Anglo-German Alliance

[Glen]

In 1901, three heads of state would die, one of advanced old age, the other two by an assassin's bullet.

On January 22, 1901, Queen Victoria died. At her bedside for much of the end of her life was her devouted grandson, Kaiser Wilhelm II of the German Empire. Many British citizens were touched by this display of filial affection from the Emperor of Germany.

And thus were doubly grieved, when less than two months later, on March 6, 1901, an assassin killed Kaiser Wilhelm II in Bremen. The young Kaiser Wilhelm III would appoint a new Chancellor to usher his new reign, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg.

Another assassin would strike at American president William McKinley, mortally wounding him on September 6, 1901, though he would not succumb until eight days later. Theodore Roosevelt would be sworn in as the President of the USA on September 14, 1901.

It was also in September, September 20, 1901, that the governments of Great Britain and Germany committed to an Anglo-German Alliance. The proposal, one long proposed by Joseph Chamberlain, capitalized on the good will created by the shared tragedies of the year, to make it a reality. While the new King Edward was reticent, having previousl favored France over the bellicose Wilhelm II, the more reasonable Kaiser Wilhelm III is much more reassuring to the sovereign, who is persuaded to acquiesce to the arrangement.

 

[Glen]

1902 was a good year for the new monarchs of Britain and Germany.

On January 12, 1902 Austria-Hungary formally joined the Anglo-German Alliance, which then formally was referred to as the Triple Alliance, though most continued to refer to it by its former name.

Then, on June 7, 1902, the British Empire, the German Empire, and King Leopold II of Belgium signed a treaty allowing for two Trans-Congo railways, one running North-South connecting British Africa, and one running East-West connecting German Africa. A consortium of British, German, and Belgian companies would construct the railways in Belgium. Freedom of passage was guaranteed for German and British trains, and they did not have to go through customs in Congo so long as they made no stops other then fueling while in the Congo. A side agreement between the British and Germans agreed to have a spur of the British railway in the South go to German Southwest Africa.

One trouble spot occurred later in the year when Venezuela tried to default on loans to the British and Germans, but a satisfactory agreement for repayment was reached with the Americans acting as neutral guarantors, mainly due to the mediation of the American President, Theodore Roosevelt.

 

[Glen]

January 1903 saw the addition of Germany to the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance agreement.

In the same year, On May 3, 1903, the Ottoman Empire became the third member of the Triple Entente, a move of great concern to Austria-Hungary and her allies. It would have been of even more concern to Britain if they had known of the secret side agreement where, in the event of general war between the alliances, the Ottomans were guaranteed restoration of their former territories in the Arabian Peninsula and Egypt after the defeat of the Anglo-German alliance. The plan for the Balkans was for a series of client states under the influence of either Russia or the Ottoman empire depending on whether there were a predominance of Orthodox Christians or Muslims in the region.

Also in 1903, the British government offered to give a plateau in Uganda to the Jews as the site of a Jewish Homeland. The Zionist community is split over this offer, with many preferring still to see a homeland in Ottoman Palestine.

 

[Glen]

It was in 1904 that the Great Powers came into conflict. In the beginning of the year, British forces invaded and occupied Tibet. Also early in the year the Japanese demanded the Russians abide by their former agreement to pull out of Manchuria. The Russians, feeling confident in their ability to defeat an Asiatic nation, refused and so began the Russo-Japanese conflict. The Russians over the course of the year suffered defeat after defeat, mostly in the naval arena but on land as well. The other Great Powers tried to remain neutral at first, but the tension was greatly heightened by the war, and the potential alliances that could be activated should even one more power enter the fray.

It was in this climate that the Battle of Dogger Bank became almost inevitable, as in October of 1904 a Russian flotilla heading for the Far East mistakenly thought British vessels were part of a Japanese ambush. This quickly escalated into a full scale naval engagement which the Russians lost. The Russians refused to take responsibility for the action, claiming it was Britain's attempt to sereptitiously aid their ally Japan under the guise of an 'accident'. Russia and Britain entered into a state of war.

With two powers at war with Russia, France and the Ottoman Empire were obliged by treaty to enter into war on behalf of the Russians, which in turn would require the entry into the war of Germany and Austria-Hungary, and so on, as interlocking alliances were tripped by the expansion of the war.

Many in France cheered the announcement of hostilities with chants of 'Alsace-Lorraine!', inflaming the spirit of revanchism in the country.

France and the US, painfully aware of the exposure of the French Caribbean to naval actions by the British, agree to the sale of French Caribbean possessions to the US. The two exceptions are St. Martins, which is ceded to the Dutch who share the island, and French Guiana, which the French believe they can hold at least long enough to get a settlement in the war after they knock out Germany (they will find out they were wrong). Roosevelt is willing to look the other way on the tiny transfers so far, but sends diplomatic notes warning that anything more substantial will be frowned upon by the US.

By November, the Canadians and Newfoundlanders, in the first North American action of the war, grab the French St. Pierre and Miquelon islands.

However, by the end of the year, most of the fighting was still occuring only in Manchuria, and many thought that negotiators would prevail and general war in Europe be avoided.

Sweden-Norway had at the beginning of the twentieth century looked destined to split with increasing tensions between the two lands. However, with the Anglo-German Alliance one of the main sources of contention between the two, favor of England or Germany, ceased to be an issue. With the onset of the war in 1904, Sweden-Norwary remained neutral but now were reticent to seem split in the face of the threat of war.

 

[Glen]

The year 1905 saw the War joined in earnest.

At the beginning of the year, in the presidential State of the Union address, returning US President Theodore Roosevelt warned both sides in the conflict to respect the neutrality of non-combatants. He also called for a mobilization of the nation in the event that the war widened.

Early in 1905, the British blockade French Guianan ports, but hold off on invasion at the request of the US, Netherlands, and Brazil.

Rapid mobilization in the Fall and Winter of 1904-5 by the Germans allowed for them to strike the first blow, cutting into the Russian West. Austria-Hungary was also able to make gains along the border, though not as quickly as the German army to the north. The British forces supported landings in Russian Finland, and in response to promises of independence, the Finns began a rebellion against the Russians. A similar story played out in the Baltic states as the German juggernaut advanced. The Russians desperately tried to move forces from the East to the West in time to prevent further collapse of the lines, which enabled a war-weary Japan to still make significant gains in the Far East.

But the French did not sit idle during all this. In the summer they launched a daring bid to relieve the pressure on their Russian allies with a plan for a lightning attack through the neutral lowland countries and into Northern Germany, and though successful in Belgium, their drive stalled in the Netherlands, and a secondary drive through Alsace-Lorraine did not get much past the border. Here the Germans had planned to remain on the defensive until the Russians could be dealt with, and held strong in the region.

Belgium and the Netherlands declare war against the French.

The Ottomans hesitated, but then struck, mostly at the British occupied areas formerly belonging to the British Empire. Initially, they had some success, especially in the Arabian Peninsula and pushing out of Lybia into Egypt, but the British and Egyptian forces held at the Battle of the Suez and the Battle of El Alamein, halting further advances. Aden too was able to hold against the onslaught, aided in part by Arabs who began to rise against the resurgent Ottomans. By the middle of the year, however, the plight of Russia and its threatened collapse made the Ottomans open another front, this time pushing into Austrian occupied Bosnia. Montenegro, long an ally of Russia, declared for the Entente at the beginning of the Ottoman offensive against Austria-Hungary, allowing Ottoman forces to pass through Montenegro to strike at Bosnia.

After negative reports from a committee sent to Uganda and the entry of the Ottomans into the war, the Zionist Congress politely refuses the British offer of a Jewish Homeland in Uganda, instead requesting the British support a Homeland in the Levant.

The attacks of Entente forces through neutral nations incited Theodore Roosevelt to demand their immediate evacuation and recompense, but when the French were not forthcoming, President Roosevelt addressed a special joint session of the Congress, calling for a declaration of War against the Entente. The rousing speech won over many, especially those already sympathetic to the Alliance cause, but there was still a great deal of isolationist sentiment in the Congress, and the vote in favor of war was passed with only a narrow margin.

Later that summer, the first action of the US in the Great War is to send US Marines to occupy French Guiana. US forces will occupy the colony throughout the war.

 

[Glen]

The year 1906 saw the resolution of the Great War. With more and more nations joining the Anglo-German Alliance against the Triple Entente, and the losses in Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and stalled front along the Dutch-German border with France, there was little hope of victory and so the Entente came to the negotiating table.

The Ottomans had lost several areas in Africa and Asia to the British and allied Egyptian and Indian forces. Persia had been a battleground for the Anglo-Indian forces and a joint taskforce of Ottoman and Russian troops. Neither side won a convincing victory, but in the end the nation would come under the protection of the British Empire. In Morocco, the Sultan there called upon British forces for protection from the French Algerians.

With the entry of the USA into the war, the French colonial possessions in the New World that hadn't already been occupied fell easily. American Marines aided Dutch forces in the taking of French Guiana. An expeditionary force was dispatched to Europe to aid at the Western Front. One famous quote from the time of the American Expeditionary Force in Germany was, "Von Steuben, we have come!"

Italy waited to see if the French would break through the German lines, but by the beginning of the year it had become obvious that the French offensive had stalled, and with the addition of the United States to the Alliance, it seemed likely that the Entente would lose. Italy declared war and opened a front in the South of France, but with no more luck than the French had had in the North. A more successful move was the Italian invasion of Tunisia and Eastern Algeria in support of the British invasion of Libya.

Russia suffered terribly in this year. With the stripping of the Far East forces, the Japanese were able to make inroads into the Amur region of Russia, only halted by the strain of the logistics involved. As the Germans and Austrians advanced, the ethnic groups on the fringe of the Russian Empire rose up. Finland was lost, as were the Baltics and Poland. Ukraine was in rebellion and only a concerted effort by the Russians was able to put this down, though this left little to deal with the Romanians who joined the war, occupying Bessarabia.

By mid year, the war was all but over, and peace would come in the Fall.

In recognition of their contributions to the war, Newfoundland and New Zealand are granted Dominion status.

France had to pay reparations to Belgium and to a lesser degree Holland and Germany. France also lost significant numbers of colonies overseas, with the complete removal of her possessions in the Western Hemisphere, most under the protection now of the United States. St Pierre and Miquelon are formally ceded to the new Dominion of Newfoundland, and the US gets Martinique and Guadeloupe as well as a protectorate over the former French Guiana. France's possessions in Africa were greatly reduced, with the Italians gaining Tunisia and Britain and Germany splitting most of the rest of Subsaharan Africa. France also lost Indochina to the British. Australia, New Zealand, and Germany split the French Pacific Islands between them.

The peace treaty of 1906 also has a naval limitation section based on ratios, and not just for the defeated Entente but also the victorious Alliance. For example, the US agreed to a three to two ratio with Britain.

The failure of the Entente led to domestic turmoil once the war was over, and saw the birth of the Fourth Republic in France as well as a new Republic of Russia with the forced abdication and exile of Tsar Nicholas II and his family to Switzerland, the man most blamed for the war.

The Russians ceded Manchuria, the whole of Sakhalin and the Amur region to the Japanese. The Grand Duchy of the Baltics (Courland) joined the German Empire directly. Bessarabia was ceded to the Romanians.

The new Kingdoms of Finland, Lithuania, and Poland were established, with German nobles for Finland and Lithuania, and a Hapsburg on the Polish throne.

The Ottoman Empire managed to survive, but barely. A new group of leaders called the Young Turks came to power in the aftermath of the war, greatly usurping the powers of the Sultan.

The European portions of the Ottoman Empire were completely gone, divided between the Balkan nations while the straits including Istanbul turned into a British occupation zone. Britain also gained the Levant as well as southern Mesopotamia. Egypt was ceded control of the Hejaz. Austria-Hungary occupied Montenegro and Albania, Serbia claimed Macedonia, the Greeks had taken Salonika, and the Bulgarians Thrace.

The Second Aliyah begins in earnest with Jews from Russia fleeing from the pogroms occuring during the chaos of the Russian Revolution. Several manage to make it to the British Levant. By the end of the year, the British Government announce their intention to see the Levant as a safe haven for Jews. This is mostly due to the influence of Professor Chaim Weizmann who provided an important method to making a precursor to cordite to the British during the War, and influential Baron Rothschild.

Tension in Norway-Sweden remained high, but the two parliaments kept peace at the behest of the Anglo-German Alliance during the course of the war. What the fate of the union would be after calm returned to Europe remained to be seen.

 

[Glen]

The year after the war, 1907, was for most a year of consolidation.

France, who had lost so many men on the killing fields of Holland and western Germany turned introspective, with the first intimations of whole new arts and literature from the lost generation of France. Paris, even in its melancholy over the losses of the war, was starting to show that it would once again become the leader of culture on the continent.

international pressure to strip Leopold II of his Congo holdings given humanitarian concerns.

King Leopold II bowed to international pressure and the needs of the Belgians in the aftermath of the war and agreed to sell the Congo to the British and Germans.

In 1907, the King of Sweden and Norway, Oscar II died. The period of mourning further delayed ideas of division of the two kingdoms, and made some begin to question even its necessity. The new King of Sweden-Norway is his son, King Gustav V.

Austria-Hungary had fought a hard war, and had shown several areas of concern in her armed forces. Thus the military after the war entered into an intense reorganization and retraining along the German lines.

The fledgling Russian Republic struggled to establish a new democracy, with the Parliament pushing through agrarian reforms, while at the same time fighting in Central Asia to hold down the rebellions of these regions. It was the military successes of the Republic in Central Asia that first began to earn them credit among the more conservative factions of the nation, while the agrarian reforms did the same for the liberals.

In the Ottoman Empire, the Young Turks tired of the Sultan's continued intrigues against their new government and forced his abdication in favor of his brother, who became Mehmed V.

Libya is a British crown colony, while Egypt remains quasi-independent but with heavy British involvement. Egypt has gained in prestige in the Arab World for holding the Hejaz, and being treated on a more equal level than other Arab areas by the Great Powers. Abbas II has remained Khedive here, having read rightly the likelihood of an Ottoman victory in this war, and siding early with the British in return for the granting of the Hejaz to the Egyptians for administration at the end of the War.

In the British Levant, Jews form a self-defense force, the HaShomer.

Tunisia is now an Italian colony, giving the Italians control of that band of the Meditteranean. Many Sicilians and Southern Italians begin immigrating to Tunisia at the prompting of the Italian Government.

French Algeria and much of Western Sahara remain to the French, and have become the destination for many leaving Tunisia and the rest of Western Africa, giving a slight boost to the population there as well.

Madagascar, one of the few remaining colonial territories of France sees an influx of French citizens and loyalists from Indochina, beginning an interesting mixture of Madagascan, French, and Indochinese culture on the island.

The Anglo-Siamese treaty of 1907 saw the northern Malay states Pattani, Narathiwat (Menara), Songkhla (Singgora), Satun (Setul) Yala (Jala), Kedah, Kelantan, Perlis, and Terengganu formally ceded to the United Kingdom.

The Japanese Empire continued efforts to incorporate their new gains in northern Asia.

 

[Glen]

In 1908, German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, in response to mounting pressure from the public, including many war veterans, ushered through the Reichstag sweeping reforms for representation based in part on British Parliamentary elections. The Dreiklassenwahlrecht was retained only for votes on expenditures, a demanded protection from the moneyed interests so as to act as a check on wealth redistribution.

1908 saw the discovery of major oil deposits in the British Protectorate of Persia, and thus the British flocked to the ancient land to exploit the new mineral findings.

1908 also saw a combined British-Egyptian punitive expedition against the remnants of the Sauds, who had been raiding into the Egyptian Hejaz.

Portugal declared against the Entente late in the war and managed as a result to pick up some small gains in West Africa and Timor. But by 1908 Portugal was broke and war broke out between monarchists and republicans. The Anglo-German Alliance forced the failing Portuguese government to sell the remaining Portuguese colonies to them, in order to prevent anarchy from spreading. Ironically, the sale probably allowed the monarchists to gain the upper hand barely and defeat the republicans, at least for the time being.

The long anticipated collapse of the Portuguese monarchy and government thus occurred in 1908, triggering the agreement between the British and Germans for the occupation and partition of the Portuguese colonies in Africa, with Goa going to British India and East Timor to Australia.

 

[DAv]

A good lot there Glen with some really good bits. Is there a map and are you planning to extend it at all?

 

[Glen]

A good lot there Glen with some really good bits. Is there a map and are you planning to extend it at all?

Yes and yes. I'll probably work more on it tonight. What I'm doing at the moment is trying to pull together all the work thus far including retcons and additions (while in the process refreshing my memory on the timeline thus far), and then keep going with it. I really want to get more of this timeline out.

 

[Glen]

Will be adding some stuff to the timeline about early Jewish settlement in the Levant and British support thereof -

Example 1906 -

The Second Aliyah begins in earnest with Jews from Russia fleeing from the pogroms occuring during the chaos of the Russian Revolution. Several manage to make it to the British Levant. By the end of the year, the British Government announce their intention to see the Levant as a safe haven for Jews. This is mostly due to the influence of Professor Chaim Weizmann who provided an important method to making a precursor to cordite to the British during the War, and influential Baron Rothschild.

 

[Glen]

In 1909 the British helped foil a coup in Morocco against the pro-European Sultan. In consideration of their assistance, the Sultan granted Great Britain ownership of Tangier in perpetuity.

In this year, the new American president, William Howard Taft, sent forces to Nicaragua when some Americans were killed during an abortive rebellion against the Nicaraguan government.

Construction of major railways in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia continued forward, mostly by British and German firms.

The first Kibbutz begins in the British Levant.

 

[Nick Sumner]

Good to see this timeline back!

 

[Glen]

In 1910, a revolution breaks out in Mexico, raising great concern in the United States government.

A modest education act based on some of the educational practices of Britain's ally, Germany, passes through the British Parliament. It is the first of several reforms to British education in years to come.

 

[Glen]

Good to see this timeline back!

Thanks! Hopefully I can get this thing further along.

 

[Glen]

Added this bit to the year 1908 -

In 1908, German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg, in response to mounting pressure from the public, including many war veterans, ushered through the Reichstag sweeping reforms for representation based in part on British Parliamentary elections. The Dreiklassenwahlrecht was retained only for votes on expenditures, a demanded protection from the moneyed interests so as to act as a check on wealth redistribution.

 

[Syphon]

With Willy out of the picture, what happens to those naval expansion plans? The motivation behind them was just as much from the imperially-minded middle class, who joined up in all those associations and pressure groups like the Pan-Germans, as it was from Wilhelm's fancies. Even with German policy becoming more predicable without Wilhelm, I can't imagine the British being all that thrilled with the growth of a battleship-heavy navy so close to Britain.

If a formal alliance was in place you'd probably see some form of Treaty backed naval expansion of the KLM that kept it at lets say 2/3's that of the RN.

Yes the middle class and the industrialists wanted a big navy but they'd be just as happy if they constantly replaced ships with better ships.

Under this plan it is quite feasible that Germany would have a strong navy with dreadnought equal to or better then anybody else just not as many of them.
So instead of OTL where you had Germany having 50+ capital ships most of which were obsolete it is possibly that Germany would instead have say 25 all of which are fairly modern and less then ten years old.

This would be a concern of GB but not a great one especially if the got Germany to spread their fleet around a bit to protect their colonies.

 

[Syphon]

In the Americas, any minor significance is offset by the fact that trying to take any of France's colonies is a possible war with the world's largest industrial power. Therefore, it is unlikely that major campaigns will be launched in the Caribbean simply because of the unlikelyhood of any gain.

The USA isn't the world largest industrial power in the early 1900's they don't become that until after WWI which was used to develop their industry to an incredible degree.

In this TL you might find that the USA doesn't develop as much and Germany and Great Britain develop more leading to a more equal industrial block.

Remember the Germany of today is only roughly a third the size it was prior to WWI in TTL you might see it get bigger and if you add in colonies that have resources it could be an enormous industrial powerhouse.

 

[Syphon]

Glen

On what basis are you presuming there's no naval race? If your presuming a treaty then you have the question of relative numbers. Britain may well be unwilling to accept equality with the US under those circumstances. [A history of naval pre-eminence, great dependence on maritime trade, a massive shipbuilding industry and a lot of dosh having avoided a major conflict]. Would the US accept inferiority? Also, even if some ratio was agreed with there are the question of numbers and construction rates. Britain would probably want a higher number of ships than the US's ideal target because of its world-wide commitments. Similarly Britain was badly hit by the treaty historically because it forced a battleship building holiday. This not only left Britain with an older, outdated fleet, but drastically affected the construction industry, which could not revive quickly enough when WWII started to approach. This may be less significant with the educational reforms which will give a broader technological and engineering base but will still be a danger that Britain will be aware of.

I'm not saying that a race is inevitable, nor that some sort of implicit agreement couldn't keep spending a lot lower. However I doubt if a formal treaty is that likely because the two powers are a fair distance apart. Also I would expect a fair amount of mistrust between the two nations, more than occurred historically.

Steve

Glen, a point on this with the Anglo-German alliance still in force might the British and Germans come to an accommodation in which the Germans are encouraged to build up their fleet to lets say two thirds of the RN just so that any dispute with the USA the AGA has naval supremacy.

On another point I can see the AGA also including trade as well as Germany will need resources that the BE has and Germany most likely will still be the world leader in chemistry that they seems to excel at.

Oh I hope you have taken into account that in this TL the USA didn't get the economic and technical boost from the seisure of all of OTL's German assets in the USA.

Just something to ponder.

 

[Syphon]

Glen,

have you though of compiling all of this and including it in the T & S section.

Even though Germany seems to have lost out on resources it might still bring the two empires closer together in that both will have convergent needs and abilities.

It is also quite possible with the way Germany ran her colonies that these German colonies might be far better off under German rule as they have land that German industry can use to expand while have an educated yet cheaper workforce.

Given several decades you might find that Germany has two distinct industrial basins one in central africa that will mass produce under license and one in Germany that will develop new products and produce them as well.
these industries will be feed by the resources in the BE.
It might turn out in the long run that Germany gets the better of the deal as they are selling value added goods right back to those who provided the resources in the first place.