and the Germans would not have tried to take Stalingrad house by house if they had reached it. In reality, they did, and it was a complete disaster. Patton uses the same tactics that the USSR used to destroy the German Sixth Army, and the main difference is that the Race actually fought ''smarter'': they had the sense to immediately stage a breakout from Chicago and managed to save a large part of their force, while Hitler refused to allow a retreat resulting in the complete loss of the Sixth Army.

* AllWomenAreLustful: The Race is absolutely disgusted by the way human women can be sexually "receptive" at any time. They refuse to accept it as truth when it is first described to them, and run numerous experiments to see if it really is possible for a woman to have sex and become pregnant at any time. They think that this constant state of horniness is one of the explanations for humanities rapid technological progress

** The Race is absolutely disgusted by the way human men are able to become sexually aroused at any time. They refuse to accept it as truth when it is first described to them, and run numerous experiments to see if it really is possible for a man to have sex at any time. They think that this constant state of horniness is one of the explanations for humanities rapid technological progress.

* AllWomenAreLustful:
** The Race is shocked and appalled by the discovery that humans are able to become sexually aroused and active at any time. They refuse to accept it as truth when it is first described to them, and run numerous experiments to see if it really is possible for a humans to mate at any time. They think that this constant state of horniness is one of the explanations for humanities rapid technological progress.
** Several of the female human characters have endured such casual, omnipresent sexual harassment throughout their lives that they regard it as a normal experience. Whenever a man ''doesn't'' try to force themselves on them, they wonder if there's something wrong with him.

** After being able to destroy several Race landcruisers (albeit with heavy losses) with the help of the newly developed Tiger tanks, one of Jager's men wonders if the next type of tank they'll develop will be a [[CoolTank Tiger]] mounting a long-barreled gun AND sloped armor. That was precisely what [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_II the tank that succeeded the Tiger had]].
** In ''Colonization'' the Race and Nazi Germany fight a brief but devastating war over Race-occupied Poland, ending with the Nazis defeated and Germany's major cities nuked. Flensburg, on the Danish border, ends up as the capital. It was also the capital of Germany from 1 May to 23 May 1945 in our own timeline - Karl Donitz led the German government from there after Hitler's suicide.

** As the result of being hit by the Dora cannon, a Race starship explodes. By chance, this ship holds the majority of the fleet's nuclear ordnance. The bombs do not go off, but they do spread radioactive contamination across a wide area in the Ukraine. When a joint Soviet-German mission captures some of the uranium, two of them are running close to an abandoned village. The German officer asks what the village is called; the Soviet partisan replies it is UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}}.
** The Empire of Japan detonates their first home-built atomic bomb on Bikini Atoll, which was the site of numerous atomic bomb test detonations by the United States.

* AllMenArePerverts/AllWomenAreLustful:

* BeneathNotice: The ''Colonization'' series reveals that in addition to the great powers who were able to keep their independence by force of arms, several island nations in the Caribbean and the Free French territories in the Pacific have ''also'' remained independent because the Race never got around to invading such small landmasses.

** General Patton criticizes the Race for getting bogged down in street fighting at Chicago, saying that unlike the Germans the Race are slow to learn from their mistakes and the Germans would not have tried to take Stalingrad house by house if they had reached it. In reality, they did, and it was a complete disaster. Patton uses the same tactics that the USSR used to destroy the German Sixth Army, and the main difference is that the Race actually fought ''smarter'' (they had the sense to pull back the force in the city and managed to save a large part of it, while Hitler refused to allow a retreat resulting in the complete loss of the Sixth Army).