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To this last one I'd add: assuming that you're never 100% certain you can avoid war, carefully plot out an 'East first' strategy, whereby Germane fights a deensive war in the West and never violates Belgian neutrality. In addition/alteration to the given points, I'd suggest: -- Focus on...

My apologies for the delay in responding, @raharris1973. I'm working 14-hour days this week, and that plus commuting time makes for a tired Skall! ;) Hope my response is still somewhat legible, regardless. I certainly won't dispute this. Although some seem to think that if you don't think...

Ludwig was plenty cuckoo. There is debate about how cuckoo he was, ranging from 'eccentric' to 'yeah, actually a nutcase'. There is still considerable debate about the motives of his opponents, and the extent to which they were or wrre not justified. You are clearly a partisan of one reading...

You only prove my point: that British alarm over German designs only really escalated after Wilhelm II had successfully pushed for an escalation of German naval build-up. That clearly demonstrates which is the inciting event, and which the reaction. Yet you claim the opposite. To quote a certain...

I think that ties into the Kulturkampf and his obsession with a German-and-Protestant nation. It was his weaker point, certainly. Of course, by the time Wilhelm II ascended the thron, that was actually all done already, so it's not like it matters much at this stage.

I don't mean to imply that Bismarck was fired over colonialism. Just that keeping him on, in general, would have been smart. He opposed the many stupid policies that Wilhelm II embraced. A smarter, mentally stable Wilhelm II could just have backed Bismarck. (About the anti-socialist laws, too...

Literally in the article you link: "The German naval policy changed decisively upon the accession of Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888 and the resignation of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck two years later." ...I wonder if there's a causal link there. Meanwhile, the whole Deutscher Flottenverein was only...

You dramatically under-estimate the influence the Kaiser had on policy. There were various factions that supported all sorts of schemes and policies, and had he lent his support to alternative cliques, things would have ended up very differently. The major industrialists just flocked to the...

The irony here is that Wilhelm apparently did subscribe to that theory, when he should have subscribed to Mackinder's heartland model. To be fair, though, Mahan published in 1890, and Mackinder in 1904. The fact remains that the German destiny was best served through Mitteleuropa, not by...

Your entire post is extremely one-sided, to the point of becoming almost satirical. I understand that there is a correction underway regarding the "Germany wanted WAR!!!" narrative that has dominated for too long. Indeed, I was never a fan of putting the blame for the war altogether on Germany...

To a certain extent, "crosshairs" is true, but we must consider that Britain was warily looking at a lot of possible enemies. France, not Germany, was the historical foe. Rapprochement only became viable after the Fashoda incident was resolved without erupting into war, and only became effected...

I don't actually disagree with any particular point here, but there is a bit of logical conflation going on in this whole thesis statement. The German Empire’s actual mistake is the opposite of what we’ve been told? Okay. What have we been told? Well, that Germany made too many powerful...