In the Victor's Crown

This alternate history timeline is a work in progress, and is bound to change massively in the following weeks



The German Empire is a polarizing historic state. Some praise it for being powerful, advanced and industrious, and symphathize with its simple goal - to unite the German people under one flag. Others abhor the German Empire as an authoritarian and landowner-dominated state with an expansionist foreign policy the legacy of which would serve as an inspiration for the later national-socialist regime in Germany, which in turn was responsible for the deaths of countless soldiers and civilians alike. It is, however, quite obvious that the German Empire would have fared beter without its last Emperor - Willian II. This unstable, deformed and quite frankly unfit ruler acted in a way that would unite most of the word against him, and in World War I, the whole Empire had to pay for his actions.

Point of Divergence and its immediate consequences
So let's go back to the North German Confederation, year 1867. For this timeline, we throw William's eight-year-old self from a horse he was struggling to ride (In OTL, it was very difficult and painful for him to learn to ride on horseback, mostly due to his malformed arm). Then we drop the horse on top of him. With William dead, the next eldest son of the grieving Crown Prince Frederick and Princess Victoria is Prince Henry.

In the original timeline, Prince Henry grew up with no aspirations for the Imperial throne and cared little for politics. The Navy was his passion, and to this end he would at one point become the Grand Admiral of the German Navy. Henry was known for his calm and friendly demeanor and also for his love for innovation: He constantly advocated for having more new technologies in the German Army and Navy and himself invented some things, like the electric windshield wiper. In this timeline, however, Henry would have a dfferent fate. He would be taught statesmanship, probably the art of war as well, and most importantly, Henry would be influenced by Bismarck. I doubt that Bismarck could fully transform this intelligent man into a tool against his liberal parents as it had happened OTL with Wilhelm, so what we would get by 1888 is a politically pragmatic military and diplomatic prodigy Crown Prince Henry, set to become Emperor very soon due to his father's battle with cancer. On 15 June 1888, Henry is proclaimed German Emperor.