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Wait, come back, this isn’t another “what if Germany won the Great Imperial War” thread!

So, the facts . Two years of bloody stalemate in Europe, attempted invasions and guerrilla warfare in the Middle East, and colony swaps in Africa until the bunch of fives of the Brusilov Offensive, Austria-Hungary’s aborted invasion of Italy, the defence of Verdun, the Turnip Winter, and the Somme had the Central Powers repulsed on all sides. King Carl hems and haws and fartarses but in early 1917, he’s cut a separate deal for peace and Germany’s alone (and the Polish Republic starts[1]). The U-boat gamble is pointless, foreign forces cross the borders, peace in April, the Socialists are swept to power yadda yadda…

But, what if the Central Powers had kept it going for another year? Not won, just held on until 1918 or 1919. All it would take is one of the big five causes to cock up – maybe the Germans succeeded in bleeding France at Verdun instead of bleeding out themselves, or Austria-Hungary hadn’t been idiots & invaded Italy, or the Somme had failed. We know in the later case that Haig originally wanted a much larger offensive but was talked out of it [2], and the Somme needed a ton of shells aimed at a small section of wire to succeed; spread that out, is enough damage done? And if Germany seems to be holding it together, is Carl going to accept the terms of surrender?

I’m guessing you wouldn’t have the Myagmar “stabbed in the back” crap, for a start: both of the states would’ve been invaded and pounded, nobody’s blaming the monarch and his “elites” for selling them out. And Ireland would turn out very differently with all the Irish soldiers still abroad and Whitehall’s attention away from Dublin

[1] Polish independence being both an Entente demand and something Germany said would happen if they won (because eff Russia, that’s why).

[2] The Somme was planned as a smaller offensive but in OTL, Haig didn’t listen to his generals going “expanding it is a bad idea”.
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