AHC Have the Spanish-American war turn into a world war

Why would Italy care? Their only interests are in the Mediterreanean and the Balkans, ...

Yup... what about Abyssinia ?

...so they're rivals to France and Austria (and to a much lesser extent, the Ottomans and British), so if they end up fighting Germany it's because the Germans are allied to Austria and their enemies made a better offer/look stronger.

Yup getting at the 'Italian' provinces still in the Austrian empire could be worth aligning with whoever...

Also Britain may not like a German-Spanish axis, but they don't especially like a Franco-Russian-American axis either.

True :confused:

Add to this that Germany facing so many enemies will act very differently- I doubt even Kaiser Wilhelm would be blind to how unfavorable that situation is.

That would be important if these people could predict how things were going to fall out. One week you are supporting your close ally against a mongrel mob, next week you are surrounded by a hostile alliance :eek:
 
Why would Italy care? Their only interests are in the Mediterreanean and the Balkans, so they're rivals to France and Austria (and to a much lesser extent, the Ottomans and British), so if they end up fighting Germany it's because the Germans are allied to Austria and their enemies made a better offer/look stronger.
Also Britain may not like a German-Spanish axis, but they don't especially like a Franco-Russian-American axis either.
Add to this that Germany facing so many enemies will act very differently- I doubt even Kaiser Wilhelm would be blind to how unfavorable that situation is.

Being interested dosent nessicerily mean said interest is nessicerily against Germany. However, I agree they aren't intrinsically interested in disputes over Latin America/the Atlantic and that the involvement of secondary powers would have to come about as an extended diplomatic "dominio effect". The obvious starting point would be France looking for an ally with Spain-Germany surrounding them, so France aligns Russia or Austria. Germany then tries to align another country to strategically check France's new ally, which allows Germany to attract a regional rival to France's new ally, and so on

The trick is starting it up.
 
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