Hello everybody, this is a challenge for you. Try to immagine a different First World War which produce those consequences:
- Russian republican provisional government survive (and Bolshevik revolution failes)
- Finland, Poland, Baltic States gain their independence
- Austro-Hungarian Empire survives (reformed)
- British Grand Fleet destroy German High Seas Fleet
- Germany loses the war, but keeps the Kaiser
- A Jewish National Home in Palestine become an independent state just after the war (in 1920 or 1921)
I tried many times, but I always failed. Now I ask you if you can find a POD (possibly, but not necessarily one: two or three PODs are welcome) which can produce those results. You can win a bonus if you end the war before 1918.
A POD in late 1915 :
Allied spies are able to inform about the next german offensive on Verdun.
1) So the French are able to rearm the forts with the heavy artillery, they dismounted to use it as field artillery, and they prepared for the inconming german offensive by :
- evacuating the first lines before the german bombardment,
- building a small railroad connexion and better roads to supply Verdun,
Verdun become the battle as we know, but the Germans lost a lot more troops than OTL... And are not able to send reinforcements on the front against the British...
2) The British are able to crush germans lines on the Somme and their offensive become a Breakthrough toward Belgium...
The tanks are not used in september 1916 because the british are on the offensive and the lands ships are not useful when the armies moved.
3) Germans troops are send from the eastern front to Belgium and Brusilov offensive and rumanian offensives are more successful..
4) In 1917, the western allies are in south Belgium and most of northern France is free from the Germans who didn't have the time to destroy the industries.
Western allies are in a better position for the new year of war and first use of tanks is more successful, even critical, the shock they created in the germans troops provoked some case of real panicks. During all the year, Germany lost all the occupied territories.
On the eastern front, things are better for the Centrals Empire but the Russians and the Rumanians lost less ground, and General Brusilov is able to crush the October Revolution.
5) Charles of Habsburg personnaly contacted Woodrow Wilson to become the referee of the peace in Europe. Wilson accepted but he also accepted the survival of the Habsburg Empire as a confederation of severals kingdoms : Austria, Bohemia, Hungary and Croaty...
6) On the western front, the germans loose every territories west of the Rhine and the Kaiser accepted to negociate the peace...
Armistices are signed by every centrals powers during Spring 1918...
Poland and most of the Baltics States are still occupied by the Germans, these countries gained their independance, with regimes friendly to Germany or Austria.
Poland can become for example a Habsburg kingdom with territories from Russia, Austria and parts of Germany, the province of Greater Poland with Posen...
Alsace Lorraine become french again, Serbia is satisfied with parts of Bosnia, Italy with Trieste and Istria...
For the creation of Israel, after the crush of the October Revolution, numerous pogroms are commited against Jews in Russia where entire parts of the territories are in complete anarchy. They fled towards the southern ports in Ukraine where they think they will be protected by allied navies who supply Russia after the openings of the Straits after Ottoman capitulation. Thousands of jews are evacuated by the Allied fleets or by Rumania and having nowhere to go, they are evacuated to Palestina...
The western allies don't want the repetition of the Armenian Genocide and great help is provided to evacuate severals thousands people.
Simple POD about the battle of Jutland :
This battle see the complete destruction of the Hochseeflotte and become the Trafalgar of the XXth century...