What blunders did Wilhelm II make that led to the German Empire's demise?

What blunders did Wilhelm II make that led to the German Empire's demise? Could he have done anything more to ensure its survival?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Yeah, stop competing with brits, focus inwards and make economic bloq with balkans/scandinavia the swiss etc.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      [...]

      These answers ignore that the prime anxiety of the German Empire wasn't the British, it was the Russians. They were right at their border and had a massively growing economy and population. They were scared shitless of being cornered by them and France.

      Britain was their main economic rival but Russia was their biggest strategic issue. German foreign policy was basically eastern expansion which would be progressively more difficult as Russia got stronger.

      Russia was always going to be a French ally owing to the insane amount of French investment there too, so simply abandoning Eastern Expansion wouldn't work either.

      https://i.imgur.com/3dPMSOX.jpg

      What blunders did Wilhelm II make that led to the German Empire's demise? Could he have done anything more to ensure its survival?

      The easiest answer would be to win the First World War by committing fully to the Schlieffen Plan.

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    They were a Central European empire competing with Western European maritime/colonial empires (which were unsustainable).

    As Germany and allied to Austria: they owned the Rhein and Danube, two of the strongest and most influential rivers in Europe.

    Sitting back and just waiting for a superior position of longterm strength would have sufficed. He fired Otto because he was moronic.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Western European maritime/colonial empires (which were unsustainable)
      Why?
      If not for the world wars what'd be stopping us living in pax evopa forever, with Indonesia being an unironic slave colony instead of just a defacto one making nikes?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >what'd be stopping us living in pax evopa forever
        Hubris like this is why Europe fought those wars thinking they would be safe after destroying themselves.

        Population growth of the global south and reaching technological parity is what stopped us from messing with regions 3x the size of our own continent

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          >Population growth of the global south and reaching technological parity is what stopped us from messing with regions 3x the size of our own continent
          You say that like Britain didn't control India for centuries.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Not him but that line of thinking is moronic. Just because you did it before doesn't mean you can do it forever. No empire could last indefinitely, Not Achaemenids, Not Romans, and not England. There's no way England could pull a conquest of India in 21st century, because the technological gap is nowhere near as extreme as the 18th century and unlike EIC nationalism means divide and conquer is far harder to pull

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            India obviously did not have technological parity in 1948, they were released because of global geopolitical will turning against imperialism and promises were made to the princely states.
            >b-but what about muh heckin civil disobedierino
            the sepoy rebellion saw 6,000 British killed and 800,000 Indians killed. I'm not saying a rebellion in 1948 would have been as decisive, but given those numbers I don't think the Indians would have won.

            Assuming no WW1 and thus no WW2 the Princely states would continued to accept British rule and with that there was very little the native Indians could do against British rule.
            In 1914 European mastery of the world was as such that it couldn't ever be toppled, barring inter-European warfare.

            Wilhelm never tried to compete with Britain nor did he decide over military spending. There is absolutely no relation between Morroco and the alliances of the first world war. He never gave an interview to the daily telegraph it was a private conversation published as an interview and it too had zero influence on world politics. This is just silly make belief stuff. The Rückversicherungsvertrag was broken off by von Cparivi and there is no way in hell it could have lasted until 1914 and once again there is no blame to give Wilhelm here. For what it's worth Caprivi's focus on England and Italy managed to prevent a European war for another 20 years.
            You're just counting backwards from 1914 and look up for miniscule bits that somehow can be interpreted to somehow negatively reflect on Wilhelm with no concern to his actual role or how politics between the great powers actually played out.

            Again, I'm not him but saying there wasn't competition with Britain is moronic. You're dismissing the entire dreadnought race and economic competition, it's as laughable as saying there's no competition between China and America today.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Again, I'm not him but saying there wasn't competition with Britain is moronic. You're dismissing the entire dreadnought race and economic competition, it's as laughable as saying there's no competition between China and America today.
            Can you at least read the words you defend before making your opinion? How can you in the same sentence criticise Wilhelm (who DID NOT decide over the budget) for his arms race with Britain and the daily telegraph "interview" where he explains that the fleet is a deterence to Japan not Britain?
            The dreadnought race was global your logic is saying Belgium is trying to increase it's gdp so is Liechtenstein therefore there is a trade war between Belgium and Liechtenstein.
            And I must repeat: This would not have been a decision by Wilhelm.
            And just to really drive it home: The supposed naval race did not influence Britain's decision to go to war in 1914. Calling any of that a blunder by Wilhelm that led to the demise of the German Empire is wrong on multiple accounts on every single word in that sentence.
            You did not look at the facts about the german government and came to that conclusion. You just been programmed to repeat Wilhelm bad and that is all you need.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            I'm him

            How do you think Britain managed to rule over India, by the sheer grace of God?

            Nationalist and self-deterministic forces grew too strong. This sub-continent was recovering from the chaos of the collapse of the Mughal empire, that recovery period is not forever.

            As Britain continued to improve and build up their Raj, it came into more technological parity.

            These factors do not led well to a controlling somewhere with 7x the population (in 1900)

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >As Britain continued to improve and build up their Raj, it came into more technological parity.
            This is just pure nonsense. Very selective aspects of India saw any technological improvement, and they were universally to the sole benefit of Britain, such as improvements in mining technology (so more resources could be extracted to feed the factories in Britain proper), military equipment (So LOYAL Indians could more effectively put down their brothers, should they wish to think of rebelling) and other things like this.

            India didn't see healthcare, agriculture (for domestic consumption), or their general living conditions improve, infact these routinely got worse resulting in several famines and plagues during British rule. (I'm not saying Britain caused these, but they exacerbated them)

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            and yet the numbers only got worst in Britain's favor

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    None.
    Perhaps go along with von Baden's and Scheidemann's proposal to make his grandson Emperor but I doubt the israelites who ruled the Americans would allow it.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    You're the least educated person on IQfy. Why very dumb people get such satisfaction from repeating talking points they heard but never fact checked is genuinely incomprehensible to me.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Not him but are you actually going to explain why you think he's wrong or just lap up your own shit?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Wilhelm never tried to compete with Britain nor did he decide over military spending. There is absolutely no relation between Morroco and the alliances of the first world war. He never gave an interview to the daily telegraph it was a private conversation published as an interview and it too had zero influence on world politics. This is just silly make belief stuff. The Rückversicherungsvertrag was broken off by von Cparivi and there is no way in hell it could have lasted until 1914 and once again there is no blame to give Wilhelm here. For what it's worth Caprivi's focus on England and Italy managed to prevent a European war for another 20 years.
        You're just counting backwards from 1914 and look up for miniscule bits that somehow can be interpreted to somehow negatively reflect on Wilhelm with no concern to his actual role or how politics between the great powers actually played out.

  5. 2 years ago
    VozdAugustus

    Should've sided with Russia instead of Austira and when the time came he could've gotten Austria itself and Studentenland and the Tsar and Kaiser would've kept their thrones and no USSR and no NatSocs. If Austira was isolated WW1 would've been avoided

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Austria was allied to Italy and on good terms with England specifically out of fear for Russia. Siding with Russia would do nothing to improve the situation of Germany anywhere.

      • 2 years ago
        VozdAugustus

        I wonder how that alliance with Italy turned out

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Poorly, since MENA are traitorous subhumans, matched only by Anglos

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Cope, g*rmoid.

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            >Brown SEETHES at the truth
            Many such cases

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        American-Austria-Russia alliance

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