AHC: Die Deutsches Jahrhundert

Title means (I think) "the German century."

I'm planning a timeline where the Central Powers win the First World War. An idea for this timeline, is that the war results in two things...

1. Germany becomes a world power, to the extent that German even becomes the global lingua franca by the start of the 21st Century (like English IOTL). I don't mean anything ridiculous like having the Kaiserreich stretch from the Siene to the Volga -- just, like how Britain was at the time, and how the U.S. is now.

2. Peace in Europe, or at least Western/Central Europe, making the Great War really "the war to end all wars" in the region. Maybe the European nations are friends like they are IOTL by at least the 21st Century.

So, any possible scenarios for how this could happen?

Furthermore...

What would Europe look like, in the years following the Great War ITTL?

Would Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire still fall apart? Could European integration still happen at all?

I'd like the PODs to not be too early. But as I don't know much about the war (researching, presently), I'll leave it up to the experts. I don't even have an idea for a POD for the afore-mentioned timeline. But...for good measure, try to avoid anything before the assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
 

Kongzilla

Banned
The Austria-Hungary empire will probably still fall apart, they were pretty separate all ready with a separate military and postal system for each country IIRC.

The Ottoman empire would probably last longer but I think they had already fallen apart as of 1914 with only Turkey still around but I'm not quite sure.
 
Sort of a European Union a bit earlier?

If a German victory had been achieved before Christmas 1914, I doubt the animosity between France/Germany and Germany/Uk would have been as profound.

The concept of "total war" or "war among nations" would not have been there.

The slaughter of the battelfields would not have occured.

The cost of the war would have been far less. (Wiki: Total French casualties for the first month of the war were 260,000[5] of which 140,000 were sustained during the climactic final four days of the battle of the Frontiers.)

So, let us be conservative and call the war as ending in Septembe and a totall butcher's bill of 200,000 killed all inclusive.

Would this have meant that reconciliation would be impossible? also as this would be "war among professionals" not really "war among nations" yet?

IF Germany is not imposing some unrealistic nonsense on France AND UK decides to stay in its corner, would 1915/16/17 see a form of European Union coming together? after all, they all depended on each other and the time was not 1871 again.

Der Kaizer (die Kaizer? das Kaizer? den kaizer? dem Kaizer?: ok, just joking) could not have been a part of this. He might have been too wack for a settlement. So, who from the German side would have been able to settle so no future wars would erupt based on "sharp practice"?

Who in France could/would accept another surrender?

If Germany tries to dominate everything it will just cause friction.

So, real reconciliation: France, Germany and Italy decide to integrate their economies (and squash Serbia, btw).

That will leave UK on the sidelines with its empire that will be a bit useless if Europe is closing up. Sort of Napoleon's Continental System?

Ivan
 
Feel free to do a shout-out to Turtledove by making "Kaiser Bill" mustaches fashionable.


Edit: If Germany somehow kept its torpedoes from hitting American ships, thus keeping America out of it, not only are they in a position to perhaps prevail in the war, but Americans would be more likely to be accepting of that, perhaps especially given proper agit-prop about racist British imperialism etc.

The AH and Ottoman empires could gradually fade out, sort of how monarchy became constitutional monarchy, without gallons of blood etc.
 

Deimos

Banned
For a relatively quick German victory that would possibly result in a peaceful Western Europe you should look, for example, at the discussion threads similar to this thread of wiking and BlondieBC:
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=264497




For a language to be widespread as a second language you will need to advance over 4 avenues - science, popular culture, population and trade.

Science is easy enough, also try to export the German law system to all the new nations in Eastern and Middle Europe (thus making studying law in Germany for foreign professionals more prestigious) and try to do the same with medicine (contrary to popular belief medicinal practice/pharmaceutics often varies between nations).

Have Germany and Austria-Hungary be the first ones to develop television and grow very professional movie and television show industries with an appetite for international markets. Have nearly all their products be ready for international release when they first come out and provide foreign markets only with subbed versions of German/AH - films and television shows.

Give Germany some good settler colonies to keep the emigrating Germans speaking their mother tongue and make them and the motherland prosperous enough to continue growing in population throughout the 20th century.

Trade will be the most difficult as others have pointed out, the US and the British Commonwealth are too strong for that. However if you pit them against one another you can contain their influence and make German trade profiteer while the British and Americans wage a long pirate war against one another (although I deem this to be extremely unlikely).

And maybe with all of the above you can have German win out as the most spoken second language closely followed by English.
 
the SDP is gonna take over in the reichstag, so thats somewhere.
but thats socialism not communism.

They already took over in 1912, according to The Genocide. Assuming they remain in power in the next election ITTL, what sort of reforms might be passed, if any, post-war?

Also according to The Genocide, is the theory that World War I was at least partially the result of conservatives in the Reichstag trying to drum up patriotism, and thus, support for the right-wing parties.
 
They already took over in 1912, according to The Genocide. Assuming they remain in power in the next election ITTL, what sort of reforms might be passed, if any, post-war?

Not quite. The Social Democrats got 110 out of 397 seats in 1912. A plurality not a majority. Only together with the liberal Progressive People´s Party and the Catholic Center Party could they have gotten a stable majority.
However since the Emperor appointed (and fired) the Chancellor, the actual influence of the parties on the government was less than in modern parliaments.
That´s why the more parliamentary minded parties were already calling for several reforms:

- Election of the Chancellor by the Reichstag. A Chancellor then would need a Reichstag majority for governing.
- Federal election law also used in Prussia (instead of the three-class franchise system)
- An adjustment of election districts if possible. The borders of the 397 election districts were drawn in 1871. Back then roughly equal in population size. With population movements due to industrialization however in 1912 the election districts were pretty unequal. Cities and industrial centers underrepresented while rural regions were overrepresented.

If I remember correctly the German Emperor made some (vague) promises of political reform if the Reichstag would loyally support the war effort.
Personally I think that in case of a short victorious war the Emperor and the "old" establishment would have been tempted to disregard their pre-war promises. Although I´m not sure how successful they would be in the mid- and long-term. If you want some meaningful political reforms soon after the war, the war shouldn´t end before 1917. By that time much of the old establishment was pretty much discredited in the eyes of the German public. You´d probably get something like Britain, a parliamentary monarchy.

Also according to The Genocide, is the theory that World War I was at least partially the result of conservatives in the Reichstag trying to drum up patriotism, and thus, support for the right-wing parties.

That strikes me as unlikely. Conservative parties got between 10-15% of the vote then. No way they´d get a majority or even a plurality of the votes even after a won war. Not to mention that the government legally isn´t responsible to the Reichstag.

The war seems more a result of stupidity, fear and worship of the military.
From what I´ve read there was a real feeling of being encircled in Germany. France, Russia, probably the British Empire. Three Great Powers. Which led to stupid unconditional support for allied Austria-Hungary.
(Of course stupid decisions by German governments in the decades before the war led to that situation.)
And once Russia as the first Great Power started to mobilize its army...
Back then one Great Power mobilizing its army meant the others had to mobilize too.

Add in fear (at least in some circles). Russia was modernizing and there was a feeling that in 5-10 years it would be impossible to defeat Russia. So a war now was allegedly preferable to a war in 10 years.

Worship of the military and no civilian control meant that the German General Staff could design a war plan that included the invasion of Belgium. Without any regard to political consequences.
 
Some more questions:

---Could the Arab Revolt succeed, even with the failure of the Entente?

---What would Germany probably do with the territory it gains from Russia, if they gain territory from Russia? Is a system of puppet states like in Kaiserreich at all likely?

---Could the outcomes I want (peace in Western Europe, eventual European integration) still be met even with a long war? Or must it be short?
 
Some more questions:

---Could the Arab Revolt succeed, even with the failure of the Entente?

Possibly. An Entente faliure in Europe does not equal Entente faliure in the Middle East.

---What would Germany probably do with the territory it gains from Russia, if they gain territory from Russia? Is a system of puppet states like in Kaiserreich at all likely?

Yes. I suspect the Balctics will be divided between the Unified Balctic Dutchy and Lithuania. Don`t ask me why, but apparetnly the Germans were fond of an independent, enlarged Lithuania.

Poland, OTOH, will definately become a puppet state, though I suspect it`s borders will be further eastwards so there would be no bulge between Lithuanian and Austro-Hungarian eastern borders.

That is, if the Germans are unable to force a Brest-Litovsk peace.

---Could the outcomes I want (peace in Western Europe, eventual European integration) still be met even with a long war? Or must it be short?

France must lose the Briey-Longwy orefields. This will terminate it as a threat to Germany, especially one that has won WWI. This is done by simply winning the war, swiftly or not. This leads to an imposed peace in Western Europe.
 
France must lose the Briey-Longwy orefields. This will terminate it as a threat to Germany, especially one that has won WWI. This is done by simply winning the war, swiftly or not. This leads to an imposed peace in Western Europe.

Huh, I was wondering why that was an option in the "Germany wins" peace in Darkest Hour.

This brings me to another question...

I don't really buy the whole "Entente loss in WWI means Nazis in France" trope. But...would it be safe to assume that there would be at least some resurgence of the right, in France?

What would it take for Germany to take the orefields, anyways?
 
I don't really buy the whole "Entente loss in WWI means Nazis in France" trope. But...would it be safe to assume that there would be at least some resurgence of the right, in France?

Probably, but I don`t know nearly enough about French politics to guess who. But, as I said, without Briey-Longwy (IIRC the orefields contained 90% of France's iron ore at the time) it really doesn`t matter who gets in power; France can`t beat Germany anymore, or even rise to challenge it.

What would it take for Germany to take the orefields, anyways?

The German Army already took them IOTL during WWI, but they have to win the war in order to annex them into Germany proper. Plus, it was really, really near to the German border; just look at the maps in the linked thread.
 
Top