What was he supposed to do, let Russia wipe Germany's only ally off the map?

If Germany could eliminate their threat to the East through diplomacy, there would be no need to alleviate their "encirclement" by invading France. Allow Russia to be the irrational aggressor- Britain already hated them and France only made common cause with them because they feared Germany.

I don't think diplomacy would work at that point. The Tsar pretty much promised to defend the Slavic nations. If he went back on his word, it would make his rule appear to be weak.

It was weak. His miscalculation of casting himself as the defender of the myriad (and conflicting) Slav nationalities was counteracted only by Germany's support of the failing Austro-Hungarian rule in the Balkans.

Every regime has to justify itself somehow.

His and france's stupid fucking trench war was really the only major flaw that can be addressed without using hindsight goggles.
Throwing all you soldiers in a meat grinder when youre only killing frenchmen? Did he expect a miraculous drafting of russians to fend off the rest of the allies? how stupid do you have to be to waste an empire's worth of resources on the dutch?

Exactly, what if Austria Hungary fell apart from a war with Serbia? The Kaiser would lose his only substantial ally and be dealt with a stronger Russian Empire who was already undergoing technological advancements. While Austria was nothing more than a corpse, it was still a corpse that Germany made a point of allying itself with which in the Kaiser's eyes, was better left to crumble on its own than by Russian dominance.

The thing is that Kaiser Wilhelm actually agreed that Serbia's response to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatium had been adequate and that it removed any legitimate reason for war. At that point, he should told A-H that it was time to chill, and that it wasn't worth getting into a war with Russia over this.

Of course. What were they supposed to do about it?

Why would Germany abandon their only real ally on the continent?

>If he went back on his word, it would make his rule appear to be weak.
In particular after just having lost a war against Japan.

Because when your allies drag you into wars and need contant babysitting to do anything they aren't very good allies, Germany never should have rescinded the Russian part of the Three Emperors Alliance, he should have kicked Austria out instead

Russia's incursion into the Balkans resulting from that would prompt the liberal powers of Britain and France to take action. The British in particular had an active interest in maintaining some semblance of a status quo in the region mostly due to hostility towards Russian interests, hence their support of the (also failing) Ottomans.

Because the alternative is a disastrous 2-front war that leads to the demise of Imperial Germany?

...

>Russia's incursion into the Balkans resulting from that would prompt the liberal powers of Britain and France to take action

Britain and France were depending on Russia to create a 2-front war if Germany ever tried to expand westward.

>need contant babysitting to do anything they aren't very good allies
They didn't know that before the war started.

>Germany never should have rescinded the Russian part of the Three Emperors Alliance, he should have kicked Austria out instead
Russia was already allied with France and they had secret naval agreements with Britain who would support them in case of Baltic landing operations.

From the German perspective France, Russia and Britain were out to get Germany.

The German perspective was: either that war happens now and we still have a slight chance to win or it happens later and we would lose for certain. And this was by no means an unreasonable perspective. Why would they subject themselves to the good-will of enemy nations instead of try to take the upper hand while it's still possible?

They wouldn't have allied with France if the 3 Emperors thing was still going is the whole point, Autria shitting the bed over muh Balkans after Russo-Turkish war of 1877 ruined everything

Russian expansion into the Balkans would likely trump that concern in urgency for the two of e two nations, especially Britain. It would be in Germany's interest to allow hostility to foment between the two factions "encircling" them.

What happened is that Germany (or more specifically the General Staff) looked at the situation, decided that it was now or never, and made a huge high-risk, high-reward gamble which didn't pay off.

>They wouldn't have allied with France if the 3 Emperors thing was still going is the whole point
Too late for that.

I would call it a move of devastation rather than a gamble. They were reasonably afraid of the political alliances in Europe and their own vulnerable position within.

So Britain and France would throw away their alliance with Russia, the same alliance that they were depending on to keep them safe if Germany ever decided to expand westward.......over the fucking Balkans?????

Bismarck was amiable with Russia, then Wilhelm decided to piss them off. Yes Germany should let Austria fall. Let the Slavs have their hell hole snd Germany gets the Germanic pieces. Not sure I see an issue. Wilhelmina fubared hard.

He should have listened to Otter von Bismarck

>One day the great European War will come out of some damned foolish thing in the Balkans (1888)

>What was he supposed to do, let Russia wipe Germany's only ally off the map?
tell austria to not
>demand absolutely ridiculous shit from serbia after an autistic radical serb shot a pro-serbian AH statesman
>not to go to war after said ridiculous demands are refused

>autistic radical Serb
*autistic radical Bosnian

fug my bad pham

Over unwarranted Russian expansion. Britain in particular hated Russia. If Russia were the one to attempt to disrupt the balance of power this way, then they become the power that must be dealt with.

>unwarranted expansion
This coming from Brits is the peak of irony.

Again HOW. Britain was depending on Russia to create a 2-front war against Germany. That was the entire point of the Triple Entente! If you break the alliance with Russia then suddenly Germany can rest easy knowing that you just threw away your only hope of stopping German expansion.

Yes it is. But remember they have specific interests in Asia that they consider Russia a huge threat to. Their joining the Entente was very recent as well and was spurred on mostly by Wilhelm's erratic behavior and policy. If he proceeded like a normal politician this isn't so ridiculous a scenario, but this is Wilhelm and you can't expect a person to act contrary to their nature.

So then Russia can shit all over Britain's interests and reshape the Balkans to its liking?

It's hard to say whether it was Wilhelm, the Brits or Alexander III who was ultimately responsible for breaking up the Three Emperors Pact and creating the abomination that was the Anglo-Russian alliance. If anything you could even blame Austria for being greedy faggots and annexing Bosnia and forcing Bismarck to pick sides.

You can blame Aehrenthal the Jew for that

It's always the Austrians, ever since their defeat in 1866 they've plotted the downfall of Germany and cleverly framed the Jews

It was Bismarks fault. the Congress of Berlin was Bismark's doing and completely shat all over Russia while benefiting Austria. Bismark made it clear that the alliance was just to keep Russia off Austria's back and that they weren't actually allied or friendly to Russia.

Austria-Hungary was more of a burden

No, he was supposed to be ALLIED with Russia. He took Bismarck's work and threw it away.

Ironically A-H was not only useless but it was hampering relations between Russia and Germany. Had they just split it between them all would have been fine, but no, Willy really wanted to do a rendition of Weekend at Bernie's on an international level.