How to Mess Up World War 1

1. Which British Royal? And why would they be there?

2. What could be the future effects of this? Russian Pride in the Balkans could be destroyed by this.

1. There's flexibility. One of George V's sons on an Adriatic cruise maybe, but anyone in the extended Royal family would do. The visit wouldn't be an official one -- it would be enough if the visitor was on good personal terms with Franz Ferdinand and was invited by him to ride in the procession then go hunting afterwards. If the British Foreign Office had cautioned the prince in advance not to associate with Franz Ferdinand, it wouldn't happen, but I'm not sure the F.O was sharp enough to do that, and the princes weren't so astute to predict any major ramifications themselves.

On your earlier point, I don't think that an unofficial Royal visit to a Central Power would be too unreasonable. The Russian Royal family visited with the Kaiser before the war, and royal visits were sometimes a deliberate prelude to more formal diplomacy. Edward VII's Royal visit to France is a good example. If needed, additional facts can be butterflied in -- the prince's yacht is wrecked in the Adriatic and he and his party are rescued by an Austrian warship for instance.

2. Effect: having thrown in a monkey wrench, I was going to let everyone else chime in on the consequences. The obvious one is that I couldn't see Britain allying with Serbia after the assassination, no matter what the treaties required.
 
1. There's flexibility. One of George V's sons on an Adriatic cruise maybe, but anyone in the extended Royal family would do. The visit wouldn't be an official one -- it would be enough if the visitor was on good personal terms with Franz Ferdinand and was invited by him to ride in the procession then go hunting afterwards. If the British Foreign Office had cautioned the prince in advance not to associate with Franz Ferdinand, it wouldn't happen, but I'm not sure the F.O was sharp enough to do that, and the princes weren't so astute to predict any major ramifications themselves.

On your earlier point, I don't think that an unofficial Royal visit to a Central Power would be too unreasonable. The Russian Royal family visited with the Kaiser before the war, and royal visits were sometimes a deliberate prelude to more formal diplomacy. Edward VII's Royal visit to France is a good example. If needed, additional facts can be butterflied in -- the prince's yacht is wrecked in the Adriatic and he and his party are rescued by an Austrian warship for instance.

2. Effect: having thrown in a monkey wrench, I was going to let everyone else chime in on the consequences. The obvious one is that I couldn't see Britain allying with Serbia after the assassination, no matter what the treaties required.

So despite an assassinated Arch-Duke, this will remain a local conflict. I still see however, a pan-European conflict as very likely from other issues, e.g. Aegean Crisis between the Ottomans and Greece.

I'll google some of George V's sons, and get an answer on it.
 
1. There's flexibility. One of George V's sons on an Adriatic cruise maybe, but anyone in the extended Royal family would do. The visit wouldn't be an official one -- it would be enough if the visitor was on good personal terms with Franz Ferdinand and was invited by him to ride in the procession then go hunting afterwards. If the British Foreign Office had cautioned the prince in advance not to associate with Franz Ferdinand, it wouldn't happen, but I'm not sure the F.O was sharp enough to do that, and the princes weren't so astute to predict any major ramifications themselves.

Was there any British royal who was personally friendly with Franz Ferdinand?

Of course, even if such a prince could be found, the Foreign Office would certainly act to prevent his journey. The Foreign Office had strongly opposed Austria's annexation of Bosnia back in the day, and would not by any means like to see a British prince touring the controversial province alongside Austria's heir-apparent.

For that matter, which (if any) of Europe's other monarchs were personally friendly with Franz Ferdinand? And could have thus plausibly found themselves in the car? Kaiser Wilhelm, I suppose...is there anybody else?
 
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Was there any British royal who was personally friendly with Franz Ferdinand?

For that matter, which (if any) of Europe's other monarchs were personally friendly with Franz Ferdinand? And could have thus plausibly found themselves in the car? Kaiser Wilhelm, I suppose...is there anybody else?

... Kaiser Wilhelm II gets shot with Franz Ferdinand.
 
That's certainly one way to mess things up. Still wondering if there was anyone else, though.

Well, can we just look at that first. No nation could defend Serbia, so I could imagine an immediate vassalage/invasion/annexation by both Germany and Austro-Hungary. What now?
 
The Kerensy government (or other replacement for the monarchy) decides not to continue the war, and we get Brest-Livosk early. Germany can transfer more forces west. How do we make this into a peace? Perhaps no USA in the war.

Or shifting the POD further west, there's someone else in the White House who insists that Britain respect the USA's rights as a neutral Then things can get interesting...
 
The Kerensy government (or other replacement for the monarchy) decides not to continue the war, and we get Brest-Livosk early. Germany can transfer more forces west. How do we make this into a peace? Perhaps no USA in the war.

Or shifting the POD further west, there's someone else in the White House who insists that Britain respect the USA's rights as a neutral Then things can get interesting...

So I imagine the 100 days offensive happens early, German troops enter Paris. Then what would happen.

Or in the America scenario, a similar thing except the offensive at the same time happens early.
 
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