Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-10975360-20131129121937/@comment-10975360-20131130145247

they wanted antwerp as a naval base, and they wanted Belgium to enter a currency union with germany - with the possiblity of annexation

Russia was getting weaker, 1905, russo-japanese war, nicholas II was always destined to be the last tsar, by 1914 he was hanging on for his life, the war effort of 1914 - 1915 temporarily halted his fall, but the disasters of 1916-1917 brought about his actual downfall. If the war ended sooner then he would have been removed quicker, maybe by 1916, with a civil war.

Why would they not ally with a strong germany? Italy would never do so. They would want to be a strong player in a german dominated europe, an alliance would be maintained.

LOL, to say germany wouldnt be a superpwoer is deluded, france would be in chaos like it was after 1870, Italy was only a power in the med - not northern europe, A-H was in rapid decline, Spain was trying to hold on to its north african possessions, Greece was in political turmoil after the assasination of king George, and Britain would have forgotten the entente cordial and spent its time maintaining its colonial empire. Germany would have been the main european power, France was its only real rival.

I disagree entirely, France was strongly republican and a return to monarchy completely out of the question. Since McMahon there has not been a serious monarchist french politician. French politics was between Radicals/socialists and conservative catholic politicians. The bourbon head, Prince Jaime, wasnt even able to rally the carlist cause, he wouldnt have had a hope of gathering the bourbons in a strongly republican country.

Mussolini came to power because italian politicians put him there, there was no strong alternative.

The US was the dominant power in north america, but did not become a superpower until the aftermath of the first world war, when the old world powers began to decline, if ww1 had have been a minor war then american ascendany would have occured a little later, probably during the late 1930's.

Nicholas II was not a reformer, he was unpopular with many russians.