WI: Germany on defensive Western Front [WWI]

Perkeo

Banned
That's presentist nationalism; Poland and Ukraine had been part of the Empire for centuries, were considered part of the Russian nation-state, not a colonial possession. It was considered exceptionally harsh at the time for those reasons; it doesn't matter that we in the 21st century think of Poland and Ukraine as separate states after they've enjoyed a century as distinct (if not sovereign) republics.

Do correct me if I'm wrong, but it was never even considered making a peace with Germany or Austria that doesn't involve "presentist nationalism" was it?

Edit: It will appear that the war parties were much alike...
 
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BTW he is completely wrong. Poland was a greater power in its own right until the Partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795), in which Russia took Belarus, Western Ukraine (the eastern half was already Russian, Lithuania and Poland itself. Prussia got Western Prussia and Posen and Austria got Galicia. Without these partitions Russia would have not become a greater power. At the time of its greatest expansion (1618) the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (the first Polish republic) included all of todays Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and parts of Russia, Estonia, Moldavia, Romania and Ukraine.
 

Perkeo

Banned
A lot of things are drifting against the Austro-Germans

1) The Russian mobilization would have been sped up to the point that a strike against France would not have been possible

2) The Russian rail net was crossing the Vistula greatly expanding the area of operations that would have been possible

3) Most importantly- Serbia was growing dramatically as a power adding 200,000 men to her army

4) Romania was quickly drifting from the Central Powers. She had an army of 500,000 men

5) Italy was growing more and more antagonistic and was also recovering from the Ottoman war

And therefore Germany had its terrible "now or never" doctrine. If only they had seen that the time window for a preemptive strike - if it ever existed - was already closed in summer of 1914 and adjusted their strategy. Germany would almost certainly ended up on the winning side of either the peace or a different WWI.
 
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