Pre-WW1 Anglo-German Relations

[NvII iS 8ulLt f0R 88C]

Continuation of the derailining in the " YouTube Historians/HistoryTube/PopHistory" thread:

Spoiler: previous sperging

Mate Imperial Germany was too fucking dumb to help itself. Do you know the story of the Zimmerman Telegram, when those dumb German bastards used a Telegraph line the US gave them access to (their own lines had been cut by the British), to try and arrange for Mexico to go to war with the US. The US didn't really want to join the war the fucking Germans made them.

Same thing happened in August 1914 with the UK. There was a British government in power that would have happily stayed out of the war, if only Germany hadn't invaded Belgium. Ignore fucking Dan Carlin, imperial Germany was a blight on the world, and if they had won, would have ended up in a war with the US within a few years (because that was German thinking, fight wars sooner rather than later)

The British really didn't do anything trying to stop it tho. Instead they went mad over Germany trying to actually compete with them economically. King Edward went on an tour through Europe just to try to isolate Germany as much as possible. Meanwhile Emperor Wilhelm did his best trying to establish a lasting peace with the other european countries years before the war. The Americans essentially asked to be attacked by a all the lend lease they were sending while using civilians as meat shields. President Wilson himself stated that one of the reasons why America joined was ideology.


Haven't followed the main mod for a while, but it really looks better than OTL to me (it's massive unrealistic tho).

Wilhelm also thought it was a great idea to push forward with an aggressive foreign policy that alienated his cousins by competing in a naval arms race against George and doing little to improve relations with Nicky while also giving France the middle finger at every opportunity. Plus the whole "damned foolish thing in the Balkans" that Bismarck warned about. Weltpolitik was a disaster that ensured Germany would be fighting a war against Britain, France, and Russia with allies that were questionable at best.


Agree to disagree on the "better than OTL thing". The whole realistic thing isn't what makes it appealing, then again I'm more of a Kaiserredux guy which is even more insane at times.

Lol, lmao even. The British were rightfully scared and pissed when Germany snatched colonies, built a massive fleet and most importantly supported the Boers against the British. Absolute state of Kaiserboos.

>colonies
If Britain and France get colonies why shouldn't Germany?
>fleet
Of course they build a fleet to protect their empire. Should they just disarm themselves and invite any opposing force for dinner?
>supported the Boer, who got genocided by the British at the time
The support for the Boer came mostly from the chancellor, counts and politicians. Willy himself just signed the telegram.

Taking shit that other people want is a bad idea for diplomacy. Especially if you cockblock the power you are trying to woo from building a railway that would greatly benefit them
View attachment 6181612

Germany is a land power, it has no business snatching colonies and building fleets anyways. And what do you mean disarm, we are talking about fleets here. If Germany had any sense, she would be content with just a moderate fleet and no colonies and a massive army.

My point still stands, if you are trying to buddy up with someone, don't support their enemies and then cry when they don't like you anymore.
View attachment 6181635
Also look at this piece of shit, Britain with Russia and France? The two power they hated and constantly conflicted with? No Kaisercel cope can explain how that happened without acknowledging that the German foreign policy during Wilhelm's era was retarded.

The fact Germany's own allies disliked each other will never be not funny to me.

 

[NvII iS 8ulLt f0R 88C]

Dude France, Russia and Britain had the biggest empires in the world but cried like little children because Germany wanted a understandable piece of the pie too.

Maybe just focus on your conquests on Europe, Britain didn't give much shits about that; why are you trying to contest the power you are trying to woo anyways?
You are just giving them more reason to join against you, as they would be interested in grabbing your colonies, while before they didn't want anything from you.

Germany needed a big fleet to make sure it wouldn't be completly obliterated in the case of war.

While blockades are an issue, alienating Britain is much much worse. Germany still had a massive army after all, and it could assure a land victory before the blockades cause serious food shortages.

The people in Germany were mad at the British for committing mass murder in South Africa. The people in the government would rather stand with their people than pretending everything was good with the British.

Germany could absolutely burry that shit to court with the British. That's called Realpolitik, something Germany could benefit from.

The Russian government blocked all attempts of Nikolas and Wilhelm to form an alliance.

Because of Austria. But Germany should have dunked on Russia anyways.

Britain have been allying with the French due to the efforts of the british government under Edwards reign.

I wonder why. Maybe it is because Germany spooked the shit out of the British. And still they were ready to wait it out until the Jerries invaded Belgium.

 

[RA-5C Vigilante]

Bismarck had formed a stable set of alliances and secured Germany's position, but Wilhelm II was a bitter little cunt with a grudge and a fucked up arm. I honestly believe that he went out of his way to alienate the English to piss off his mom. He had a masterful diplomat and sacked him because he wasn't sure he was more loyal to his mother and the Pro-British faction of the German court, then proceeded to put his friends and those who never disagreed with him in charge. He fucked up and let the French and Russians form an alliance, then through his actions during the Boer War and putting his jackboot squarely in his mouth multiple times (Mad Hares incident) completely torched any chance of reconciling with the British, whose new King Edward had a mutual dislike of Wilhelm. He basically made Germany a pariah with everyone who wasn't also speaking German through his arrogance, incompetence, and the awful individuals he put in charge of his foreign service.

Personalities especially the royal ones can make or break a country, and Wilhelm II was a terrible, terrible Kaiser.

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

Every conflict in history could have been avoided or defused if someone took the right steps at the right time. However, there was no way what Germany was doing prior to WW1 wasn't going to lead to some kind of major conflict in the near future. The two future global powers developing at the turn of the 20th century were the US and Germany, the UK, France and Russia were getting sidelined and falling behind.

If they had been expanding their colonies and naval forces with the economy of France, the UK wouldn't have been anywhere as concerned but Germany was an industrial superpower in every sense. It was outpacing the UK in cost, quality and technology for everything that mattered in terms of modern industry and easily rivaling the US on the same grounds.

Wilhelm II was a bitter little cunt with a grudge and a fucked up arm

A country run by Jack Scalfani. It all makes perfect sense now.

 

[HyperboreanRightsActivist]

Britain just wanted balance of power in Europe bro (so long as France, Russia, and Germany were pussy-whipped under Mother Britannia's control)

 

[Doctor Love]

I'm going to throw the harshest point. It was the Jews.

Specifically, a Jew, Fritz Haber, and a new technological innovation that completely upended the balance of power.

Germany could produce its own fertiliser and weaponry via the Haber Process, which scared the absolute fuck out of the British because the entire British Empire depended on a monopoly on NO3 fertilisers.

For a comparison in the modern day - imagine if China suddenly popped up with "Hey, we made a fusion reactor. It works, it's pretty cool - hey, we can also make it small enough to launch hypersonic cruise missiles into New York. And we can launch space missiles. All because of this one, specific, invention that undermines your oil/currency system" - how long before a war happens?

 

[ShittlerNiggler]

Bismarck had formed a stable set of alliances and secured Germany's position

lol no
Austria-Hungary and Russia were alwqys at each other's throat and the alliance broke off several times even during Bismarck's reign. Russia had to form an alliance with France thanks to their own massive fuck ups and needed a successful war against Germany to not collapse. As I sad previously, the german people didn't like the murdering of Boers and if Wilhelm didn't do anything, he would loose their trust.
Wilhelm's diplomacy wasn't at fault, since most of it was out of his control.

 

[RA-5C Vigilante]

lol no
Austria-Hungary and Russia were alwqys at each other's throat and the alliance broke off several times even during Bismarck's reign. Russia had to form an alliance with France thanks to their own massive fuck ups and needed a successful war against Germany to not collapse. As I sad previously, the german people didn't like the murdering of Boers and if Wilhelm didn't do anything, he would loose their trust.
Wilhelm's diplomacy wasn't at fault, since most of it was out of his control.

Fair points, and I think another problem was Willy wanting to make Germany a naval power. If they had stayed on the continent and hadn’t tried stepping on Britains long held turf of owning the goddamn oceans, things would have been much calmer. But once Willy tried to ripoff Britain with all his battleships, the gloves started coming off.