DBWI: The Great Entente didn't collapse.

As we all know, from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries Kaiser Wilhelm worked tirelessly to form an alliance system in order to contain and isolate France in Europe. Feeling that French revanchism would lead to them to go to war with Germany he wanted to create and alliances with the other major powers in Europe before the French. It was for this reason he supported Russia over Austria-Hungary over their dispute in the Balkans. And the reason for the German-Italian alliance of 1898 and the London naval treaty of 1900 which was hoped would secure British neutrality in a war with France, but ended leading to the German-British alliance of 1902.

With France isolated from the Other major powers in Europe, the Germans thought peace was secured. But as we all know that didn't happen.


So how could one prevent the collapse of the Great Entente?

And WI the Great Entente didn't collapse, how would Europe look like in the early part of the 20th century.
 
Last edited:
OOC: Right, the problem here is that generally the game of a DBWI is that the world is revealed through the responses.What you've done is essentially write a mini-timeline (nothing wrong with that!) and asked people to respond in universe.

And there's not really a hook? You haven't left any obvious ways to explore the setting, because the obvious starting point is 'what were the consequences of the Entente collapsing' and you've established that at length.
 
OOC: Right, the problem here is that generally the game of a DBWI is that the world is revealed through the responses.What you've done is essentially write a mini-timeline (nothing wrong with that!) and asked people to respond in universe.

And there's not really a hook? You haven't left any obvious ways to explore the setting, because the obvious starting point is 'what were the consequences of the Entente collapsing' and you've established that at length.
Oh okay let me edit it then.
 
As we all know, from the late 19th to the early 20th centuries Kaiser Wilhelm worked tirelessly to form an alliance system in order to contain and isolate France in Europe. Feeling that French revanchism would lead to them to go to war with Germany he wanted to create and alliances with the other major powers in Europe before the French. It was for this reason he supported Russia over Austria-Hungary over their dispute in the Balkans. And the reason for the German-Italian alliance of 1898 and the London naval treaty of 1900 which was hoped would secure British neutrality in a war with France, but ended leading to the German-British alliance of 1902.

With France isolated from the Other major powers in Europe, the Germans thought peace was secured. But as we all know that didn't happen.


So how could one prevent the collapse of the Great Entente?

And WI the Great Entente didn't collapse, how would Europe look like in the early part of the 20th century.
An obvious difference would be an Italy that isn't balkanized, Sardinia, Tuscany and The Two Sicilys had formed an independent identity from the rest Italy by the time the North Italian Federation came for unification, because of this they refused which lead to the deadliest war on the Italian peninsula, it's affects still have consequences to this day.
 
An obvious difference would be an Italy that isn't balkanized, Sardinia, Tuscany and The Two Sicilys had formed an independent identity from the rest Italy by the time the North Italian Federation came for unification, because of this they refused which lead to the deadliest war on the Italian peninsula, it's affects still have consequences to this day.
True, after the war France didn't want a strong neighbour to their south and the slaughter of British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers at Rome due to fail amphibious assault pretty much made them step aside.
 
Last edited:
True, after the war France didn't want a stent neighbours to their south and the slaughter of British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers at Rome due to fail amphibious assault pretty much made them step aside.
They didn't even want to intervene anyway, those "diplomatic protests" were just to cover their backs, They were secretly propping up the Italians as a potential ally. If the Austro-Hungarians ever got in an alliance against them the Italians would be blindly loyal if promised the return of the territory's above the Po river. France didn't take much from Italy on the mainland anyway except for the French speaking regions, they only took their colonies which came second after Lombardy and Venetia in the eyes of the government and people.
 
You want to know why Germany thought peace was secure? They forgot about Spain. They made sure every other European power was either in their pocket or a non-issue. But they neglected to do anything about Spain. Spain was easy to forget mind you, having lost the majority of her Empire in the past century. And sure, she had just had a disastrous war with the Americans. But that had only affected her overseas possessions. Her homeland was still intact. And while not as strong as her European neighbors, she still had a population of 18 million that dreamed of regaining their old strength. And what better way to do that than help France take her enemies down a peg or two. There was no way that Spain would help Germany after they allied with Britain anyway.

After the Spanish-American war, France began investing in Spain in order to bring that nation properly into the Industrial era. Spain's military got better arms and training as part of the deal too, so they could help France storm Italy and Germany when the time came. And France would help Spain take Gibraltar and Portugal as well as some of Britain's colonies in Africa.

So you want the Great Entente to remain intact? Do something about Spain without alienating them.
 
You want to know why Germany thought peace was secure? They forgot about Spain. They made sure every other European power was either in their pocket or a non-issue. But they neglected to do anything about Spain. Spain was easy to forget mind you, having lost the majority of her Empire in the past century. And sure, she had just had a disastrous war with the Americans. But that had only affected her overseas possessions. Her homeland was still intact. And while not as strong as her European neighbors, she still had a population of 18 million that dreamed of regaining their old strength. And what better way to do that than help France take her enemies down a peg or two. There was no way that Spain would help Germany after they allied with Britain anyway.

After the Spanish-American war, France began investing in Spain in order to bring that nation properly into the Industrial era. Spain's military got better arms and training as part of the deal too, so they could help France storm Italy and Germany when the time came. And France would help Spain take Gibraltar and Portugal as well as some of Britain's colonies in Africa.

So you want the Great Entente to remain intact? Do something about Spain without alienating them.
Spain wasn't as big of a deal as your making it out to be, most of their forces were held down in Portugal for MONTHS, the Portuguese fought like hell and the french had to move a good chunk of their troops down to push the Portuguese army and the BEF off the coast.
Your giving too much credit to Spain, yes they were absolutely a help to France but those troops that France moved to Portugal could've prevented their devastating loss near the Rhine, it essentially shut down their operations for the season it was that bad.
Spains navy did occupy the British and Italians for a while, but how much affect that had is debatable.

Spain being in with France did mess with the German high commands plans, essentially destroying any hopes of keeping Africa but France had already achieved that when they pocketed the majority of the Germans south-eastern Forces at metz, after that their fate was sealed.
 
Last edited:

BigBlueBox

Banned
OOC: Entente is a French word, so having an anti-French alliance named “Great Entente” is confusing. Why not call it “Grand Coalition”?
 
Top