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What if the Imperial German plan to attack New York and Boston had been approved and carried out?
For anyone who doesn't know, Kaiser Wilhelm II's plan for invading the two consisted of the following:
60 warships, along with 40-60 troopships and cargo ships, would travel across the Atlantic for 25 days.
The German ships would engage American ships before splitting up.
Troops in Massachusetts would land in Cape Cod and begin opening fire on Boston with artillery.
The attack on New York, pretty much the goal of the entire plan, would have troops land in Sandy Hook while warships attacked Forts Hamilton and Tompkins, which would be followed by Manhattan being shelled.
Wilhelm envisioned a total force of 100,000 soldiers, but Alfred von Schlieffen informed him that Germany didn't have enough ships to carry than many men and the necessary equipment for them.
I'm asking what would've been the most plausible outcome, since the whole idea is pretty ridiculous. But could they have managed to actually land troops, get close enough to actually attack, or would they have been stopped before they got within range?
If they did manage to attack, how much damage could they have done?
How long would it have taken the U.S. to fight them off? Would this have been enough for America to declare war on Germany? What impact would this have on international politics and relations?