WI: Wilhelm II contracts influenza and dies in 1913

What would be the effects if Wilhelm II contracted a severe case of influenza in 1913 and died?

The crown prince was much more wordly and a great deal smarter than his father

Battleship construction slows which may warm relations with the uk

Franz Ferdinand still gets shot. hHow does the new Kaiser handle it.?

BlairWitch749 said:

The crown prince was much more wordly and a great deal smarter than his father

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Not smarter, quite to the contrary, but much more stable and reasonable - and very polite and diplomatic in personal dealings, able to win over people.

In the case of FF's assassination, he wouldn't believe in monarchial solidarity as Wilhelm II did. He knew how much hatred there was for Germany and Austria in Sankt-Peterburg, so he wouldn't expect Tsar Nikolay II to tolerate an A-H punitive expedition into Serbia - like his father did initially.
Bethmann Hollweg woudn't be chancellor under Wilhelm III, so anything else is difficult to predict. Is Bülow back? Or is Tirpitz chancellor? Or someone else?

BlairWitch749 said:

The crown prince was much more wordly and a great deal smarter than his father

Battleship construction slows which may warm relations with the uk

Click to expand...

The Kaiser had ZERO legal authority to slow down naval construction and besides at the date given its moot. Building temp was already slowing down and was going to slow down even more in the future. The Kaiser could have sacked Tirpitz of course but again to change the building tempo would have required a new naval law and again change it to what? They were scheduled to build only 1 or 2 a year, depending on the year, at this point. Short of stopping BB construction all together I don't know what you expect Germany to do at this point.

Want a change in construction numbers you need to push this back till before the 1906 or 08 naval laws. Then having Wilhelm die could possibly effect the naval arms race by removing Tirpitz patron.

Michael