How My Viewers Caused WW1 To Erupt Over Africa
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- #possiblehistory #ph
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I doubt the British would actually acknowledge anything about a boer state. They would use all anti racist anti slavery rhetoric to immediately go to war again. And they were willing to commit as many atrocities as possible win or lose. South Africa also being Afrikaans and in touch with Germany is a nightmare.
Especially since their armies were freed up not having to deal with anything else in Africa.
It's free real estate.
Just out of interest why would south afrika being in touch with germany be such a nightmare?
@@_bk_004 because you dont want your enemy to have any Potential allies
Afrikaans is a Dutch creole language. Communication and gather sympathy from Germany would be easy. They are technically neighbors since Germany has Nambia.A germanic alliance in Africa would ruin most invasion plans. Even Portuguese help would be kind of useless and it would be a massive stalemate.
@@_bk_004 There are a bunch of chokepoints for global trade, like the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal, or the Strait of Malacca. The Cape is one of them. If Britain's control of the Suez Canal or Gibraltar were threatened, South Africa would instantly become the center of Britain's attention because they were, of course, a maritime trading nation
YES! We NEED a continuation! The biggest thing I wanna see is the fate of British territory in India and the situation of Japan and Soviets. Indian independence is certainly inevitable but without any reason to have such a ww2 as we did and a comparative of reality, a better Britain leaving the great war, perhaps their position in India would strengthen as anti colonial sentiments won't peak as much and INC might even negotiate a dominion status (which was actually proposed in 1929). I have no idea on how other things would play out though. Another aspect I wanna know that since there was no American involvement in the war, will the world even face the great depression? Overall I think this scenario massively benefits Britain, especially in colonial holdings.
russia also benefitted a lot, since ww1 was a rather easy victory for them the russian civil war may not happen (maybe?)
Guys please don't repeat 1935😭
@@eggggyu5they’ve politically manoeuvred the situation quite cleverly, if the civil war does happen it would be much later and not directly caused by the war.
Acctually everyone is in a better position, France has more European land, Germany and the triple monarchy too, and Germany still has Asian colonies… I too definitely want to see an continuation
@@isaacskinner5565 In this timeline it almost certainly doesn't happen. So that also means no Naziism, possibly even no communist movements as we've seen them in our world.
Why would fascism still come to Italy? They got what they wanted after the war which as far as I know was a major sticking point for the discontent that lead to fascism taking hold. Also the failure in Ethiopia didn’t occur in this timeline since it was never on the table
i commented the exact same thing, maybe he will answer at the start of the sequel
Great point against fascists taking power, but it's possible that maybe the crash of 29 creates a radical italy, most likely fascist as the king would prefer them as in our timeline, hoping to control benito while ending up being the one controlled, in this timeline however, the only thing the italians could want, apart from maybe the horn of africa are french/italian land like corsica nizza and arguably savoia, then if you give them ticino you have a huge italy that has achieved it's irredentist goals
Best guess they got promised more but the Russians were able to leverage there position to force it to be dialled back for more gains for Serbia. And the Italians got pissed that some of their claims were basically thrown out the window to appease the Russians.
edit: Either that or the underlying economic and social issues that caused the two red years post war still occur and that allows fascism to emerge in Italy as a reaction to this possibly in a slightly different form but broadly the same set of principles.
Fascism was used to combat communism
mussolini war pro war and stuff so if he gained power itlay might just have a fascist government
I'd definitely love to see a continuation, also because I am curious about what could happen in South Africa
Yeah he kind of just skipped over the boers, who I think would of taken the chance to invade Namibia at the Russian intervention
Boers would probably make apartheid v 5000
Guys please don't repeat 1935😭
Probably boer empire collapse pretty quickly because they will have even higher African percentages or they would adopt apartheid far sooner
@snomcultist1899 you seriously underestimate how overstretched the boers would already be
I'd definitely love a second part of this. A three team ww1 is very original, and a ww2 starting with pretty much a developed cold war would be very interesting.
Yes
Yes
I don't see any f*cking reason WW2 here. Only alien invasion could start it😂😂😂
Yes
Spain held north African possessions until 1975. Although hard, they managed to do it very well. More realistic is to reduce it to what in our timeline actually got and give Algeria to France. Much more realistic than give it all to France
Those possessions were smaller and more manageable, and didn't include the French Algerian coast.
This scenario is arguably better than our own timeline. The Berlin conference really should have been decided by PH's viewers.
How is it better
@@linmyatmg1028no communism, no hitler (probably), + i personally think less people died
@@linmyatmg1028well, the african borders not only caused a less harsh treaty of versailles, but also since this treaty wansn't so harsh on Germany, fascism wont rise in Germany, which could mean no or atleast a lighter ww2.
@@Eltonthaqis what? can you please rephrase the second comment because i honestly have no idea what do you mean by that
Russia didn't got a civil war so this is worse than our timeline
As someone from the Balkans, I have an intrinsic interest in part 2. Would be awesome if peace lasts. Viewers should decide borders more often.
I guess Albania would just give up on existing huh
Always fun to see these alternate wars, but I was a little surprised that you had the Boer state remain neutral during the alternate WWI. The Boers were generally pro-German in our timeline, and it's easy to imagine them joining Germany's side, especially if they were promised some of Portugal's colonies in the peace deal.
Yeah but that pro-german stance was mostly because they hated Britain. In a world where they hold that big of a territory they'd probably be mired down in trying to maintain an overextended empire in Africa.
They would probably be too buisy with their attempts to control their black population to get involved. Without British involvement the Boers would have done what they did in apartheid but earlier and with literal slavery added to the mix (that is cease all the good land for whites, and develope black reservations, while using blacks for cheap mining and to a lesser extent farm labour) (and possibly even genocide) which would obviously create unrest towards them. And they are going to be at ost 40% of the population (22% was the hisotical % by ww1, but this is mostly due to British efforts at 'civilising' the natives by giving them modern farming techniques and greater access to western medicine causing a massive boom between 1880s and 1910s, but it's unlikely the boer % would be as high as the 1881 boer republics of 45% mostly due to the Xhosa and Zulu)
What I suspect is that PH builds from the concept (as I recall from his previous video) that a Boer state so large would be unable to govern all of its territory or rule it fully so they wouldn't be able to intervene, but it seems he forgot to talk about it.
please do a what if Hitler was der failure of South Africa
I think Spain would face two options:
- An earlier Republic, as the monarchy is humilliated and its main support, the army, is destroyed. They would have been motivated by the 1910 portuguese revolution (if it still happens). This republic would be more stable than in our timeline, because most of the rebel generals during the civil war fought and got promoted in the Rif War, this time they would be either dead or low officers.
-A military dictatorship: Just as in our timeline, the war in Africa weakens the gouverment, getting couped by general Primo de Rivera with the King's blessing, like in OTL. They could pursue closer ties with the central powers, seeking revenge agaist France, or get influenced by Mussolini, just as Primo de Rivera tried to do in reality before resigning.
Anyway, I'm looking foward a continuation of this timeline. Great video, as always
Part two is definitely wanted! For all the reasons commentors have already stated, but also because I need to see South Africa freed from slavery. It was bad enough under the British, and they abolished slavery lol
The boers weren’t pro slavery in the 1880s anymore. Slavery was already banned for 30 years.
Third 'Alliance' and Backstabbing the Turks? This WW1 sounds hype.
Edit: Wow, the Russians were by far the winners of this WW1, they got practically everything they wanted and came out looking like the most reasonable of the great powers.
Turks will probably align themselves with the Italian fascists, and the lack of nazi means that this political spectrum could explore something else than XL ethnonationalism. Maybe esotericism or ultrairredentism/ultramilitarism?
@@holey5065 The Turks aligning with Italy just means the rest of the Ottoman empire gets partitioned. Who knows? Maybe Greater Greece happens? Depends on Ataturk I guess?
This was a solid way to make new content ideas. You made it your own and really looked at this possibility in a fresh way. Please chase this for one more video, even if it doesn't become a world war. You could probably make two videos about: one about the differences in political and economic realities and one about what would happen. Even though I think you usually make these more map-based videos I think that people have appetite for the other kind.
Viewers: Lets make sure the British get nothing!
UK: And I took that personally.
I really wonder how USA would have viewed this war, considering Entente/Balkan Alliance seeming aggression. A continuation would be fascinating. A stronger Russia under a Tsar and Germany with a Kaiser still.
The us had great relations with Russia before ww1, and disliked the ottoman empire, so would probably not mind the Russian side of the war, possibly even supporting them espeically after being aparently the cooler heads at the end.
But relations with the British and French would likely be worse.
Yeah, though I do recall Britain (and maybe France?) being USA’s greatest trading partner irl pre-WW1, so I wonder if that would play a role here. Though I definitely could see a Russian/American alliance with possibly Germany/Austria included as well, especially if American-Japanese relations are still poor (or not “great”), with Russia and America acting as the mediators and stabilizers in Asia.
The U.S would probably be friendly with most of Europe except for maybe Russia. With this world's world war 2 looking more like world war 1 with a rather late American intervention depending on where the German and Italian blocs end up. As America at least preferred Britain and France overall and did not want them to fall under German or Russian imperialist, or Italian fascist influence.
I don't see how Germany would not be able to capitulate France with Russia not being in the war
We would LOVE to see a sequel! Please do it!
poor spain, got demolished in the peace deal, maybe if they didnt have Algeria and some parts around guinea could have been saved from that horrendous war, but it is sad to see everyone ganging up against the Spanish who did nothing to deserve that punishement :(
I'm surprised they didn't join the war in Germany's side, considering the loss of territories they suffered
This was extremely interesting and very well done, quite unique. An amazing scenario you painted from a very strange turnout from the berlin conference.
It's hard to imagine how Germany with all it's divisions in the west wouldn't curbstomp france in a matter of weeks.
One of the reasons why the schlieffen plan failed was because of extra divisions in the east to defend against russia.
I as an Ethiopian I think this world is better than our real world
fr brother
I don't think so, turkey got uber colonised before even trying to moderniz3
@@minestar2247no Armenian Genocide is a W in my book
@@irmaosmatos4026 that would still happen, it happened because of the war and the goal of modernization, so it is very probable that it's worst in this timeline
@@minestar2247 Russia controlling more of Armenia and Constantinople diminishes its effect, and British Ottomans can at least end slavery sooner
Good stuff for adding representation of the armies and frontlines. It makes it easier to follow and makes it look more professional.
I disagree that professional pants-wearer Benito Mussolini would inevitably take power in Italy in this scenario, but this is a unique take on world war one.
You're amazing man! Thanks For this! 🎉🎉🎉🎉❤❤❤
letss goo, i love your content ph, i never get any yt merch or patreon but yesterday i decided to get yours cause of how high quality your content is. you are criminally underrated
I dont understand the reasoning behind the german doing so bad on the western front. They can deploy their whole military on the french frontline. Additional austria doesn't have a homefront and could deploy their troops also against france. A quick google search for 1914 gave me numbers of 1,3mil french soilders + 700k british VS 3,8mil germans + 2,5mil austrians. I dont see how the western front would hold long enough till russia would complete their campaigne against the turks to turn the tide. Even when eventually trench warfare sets in the central powers are at a mayor advantage without the additional frontlines
I Just think he didnt want to make another what if germany won ww1 szenario, there are Just so many already itd be boring
I can't see France and the UK holding on against Germany for a year. The German military edge is just too great, and if the Germans broke out beyond Paris, French morale and logistics would be non-existent.
Thats true but even as a german it wouldve been really boring to turn this Video into a what if germany won ww1 number 3765
Sometimes the most cursed bordergore produces the most blessed timeline
I think Germany and Russia would have preemptively negotiated, as well as Britain and France with Russia, allowing the Russian sphere to gain an advantage in the war without being pulled into the wider conflict, building them up to take a much larger role in an inevitable future conflict
A continuation of the video would be fun.
8:52 the classical music by oversimplified in the russian revolution 😳
wait PART TWO WOULD BE INSANE WE SOMEHOW MANAGED TO CREATE SUCH A INTERESTING SCENARIO LETS GO 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥😍😍😍😍
I find it ridiculous the fact that you thought that the wester front would be in a trench war... The reason why it ended up like that was because Russia mobilized way before german generals thought.
We need giant austria from the next vote
I'm excited for part 2
stopping kids from saying first 🛑🛑🛑
First.
Last
@@Enum_Devlast
Fourth.
Fifth
yes i definitly wanna see how this develops from this point althought i struggle to see how can the shillefen plan fail to knock out france with 1 million extra troops and a econocmicly stronger germany plus a bit more extra help from the austrians but still great video
I think that by really winning ww1 and take what was promised italy wouldn't have fallen into fascism, and also you said that italy "flexed is muscle" so is a functioning nation and army so there would be nothing to be angry about for mussolini to gain power, nevertheless great work.
But he never said it was fascist. Check out Benito Mussolini's previous political alignment, it's way different from what he'd later become known for.
@@gengarzilla1685 you are right mussolini before was a socialist but he specifies that "italy is trying a new form of government under the dictator benito Mussolini, creating a third way".
"New form" would be more sensical with fascism(fascism born 1920, socialism 1850).
"Creating a 3 way" fascism was regarded as the third way between socialism and capitalism.
I think he is referring to fascism.
@@dariospada2883 isn't this set in the 19th century still? It could still be communism as it hadn't arisen in russia in this timeline
“Fallen to facism”
@dariospada2883 socialism hadn't been tried yet, and he is comparing it to liberalism and traditional monarchy as the other 2 existing forms.
Regular socialism fitts 3rd wayism in this timeline.
Would love to see a part 2/sequel to this! and honestly, please don't be afraid to get speculative with this! Sure, you wouldn't know for sure what would happen, but it would add more flavor and content if you did, plus it would be your own spin on the scenario. This version of the Berlin Conference was ridiculous as it is, so why not further explore it speculatively?
A continuation of this scenario into the mid 20th century would be pretty neat.
Yes! Part two please. This scenario is honestly really interesting, and I can’t wait to see the fate of this Germany.
Gotta love how Albania got carved up and no uprisings happened.
I would love a part 3, this scenario has become something far more interesting than I would have imagined
The quality has improved so much since I started watching you. Hope you continue to make great alt history vids!
Man this video was so GOOD ! Your storytelling skills are AMAZING and that ending is making me REALLY want a art 2 !
Can you for Give the Czech Republic a
Silesia in description of video What If VIEWERS Carved Up Africa? pls
@@lionelhubeny404 Please explain what you mean I didn't understand at all what you tried to say
Edit: If you wanted to tell me to vote for Checkoslovakian expansion, sorry I already voted.
This scenario is really good, please make a part 2
The Germans losing Paris seems very unlikely and contrived.
@Cannon530YTOO >I imagine it would be done via a long siege and would be done by pushing the main army of Germany back and creating an encirclement.
Right the buck broken French/British forces would manage to hold the lines to the West of Paris with the fall of France's industrial/logistic/rail hub. Even though to the West of Paris is basically just a flat plane with no natural defenses. All without being able to reroute logistics from around France because once again the Paris railhub issue. Then with that completely broken supply issue (and most of France's factories under German occupation) they're going to launch a "long siege" AND pull an encirclement. Wow such a realistic scenario.
>Either way, it's done now. It was said in the video and recorded, so that is that...
(If you are resentful of this, I imagine you are sympathetic or simpily pathetic in your sympathy toward the German Empire and the questionable Germany, who lost...)
An appeal to finality, ad hominem, strawman, non sequitur, begging the question AND an appeal to emotion within a few sentences. Well done. Any more midwit debate tactics you want to attempt or are we done here?
I feel like striping Spain from ALL of it's Africa's possesions is quite harsh. They had a claim for the northermost part of Morroco as they have held some enclaves and ports for at elast 4 centuries.
Maybe get all of mauritania but leave the norther most territory like in our own timeline, giving all of it to France doesn't really make much sense to the balance of power in Europe either, making Britain with Gibraltar and France with all of Morroco control de entry to the Mediterranean would make the austro-hungary possesions in the adriatic worthless, with both suez an gibraltar straits controlled by enemies
This was really cool!
This alternative timeline would actually be better than our own as less people died and no communism.
In WW1,WW2 is around the corner east vs west vs italy?
I am socialist but am against sending people to Gulags and massively torturing and killing them
I am for more of a Titoist partially democratic socialism going to communism in a democratic way but having good relations to the west
@@PROUD_TITOIST As a Titoist myself, you clearly misunderstood the concept of Titoism.
@@marxistvalorie not really Tito did send people to "Goli otok" but those were political enemies mostly
Tito did have socialist goverment but he had good relations with the west i said it incorectly my bad
I wanted to say that he wanted to rule a communist/socialist country but the way Yugoslavia would be neutral party in world which would be democratic (not USA democratic imean real democracy)
Socialism is made to help workers and base people to eliminate classes in society get free healthcare and peopelt o work for the benefit of the sociery itself
I said more democratic ways cuz obviously Tito was much more democratic and more human than Stalin who sent millions to Gulags
@@marxistvalorie i missworded it kinda i guess
I mean i am for socialism similar to how Tito did it being decent with west and the east but being policialy indenpendent
Please make a continuation of this viseo. I oive your work and youve become my favorite alternate history channel. Also, pleaae do what of everything went perfectly for Poland.
Was there anyone else thinking that this strange panhandle of Austria-Hungary into Romania at 12:30 is just so ugly and somewhat freaking me out. Why don't give it to Romania?
Cause it connects austria hungary to hungarians and a couple germans in romania.
We absolutely need a Part 2 of this scenario. I am really interested in this divided Europe, and how that would play out.
PLEASE CONTINUE IT SO INTERESTING
This concept is soooo interesting would love to see a continuation! Great video!
YES! Please do a continuation of this!
I would love to see a continuation, and I'm curious to see if Germany has a grievance over losing the saarland
Triple Monarchy goes hard
Also those Africa borders tickle my brain, they are so satisfying at the end
A continuation would be wonderful. I'd absolutely LOVE to see it
I'd love it if you made a series out of these scenarios.
Yes! Please continue it! Tbh i felt this one was a bit shorter than usual
I have been waiting for this
A few big problems with this timeline:
With no Russia in the war at the start, German Empire doesnt attack belgium, which was only done because they wanted to avoid a 2-front-war. This in turn leaves Britain out of the war - they entered because of the belgian invasion.
With the balkan nations close to the central powers, there is no conflict with Russia, there would not be any assassination of Franz Ferdinand and there would be no casus belli for Russia, France of Britain. Germany would not just start a war with France, they have no revanchism and no interest in french lands. With this, the likely starting point of WW1 would be a french attack on Germany. At the time of WW1, this inversion of attack is very important - the brits would be less likely to be able to wage a war against the German Empire due to a lack of a casus belli.
You also completely left out the conflict between the brits and the russians over central asia. The russians would not have wanted more polish land - with the poles divided between the 3 powers, they're less able to rebel in a single country. There is very little reason for russia to go to war with the central powers in this timeline.
Not really the Belgian invasion was more of an excuse to join. Britain as part of the entente would never have allowed Germany to humiliate France again
**23 missed calls from spain**
Portugal has the resources to defend its colonies? Honestly, I doubt it, and there were ideas of partition driven up between the British and Germans. One can imagine the same thing can happen IRL
To be honest, all of this is really questionable, as it previsages a world war started by in the West, somehow, that is not really explained. It can be tense, sure, but is nothing like the powder keg of the Balkans. I honestly feel like a more likely situation is Germany and Austria gang on Russia sometime after 1917 in a pre-emptive foreign policy designed to curb its power
Very interested in a part 2. Please continue!
funfact: Egypt wasn't officially owned by United Kingdom until 1914.
I hope you do more of these viewer choose scenarios! Also, it would be great to keep the wacky options, it's far more interesting if you give us the ability to both create awful borders and also to make stupid and silly nations (for instance, it could've been cool to see even landlocked areas going to the winner: and then maybe in a video like this one, a 'trade' is simulated to make the borders make more sense.
Why is Germany, a nation which, in our timeline, had to fight on two fronts and divide their forces for most of the war, so much LESS successful in the war compared to OTL?
I mean seriously, in this timeline they don't have to worry about fighting Russia, so they can keep concentrating their whole army in the west for the whole war(OTL when germany was able to concentrate forces in the West for the Spring Offensive they achieved their most success since the beginning of the war), they are also economically stronger because Congo.
I mean, I'm not a Kaiserboo, but the way you set up this timeline seemed tailor made for a German victory in europe(Maybe at the cost of losing their overseas possessions). Most of the early war problems faced by Germany are removed by Russia being neutral, France SHOULD have collapsed after Paris was taken(Something which didn't happen OTL pretty much because of luck and disorganization on the german's part), and germany shouldn't have fell back from Paris, since there was no Eastern front they had to send divisions off to.
I agree with you but it’s probably because it’s more interesting this way
I would love a continuation of the series, its really interesting
This is the greatest channel honestly these vids are so good keep it up
Yes, the Balkan and Romanian portions of AH were indeed some of the poorest parts, but you also have them lose all of Galicia. Claiming that these losses were more of a blessing than a curse is just plain wrong. Galicia was pretty much the most important part of the empire right after Austria proper because of natural resources (especially coal and iron for steel production).
Furthermore, why would AH become a triple monarchy with the Czechs? "Czechoslovakia" was already divided between the Austrians and Hungarians, with both Czechia and Slovakia having been part of their respective kingdoms for literal centuries. Also, not only was there a large German population in the Sudetenland, there was even a sizeable minority of German speakers in Prague, albeit proportionally weakened at the time of WW1.
We definetly need a part 2.
I would LOVE a continuation of this timeline.
I'm in 100% support of a continuation of this scenario
You need to do a part 2!
Wow, that was really interesting, very well designed scenario and I saw someone asking why Fascism would come to Italy but I'm certain you'll explain it in the next video! I look forward to your new video!
A second part would honestly be interesting to watch. Anyways, great video, as always.
Very good job! Please continue this!
Considering the cliffhanger this was left on, a part 2 would be amazing!
This is truly the video of all time.
A continuation would be great. I’d also like to see an update on some of the independent states in Africa - how is big Ethiopia doing?
We need a part 2!
Moral of the story is never make a map using TH-cam votes
I'd love to see a HOI4 mod of this scenario
Continuation needed😊
You should do a continuation, this scenario is pretty interesting, the peace deal is as if Bismarck was still alive, very fair compared to Versaille and was one of my favourite parts of the video.
If you make another video, is it possible that you make the Hungarian-Romanian border less...well, horrible? 😂😂, maybe the European powers realized the mistake and supported a population exchange.
They agreed to create a fucking Israel in Madagascar, this doesn't seem so strange in comparison😅.
Babe wake up possible history just posted
Also first
Yes please continue, this is really cool
Excellent video PH, I like how you theorized what played out after the territorial divisions made by the viewers
I don't know if I like the direction of this one (aside from the Russian Balkan league which is cool). I feel it was specifically made to be a bit contrarian to the audience's wishes rather than realistically evaluating the situation. The viewers carved up Africa to (among other things *cough Austrian-Israeli Madagascar cough*) hamstring the Entente and give the Central Powers a significant advantage going into WW1. Somehow this does not translate into the actual war. As some viewers pointed out, Britain and the Boers would be at each others' throats, making it easy for Germany to find an ally in Africa making the African front far more German-favored than in our timeline, possibly deterring Portugal from joining the war at all. I wonder about the Ottomans. Given the way Possible History portrays their relationship with Britain, it seems like the Ottomans could easily be persuaded by the Central Powers to backstab Britain to regain their independence, seize the suez and drastically swing the outcome of the war. Honestly just taking the suez would detonate British hopes of blockading the Central Powers, and it would be a major bargaining chip in the Ottoman Empire's favor. Unless they enjoy being a glorified British puppet state, that is, and prefer to remain with the Entente. But perhaps they could be convinced to stay with Britain just because they are dependent on the British to suppress Egypt. If they align with the Central Powers, I imagine Russia would stay neutral and wait until the war was over before attacking the Ottomans, when the Ottomans might not have the Central Powers defending them. I can't picture Czar Nicholas II looking at Germany mollywhopping France and say "yeah I want a piece of that." He didn't even want the war in our timeline when he was roped into a defensive pact with Serbia, so there's no way he would willingly go to war out of anything but a desperate desire to stop Germany from dominating the world stage, but surely that desire would be lessened by the familial connection he has with Kaiser Wilhelm?
Speaking of mollywhopping France, assuming the Russians stay neutral (or simply join the war far later than in our timeline), with or without the Ottomans I find it hard to imagine that Germany would lose this version of WW1 since the Russian front isn't bogging them down. Concentrating *most* of their forces into the Schlieffen Plan, despite all its flaws, nearly succeeded at capturing Paris in the real world. Having no eastern front to distract them, plus the additional wealth of their expanded colonial empire makes the German offensive seem much stronger on paper. France is also likely a little bit weaker due to the chaos in Algeria when they had to take it back from Spain (switching control of land like that must be very destabilizing). Nevertheless I don't think the French gameplan early in the war would be any different than in real life because of their aggressive jingoism in the face of their humiliating defeat during the Franco-Prussian War years earlier. Add to that a weaker Belgium like Possible History said, and the German offensive may be halted for days in Belgium rather than weeks this time around. The Schlieffen Plan should go tremendously better than it did in our timeline. More troops on the attack, a quicker shot through Belgium, a slightly weaker France and a slightly weaker Britain (due to a lesser colonial empire, especially since they have to fight harder to hold onto their African territories against a stronger Germany) makes me think that stopping after capturing Paris seems pretty pessimistic. We may see a genuine repeat of the Franco-Prussian War, with an encirclement and capture of the main French army, the collapse of French morale and governance with the fall of Paris, and a generally swift land war that does not get bogged down in trench warfare on the western front. Let's not forget that Britain's standing army in sent to the western front in 1914 was strong, but it quickly evaporated against the sheer volume of troops the Germans mustered via conscription. Britain needed France to hold in order for them to buy time to really get their army rolling, and if France collapses Britain can't do much of anything in 1914 (if we assume this WW1 starts the same year as in our world). With France is on its last legs and British support being more robust on sea than it is on land, it's POSSIBLE France could rally...but it would be an even more uphill battle than in our timeline. In all probability a French surrender in early 1915 is entirely likely. Let's not forget that Austria-Hungary isn't wasting time and manpower by the boatloads fighting against either Russia or Serbia (assuming Archduke Franz Ferdinand isn't assassinated). Austria-Hungary would be able to direct all of its troops directly at France. Possible History's assertion that Austria-Hungary would've let Germany do most of the fighting for the bulk of the war is a poor way of writing off what Austria-Hungary brings to the western front. If you were at war with France and GREAT BRITAIN, you wouldn't sit back and let Germany do the heavy lifting. You'd fight to knock France out ASAP so Britain can't get a continental foothold and ruin your day. I imagine the poorly-led army of Austria-Hungary would at least man the defenses at Alsace-Lorraine while the entire German army is sent through Belgium, with the Austro-Hungarians following up as the French begin to retreat, making the establishment of a solid French defensive line near impossible. The French numerical advantage which helped them repel Germany from Paris in 1914 would thus be nonexistent here.
The French people might be able to hold on longer than they have any right to by virtue of their fighting spirit and hatred of Germany, but eventually people stop caring about the threat of German hegemony and start caring about the fact that their people are dying in another humiliating war they don't feel they can win.
We haven't even considered Spain's participation in the war yet. Spain's political disunity coupled with the fall of their African colonies could have lead to either complete neutrality as in our timeline, or an earlier rise of fascist or revanchist sentiments directed against the French, maybe even opening up a front on France's southern border while also trying to seize back Morocco & Algeria. Perhaps Spain could also be offered a chance to invade Portugal and take their African colonies should Portugal decide to interfere in the African front. While the Spanish military is terrible at this point in time, the French can't simply ignore a Spanish advance entirely. That takes bodies from the front, and France absolutely can't afford peeling a single man from the fight against the Germans.
Whether the Spanish attack or stay neutral, I can't imagine this timeline going remotely well for the Entente. America won't even have the chance to join the war because, unless Great Britain wants to fight a naval war exclusively over the next few years, Britain would likely have to accept peace terms given how hopeless their situation is without either France or Russia. An early British capitulation would mean no unrestricted submarine warfare or Zimmerman telegram and thus no American pretext to join the war. Even if Britain does elect to fight a naval war, depending on how quickly France falls we may see heavily ramped up German naval production to contest the British Royal Navy. Kaiser Wilhelm's love of navies and hatred of the British motivated him to directly compete with British naval production prior to WW1 in our timeline, and if France surrendered there is no doubt in my mind Wilhelm would do everything in his power to make sure Germany surpasses the Royal Navy in strength, making a blockade of German shipping untenable after some time. That's why I think Britain would eventually even lose the naval war too. Perhaps Britain could convince the Russians to the war once they realize France is a lost cause, but it would be too little too late. Russia would have no reason to perform any better than in our timeline, and certainly would fall quickly without any hope of Entente aid on the western front. They might surrender quickly enough to keep the Czar alive and in power, but if they hang on too long I expect Lenin and the Bolsheviks could rise to power. Even if Britain surrenders and WW1 ends early, I half expect Germany & Austria-Hungary (with or without the Ottoman Empire depending on whether they rebel against Britain) would be eager to attack Russia together to neuter Russia since they are both terrified of it, as well as to break up Russia's power in the Balkans.
Italy will see France falling and either be persuaded to help deal the killing blow to gain French lands they desired prior to WW1, or simply stay neutral to avoid being served up al dente alongside a plate of French escargot and frog legs, because they KNOW Germany & Austria-Hungary would eat Italy alive at this point. Maybe they could use WW1 as a smokescreen to try taking over Ethiopia during the chaos, but at this point I half expect general Luigi Cadorna to conduct the 12 battles of Adwa instead of the 12 battles of the Isonzo and get the entire Italian army destroyed in Abyssinia. I have zero confidence in that man's ability to lead troops to victory against anything more than a wet paper bag. He's gonna turn into a Victoria 2 player complaining about how many times he got stack-wiped in Somaliland I swear!
I agree
I'll admit, this feels Like you had a german loss in mind all along. Like, it seems like you barely had even considered if Germany could actually win. I would certainly have this scenario act out rather differently.
Amazing video! Love the new addition of moving armies on the map! Great work again PH!
YES THIS IS WHAT I NEEDED
Idea:what if everything went right for the polish lithuania Commonwealth
as a certain indecisive molusk said:
just as planned
I think the League of Three Emperors would've stayed alive in this timeline causing Russia to join the Central Powers (alongside the balkan nations) against the Entente, which the Ottomans would be a fully fledged member of. The Boers would join the Central Powers and attack the Portugese colonies, and the war would probably be started by some crisis in Ottoman territory in the balkans.
A continuation would be awesome
Actually France would be dead. As Austria- Hungary would be free from Russian front and Serbian front, so they could send a lot more help than British expeditionary corps. It's Kaiserreich, boys!
Also Italy wont join the war on Entente side without Russia, they simply too weak to destroy AUH alone.
Britain: so what should we do with Namibia?
France: Ah, let’s just give it to the Italians, I’m sure they’ll do something with it.
Italy: Hell yeah Namibia, now I have somewhere to store my Spagetti.