I don't get it. Why did they end up fighting each other?

I don't get it. Why did they end up fighting each other?

One was cooler than the other.

Autism

result of desperation on both sides

or just autism

because he wanted a big navy like his cousin but his cousins friend wont let him

George and Nicky knew how politics worked more than Willy, that's it
Also willy kinda didn't renew the triple emperor alliance

>Nicky
Retarded as well

Relations between nations are not the same as relations between people.

Yes. Their ((((bureaucracy))) ignored them. Goes to show that they were not really absolute monarchs

Well, none of them claimed to be

Uh, Nicholas absolutely claimed to be.

Not after 1905 when he signed away a lot of his power, supreme autocrat is just the Russian bullshit term they came up with for emperor

Nicky didn't even want to be Tsar, IIRC he spent most of his time making scrapbooks and collecting postage stamps. He had the desire to be powerful, but never acted on it or did so carelessly.
Willy was just plain nuts, politically retarded, and reckless. The renewal is a perfect example of that. He didn't renew that pact not because he wanted to increase tensions, but because he didn't understand the significance behind a pact. He thought his word would be enough to replace the pact. Then he would retreat into his room for weeks or even months at a time during the war to deal with crippling depression and anxiety. He was way in over his head.

>what is him reinforcing his fundamental rights to the Russian people's at the first Duma
Less retarded because he listened to his advisors and praised men like Brusilov rather than be petty and jealous like Willy

Trying to keep the conservatives happy in the face of growing SR influence

He tried to be powerful but wanted to focus on his hobbies
>tfw no alt universe where he gets sent to be governor of a British Caribbean dominion

No him telling the Duma he can ignore them, SR were the major party at the beginning but so we're the liberals who wanted to reform much of Russia to make it closer to Britain, which Nicky didn't want because of how weak the nobles were over there

Unironically autism

Germany's first run at political autism.

Nicholas II and his wife both made it pretty darn clear that absolutism was their preference above all else.

The Hun knows no language but fire; no words but bullets.

Nicky was a cuck who let himself be bossed around all the time. He was also bipolar regarding the treatment of his subjects, trying to uplift them one day, and brutally cracking down on them the next.

Willy had a massive chip on his shoulder due to growing up with a crippled arm. He had no idea how the real world worked and liked to bully people and blow hot air.

Willy wanted to dom Nicky but Nicky's advisors were having none of that shit. Nicky was too much of a pussy to straight up tell Willy to stop being a fucktard so Willy never got the message.

>He was also bipolar regarding the treatment of his subjects, trying to uplift them one day, and brutally cracking down on them the next.

That's an inevitable outcome of trying to industrialize an agricultural society while at the same time trying to preserve your position as one of the few remaining absolute monarchs remaining in the post-Enlightenment world.

Nicky was an indecisive beta who got pushed into it by his advisors, and Willy was an actual autist.

Military protocol for national defence supersedes any monarch, autocratic or otherwise

You can't ignore somebody who has the power to fire you at will.

This. Unfortunately he had a submissive personality

No, but you can apparently tell an extremely inept autocrat that due to national security, signed treaties with the French, British, and Americans are the only thing that your keeps your empire safe, not to mention Germany's close ties to the ottoman Empire pose a serious risk to the Russian empires vulnerable frontiers in the region, as well as locking them up in the black sea, that you therefore must fight this war.

Or, you could realize that the military are the people that actually have the weapons, men, and real knowledge of how to use them.

You do realize Nicky was banished to Siberia and was subsequent murdered along with his whole family, right? Or how about Willy being forced to abdicate by ludendorf and Hindenburg and sent to exile in the Netherlands?

The only autistic monarchs really are Charles I of England
>conquers Europe with enlightened despotism
PSSH nothing personnel kid
>tfw no anarchist went to Netherlands and actually gutted Willy
It would be the one time I agree with them

Because of capitalism.

Capitalism necessitates constant economic expansion. When Europe ran out of new places to colonize, they inevitably turned on each other. It couldn't have been any other way - it was unavoidable given capitalist economic relations.

>basically inherited the position of head of state thanks to his father
>ruled a large, mostly-arctic, multicultural nation rich with mineral wealth
>more interested in frivolities and horseplay than statecraft
>globally renowned for his attractiveness

Was Nicholas II the Trudeau of the 20th Century?

Nicky was retarded, Willy was the incarnation of the autism of 200 generations of angry krauts

Those two weren't influential nor charismatic enough to reframe the geopolitical mindset and destiny of the two empires. Thus it's natural that they clashed with each other.

People often say that geopolitics is unavoidable and that's true to some extent, but at the end of the day all of those are artificially-made and the rule of praxis reigns supreme. Thus, with enough general will they could have changed their destiny. Look at them now. Even when both being formally liberal democracy, Russia and Germany still fight each other. Weakness and decadence lead into defeatism and fatalism, wrapped under pseudo-pragmatism. That is the law of society for the weak, an undeath-like mode of self-preservation. Neither living nor dead, only going on endlessly without purpose whatsoever like a zombie.

russian ambitions on the balkans, germany needed a friendly turkey

clash of interests, is there anyone here who is actually not a poltard memester and interested in history?

>interested in history?
Look at this nerd

>Those two weren't influential nor charismatic enough to reframe the geopolitical mindset and destiny of the two empires.
I wouldn't call him "charismatic", but you're wrong about Wilhelm at least. His policy of "Weltpolitik" absolutely changed Germany's geopolitical mindset and ambitions.

>tfw Britain and Germany will never form an uber alliance

You're overestimating Wilhelms influence, Weltpolitik was founded in the Reichstag and had nothing to do with Wilhelm except he supported it because the DKP aligned chancellors told him it was totally cool and wouldn't result in any problems

>Being forced by Hindenburg
No. Hindenburg on his deathbed loved his Kaiser.

Because they weren't absolute monarchs and both in Germany and Russia the military was the supreme power.

Nicky was an idiot. Also might have been influenced by his wife.

Also, the dumb ideology of slav brotherhood, which was a leftover after russo-turk campaign.

Ask this guy.

>rather than be petty and jealous like Willy

IIRC, Anatoly Koni was mentioning in his memoirs that Nicky had a very... difficult and petty character, not to mentiong that he was listening more to his wife then to advisors.

>He had advisors, therefore he had no real power

Was Russia's mobilization tantamount to a declaration of war, or were the Germans just overreacting because of their autistic Schlieffen Plan?

Tough love is a thing, user. Hindenburg wasn't above threatening to resign whenever he wanted to get his way. Wilhelm II was utterly dependent of Hindenburg (and Ludendorff), and he knew it.

That's not Otto von Bismarck's blind ambitions.

See above.

Perhaps in philosophical terms, the Reichstag is as essential as you arguing in regards to formulating weltpolitik. However, its practical manifestations are purely the result of Wilhelm and a close cadre of advisors. For example his expansion of the navy in violation of tacit geopolitcal norms was a pet project done in conjunction with von Tirpitz and his ill-advised forays into Morocco were instigated by he and von Bulow and Bethmann- Holweg.

More the autism. Von Moltke ran the general staff in such a way that there had to be an unbending adherence to the Schlieffen Plan and the sequence of events seemed a brilliant opportunity to some more hawkish elements in the German government to alleviate their status of being "encircled."

Russia's mobilization created a prisoner's dilemma situation. All of Germany's battle plans revolved around the idea that if Russia started mobilizing, then Germany could use its train network to mobilize faster and strike at Russia before Russia had time to fully mobilize. With this in mind, the Russian mobilization instantly put the General Staff in a position where they felt that they had to attack immediately or else all their plans, plans which depended on rapid, decisive action, would suddenly become worthless.

Allowing the Russian behemoth time to properly mobilize was military suicide from the perspective of the General staff, and so as soon as they realized that Russia was mobilizing, they started pleading with the Kaiser that he consent to the activation of the Schlieffen plan. At the same time, Nicholas II was frantically sending the Kaiser messages saying that the Russian mobilization was purely defensive, and that he would not take any action against Germany unless Germany attacked first.

Wilhelm actually asked his generals if it would be possible to mobilize without automatically invading France through Belgium. He was told no, that this was impossible, that everything had been planned in advance and it was too late to make changes. Furthermore, he was told that any delay would give Russia more time to mobilize and thus reduce the odds that the Schlieffen plan would be successful. So in conclusion, Wilhelm was placed in a situation where he had to pick between trusting his generals, and trusting Nicholas. He chose his generals.

Germany was by no means overreacting. They were in a strategically horrid position, having to fight a two-fronts war against France and Russia. Not to mention that a spy in the Russian embassy informed Bethmann-Hollwegh that Britain had agreed in secret to support Russia with naval support in the case of Baltic landing operations - thus completing the German nightmare of being surrounded by enemy nations. From the German point of view it was either strike pre-emptively as best as they could or perish if the enemy was serious about war. And who would trust in the good-will of competing nations that were presented an ideal opportunity to get rid of a major competitor?

Because the West is actually the most retarded Culture in the world. It rapes and pillages the planet, and when it had nowhere else to go, it ate itself.

While we are talking about Wilhelm II. What are some books I can pick up that gives me details about life in the German Empire and affair of its military? All the shit I find about it just leads into the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. So anything pre-1914 around the foundation to to 1900-1905.

It's like nobody gives a fuck about the Empire.