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Jack_www
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I am not shocked. They tryed to get Mexico to attack the United States, if the US enter the war by saying that they could get back the lands they lost in the American Mexican war about 70 years earlier. The land that the United States has lots of natural resources, so of course any country who wanted to be a world power would want those resources. And now that United States is a Super Power I think that is even more so now.
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Jack_www
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Anther thing I just remembered too, the US also was preventing any European form trying to regan former colonies in South and North America. (Monroe Doctrine ) So that of course would really bug any country in Europe that wanted power and land, countries like Germany.
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Ecthy
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Zhonghuà Rénmín Gònghéguó
Mar 2000
time: 06:19
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Emperor Wilhelm II supposedly planned attacks on New York and Boston
For almost 10 years, Emperor Wilhelm II. supposedly made plans for attacking the USA. Thus - so say documents in the military archive of Freiburg - the Empire intended to strengthen global German influence and control the Panama Canal.
Hamburg - Referring to documents in the military archive of Freiburg, the "Zeit" reports about the Empire's attack plans. According to that, the attack was supposed to happen before the Great War (doh!, Ecth.) Targets should be Boston and New York.
The German government intended to force the United States to recognize German interests on the American continent and in the Pacific, the Zeit reports. Furthermore, control over the Panama canal was another objective.
The Emperor himself is said to have been the driving force behind it. The USA had crossed the Emperor's attempts to construct colonies and military bases all over the world (how did they do that?, Ecth.). Therefore, Naval Officer Eberhard von Mantey created plans to force the "United states of North America" to agree on a contract that would favour Germany in the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean in the winter of 1897/98.
One year later, Mantey got an opportunity to carry on with his plans. At this point he supposedly created plans for an attack on New York, a 3-million-metropolis back then. "In New York, great panic will erupt at the very thought of a possible bombardment" the Zeit quotes him from the documents.
In those days, the armament in the Empire was on high conjunction. Wilhelm II. resolved the Supreme Naval Command in the beginning of 1899 and took over the direct naval command. Another year later, in June 1900, the Reichstag (Imperial parliament, Ecth.) passed the Second Naval Law, fully according to the ideas of the Secretary of Imperial Navy Affairs, Alfred von Tirpitz (the man with that weird beard that is split into 2 halfs, Ecth.). That law contained an expansion of the Imperial Fleet as it was put in place by the First Naval Law by the factor 2. (verdoppeln?, Ecth.)
Apparenlty, most naval strategists (DLs!, Ecth.) already dreamed of a quick victory of the new fleet in the new world. Only the Head of the General Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, warned them of "uncalculatable" risks in that transatlantic intervention. The plans were continued until 1906, when the USA began to massively expand their own fleet. Plus, the political situation in Europe had entered a more difficult phase. (zugespitzt?, Ecth.)
In the plans the author of the Zeit-article sees proof for a thesis about parallels between the Empire and the Third Reich that has been debated for tens of years; apparently, 40 years later, the Nazis seeked to fight the Endkampf / Final Battle for world supremacy against the USA as well.
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Jack_www
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How would think things would have turned out if Germany attacked the US? Personally I think such an attack without an island of other land mass near by that you could use as a base of opperations would be hard to pull off. The risk of getting found out while on route to US with troops would be high since it would take a week or more to more troops form Germany to US. SO such an attack would be nest to impossible, and that is probelly why they never did it. Now if they could have an ally near the United States to help them, like Mexico, that would have been a different story.
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Coracle
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The United States had in the 1890's war plans for fighting Germany - repelling an invasion and attacking them later.
All of these were just hypothetical exercises and scenarios. No one expected an actual war.
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Dom Pedro II
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The College of New Jersey
Nov 1999
time: 05:19
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Well, the Germans probably wouldn't have actually wanted to mess with the Monroe Doctrine considering that they never had any colonies in the Americas to start with, and if the Monroe Doctrine were put aside Britain and France would be scrambling to reestablish power. Germany did want to get a foothold in the Americas, but they essentially accomplished their limited goals there. Now Britain on the other hand was much more interested in butting in Latin America, and they nearly went to war with the United States in 1895 over a Venezuelan crisis, but they needed an ally against... guess who! yes, the Germans!
I think though that it was rather naive of Wilhelm to think any sort of sea invasion of the U.S. would be possible. Hell, without Britain as a launch point, Normandy would've been utterly impossible. You can't sail a few dozen transports full of men 3,000 miles to land on a hostile shore and expect much success. At least in this era anyway.
Anyway, I think regarding Samoa, it probably wouldn't have dragged all of Europe into World War at that point. On the other hand, it could very well have weakened Germany's armaments in a drawn-out war with the U.S., which it is likely neither country could ever win decisively since the United States would likely repel the Germans but find the task of going TO Germany to be too daunting. Although good ol' Teddy was President then and he was nothing if not stubborn.
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Zkribbler
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Los Angeles, CA, USA
Feb 1999
time: 21:19
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quote:
Originally posted by faded glory
We would lose. Our army was 1500 cavalry out west fightin engines in 1900. And 5,000 volunteer's along our borders. Would take forever to mobilize. We were still using Muskets! lol |
In the late 1700's, French privateers thought they could plunder U.S. shipping because we had no navy.
In 1801, the Tripoli pirates thought they could extract tribute from us because we were too weak to fight back, and after all, the French and English were both paying
In 1812, the British thought they could press sailors off our merchantmen because we were too weak ever to stand up to them.
In 1846, Mexico thought it was a good idea to use force to push us out of the disputed border area in Texas.
In 1941, the Japanese thought they could deal us a knock-out blow in the Pacific by taking out our ships at Pearl Harbor.
In 2001, Osama bin Laden thought he could demoralize the American people by striking at our economic heart.
An attack upon U.S. soil by the Germans in the late 1890's may have had some initial success, but in the long term, Kaiser Bill would have lost. Two centuries have shown that no nation, however strong, can enrage the American people  and hope to emerge victorious.
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08-05-2002 02:58
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