Another autistic 'what if?' thread

File: John Tenniel - Dropping the Pilot (1890).jpg (195KB, 540x786px) Image search: [Google]

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I'll bump with some pictures.

>>3390959
Whatever you want it to be, then work backwards and make up some stuff.

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>>3391000
Do you think the Great War would have happened anyway?

>>3391012
See >>3391000
If you wanted the Great War to happen, argue for that conclusion. If you don't want it to happen, argue for why it wouldn't happen. That's the beauty of what ifs!

>>3390959

That's a magnificent pair of hairy balls.

>>3390959
Bismarck would not have remained chancellor until his death if Frederick III lived. Neither of them liked one another because of how far apart they were politically (Bismarck the cold pragmatist, Frederick the liberal idealist) and in fact Bismarck was paranoid that Frederick and Victoria were going to can him... which they likely were since they wanted to abolish the office of Chancellor and set up a more British style cabinet with themselves as co-rulers.

If Frederick lives then Bismarck is forced into retirement, writes some memoirs, etc. Frederick being something of a liberal Anglophile probably means the relationship with Britain is probably better but probably not as well because the Brits would likely still be butthurt about Germany having a few nothing colonies and their economic ascendency. Frogs would still be pissed though because Alsace-Lorraine was a major source of coal and iron ore (and thus highly important to the rapidly industrializing German economy) so no way would Germany have given it back.

The war probably would've happened to some extent but possibly without Britain getting involved if relations with Germany are still good and they decide to remain neutral.

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>>3391720
You seem to know a lot about this, do you think Frederick would have reformed German politics, and if yes, in which way?

Would the French have seriously started a war against Germany on their own?

>>3391809
>Would the French have seriously started a war against Germany on their own?
"No". It would've been much less extenuating for them to patiently build out a system of alliances like the events that occured in this timeline, each time bringing new nations into the fold by waving about the threat of German supremacy. There's nothing that Germany could've managed for Austria-Hungary and Russia not to bicker in the Balkans, and one of the two would've fallen into France's lap eventually. More than that, they had a swath of countries indebted to them from Napoleon III's time, and it would've be easy to nudge those countries where they wanted them to. Germany would've tired themselves economically pulling the weight of other allies they didn't like having (ie. Ottomans, etc...). And if Britain doesn't follow with what France would be trying to pull, France would've probably tried to manipulate other countries into practicing protectionism (which Britain wouldn't have approved of) to try to wear down Germany economically.

But it wouldn't have erupted into full-blown war I think. France had the chance to declare war on Germany twice, in 1912 and 1914, both of them backed with Russia, but it didn't push things because it still had the Franco-Prussian war haunting them and didn't trust themselves yet.

War might erupt though, but coming from Germany, who much like in our timeline, would be put off by Russian industralization through French money.