Thread: Could Germany Win WWI

If by "Eastern Theater" you mean Middle Eastern, then I disagree. There might have been more 'movement' in the fighting over the Middle Eastern portion of the Ottoman Empire, but it played very little role in the defeat of Germany - which was the the mainstay of the Central Powers. Similarly, there was little the Germans could have done in the Middle East to have defeated the Entente.

Originally Posted by deadkenny

Funny thing in war, adversity can actually rally support for the regime. It was to some extent because Russia wasn't the main target from the start, and the fighting was mostly at the 'fringes' of the empire, that support started to erode. Sure it's possible that if the main German thrust had been on that front the collapse of the regime would have been accelerated, but then again the dymanics are hard to predict.

Agree with you 100%.

Regarding German dreams of conquest - they may not have started out with such intentions, but the annexations in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk would appear to indicate that the Germans developed such intentions. Such would only have been accelerated if the main thrust had been eastward from the start.

I don't really think that demonstrated a desire for conquest against Russia itself, more a need for the raw materials that Russia produced. By that point, Germany was beginning to starve, and it's economy was collapsing for want of raw materials. The defeat of Romania helped somewhat, but the acquisition of huge Russian territories solved resource problems in a way that nothing other than a successful conclusion of the war could.

Originally Posted by Ironduke

Wow, I can't believe the Ottoman front is ignored completely.

The war in the Western trenches was just a slugging match between 800 pound gorillas. The actual events that decided the outcome of the war occurred in the Eastern theater of the war.

I completely disagree. While the war in the middle east experienced more movement, the complete and total collapse of the Ottoman Empire right from the start would not have effected the outcome of the war one way or another. Only the loss of Austria (because of the Russian troops diverted by them, and the southern avenue into Germany opened up by their collapse), could have hurt Germany. Germany's other allies were completely expendable. Much was the same of the Entente actually. The Russian, French, and British war effort was actually damaged by the entry of both Italy and Romania. None of Germany's allies hurt the Central Power's cause the way that some of the Entente did, but they didn't really help either.