DBWI: Which imperial Monarch's death saved Europe from war?

1910, the Year of Dead Monarchs, ushered in a sea change across Europe, first to die was the unlamented Leopold II of Belgium on New Year's Day. Next up was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, who took a header off a gangplank after touring the SMS Nassau on January 10. Next came Franz Josef of Austria Hungary, dead of a blood infection after stubbing his toe on February 12th. Next up was Edward VII of the UK, who died on the 6th of May after smoking one too many cigars. But Death was far from done with his list, Nicholas 2's heir, Alexei, had perished from a bad bleed on January 18th and Nicholas had spent 3 hours eulogizing his son in the frigid Russian air, going the William Henry Harrison route of coming down with pneumonia, but actually dying from a heart attack on July 2. Japan's Meiji Emperor died of complications brought on by his diabetes on October 29th. Finally, the already short reign of Sultan Mehmed V, was cut off before it really started by an 'unknown' assassin's bullet on November 1st.

With the exception of Russia, which devolved into the bloody succession crisis, then the Soviet Revolution, then the Trudovik/Bolshevik civil war until Alexander 'the Great' Kerensky finally prevailed and finalized/legitimized the Union of Soviet Republics, the wave of new Monarchs were far more 'progressive' in outlook than their fathers (at least when it came to their European neighbors), in the formation of the League of Nations at Zurich on June 28, 1914, Emperor Franz Ferdinand declared, "The era of secret alliances and imperial aspirations on the European continent is over. To initiate a state of general warfare would throw all our nations into a chaos worse than that which the Russians are weathering." The League of course setting the stage for the economic and political conflicts between the Imperial powers and the USA/USR and the brush wars and other problems of both 'hard' and 'soft' Imperialism.

But if 1910 hadn't had Death cleaning house among Imperial heads of state its quite possible for a general war among European Imperial powers themselves, with Japan maybe joining in. The disconnect between Imperial and Republican posters is pretty stark though (which is why I'm using such non-biased language), and I'm not trying to ask the tired "Who would win?" question, actually I'm taking a poll. If we accept the words of Franz Ferdinand himself as proof that Europe was a tinderbox in the early 1900's (diehard deniers need not apply), which Monarch's death was most important in keeping Europe from going up in flames... either because he would have initiated the conflict or because his successor stopped things?

For me its clearly Wilhelm's death, by plunging off that gangplank, the Kaiser removed his ultra nationalistic, jingoist self from the heart of Europe and allowed his far more mellow son William on the throne to defuse a whole metric ton of diplomatic crises brewing externally and internally in allowing the Alsace-Lorraine and, later, Polish plebiscites to mollify France as well as dealing with recalcitrant and restless minorities.
 
lloyd007

I suspect the one that might be most significant would be Franz Joseph. It would bring a markedly stronger ruler to the Austrian monarchy. Also he had plans to reform the state, giving more power to the Slavs and taking on the Hungarian aristocracy. This might cause more instability if there is a lot of resistance, which could trigger something off, but I think is more likely to improve the stability of the state. Either way I suspect that FF would be more interested in re-invigorating his empire than adventures with Germany. As such even if the German government felt desperate enough say by developments in Russia, as some have suggested, I think they wouldn't want to go alone.

Getting rid of Wilhelm would remove him but there were a lot of other militants in the German government and military and I'm not sure of the political aims of his heir.

Taking out Nicolas, even if a young but sickly Alexi survived is likely to increase instability in Russia, which I doubt would be good for anyone. Apart from dangers of Russia seeing unrest, weakening it at this point might tempt Germany to try something to gain advantage.

With Edward VII that wouldn't make much difference as he died that year anyway.

For Sultan Mehmed I don't know enough about who would have succeeded him but, other than it causing a civil war which draws in others, more likely to generate a major conflict than preventing one.

Steve
 
OOC: This is a DBWI, in this world basically every monarch in Europe bit the dust in year 1910 for one reason or another and thus WW1/WW2 and etc is averted. IC I'm asking which monarch was the most important player whose 'tragic' death stopped Europe from going up in flames. ;)
 
OOC: This is a DBWI, in this world basically every monarch in Europe bit the dust in year 1910 for one reason or another and thus WW1/WW2 and etc is averted. IC I'm asking which monarch was the most important player whose 'tragic' death stopped Europe from going up in flames. ;)

lloyd007

Sorry, feeling tired. :eek:

You could have people actually suggesting war would result because so many regimes were unstable because of the dramatic number of deaths.;)

Steve
 
Definitely Edward VII. If his mother is anything to go by, if he'd lived a little healthier that Francophilic warmonger could have lasted another ten or fifteen years. Then you can guarantee Britain would be dragged into a war of aggression against our Teutonic cousins. Thank goodness George V came to the throne when he did - this was a man who saw sense when it came to the balance of power in Europe and wouldn't bully his ministers into a villainous 'entente' with Slavs and Romantics.

OOC: ;)
 
lloyd007

Sorry, feeling tired. :eek:

You could have people actually suggesting war would result because so many regimes were unstable because of the dramatic number of deaths.;)

Steve

OOC: True, but honestly, between Wilhelm, Nicholas, Franz Josef and all the rest you had an incredibly toxic group of complete and total asshats who did nothing but shove Europe into the Great War. By having them all die in one year every major belligerent of WW1, save France, is thrown into succession mode and the successors to Germany, Austria and the OE seemed a lot more reasonable than their predecessors, and by throwing Russia into chaos early the rest of Europe sees a preview of what 20th century war would be like and loses the taste for it when they have Empires to run ;) (and without Russia, France + Britain can do the calculus and realize just how hideous a single front war would be vs Germany + Austria-Hungary.)
 
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