No German Colonialism

  • Thread starter Deleted member 1487
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Deleted member 1487

What if the Germans don't have colonies? AFAIK the Germans only had about 10,000 people in their Kolonialverein, the lobbying group for Germany to gain colonies, before they actually acquired any. Bismarck was opposed to any efforts to gain colonies, which actually gave the other European powers the room to grab the best ones in Africa and Asia.
So what if Germany doesn't get involved? For the sake of argument let's say they still build a fleet and don't use colonialism as justification. I'm not sure how much was spent on the colonies, but it had to be in the millions of Marks, especially after the military expeditions to fight the revolts against European rule. What is the money used for instead?
 

Delvestius

Banned
This is interesting, but seeing as that Germany only had 3 African claims (Tanzania, Cameroon and Namibia) that were less populated and comparitively underdeveloped, and just a few Pacific Islands, the energies spent of these territories, if allocated to other programs, would be marginally inconsquential.
 

Deleted member 1487

Togoland was profitable and the German African colonies in the South were just starting to generate cotton in 1914. Also the Asian colonies were generating gold, nuts, oils, and various tropical goods, but were still costing Marks to maintain them. Obviously the settlements were inconsequential.

I suppose I am wondering what other efforts German money and energies would be spent on without colonial endeavors. Don't forget that much of the crises leading to the German war, the ones the convinced the British, French, and Russians to increase their military strength, started with colonial disputes in Africa...
 

Thande

Donor
I think you would have to avoid Wilhelm II as Kaiser or at least somehow change his opinions of the matter. As noted above Bismarck was against the whole idea.
 

Cook

Banned
For the sake of argument let's say they still build a fleet and don't use colonialism as justification.
The High Seas Fleet would still be built because Germany was dependent on overseas trade, had the second largest Merchant navy in the world and without a fleet both the trade and the ships it was carried in were vulnerable to the whims of foreign powers, as shown by the Royal Navy stopping German ships on the high seas during the Boer War.
 
While Bismarck generally opposed colonies most of the time, it was under his watch that German gained its first colonies.

Anyways You need a Pre-1900 PoD, since Germany's colonies were all established in the late 19th century.

Now, having said all that, apart from maybe less 'prestige loss' and a few thousand extra soldiers I don't think Germany itself would be affected much, though it might mean WWI ens earlier as the Entente does'nt have to fight in the colonies and can thus focus all their attention on Europe.

One of the big things that this would affect is medicine, in particularly tropical medicine, and environmental research, which will be delayed/pushed back atleast a decade, as ALOT of the research into medicine and exploration and scientific documentation of African and New Guinean flora and fauna was done by Germany.
 
The High Seas Fleet would still be built because Germany was dependent on overseas trade, had the second largest Merchant navy in the world and without a fleet both the trade and the ships it was carried in were vulnerable to the whims of foreign powers, as shown by the Royal Navy stopping German ships on the high seas during the Boer War.


Though it was a rather silly response, as most of the German ships were too limited in range to threaten anything further away than the British Isles, which meant that her merchantmen were no less at the mercy of the RN than before - as was demonstrated in WW1.
 
Though it was a rather silly response, as most of the German ships were too limited in range to threaten anything further away than the British Isles, which meant that her merchantmen were no less at the mercy of the RN than before - as was demonstrated in WW1.

The Germans only need to concentrate their naval strength in the North Sea and the Baltic. One has to keep in mind that most naval planners figured that there would be a decisive naval battle soon after the declaration of war and that any blockades would be close blockades and not distant ones.

The deciding battleground was to be the North Sea and one only needed the range to meet there.

The British didn't really start thinking things out until Fisher had been replaced by Wilson in 1910 and even then hadn't gotten a firm grasp on details before 1914. The Germans had their own playbook which the British didn't follow and they were basically adrift with what to do for most of the war.
 
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