The Most Interesting WWI Alliances

By using six major powers in WWI, there are nine alternate systems of alliance that can be created. Which one that would make the most interesting war?
Which side that would be joined by Italy and Japan is anyone's guess. United States may or may not enter the war.

And although this isn't a challenge, you'll get bonus points if you can tell which ones of those nine systems of alliance that practically impossible to be achieved by post-1900 PODs. Another bonus points if you can come up with a plausible scenario for your choice.

Well, I suppose you could get Germany, AH, and Russia together by not having Willy screw up the Dreikaiserbund. As for most impossible, anything with France and Germany together - no German Empire without the Franco-Prussian War, IIRC.

jaybird said:

Well, I suppose you could get Germany, AH, and Russia together by not having Willy screw up the Dreikaiserbund.

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That broke apart in 1886, because AH and Russia were on different sides in the Bulgarian Crisis.

jaybird said:

As for most impossible, anything with France and Germany together - no German Empire without the Franco-Prussian War, IIRC.

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A Franco-German alliance is possible, if the Frankfurt Parliament mmanages to convince Frederic William IV. to become Emperor. IOTL he did not because he was afraid of the reaction of his fellow German princes.

You are ignoring some of the best ones. Various neutral nations.

Where is italy?

Barbarossa Rotbart said:

That broke apart in 1886, because AH and Russia were on different sides in the Bulgarian Crisis.

A Franco-German alliance is possible, if the Frankfurt Parliament mmanages to convince Frederic William IV. to become Emperor. IOTL he did not because he was afraid of the reaction of his fellow German princes.

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Ah, sorry, my mistake. I just assumed it was one of the results of Willy Mk 2's diplomatic bungling. As for FW IV, I thought he was against German unification from a young age? He certainly had plenty of opportunities to enact it, but turned it down every time.

Kiljan Arlsan said:

Where is italy?

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well. he wrote major nations... not small unimportant ones
just joking


i like the last one... cause i want to hear what the entente can do beside roll over and give up...

okay, i voted - as i wrote for the last one...

now, we have britain against germany and france and russia...

they have the osmans (and maybe the balkan) and austria...

my result is:
france send troops to crush austria, they also try to take gibraltar by sea... they will - together with germany have ships in the channel - together they are really strong, nearly as strong as uk... so maybe the seek the final battle? But without it, they will build submarines, and that is not good for uk...

austria go down in this time.: 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 over

osmans hold on longer, just because the terrain is difficulty...

after 6 months austria is defeated, the osmans had lost the important part of turkey and are in full retreat...

the real enemy is called logistic

after that, don´t know... great britain sue for peace - mayb after a crushing defeat against the german-russian-french fleet?

this is a true unbalanced scenario

Kiljan Arlsan said:

Where is italy?

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Re-read the OP.
That said, my bet is that Italy tends to be on the opposite side of Austria-Hungary. While Japan is on the opposite side of Germany, and United States is on the same side as Britain.

Didn't see my favorite choice, which is --

Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Empire vs Germany and Russia

... with Italy and Qing China allying w/ the latter, and Japan and the US w the former

John Fredrick Parker said:

Didn't see my favorite choice, which is --

Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Empire vs Germany and Russia

... with Italy and Qing China allying w/ the latter, and Japan and the US w the former

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Seconded. Though I'd prefer a reforming Republic of China, which might be less of a pushover than the anarchy that was Qing China towards the end.

As I did the Britain-Imperial Germany-Ottomans v. Romanovs-Habsburgs-(Bonapartist) France I have to side with that one on principle.

Depending on the alliance, there might not be anything resembling a Great War.

Would France for example dare to stand up against an alliance of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, even if it's guaranteed that the British, Italians, and even the Ottomans would stand beside them?

TyranicusMaximus said:

Depending on the alliance, there might not be anything resembling a Great War.

Would France for example dare to stand up against an alliance of Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, even if it's guaranteed that the British, Italians, and even the Ottomans would stand beside them?

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That can also be said to OTL Germany too: would Germany dare to stand up against an alliance of Britain, France, and Russia (not to mention Italy, Japan, and United States), even if it's guaranteed that the Austro-Hungarians and the Ottomans would stand beside them?
Yet the Great War was still happened...

John Fredrick Parker said:

Didn't see my favorite choice, which is --

Britain, France, Austria-Hungary, and Ottoman Empire vs Germany and Russia

... with Italy and Qing China allying w/ the latter, and Japan and the US w the former

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That would probably be the most interesting of scenarios (though I firmly believe Italy would be crushed most thoroughly in the event of war, so they'd probably stick with neutrality: I mean sure, look at all the irredenta they have against the Austrians, but fuck dude, does Italy really want to get pounded by France and Austria at the same time, while their navy/merchant marine is utterly ruined?).