What did Germany want in WW1? | Kaiser Wilhelm, German Empire, Germany WW1

[Music] germany unified in 1871 and straight away they became one of the most powerful nations in the world but in doing so they took also lorraine from france and created an enemy there people on both sides of the border believed that war was inevitable and therefore worked to form alliances accordingly so plans focused on europe early on and the idea of middle europa was already an idea before the unification the meaning of this changed over time but it was essentially the idea that the middle of europe should be united under german rule or german speaking rule i say german speaking because before prussia defeated the austrians in 1866 there was the idea of uniting a greater germany but the german desire to control the middle of europe goes right the way back in fact as far back as the crusades when the teutonic order took control of the baltic region then the hanseatic league and early trading block pushed german settlers around the continent in fact you could find huge german communities everywhere and they were instrumental in building many of europe's capitals like stockholm which was one third german back in the middle ages then 40 of riga still spoke german in the middle of the 19th century despite being under russian control and in the south they settled in bratislava slovenia and even found communities in the mountains of transylvania this expansion of german influence actually has a name or stiglung which means eastern settling and this as i said goes back to medieval times then from the 18th century the germans began to explore racial superiority with aust forshang which just means the research of the east and they came to the conclusion that they brought civilization to the polish in particular and you can see how this developed into middle europa and of course later on lebentraum so in the end the germans would then have influence over a range of ethnicities in central europe but the german empire was initially led by bismarck who hoped to achieve a balance of power and prevent diplomatic isolation so he signed the league of three emperors with russia and austria thus isolating france their natural enemy within his borders though he believed that the germans should hammer the poles until they despair of living but internationally he would act as an umpire he didn't seek out colonies believing that they would be more expensive than they were worth and he actively championed french colonial pursuits like in tunisia hoping that it would distract them from affairs in europe but first seeing as though you're here watching this video i'm going to assume that you're curious by nature and a father of bite-size information so i'd like to recommend the blinkist up they take thousands of non-fiction books and condense them into 15 minutes that you can read or listen to in fact they take over 5 000 titles in 27 different categories as well as shortcasts which are blinks for podcasts so if you want to quickly learn about a topic they pick out only the most important information for you they cover most topics from business to health but i personally as you'd expect spend most of the time on their history section while at work so for instance if you want to look more about conquerors i'd recommend napoleon the great by andrew roberts or for something a little bit different there's the black jacobins by c.l james which documents haiti's fight for freedom but they cover all sorts of historical periods so you could always just go for genghis khan and the making of the modern world by jack weatherford and you can learn about all three of these topics in under an hour so if you are interested sign up at the link below or www.blinkist.com jabzy where you will get a free 7-day trial and 25 off a premium membership when you sign up i will leave a link for you down in the description and as you can cancel anytime during the trial period this is definitely worth checking out join me in learning something new every single day but for now let's get back to the german empire so all was therefore peaceful until in 1884 he sort of quickly changed his mind on colonies no one really knows why it could be because more germans were demanding them for prestige or he hoped to undermine the anti-colonial liberals in the reichstag but either way germany entered the colonial game before this there were some german colonial attempts going right the way back to the age of exploration the velsa family got the rights to colonize venezuela from the king of spain in 1685 brandenburg leased saint thomas from denmark for a little while and they also had a colony in west africa potentially the most famous strange colonial power was coal and which created new coal and on the island of tobago this small duchy was a vassal of poland but it was a german-led state a remnant of the old livonian order even the tiny county of hanau tried to buy dutch guiana and create a kingdom there fast forward to the 19th century the german states which had united into the german confederation began to look out again for instance the hamburg colonial society looked by chatham islands off the coast of new zealand but this by the way like other colonial pursuits was seen as a way to deal with germany's immigration problem as thousands were leaving every year to the americas only to lose their culture and connections on arrival others believe that they should create german colonies within other countries and the new republic of texas proved to be a tempting target for the germans just as it did with the belgians so counter ludwig joseph von bruce valdec purchased some land in fayette county in 1843 but it was mismanaged and failed similar voyages and enquiries were made in south america especially in argentina however at this time state-sponsored colonialism was being led by the austrians as they sent out ships to take control of the nicobar islands in 1858. this all came about during the reunification period so the germans were deciding on who would lead the charge the austrians or the prussians the prussians sent count fritz sue eulenberg on a voyage to asia in 1860 and he quickly met with the british and french to discuss the possibility of colonizing formosa the western powers actually agreed with this idea but in the end he only managed to agree on trade deals with the asian nations as he just didn't have the men to occupy the island otherwise under bismarck's leadership colonies were once again just outright rejected like in the 1860s the sultan of the sulu islands offered to put his lands on depression protection the sultan of vituland in africa did the same and in 1867 the commander of the warship augusta negotiated with the president of costa rica terms to create a naval base but bismarck refused them all also the king of denmark after his war with prussia was on the verge of losing slushfake so he offered to join the german confederation and hand over iceland to the persians but this was all refused and iceland wouldn't really pop up in any of the future plans again even the dutch offered bismarck a base on their caribbean islands but again this was rejected because he didn't want to anger the americans by challenging their monroe doctrine however as i said in 1884 bismarck changed his mind on colonies and the pursuit began luckily for him private germans had already been on the pursuit of new colonies natch de gallo and togoland carl peters in tanzania janssen tomorrowland and cameroon and luderitz namibia these however obviously weren't the only targets of expansion like in 1885 emile nagle arrived in south africa and tried to create a colony in lampondo land and saint lucia bay in zululand in guinea the germans set up collins land and in nigeria gustav nachtegal tried to claim mahindland carl peters also made his way up to uganda and signed a treaty with the leaders there but these other colonies would used more as pawns in the larger game and often bismarck handed them away for recognition of claims elsewhere but probably the largest territory they set out to claim was somalia in 1885 they actually signed a couple of treaties with local rulers but the claims overlapped with the italians and the british so were subsequently dropped yet as they expanded their colonies a whole new concept began to emerge middle africa just like middle europa they hoped to claim the middle of the continent belgian congo would be essential to this but what else would have been included is sort of up for debate later on caprivi would negotiate for southwest africa to be expanded and then the colonies could have been linked up via zambia and the congo they would also focus most on taking colonies from belgium and portugal who they believed were too weak to have such large colonial empires further afield some germans began looking into the possibility of setting up colonies in the pacific islands the german new guinea company sailed almost in secret to the pacific and began creating colonies like their colony in papua new guinea which was supposed to become almost like java in indonesia a rich plantation colony the germans also began taking some islands of spain like the marshall islands and the caroline islands the spanish at this point though were in a state of decline and they could do very little about it in fact when it came to the marshall islands the pope actually mediated and granted it to the germans samoa though could have caused more problems there a civil war saw the germans and americans both back rival claimants to the throne and to make matters more complicated the british also sought concessions in the country this all resulted in a standoff between the german and american navies in the late 1880s but war was prevented as the cyclone destroyed both fleets the three powers then agreed to divide samoa between themselves and this was cemented after another civil war the following decade however bismarck's desire for colonies was short-lived and in the late 1880s he gave up on pursuing them allegedly offering them to crispy of italy who responded your highness i am quite prepared to sell you ours but by then wilhelm ii was kaiser and in 1890 bismarck resigned wilhelm and his new chancellor capri then set about pursuing a far far more ambitious colonial and foreign policy called weld politic or world politics but the same year the treaty with the russians wasn't renewed meaning that they ran the risk of a war on two fronts and the germans antagonized the russians by temporarily claiming bear ireland in 1899 but the russians soon sent warships and claimed it for themselves yet the kaiser's real focus early on was asia he is actually credited with coming up with the term yellow peril and had pictures made showing europeans uniting to crush a dreadful buddha but to claim colonies out in asia he needed more coaling stations and one he looked at early on was fadhasan island which he leased from the ottomans this however was given back to them when it went unused for a couple of years then despite his fear of asian nations german warships were still sold to china and advisors worked alongside the japanese they watched on as japan crushed china in the first sino-japanese war and took taiwan the kaiser then joined with the french and russians in stepping in to prevent the japanese from also taking port arthur the kaiser after all didn't want an asian country to become too powerful but also nearby shangdong became the focus of german colonization efforts almost immediately for a couple of years the germans were eyeing up other locations like joshua island and they even thought of sharing taiwan with japan but then admiral alfred von trippets had toured shangdong and declared that it would be a good location for a future naval base german missionaries were then killed in the ju yi incident and this gave the kaiser the opportunity to move in in fact the leader of the east asian fleet otto von dietrich's said may incidents be exploited in pursuit of further goals or in other words can he exploit this opportunity to take a colony so troops landed in china and seized kyoto bay they forced the chinese to lease the port for 99 years similar to british hong kong and they essentially placed shangdong under their influence they were allowed to mine the area and build railroads and like prince heinrich of prussia said railroads would spread german culture and german conscientious devotion to duty afterwards wilhelm himself declared hundreds of german merchants will rejoice at the realization that the german empire has at last won a firm footing in asia hundreds of thousands of chinamen will tremble when they feel the iron fist of the german empire heavy on their necks this then subsequently panicked the other powers while many saw the opportunity to seek out colonies for themselves china was set to be divided up had it not been for john hey the secretary of state in the united states he got the europeans to promise to uphold the open door policy of china and they all largely agreed britain and germany for instance signed the yangtze agreement shortly afterwards but it should be said by 1900 german shangdong was tiny compared to the claims of the other powers and the british even secured a port there themselves so germany was losing the scramble so they just made do with their small port city plus that same year the boxer rebellion broke out and the great powers united to crush them it is from this war though that the germans got the nickname hun because the kaiser gave a speech to his men saying prisoners will not be taken just as a thousand years ago the huns under their king etzel made a name for themselves so may the name germany be affirmed by you in such a way in china but china wasn't their only failure in the east for a long time they had been scouting out the spanish philippines so when the spanish-american war broke out otto von diatrix had sent ships to the philippines believing he could secure a chunk of the newly independent country ideally sulu mindanao and palawan however this just encouraged the americans to take over the islands for themselves believing probably correctly that the germans would just move in straight away and keeping on america on the other side of the world the navy had been scouting out the possibility of securing a naval base in some colonies somewhere in the caribbean but the monroe doctrine was making this next one possible but that's not to say they didn't try one of the most interesting colonization attempts in the americas though was in the jungles of paraguay where bernard foster and his wife who was the sister of nietzsche created nuva germania in 1888 foster was an anti-semite and he hoped this colony would be a homeland for pure blood aryans however it completely failed there were other more serious attempts to find a colony in the americas though like the hamburg american steamship line which was sometimes the largest passenger line in the world had a choline station in danish st thomas but the americans again were worried that the kaiser would purchase the island so they just bought it for themselves in 1896 though wilhelm did actually have the opportunity to take saint thomas and saint john but only in exchange for part of north schleswig so he refused there were some other challenges to the monroe doctrine like in 1872 and 1897 the germans sent ships to haiti to collect debts then in 1914 just before the war the germans threatened to seize the custom houses in haiti if debts weren't paid this again though was used as a sort of justification for the americans intervening in the country the next year but going back to the spanish-american war this did thrust america into the caribbean during this war the kaiser wrote to von bulow saying that the european monarchy should unite in his words it would demonstrate that monarchies have no intention of giving way to republican moneybags and consolidate the continental union against america which the tsar and i have planned however the american speedy victory changed the kaiser's plan for a while like when the president of the dominican republic offered to lease a port to get out of debt and maybe get some protection from outside powers but the kaiser responded oh what sweet innocence i'm not going to fall for a trick like that as for other targets there were some like suriname or for that matter the other dutch colony of kodakau in the caribbean but these seemed like later ambitions which would fall under german influence alongside the netherlands as hans von pleasant said it was highly desirable for us to get our hands not only on denmark but also on holland with her colonies if only to establish the choline stations that were so urgently needed so they'd take holland first and then her colonies but germany's main thrust into south america would have been venezuela in 1901 warships were surveying santa margherita island with possibly the view to purchase it while corrupt railway lines and german immigration were expanding their influence then the venezuelans defaulted on their debts causing the venezuelan crisis germany italy and britain all sent ships to blockade the country and maybe germany could have seized an island had debts not been repaid but teddy roosevelt brought the parties to the negotiating table and defended the monroe doctrine the americans also apparently caught wind of german attempts to purchase a base in mexico the bay of magdalena in baja california this plan was discovered by an american lawyer in london who passed it up the chain of command to john hay nothing obviously came of this attempt but mexico will prove to be a target for the germans throughout this period they will later get involved in the civil wars in mexico and they always look to secure an ally and possibly some further bases back home many saw latin america as the key target for german expansion like gustav schmuler insisted in the coming century we must desire at all costs a german colony of some 20 to 30 million people in south america so along with venezuela colonial groups and politicians like ernst hassela hoped to use german immigrants in brazil in argentina they would give them their citizenship back and then purchase land in argentina brazil or even chile creating colonies for again racially pure germans hassa and his pan-german league also had bold plans for europe displacing poles and taking over their land so again you can see the origins of the nazi party here but for now as he put it our future lies in south america only there will we be able to found the new germany in fact in many areas the germans were very successful like in 1894 it was reported that the state of rio grande assault was under the control of german businesses as they dominated trade and owned most of the large firms yet some like carl von kosseritz who emigrated to southern brazil brought up the different colonial attitudes of rome and the greeks he argued that for africa the germans should annex those regions just like the romans would have but for south america they should follow the greek model an informal empire dominating trade and expanding culture and they did find a possible ally in chile at the end of the century they were involved in a bit of an arms race with argentina and they employed germans to train and equip their army but this period was actually described by a local as german bewitchment and still today if you see the chilean army on parade you see clear similarities with imperial germany so chile at least was a possible ally as for investment the germans were almost equal to the british and americans when it came to spending in venezuela paraguay and brazil massively increasing their numbers between 1904 and 1912 and in 1903 wilhelm sent representatives to peru informing them that they would be essential in the forthcoming struggle against north american competition as for american land though the americans had taken over cuba and puerto rico to varying degrees and dietrich said in 1900 they were desirable targets for us in the right circumstances and again the fear that the germans would take part of cuba forced the americans to pass the platte amendment forbidding cuba from transferring land to a foreign power as for wilhelm he often criticized the anglophone world angry at the anglo-american limited company for international theft and worldwide incitement and even bismarck would describe the monroe doctrine as a brand of arrogance that is uniquely american but he also believed that when it would be tested the whole idea would crumble so you might see where this is going the germans believe that knocking america out of the world stage would serve their interests and as such there were plans made to launch a speedy attack on the united states and open the americas up to colonization for instance the german ambassador theodore von helleban warned the kaiser about growing suspicion in the united states but the kaiser responded tell them to control themselves whatever is necessary for the navy will be done even if it displeases the yankees and he even wrote a dispatch to roosevelt saying the russians are sitting tight there no south america is our goal old boy so between 1898 and 1903 three plans were made to attack the us this by the way was only possible thanks to the tirpitz plan which dramatically increased the size of the german navy the first plan was to defeat the american navy and then bombard norfolk and portsmouth shipyards which were apparently the most sensitive point along the american coast but this was also around the same time that the americans defeated the spanish and the german navy wasn't strong enough then so they waited a year and came up with a new boulder plan this one would have 60 warships protect the movement of 100 000 soldiers they would actually land and advance onto new york and boston as manhattan was shelled the americans would make peace and germany would be free to take over puerto rico and cuba but this plan was again shelved as many just thought it was impossible so a third plan was made this time they would take puerto rico threatening the newly built panama canal and then they'd bombard new york or at least threaten to however by this point the americans have proved that they were willing to defend the monroe doctrine after the venezuelan crisis and in 1904 the untaunted cordial was signed this completely refocused the kaiser's attention as germany was becoming more and more isolated within europe then during the boer war many germans had volunteered to fight against the british and beforehand there was the infamous kruger telegram when the kaiser congratulated the president of the transvaal republic later on the kaiser would in a bid to draw britain away from their new allies come up with some bold claims in an interview with the times like suggesting the russians and french wanted to use the opportunity to humiliate england to the dust and he said that he suggested plans to the english that helped them win the war but there were still reports of funds going to the brewers from german namibia however south africa was a future target for wilhelm as the queen of the netherlands tried to put together a coalition to broke a peace he responded there should be a powerful fleet on the sea when it is afloat then at last the banners of orange and brandenburg will fly side by side on every sea as in days gone by until then let us be silent and work in 1906 there was actually a very small raid from german namibia to try and fan the flames of rebellion this the ferrero raid took place during the height of the heriro genocide in namibia but it was far too small to really kick-start anything however it highlights some of the ambitions the germans had in africa at least yet after the german's plans in america failed the kaiser turned his attention back to asia as the russia-japanese war had broken out and again it should be stressed that alliances at this time were still far from set in stone like at the turn of the century joseph chamberlain the secretary of the colonies in britain was still keen on forming an alliance with the germans he said a new triple alliance between the teutonic race and the two great transatlantic branches of the anglo-saxon race which would become a potent influence on the future of the world then during the russia-japanese war there was still hope for a german-russian alliance and kaiserville helm and tsar nicholas met to sign the treaty of bioko this was possible because after the boer war the british had signed a treaty with the japanese and britain very nearly entered the war when russia sank a british vessel on their way to asia the kaiser wrote to the tsar a lot during this time warning him of the crimean coalition threatening russian influence in bulgaria and the balkans in general while also warning him of the threats in asia he once wrote i got a report that the japs are clandestinely arming the chinese behind your and my backs against us the chinese troops are drilling day and night and remarkably well he in fact seemed quite keen for war frequently referencing the yellow peril and the threat to the white race even to bulow he said if the russians gave way even more to the japanese the yellow race would be in moscow and posen in 20 years he then set about trying to lure countries into a possible coalition for a war against japan and britain he believed france was keen but so too with the netherlands and belgium at least after the kaiser threatened military action if they were to remain neutral the same threats applied to denmark which the kaiser believed should be occupied to shore up their own defenses in case of war the russians on the other hand believed such the coalition was impossible as france hated germany but the kaiser responded that the altos luring question was no longer an issue for either country obviously misreading the situation he also hoped to use the war to grab the whole of east asia particularly on the yangtze he even envisioned a huge global war saying it will be the final battle between the two religions christianity and buddhism western culture and oriental half culture it will be the battle which i predicted and drew in the picture the one in which the whole of europe should and must come together under german leadership obviously this didn't happen and russia lost the war so germany went right back to trying to break up the untaunt this he hoped to do in morocco which france wanted to turn into a protectorate he offered protection to the sultan and threatened war believing that britain may join his side but again he misread the situation and the ontant was strengthened in fact it even weakened the triple alliance as even italy sided with the french and then the spanish signed the pact of cartagena with the french and british so in one fell swoop most of the mediterranean powers moved away from germany and to make things even worse the british signed an alliance with the russians dividing europe into two camps france and russia then also signed agreements with the japanese in 1907 meaning in just a year the germans had managed to surround themselves by enemies all suspicious of their activity in this climate the kaiser decided to look further afield for allies and as a side note teddy roosevelt probably described the kaiser best to the english saying i cannot of course follow or take too seriously a man whose policy is one of such violent and often wholly irrational zigzags meaning in other words he bounced from one idea to another so he went from hating the united states and fearing asians to trying to form an alliance with china and the united states he wrote to bullo my insurance treaty with theodore roosevelt who was afraid of the japanese would be appropriate and worthy of consideration herman spec von sternberg met with roosevelt and apparently the u.s president said if japan invades america with powerful forces our army will first suffer a crushing blow japan's army will be annihilated if she is left in america and america will take her revenge to get to the united states though they both theorized that the japanese could use mexico as a base for an invasion this means the kaiser and the americans expected that a major war wouldn't come from the balkans but from japan the kaiser initially believed japan russia and maybe france would seek to partition china and of course germany and america would intervene on behalf of their asian ally as for britain roosevelt said i do not think that she would intervene in such a war england knows that in such a case we would invade canada as for china yuan shikai supported the alliance and the kaiser said the chinese have more self-respect than the spanish portuguese and french we must strengthen their backs and not betray their confidence i am very much for this but the german ambassador for china count von rex came up with a new proposal keeping the secret understanding with the americans he tried to entice the russians into this alliance as he said russia would be allowed an entirely free hand not only in mongolia and east turkestan but also in manchuria and korea through this agreement she would receive far more than the japanese french english group has ever been induced to grant but the japanese quickly signed a treaty of friendship with the united states yuanji kai was removed from his post and the alliance died before it was born the kaiser still backed the idea of supporting china whether the japanese or anyone else pulls a long face about it doesn't matter in the least but he continued saying his dealings everywhere were challenged like the brazilian president francesca has asked me for german officers and france has made a fuss about it the turks have bought ships from us england france russia through a fit china and turkey are the only two countries that trust us and where we can still accomplish anything both must be supported by all including financial means against england's policy of financially encircling germany so the ottoman empire was the next target to at least form an alliance with and wilhelm actually took a trip to the levant and became infatuated with the middle eastern islam he wrote to the tsar if i had come there without any religion at all i certainly would have turned muhammadan there was actually talk across the middle east that the kaiser had actually converted and would be a sort of savior of islam or at least would free muslims from european rule the ottomans even after the young turk revolution were quick to accept german assistance in modernizing their country and instrumental to this was the baghdad berlin railroad this would have brought german influence right into the middle east provide them with a route into the indian ocean bypassing the sewers canal and challenge the british in kuwait the persian gulf and beyond now this trip did provide some hope to a cause you probably wouldn't expect as the daily mail reported one of the most important results if not the most important of the kaiser's visit to palestine is the immense impetus it has given zionism when the kaiser visited constantinople dr herzl the head of the zionist movement was there again when the kaiser visited jerusalem he found dr herzl there now there's not much to indicate that kaiser was particularly keen on the idea of zionism but during the great war prominent zionists will be pushing forward the cause however i'll get onto that later on but i believe though even stranger than that is the movement to create german colonies in palestine the german association of the holy land was created at the end of the century and they created colonies in the holy land like phil helmer and bethlehem of galilee the lutheran templar society not the templars actually set a precedent for this and decades earlier were instrumental in turning haifa from a village into a thriving city these germans were probably unlikely to annex this land but german influence was sure to grow in the middle east otherwise around this time the kaiser also began to suspect that their italian ally was not to be trusted italy entered into the triple alliance back in 1882 angered with the french conquest of tunisia but slowly the germans began to even plan a preemptive strike on italy as france conrad von hodsendorf suggested in 1911 this period was actually crucial as the italians had seized libya from germany's ottoman ally but again the kaiser always changed his mind and during the balkan wars he began to suspect that the great powers were planning on partitioning the ottoman empire without him he said be careful that the partition isn't implemented without us i shall take mesopotamia alexandretta messina the perceptive turks are already patiently awaiting this fate he continued saying he would wait until we have consolidated our position in our zones of activity there and are ready to annex so in general the ottoman should be seen as only a temporary ally otherwise in europe as the ottomans began to lose their grip over the balkans a german prince named ved was appointed the king of albania this however wasn't the plan of the kaiser as he actually believed prince faud of egypt should have been made the ruler as for the rest of the balkans once again it constantly changed like in 1913 he threw his support behind greece opposing italian plans in the region and he pushed for their claims around corfu romania would be another target for another alliance and he even wanted austria to mend relations with serbia he said his plan was to construct a solid ring around bulgaria which turkey could later join so before the war bulgaria which he believed was pro-russian seemed like the enemy in the region but when the war broke out all of this changed once again he promised his complete support to austria in their war against serbia and bulgaria joined the central powers elsewhere the germans did actually make some advances they challenged the french again in morocco in 1911 and to appease them the on tant allowed them to expand cameroon so the germans were pushing closer to their goal of middle africa as they now had access to the congo river but really this new territory new cameroon wasn't the most valuable and it was filled with diseases so the germans still wanted more and they created the angola bund a group dedicated to taking the region from portugal portugal was already heavily in debt and they weren't the only country who looked to take colonies from them some italians for instance wanted to do the same but the germans could very well have been successful as in 1912 the haldane mission nearly brought england and germany into an alliance well not so much an alliance but an understanding britain hoped to end the naval arms race while germany wanted britain to remain neutral in any future war the new liberal government in britain which included lloyd george and churchill was more open to the idea of reaching an agreement to maintain peace and they even offered to help germany in colonial pursuits there were actually plans to work together back in 1898 as at this time the british nearly went to war with france over the faculta incident and relations with russia were terrible because of the great game in central asia so there were plans to start partitioning the portuguese empire should they take out more loans the terms of the treaty however were pretty vague but it seems that germany would take the north of mozambique and the south of angola as well as timor as for britain it seems that they would have got the atlantic islands but there's no real mention of macau portuguese guinea in the likes but the british then turned their back on this idea one year later and made a deal with their old portuguese ally but then to end the arms race this was all brought up again in these negotiations britain wouldn't allow germany to take tea more but they would get all of angola and northern mozambique on the table plus it would also be possible to take southern congo from belgium in the future thus finally linking some of their colonies up in return germany would need to end the arms race and possibly the construction of the berlin baghdad railroad however this was too much for the kaiser so when the archduke of austria was shot in sarajevo germany was left encircled straight away though they began making plans for their victory the september programme in the east they would create a set of new puppets like poland there was actually some debate as to who would take the lead in poland as the austrians proposed making their monarch the monarch of the polish state as well but of course this was denied by the germans many inside of germany also wanted to take some land from poland like friedrich von schwerden head of administration said the german people the great colonizing people on earth have again been given a great colonising task the current world war provides the opportunity for germany to resume in a resolute way its colonizing mission in the east as for the rest of eastern europe there would be lithuania ukraine belarus and the united baltic duchy and when the bolsheviks took power and sued for peace we can see that the germans actually really captured this plan these new states would all have german rulers like duke adolf friedrich of mecklenburg but there were some differences between the september programme and the treaty of bret zlatovsk for instance they helped the tartars come into power in the crimea then at the end of the war the caucasus became a chaotic state as ottomans armenians georgians and bolsheviks white russians azerbaijanis all fought for power to sort of summarize the situation the turks were able to create a puppet state in azerbaijan and the germans led a campaign into georgia creating a puppet state there plus in the middle of georgia and ukraine lay the don cossacks and the kubernetes people's republic which even proposed uniting with their neighbors there was also the mountain republic which was led by circassians chechens and the likes as well which was quickly recognized by germany as a state so we can expect german influence there as their influence spread connecting the caucasus to europe as for the other dozens and dozens of breakaway states that emerged when the bolsheviks took power it's all speculative but we can look to finland as an example as the finns broke away from russia the reds and the whites fought a civil war the germans provided a lot of help to the whites and even landed troops in the country but in exchange the finns would have to accept the kaiser's brother-in-law as their new king so we could expect more of the same to happen in other nearby republics like utua corellia and ingria on the borders of finland as for western europe the germans would fully annex luxembourg and parts of belgium and france france would have to pay reparations and the germans would use this to bring the country more less under their influence as they would trade via germany but i'd argue this was probably quite hard to maintain netherlands although neutral would become heavily dependent on the germans and thus the germans would be allowed free reign in their colonies like indonesia suriname and the likes and the same would apply to denmark although they had largely sold off their colonies to the americans during the war as for the other colonies well they'd probably seized the portuguese colonies and then congo from belgium and colonies from france finally linking up their previous colonies thus creating middle africa british colonies however were not mentioned as this plan was created in the september of 1914 and it seems that they just planned to knock france and russia out of the war and quickly sue for peace so we're going to have to guess and say they would probably take zambia and nigeria which would be included in middle africa but again that's purely speculative however as the british joined the war the kaiser became more and more convinced that they needed to be destroyed in his words they set the japanese and half wild indian hordes at our throats the ultimate aim of the current war is the crushing of england victory over france and russia is only a means to that end so we can expect that you demand a complete dismantling of the british empire and we do have some ideas of their plans for the british colonies from what actually took place during the war for starters they were trying to help the irish rebel so a unified island under german influence could be expected but some of the most audacious plans occurred in asia and the americans with the hindu german conspiracy but to understand this we need to first look at mexico during the war the germans infamously sent the zimmerman telegram to the mexicans offering them chunks of the united states if they help in the war but german involvement in mexico predated the war as they were actually helping to bring in weapons to a general huerta during the revolution in the following wars america of course again was worried about this so they sent troops to occupy verdacruz in 1914. but mexico city and for that matter the united states was still home to some german saboteurs together they orchestrated attacks on american soil like the black tom explosion in new jersey which destroyed millions of dollars of munitions before the americans entered the war then in 1917 they targeted a shipyard in san francisco the germans also made attacks into canada like with the bombing of the vansborough international bridge believing this would stop japanese troops being transported to the front via north america so had germany won the war maybe and enlarged mexico under german influence was on the table and the british would either completely lose canada or at least their influence would be weakened but i bring up mexico because it was also central to the hindu conspiracy inside the united states and canada the germans met with members of the indian nationalist kadar movement they were preparing to ship weapons from north america to asia via mexico using the disturbances there as a cover then once in asia they'd start a mutiny and a rebellion across india malaysia and singapore the people would then declare their independence and germany could gain an ally in the east while weakening the british empire but the arms never made it across the pacific and those soldiers who did mutiny were left in their own and failed and it should also be said that there were more plans that targeted british india like one which was supposed to ship arms via thailand to burma but news of this helped push the king of siam to join the allies during the war so from the west largely hindus and sikhs were getting german help while in the east the germans were working on a different plan spies were placed around the middle east hoping to infiltrate indian units and encourage rebellions some were in fact recruited into the indian volunteer legion while nationalists like amber prasad even brought troops through persia and harassed the british in central asia in western india but this was all part of a larger plan to unite the muslims against the british the ottomans helped with this by declaring a jihad on the untaunt powers the kaiser pushed them into doing so but given past rumors of his conversion to islam many were happy to join his cause and in the middle east max von oppenheim and his intelligence bureau for the east worked on planning uprisings across the muslim world and in fact this bureau brings me back to zionism as many of the early zionists worked there like nahum goldman so like i mentioned before maybe there could have been a push to create an israeli state in the future at least this intelligence bureau also began scouting out other allies like the king of hijaz hussein bin ali who would actually go on to work with the british in the arab revolt but oppenheim met with his son prince faisal the future king of iraq and they discussed the possibility of an alliance potentially the germans could have promised him expansion into british domains on the arabian peninsula however there's no real mention of yemen or oman that i could find but we could assume maybe a united arab state and perhaps a german choline station or two but again that's speculative across the red sea though leo frobenius tried to enter ethiopia and form an alliance there then the plan was that he would move into british sudan and stir up yet another rebellion among the muslims so the ethiopians and sudanese in theory would open up another front with the british and they'd take egypt however the rulers of the region like ali dina of darfur received more support from the ottomans and there's very little evidence to support the idea that the dervish and somalia received german support either but we can assume at least that they would achieve their independence however frobenius never really made it to ethiopia as he was caught in italian eritrea as for egypt abbas ii had already been deposed by the british at the beginning of the war so there were plans to storm the sewers and install him on the throne again though the kaiser always changed his mind and there were other discussions into him giving egypt to the ottomans along with cyprus so the country would have been under ottoman influence officially but truly probably under german influence then with success in egypt we consumed that they'd also give the cenusi order in libya support rebels in algeria and maybe even reasserting the sultan's power in morocco but that is all speculative their plans in persia were a little bit more complex as they obviously wished to remove the russian and british influence in the country but to do so wilhelm vasmos tried to get groups like the qashqai to rise up against the foreigners he was actually dubbed the lawrence of persia for his actions but in creating uprisings independent of the shah's rule what a post-war persia would have looked like is anybody's guess but they did send the nedermayer hentick expedition to afghanistan via persia this they hoped would encourage the emir of afghanistan to break free from britain's sphere of influence and invade india for their part the muslim indian nationalists formed a provincial government inside of kabul under the leadership of raja mahendra pratap but this sort of highlights one of the major issues with the hindu german conspiracy the gatorade movement was largely hindu and sikh affair while on the other hand many of those working in the ottoman empire and persia were almost pan-islamic plus just like the irish many of them didn't want to swap british rule for german rule so what a free india would have looked like in this agreement as anybody's guess but maybe it could have somewhat mirrored the partition that took place in the 40s otherwise in 1917 at least the kaiser planned on giving the spanish gibraltar but take the islands of malta the azores medea and cape verde for himself while he would demand huge payments from the allies and payments in the form of resources from china japan brazil bolivia cuba and portugal elsewhere the brewers tried to rise up in south africa during the marriage expedition but very little help was forthcoming and it completely failed so in let's say short-term goals eastern europe would have been a series of german puppets and benelux would be under german control and french lands would have been conquered then the british colonies would break free with germany having influence in some of the new governments like india or ireland as for the muslim states although may be officially under ottoman control germany would really have influence over them in reality like say in azerbaijan or egypt then in the long term well they could finally look to getting some of their old claims seizing caribbean islands gaining influence over latin american states taking over the philippines maybe finally taiwan shangdong and the yangtze region even mesopotamia could have been a target in the future danish colonies in the north atlantic and scandinavia could have been brought under german influence at least as for the balkans in austria well that's anybody's guess the austrians were looking to create a federation out of their empire but maybe germany could have annexed austria and placed this federation into their sphere they might have also kept the german king in power in albania start to work alongside serbia and romania as planned it's really hard to say what's in the kaiser's mind as it kept on changing but this is what i believe the germans were planning for in world war one [Music]

Channel: Jabzy

Views: 494,605

Keywords: Kaiser Wilhelm, German Empire, Germany WW1, Imperial Germany, German Colonies, German Victory WW1, Bismarck, Kaiser WW1, kaiser wilhelm ii, first world war, otto von bismarck, Germany India, Germany Mexico, Germany Ottoman Empire

Id: NZTo-ZXwtK0

Length: 49min 8sec (2948 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 13 2022