Could the German Empire win WW1 and How?

Could Win German Empire World War One ?

  • Yes, they had realistic chance

    Votes: 197 96.1%
  • Nope, they doomed from begin...

    Votes: 8 3.9%

  • Total voters
    205
1. The Germans had enough momentum to march on Paris.

They pretty obviously didn't.

2. Germany is going to control French colonies through a puppet government/ally in Paris. It's effectively the same thing as annexing them.

It most certainly isn't the same thing...

3. The British and Germans will sign an armistice after the defeat of France simply because of exhaustion.

And make deals on the peace table since they can't hurt each other anymore. This means that Germany won't be able to just take French colonies by diktat.

4. Germany will annex the portions of land it conquered from Russia like Poland, Finland, Ukraine, and the other Slavic areas as part of the conditions of peace on the eastern front as part of Brest-Litovsk It was a already done deal OTL before the Germans agreed to peace terms with the Allies. This area was supposed to be settled with new German dukes and noblemen assuming the monarchy survived. German settlers and farmers should've been far behind.

Er... do you know what the word "annex" even means?
 
Unrolling the Schlieffen plan as in OTL then Germany will lose.
Germany has no answer to the British blockade except unrestricted submarine warfare - America will be forced to enter WW1 whether she likes it or not and like Britian has global interests that include not allowing one power to dominate Europe.
It can be argued America made little difference to the collapse of 1918, however if by different results - from better planning and operations - Germany does hang on till 1919 then we would have seen the difference the Americans could make.

Germany might have sat on the defensive in the west in 1914 but this would have been of no use. Russia was a difficult Nation to defeat. On the contrary it was thought France could be knocked out relatively quickly. The power of the Allies would increase as time went on and mishandling of their forces by the Russians was not guaranteed. Defeating France first - and quickly - was the path of least danger. The German high command expected Britain to enter the war regardless of whether Belgian neutrality is violated,
The Anglo French naval agreement of 1912 confirmed their fears and was a clear warning to Germany.

In a Frano-German war Britain is committed to preventing the German navy carrying out operations in the North Sea - it's war - and Britain will inevitably blockade Germany. Britain will be automatically at war with Germany in any Franco German conflict - Belgian neutrality is simply an easy excuse to use with the public. Britain will never allow one power to dominate Europe. War with Britain is inevitable and Germany has absolutely no way of fighting the blockade from which it is estimated nearly half a million Germans starved to death.

Whilst the German army are concentrating on Russia the blockade will be strengthening so will French and British forces and defences. They may well trumpet to the world that they are advancing into Germany through the relatively open country of Belgium for the sake of liberty, meanwhile the Russians may not offer battle so aggressively and may withdraw into Russia so simply nullifying the offensive power of the German army to alter the strategic balance. Russia's offensive strategy stemmed from Germany's knock France out first strategy, if they change this to knock Russia out first then russia's strategy and operations will also change.

So attacking Russia first simply allows Germany's problems to grow, the allies become stronger and she becomes weaker and more extended. Italy is unlikely to join the CP's while france stands unbowed. Italy may join the allied side earlier if the German's are bogged down in Russia.

Whatever Germany does her only answer to the British blockade is unrestricted submarine warfare and they know that means war with America.
Germany is in part facing a situation similar to one Napoleon faced. To their West is a power they cannot directly bring to Battle, a power that cuts their sealanes. Imports from the rest of the world were far more important for war production in World War 1 than in Napoleon's time.
To their East is a power that can withdraw into it's depths.

A different operating of the Schlieffen plan could well leave the Germans in a better position in the West at the Winter of 1914. Paris isn't guaranteed to fall, even if it does France isn't guaranteed to surrender this is a war literally of survival for France.

Imagining France does get knocked out in 1914 - which i think unlikely - Britain will not seek an armistice, she has too much to lose and is relatively secure in her position. Germany may begin unrestricted submarine warfare earlier - reckoning that American entry into the war will take time enough to be substantial that Britain will be starved by such time.

Russia's response will be to carry out a fighting retreat, this alters the conditions the Russian army experiences and removes the terrible hopeless offensives the Russian leadership forced their troops to endure in order to divert German forces from France. This is overlooked in this alternative time line, Russia's traditional advantage of trading time and space was negated by the need to relieve pressure on France.
Might 1917 come and a German army in Russia tired of suffering harsh winters, weakened and fatigued by the result of overstretched communications and supply lines that are harried by Russian civilians, supported by groups of cossack cavalry and facing a Russian army less demorilised by hopeless attacks and more intact.

The Russian's may fight the German's in the way they fought Napoleon, 1917 comes and maybe it's the German army in Russia that mutinies ?, meanwhile British and American troops land in Salonika to deliver a death blow to Austria Hungary - they advance under wilson's banner of liberty to all nationalities ?.
And so on ...
Change Germany's strategy in World War One and many other things change.
 
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