Britain Allied with Germany

Highlander

Banned
What would it take to get Britain to ally with Germany against France in a WWI-type scenario? What alliances would be required for this, and what would a war like this look like?

PoD may be before 1900, but putting this here as this would mostly likely happen during this time period.
 
The Fashoda Incident (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashoda_Incident) between Britain and France flares up in 1898. It only takes a stray bullet, perhaps as a warning shot, to accidentally hit someone and get a fire fight going and before you know it you have a shooting war. I imagine if Britain declares war on France, Germany will happily jump on the bandwagon. Russia will most likely declare war as will Austria-Hungary. Italy will join whoever they think will win and the Ottomans had some morale problems and were weak. If they do join (unlikely as the French and Russians will want to keep them neutral and because the Ottomans don't want to expose themselves to western imperialism any more), they'll be in whatever alliance the Russians aren't in.

Voila, an Anglo-German Alliance in a WW1 analogue.

Either this, or Wilhelm II doesn't make it to Emperor and instead one of his brothers gets the job.
 

Susano

Banned
Why again would it be suprising the British weren't enthusiastic about Germany ruling the (European) continent?
:confused:

The term youre looking for is "mainland" ;) Oh, and the verb youre looking for inst "rule" but "economically dominate" - Germany wasnt on some kinda mad expansionism spree, not even the Kaiserreich. But yes, letting Germany economically dominate the mainland would have gone aganst century long British doctrines in Foreign Policy.

Which also means there isnt much to The Reds "saner Germany" - Germany was quite sane, thank you very much:rolleyes: , but it doesnt matter either way. Britain would grow suspicious of it either way. However, the Fashda Incident might be just early enough for Britain to not yet be.
 
Let's take into account the Balance of Power. If Britain and Germany make an alliance, would Russia, Italy, or the Ottoman Empire dare to step up against their might? Italy would know that alliance would win against France in a war, and America isn't going to choose any other side. France would feel isolated, as Bismark wanted, because why would Russia ever make an Entente with them?
 
I think that Germany deciding to activily support an alliance with Britain, and to do so quickly would have allowed for such an alliance to have had far more of a chance. OTL Chamberlain became convinced that the Germans were just stringing him along in return for concessions and had little serious interest in forming an alliance which of course led to him supporting an entente with the French.
 
If Bismarck had left his methods of handling of foreign affairs as a lasting legacy. ie Avoid all wars unless you are certain to win and have all the alliences stitched up before hostilities open up
 
Saner, friendlier German Empire.

It's not to hard with hindsight it's suprising we werent allies.

The term youre looking for is "mainland" ;) Oh, and the verb youre looking for inst "rule" but "economically dominate" - Germany wasnt on some kinda mad expansionism spree, not even the Kaiserreich. But yes, letting Germany economically dominate the mainland would have gone aganst century long British doctrines in Foreign Policy.

Which also means there isnt much to The Reds "saner Germany" - Germany was quite sane, thank you very much:rolleyes: , but it doesnt matter either way. Britain would grow suspicious of it either way. However, the Fashda Incident might be just early enough for Britain to not yet be.

Let's take into account the Balance of Power. If Britain and Germany make an alliance, would Russia, Italy, or the Ottoman Empire dare to step up against their might? Italy would know that alliance would win against France in a war, and America isn't going to choose any other side. France would feel isolated, as Bismark wanted, because why would Russia ever make an Entente with them?

I have been thinking about this lately, in the context of a more liberal German Empire. It comes down to a conflict between these liberal pressures bringing Germany closer to Britain, and Britain's realist foreign policy that seeks to maintain balance of power on the mainland. The main trouble is that a more liberal Germany might make it even more eager for colonies (and therefore navies) as OTL. Britain might learn to accept economic dominance of the mainland, but it's not prepared to cede the waves. Except, perhaps, to the peculiar Republicans south of Canada.
 
IIRC, the British did offer an alliance to Germany before the naval buildup began, but from the way it was worded Wilhelm felt that the British would regard as the Germans as the junion partner in the alliance, so he rejected it. Supposedly one of the reasons Wilhelm began the naval buildup was to impress the British so they would come back with a better offer.

Britain might not have liked the possiblity of Germany in a strong position on the continent, but the British weren't any fonder of the possibility of France and Russian in a dominant position on the continent. Also, pre-naval buildup the Germans weren't viewed as a threat to the Empire in the way France and Russia were.
 
Well, the TL in my sig has an Anglo-German Alliance forming in the 20s to halt the expansion of Communism. I don't know how likely my TL is though. Plus, you wanted it for WWI. Mine has it happening after WWI. Nonetheless, it is an Anglo-German Alliance against France, which is what you asked for. Except ITTL, it is an alliance against France, the USSR, and to a lesser extent Italy.
 
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