Opinion of Kaiser Willhelm II

[Kingpoleon]

His personality was great or awful and he was not very competent. His obsession with the new colonies was a bad idea. As for the naval fleet, that without the colonies and combined with an ally's(say Italian and Austrian) navy being grown, would be a good idea. FF with some personal quirks and a huge ego.

[Kingpoleon]

I don't get this pro-German World War I view that the world would have been so much better if they had won. Events don't occur in a vacuum.

If France lost, there is a good chance the Third Republic fell and that would result in the creation of a government dedicated to restoring its former glorly. That could easily be a fascist dictator.

Also, Russia was in an abyss of rioting in 1914. Knowledge of this actually made things worse, because the German diplomats fueled the notion in Berlin that Russia was a paper tiger and could not possibly stand up to the Central Powers. Patriotic fervor temporarily papered over these problems, but a swift defeat by Germany probably plunges the country into revolution. Considering their history, an iron man on a horse is the most likely outcome.

To be fair, fascist France weaker with a monarchist/democratic Germany with a strong military and a communist Russia is not worse than fascist Germany with a democratic France with a weak military and a communist Russia.

[Kingpoleon]

Sorry, I meant not better.

[Kingpoleon]

Yes, but instead of Hitler and Stalin and Mussolini and Tojo, it migh just be Stalin and some Frenchman, especially if Germany treated Japan wants equal in the negotiations. The main point is, it would be hard for someone to be as bad as Hitler.

[Kingpoleon]

Listen, I really think we can all agree that a strong German monarchy is better than the Hitler regime. I doubt a powerful Germany would allow fascists to seize France. It's far too risky to change the outcome of WWI now, because IOTL the world does not end. However, if I were to choose one at the time, not taking into account that IOTL the world does not end and it could in a different one, the Triple Alliance would be far preferable.

Germany was also far less imperialistic in terms of Africa, as even its few colonies there had a large degree of autonomy compared to the French and British colonies, especially taking into account its far smaller size.

[Kingpoleon]

I fail to see how a hypothetical Russian Hitler would be able to inflict a higher death toll than the IRL Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin put together (which would be needed to support the idea that we live in the best of all possible worlds)

On the other hand, given Prussian designs of Mitteleuropa, I am not entirely convinced that Germany would behave much better than they did IRL.

Russia would almost definitely not end up worse, especially if the Romanov family takes it back over.

A French Hitler couldn't be nearly as successful. The French people were less naturally militaristic, and not even the Bonapartes could change that post-1890 or so.

[Kingpoleon]

NCYank has pwned this thread with historically accurate analysis

What a great endorsement from a great poster!