Yeah it seems like a straightforward thing in hindsight, but I've thought about it some time ago and in my humble opinion I just don't think it was really an option for Germany, regardless of where Austria stood on the matter. With Austria or without, the interests of Germany and Russia at the time were too diametrically opposed in order to guarantee Russia's neutrality in the event of a European war, let alone Russian alliance. What really made the league of three emperors unmaintainable in my opinion is that the German power had grown so dramatically that the balance of power in Europe started shifting significantly in Germany's favor. Under these circumstances, a potential second German victory against France (after 1871) would inevitably result in German supremacy on the continent and a mortal threat to Russia as a result, so it's hard to imagine a scenario where Russia would stand by and allow for that to happen. It is therefore natural that Russia and France would form a defensive alliance. Likewise it's hard to imagine Berlin quitely tolerating further expansion of Russian power into the Balkans, again regardless of where Austria stood on the matter. Such expansion would negatively affect the security and economic interests of Germany and even the wider interests of the ethnic Germans. I think one way or another Germany and Russia were destined to clash. *shrugs*A high school history teacher of mine once reaches the conclusion in the middle of a class that Germany should have allied with Russia instead of Austria-Hungary when the League of Three Emperors proved unmaintainable.
Things like the Bavarian Soviet Republic, Rheinish Republic, the many revolts and attempted coups. You could also have the situation descend into a proper German Civil War, tho to have it be at the scale of what is currently the RCW content it does need quite a bit of creativity
Yep that would definitely require a lot of work around events that i'm even less familiar with. One potential scenario could be i guess the creation of the Bavarian Soviet Republic around April just after the Red revolt in Hungary, and then if both Bavarian and Hungarian revolutions are not toppled quickly enough, or maybe if Russia succeeds at establishing a land bridge to Hungary, then this could result in a massive red revolt and a full scale civil war in Germany. The problem here is that it is likely that the Entente would intervene against the Reds in Germany maybe even more forcefully than against the Reds in Russia, rightfully fearing that the victory of the Reds in Germany would above all mean withdrawal from the Versailles treaty negotiations. This in turn would mean the resumption of an all-out European war, which is a serious can of worms that would be very difficult to realistically implement. I think eventually it would result in some kind of revanschist alliance of the defeated WW1 powers trying to undo the results of WW1 with the help of Soviet Russia.
Last edited: