Prussia and the World Wars

Actually, some of them were here at that time.

 

On my mother's side, I am part Cherokee. The rest is English, Irish, Scottish, German, and Dutch.

Hmmm...I seem to represent a large part of the European Union!

 

If you wish to be so, than we are all African.

 

Darn those assumptions!

 

That is so cool! You're all-American, as in, not of any obvious ethnic group. Indeed, half of Europe runs in your family...

I'm afraid I'm just about entirely Dutch until the retracable roots of 1596.

 

Thank you, Roel.

On a side note, this ethnic intermarriage you find in so many Americans is why Hitler was not afraid of America when we entered WW2. He could not believe that what he termed a "mongrel people" could possibly produce a first class fighting force.

 

And we did.

 

Just found this old thread, and it's always fascinated me, Prussia and the start of the World Wars.

I've always thought of Kaiser Wilhelm II as the man that basically screwed everything up for Germany, Europe, and the world.

Germany had unified in 1871 through the use of Bismarck's brilliant combination of foreign diplomacy and short military campaigns. France had been totally isolated, Russia and Germany signed secret treaties 'reinsurance treaties' in the 1880s. These ensured Germany and Russia remained on friendly terms, and that France remained isolated, [no enemies on two fronts] and Britain not yet alarmed at Bismarck's short wars and limited territorial ambitions.

Germany was at it's zenith, and the major continental power in 19th century Europe.

Then came what I think was the defining moment for Germany [and Europe] in the coming century, the death of Friedrich 3rd.

He was a great friend and admirer of British parliamentary institutions, and dreamed of remaking Germany along democratic lines, unfortunately he died 99 days after assuming the throne.

His 29 yr old son William, became the new emperor, and every thing went down hill for Germany from then on.

Under the Kaiser, and his dilettantish dreams of a world empire, Germany sought its "place in the sun" and in many instances did its utmost to meddle and provoke [i.e Morocco] Russia asked for a renewal of the reinsurance treaty, but Germany refused persistently which eventually pushed France and Russia together.

And to cap it off, Britain was alienated and alarmed by the German Naval programme, and eventually joined France and Russia.

Germany, was now locked in to a unwinnable war on two fronts, and to make sure it wouldn't win, provoked America, sealing Germany's fate.

So you had one of Europe's most brilliant statesmen in Bismarck, followed by a dilettante Kaiser putting Germany in a untenable position in the First war, which led to a perfect breeding ground for the psychopathic Corporal and the scum of Germany to start the Second war.

Just a very few thoughts on a very involved period.

 

some good points there...prior to the unification of germany in 1871..britain and prussia and the majority of the german states were closely allied for long periods of history..both had an historical enemy in france!

it would have been interesting to see how the 20th century would have developed had britain and prussia/germany remained friends?

 

By the late 19th century, Russia, Britain and France were getting very apprehensive of the growing industrial might and military power of unified Germany. The game Bismarck played with the rest of Europe was extremely difficult to set up, and, after the war of 1870-1, to maintain. I don't think anyone but the ruthlessly pragmatic yet utterly realistic Bismarck could have pulled it off. This means that after his death it was bound to go wrong at some point. Germany had simply become too big for the other European powers to allow, and many of them were also facing increasing crises within their own regime, which historically is a well-known excuse to start major wars.