AHC and WI: More Countries join the Central Powers

What would be the plausible additions to the Central Powers?
Italy? Scandinavian states? Latin American states? Persia? China? Japan?
How much will they increase the chance for CP to achieve victory...?
 
I'll go down the list:

Italy: Possible, but a bit difficult to pull off; the Italians wanted a lot more than Austria-Hungary was willing to give in order to join the CP. On the other hand, if the Central Powers start winning the war, Italy's terms are likely to go down; the Italians really wanted to be on the winning side.

Scandinavia: Denmark and Sweden were more friendly towards Germany, while Norway favored the British. All of them were pretty strongly neutral though, and would probably only be drawn in if the Entente struck first. Pulling them in is within the realm of possibility though; Sweden has the near-incident with Admiral Essen, and some of the Entente plans tossed around for trying break open the Baltic would probably force Denmark into the war.

Latin America: Unlikely, because the logistics of crossing the Atlantic and a hostile Britain means they would have no realistic hope of influencing the war's outcome. If they join in at all, it would be an 11th-hour "we want to be on the winning side" declaration of war.

Persia: Depending on one's view of the Persian Campaign, it could be argued that the Persian government was a de facto member of the Central Powers OTL.

China and Japan: Possible, but very difficult. Germany's East Asian colonies were easy pickings that would be hard to resist, while the Entente had a far more entrenched position in the area. Also, China is not stable enough to face a major war; conflict with the Entente alone is probably too much for them to handle (especially if Japan is still part of the Entente). Japan also has it's long-standing alliance with Britain to consider.

Also, to toss another two nations into the mix, Romania goes into the same category as Italy; Romania had territorial desires against both the Entente and the Central Powers, and only joined when they thought the Entente was on the verge of winning.

The Dutch are another outside possibility; they were vaguely pro-German, and there were a few vague mentions of giving the Dutch Flanders post-war. However, the Germans were of the opinion that the Dutch were more useful as a neutral middleman for trade than they would be as a military ally, and the Dutch would be extremely hesitant to expose Indonesia to British attack.
 

Incognito

Banned
I always wanted to see Mexico join Central Powers to counter U.S.A. and actually be in a position to do some damage to its northern neighbour.
 

Laurentia

Banned
I always wanted to see Mexico join Central Powers to counter U.S.A. and actually be in a position to do some damage to its northern neighbour.

That's near impossible. Mexico was in no position to do damage to the US in the 1910's/1920's/1930's beyond some raids into poorly defended towns in, say, Arizona or New Mexico. To go against the US officially and militarily is a death sentence.
 
I agree with Chengar Qordath. It's difficult to make the Central Powers much stronger. Even Spain is at best immensely difficult to drag into the war, on either side. Thus, the only even remotely likely additions to the Central Powers would be Romania and Italy.
 
I always wanted to see Mexico join Central Powers to counter U.S.A. and actually be in a position to do some damage to its northern neighbour.

This was the reason why America joined in the first place (well, the Causus Belli at least), with the Zimmerman Telegraph from Germany to Mexico being intercepted and basically asking Mexico to join the war in return for Arizona and New Mexico.

Mexico never had any intention of joining though, the entire government knew that the country would be occupied within weeks and they'd lose Baja California, Sinola and the area corresponding to the old Rio Grande Republic at the very least, and possibly kiss goodbye to the Yucatan as well.
 

Incognito

Banned
This was the reason why America joined in the first place (well, the Causus Belli at least), with the Zimmerman Telegraph from Germany to Mexico being intercepted and basically asking Mexico to join the war in return for Arizona and New Mexico.

Mexico never had any intention of joining though, the entire government knew that the country would be occupied within weeks and they'd lose Baja California, Sinola and the area corresponding to the old Rio Grande Republic at the very least, and possibly kiss goodbye to the Yucatan as well.
I know that. And I know that some speculate that Zimmerman Telegraph was a false-flag operation.

But since no POD is specified in this scenario, I wondered if there could be one that would result in a stronger Mexico and/or a situation where Germany is able to deliver supplies to Mexico, leading to Mexico fighting for Central Powers while U.S. joins the Entente.
 
I know that. And I know that some speculate that Zimmerman Telegraph was a false-flag operation.

But since no POD is specified in this scenario, I wondered if there could be one that would result in a stronger Mexico and/or a situation where Germany is able to deliver supplies to Mexico, leading to Mexico fighting for Central Powers while U.S. joins the Entente.

To get a Mexico strong enough to stand a chance against the US, you need to have a PoD in the Mid-Late 19th Century (quite possibly avoiding the MAW entirely), which essentially avoids this scenario entirely.
 
I'm not sure if this is true at all but didn't the Greek King have Pro CP sympathies? But even if that is true what can the Central powers offer them?
 
Had the CP won, they might have offered part of Egypt or Libya to Greece.

Cyprus would make more sense; Dodecanese is a possibility too (if Italy is on the Entente side) but still formally Ottoman.

By the way, the Lybian republic was de facto a CP ally OTL (also Darfur could be counted as such IIRC).
 
Close by for Greece, and not as strategically important as Egypt. Cyprus and the Dodecanese would be heavily contested between Greece and the Ottoman Empire. On one hand, how would the war fare if there was a POD that butterflied Britain signing the Entente? With the British joining the Germans, it is more than likely that the CP would have won.
 
I'm not sure if this is true at all but didn't the Greek King have Pro CP sympathies? But even if that is true what can the Central powers offer them?

This depends on where Albania, Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire, and Italy stand in the war, but under most circumstances, Cyprus and Northern Epirus seem like options, even if the Central Powers really cannot gain the former.
 
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