The First World War without the Haber Process

For the purposes of discussion, let's say that Herr Haber and Herr Bosch never discover the Haber process (which converts gaseous hydrogen and nitrogen into liquid ammonia). Without the ability to artificially synthesize ammonia, Germany will be unable to produce nitrate based explosives without access to natural deposits of saltpeter (the largest of which during the era was located in Chile).

Would Germany risk war if her war industry was constrained by a dependence upon Chilean nitrates, which is sure to be cut off by a British imposed blockade? And if she did risk war, how long would she last without the Chilean nitrates (and without the ability to produce ammonia synthetically)?
 
War? Probably. Everyone expected a short war, and Germany had low stockpiles of nitrates. Even a theoretical resupply from say neutral Italy & the Netherlands & the Ottoman Empire wouldn't have been enough without victory. (There were plenty of nitrates in Norway via hydro power, but Norway was British friendly.)

If they didn't crush the French? They would be forced to surrender pretty fast. The Futurist Manifesto assumes that without Antwerp supplies and without the Haber Process (and with much better Ottoman supply lines), Germany would have been forced towards peace within only a handful of months).
 
So are we talking a matter of months, or could they drag it out to a year or more?

Sorry, edited a bit after you posted which partially answers your questions. It depends on the prewar supply chains set-up, and it also depends on their stockpiles, and it finally depends on Antwerp.

Assuming good supply chains + Antwerp + better stockpiles than OTL we're looking at perhaps a year. If we're talking basically OTL then six months? IIRC, with Antwerp.
 
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