What's the point of a historical game if I can't break history?

I noticed that Civilization has, obviously, a fairly big and extensive WWII mod. I mean, what game doesn't? Did you know Cataclysm was originally going to revolve around Caverns of Time sending us to fight Hitler? Yep. All that got watered down to a few quests in Uldum.

So anyway, the mod has three historical options. One is to directly follow the war declarations, so no war until the game says so, but same with peace. Then there is a similar system, but the dates are slightly randomized: think error bars around the actual date. Finally there's open play: do whatever you want.

I went for the third option. Initially I tried Norway, then Sweden, in failed attempts to create a unified Scandanavia. But then the Soviets and Germans did they best to pretend I was Poland. I put up a good fight, but I knew it was a doomed battle.

I tried again with Italy. It was all going okay, spreading east across southern Europe to gain some space to work with. All great. I totally did better than the real Italy. Then I made the mistake of picking a fight with Poland, who in this alternate history had not gotten steamrolled by Germany and the USSR, leaving it capable of causing a whole lot of trouble.

Finally I found the solution: Germany. Specifically, Germany that converts to democracy, a system of government I learned from the subjugated Czechs. Or maybe the Slovaks. Then I became friends with the French by working together to invade Belgium.

But for the most part we're focused on peaceful scientific development.

Why?

You know who led Germany on a massive world war?

Hitler.