JJohnson
Banned
I was working on an alternate ending to WW1 that could cause an alternate Versailles. It may be dumb, but it was a thought experiment as all these timelines are.
So: Charles I and Wilhelm II, instead of abdication, journey to Versailles to personally take part in the peace conference. Problem is, someone with ties to the French Army, perhaps a Polish national, blows up the train car where they were; Charles is seriously injured but recovers, and Wilhelm II dies. German and Austrian nationalistic fervor explodes and the war threatens to start again. The western powers blame France here, and to calm Germany and Austria, they completely scrap the ideas to remove territory from the two powers.
Germany stays whole, and pays very moderate reparations, while Wilhelm III is crowned emperor in place of his father. The monarchy and the constitution undergoes some reforms as does the military, which also undergoes a forced modernization and overhaul on the model of the UK and US. Additional rights are placed in the constitution, including ending of all press censorship. Prussia is forced by the allies to break into its constituent provinces, but with the one monarch over all Germany, and minorities such as Danes, French, Poles, and Sorbians gaining linguistic and cultural rights in education and commerce. The monarchy under Wilhelm III, who thought WW1 was senseless, becomes a source of stability; socialists and communists fail relatively quickly and a certain failed artist doesn't manage to join a certain party, avoiding that future. Alsace-Lorraine is made a state on equal standing with the other states, and the legislature is reformed into two houses: Reichsrat (with 4 representatives per state, who can vote separately, not just en bloc) and the Reichstag (based on population).
In Austria, Charles I negotiates internally with Hungary and cannot stop the nationalistic fervor, and in the treaty of Versailles, he is allowed to break up Austria-Hungary along ethnic lines. This ends up with 'German Austria' (including Teschen, German Bohemia (incl Pilsen), Sudetenland, Burgenland with Ödenburg and Preßburg and all of Moson County, and southern Bohemia, including Budweis; Marburg and all of Carinthia are in this German Austria, and South Tyrol in a full state of Tyrol) along with the Czechoslovak Kingdom (with Charles I as the king), Kingdom of Hungary (same), Yugoslavic Kingdom, Slovenia (Küstenland, Carniola, and Lower Styria not in Austria), Serbia, and Romania gaining Transylvania. Charles becomes the monarch of 3 kingdoms kind of like Elizabeth II is the monarch of Canada and Australia.
This Austria introduces some reforms and grants the Slovenes, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarians cultural/linguistic rights in government, unlike Germany. Having lost its ports, Austria focuses internally in Europe. Karl Renner became the first Austrian Chancellor. Charles I of Austria ruled until 1940, when Otto I took over.
Poland is recreated as an independent republic but the allies don't allow it to gain Posen or a sea corridor. Germany agrees to allow duty-free travel to Danzig and Gdingen. As a result of the death of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germans in the east push for the Poles in Posen and West Prussia to leave to the new Poland, though Wilhelm III is a bit more diplomatic about the situation. About 40% of Poles in both territories leave for Poland, and about 60% of the Germans living east of Germany return to Germany in the east, in effect 'germanizing' the land. Poland believes it was denied its rightful territory, and stews about it for the next decade or two.
France, however, believes itself innocent, and creates its own betrayal myth, playing into nationalistic and fascistic ideologies leading it eventually to conflict with its neighbor east, as they were 'cheated' of the return of Alsace-Lorraine.
Russia in this timeline avoids the Soviet future when Lenin's passage through Germany is blocked and is killed by brigands once leaving Switzerland in the tumult of Austria at the time. Stalin caught a bad case of hypothermia while in exile in Siberia and died. Communism would not come to the Russian people. Instead, Nicholas II and loyalists fight a civil war, which takes them out of the Great War. It ends after months of internal fighting and he agrees to a constitutional monarchy with a representative Duma. At first unicameral, in 1922 it becomes bicameral. Nicholas tries to go back on ceding power, but the Duma orders the army to the palace, and he again cedes the power back to the Duma that he tried to seize in the first place. This Russia doesn't industrialize and is slow to modernize, such that by 1940, there are some factories, but nowhere near what the USSR had. Ukraine also doesn't experience a forced starvation since there's no Stalin, but still forms in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War; White Russia (Belarus) forms also, while Czar Nicholas is busy defending his power.
Again, this is just a thought experiment. Constructive comments (aside from drive-by "ASB!!" proclamations) are welcome. Hopefully this is a unique and different take on post WW1.
So: Charles I and Wilhelm II, instead of abdication, journey to Versailles to personally take part in the peace conference. Problem is, someone with ties to the French Army, perhaps a Polish national, blows up the train car where they were; Charles is seriously injured but recovers, and Wilhelm II dies. German and Austrian nationalistic fervor explodes and the war threatens to start again. The western powers blame France here, and to calm Germany and Austria, they completely scrap the ideas to remove territory from the two powers.
Germany stays whole, and pays very moderate reparations, while Wilhelm III is crowned emperor in place of his father. The monarchy and the constitution undergoes some reforms as does the military, which also undergoes a forced modernization and overhaul on the model of the UK and US. Additional rights are placed in the constitution, including ending of all press censorship. Prussia is forced by the allies to break into its constituent provinces, but with the one monarch over all Germany, and minorities such as Danes, French, Poles, and Sorbians gaining linguistic and cultural rights in education and commerce. The monarchy under Wilhelm III, who thought WW1 was senseless, becomes a source of stability; socialists and communists fail relatively quickly and a certain failed artist doesn't manage to join a certain party, avoiding that future. Alsace-Lorraine is made a state on equal standing with the other states, and the legislature is reformed into two houses: Reichsrat (with 4 representatives per state, who can vote separately, not just en bloc) and the Reichstag (based on population).
In Austria, Charles I negotiates internally with Hungary and cannot stop the nationalistic fervor, and in the treaty of Versailles, he is allowed to break up Austria-Hungary along ethnic lines. This ends up with 'German Austria' (including Teschen, German Bohemia (incl Pilsen), Sudetenland, Burgenland with Ödenburg and Preßburg and all of Moson County, and southern Bohemia, including Budweis; Marburg and all of Carinthia are in this German Austria, and South Tyrol in a full state of Tyrol) along with the Czechoslovak Kingdom (with Charles I as the king), Kingdom of Hungary (same), Yugoslavic Kingdom, Slovenia (Küstenland, Carniola, and Lower Styria not in Austria), Serbia, and Romania gaining Transylvania. Charles becomes the monarch of 3 kingdoms kind of like Elizabeth II is the monarch of Canada and Australia.
This Austria introduces some reforms and grants the Slovenes, Czech, Slovak, and Hungarians cultural/linguistic rights in government, unlike Germany. Having lost its ports, Austria focuses internally in Europe. Karl Renner became the first Austrian Chancellor. Charles I of Austria ruled until 1940, when Otto I took over.
Poland is recreated as an independent republic but the allies don't allow it to gain Posen or a sea corridor. Germany agrees to allow duty-free travel to Danzig and Gdingen. As a result of the death of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Germans in the east push for the Poles in Posen and West Prussia to leave to the new Poland, though Wilhelm III is a bit more diplomatic about the situation. About 40% of Poles in both territories leave for Poland, and about 60% of the Germans living east of Germany return to Germany in the east, in effect 'germanizing' the land. Poland believes it was denied its rightful territory, and stews about it for the next decade or two.
France, however, believes itself innocent, and creates its own betrayal myth, playing into nationalistic and fascistic ideologies leading it eventually to conflict with its neighbor east, as they were 'cheated' of the return of Alsace-Lorraine.
Russia in this timeline avoids the Soviet future when Lenin's passage through Germany is blocked and is killed by brigands once leaving Switzerland in the tumult of Austria at the time. Stalin caught a bad case of hypothermia while in exile in Siberia and died. Communism would not come to the Russian people. Instead, Nicholas II and loyalists fight a civil war, which takes them out of the Great War. It ends after months of internal fighting and he agrees to a constitutional monarchy with a representative Duma. At first unicameral, in 1922 it becomes bicameral. Nicholas tries to go back on ceding power, but the Duma orders the army to the palace, and he again cedes the power back to the Duma that he tried to seize in the first place. This Russia doesn't industrialize and is slow to modernize, such that by 1940, there are some factories, but nowhere near what the USSR had. Ukraine also doesn't experience a forced starvation since there's no Stalin, but still forms in the aftermath of the Russian Civil War; White Russia (Belarus) forms also, while Czar Nicholas is busy defending his power.
Again, this is just a thought experiment. Constructive comments (aside from drive-by "ASB!!" proclamations) are welcome. Hopefully this is a unique and different take on post WW1.