A Much Brighter Schlieffen

This is ASB
Understatement of the millennium.

A-H was trounced by a smaller French army in Solferino, etc, in 1859
The Franco-Italians outnumbered the Austrians at Solferino.

and a smaller Prussian force in 1866,
At Koniggratz the combined Austro-Saxon force outnumbered the Prussians by a mere 17,000. A rather slim margin given that both sides fielded over 200,000 at the battle. For the war in general though, the Austrians were greatly outnumbered by the combined Italo-Prussian armies.

In 1889 Germany has a much larger and more modern army than France. The differential between German and French forces in quality and quantity is much greater than in 1870. The differential between German and A-H forces in 1889 is much greater than in 1866.
No mate, both Austria and France had adopted Prussian style mobilization schemes after their respective defeats. In 1889 the average German soldier had a single shot black powder rifle, with the Gewehr '88 (which was a piece of crap btw) having only been introduced the previous year. Both the Austrians and French had magazine-fed repeating rifles as standard. Germany would have been in bad shape for an '89 war.
 
During the invasion, Schlieffen offers Switzerland huge contracts for arms, boilers, machinery, etc, if it requests annexation before 24 hours, so that Germany can be finally unified. Likewise, he offers A-H huge contracts for ships in Croatia, iron ore, steel, produce, etc, if it requests annexation within 24 hours, to unify Germany, stop the fatricide and reclaim valuable Lombardy and Venetia and invade the rest of Italy.

Italy capitulates after 24 days of heavy losses and only defeats.

Let's bash our heads against Italian defences in the Alps there is no way this can go wrong, like ever

Both A-H and Switzerland are practically untenable on the second day of the war. France is not prepared to assist Switzerland in time and cannot afford war with Prussia yet. Hungary, then Austria and finally Switzerland request annexation.

What?




As soon as Italy capitulates, German forces seize Luxemburg and Nice. France receives an ultimatum. the still weak French army is not match for the huge German army, attacking France in two, distant fronts. France capitulates and is annexed by Germany.
In 1889 Germany has a much larger and more modern army than France. The differential between German and French forces in quality and quantity is much greater than in 1870. The differential between German and A-H forces in 1889 is much greater than in 1866. It is truly surprising that Schlieffen and the kaiser kept the extremely expensive and powerful army completely unproductive, while France and Russia rapidly became stronger and A-H (Germany's only ally and the cause of WW I and the German debacle) rapidly decayed.

Weak? Say what you will about Boulanger but the man was a bare minimum a decent administrator France at this point had adopted modern mobilization schemes, improved the artillery and is constructing and has constructed a formidable network of forts along the Franco-German border as well as introducing the Lebel rifle
 
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