Plausibility Check: An extension of the Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway through Persia and Afghanistan and into China?

WolfBear

Well-known member
Would it have ever been plausible (for instance, as a possibility, in a TL without both World Wars) to seen the Berlin-to-Baghdad Railway eventually be extended through Persia and Afghanistan and into China? The logic behind this would be to promote trade, commerce, and economic development in Persia, Afghanistan, and China (especially in central and western China) and also to do this in such a way that Germany would have its own land route to China that would not have to pass through either Russian territory (Central Asia) or British territory (British India). Having such a railway go through Russian territory and/or British territory would make Germany dependent on the goodwill of Russia and/or Britain, which would be a less secure option for Germany in the event that these powers are or ever will be hostile towards Germany in the future.

Anyway, what do you think? Such a railway would, of course, also allow Germany to significantly expand its influence in the Muslim world and thus to portray itself as a champion of Muslim independence against predatory Western imperialism--or something like that. It would also allow for German economic penetration of these regions and possibly even for greater German power projection in these regions.

Thoughts on this?
 

WolfBear

Well-known member
@raharris1973 Please tell me this: Just how much bribes would it take to get Afghan Pashtun tribesmen to permanently leave this railroad alone, especially if both the Afghan Amir and the Ottoman Sultan/Caliph will command them to do so?
 

WolfBear

Well-known member
FWIW (and as I have already mentioned in another thread here), it appears that this one contemporary book actually did propose something like this:


The scope of Germany's Asiatic aspirations during the war is exemplified
by an article from the pen of the learned Orientalist Professor Bernhardt
Molden.[127] Germany's aid to Turkey, contends Professor Molden, is merely
symptomatic of her policy to raise the other Asiatic peoples now crushed
beneath English and Russian domination. Thus Germany will create puissant
allies for the "Second Punic War." Germany must therefore strive to
solidify the great Central Asian _bloc_--Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan,
China. Professor Molden urges a "Pan-Asian railroad" from Constantinople
to Peking. This should be especially alluring to Afghanistan, which would
thereby become one of the great pivots of world-politics and trade. In
fine: "Germany must free Asia." As another prominent German writer,
Friedrich Delitzsch, wrote in similar vein: "To renovate the East--such is
Germany's mission."[128]
 

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