Nakena wrote:I believe the whole matter
should be dealt with a few millions in cash as compensation in return for them renouncing their claims. That would be an elegant settlement to get the matter dealt with.
I don't even know why they should be granted that or why modern Germany would be concerned enough about their claim to think that's worthwhile. Treat them like the nutballs who declare their houses to be sovereign nations or whatever.
Celritannia wrote:Which all stemmed from Bismarck being kicked out of power.
He died almost 20 years before the war even started, so the Kaiser would've had plenty of time to make bad decisions even if he'd kept him, and even if you want to continue making this absurdly ahistorical Great Man History argument that keeping him in for a little longer would've changed everything... it was the Kaiser's decision to not keep him. Hence this
still would all flow from bad decisions the Kaiser made.
Anyway, all these individual responses can be summed up as a bad take on history.
Well, I guess that settles it! Glad we have a real expert in the thread to tell us what's what.
A Thousand Islands wrote:Senkaku wrote:And, you know, getting into World War One and then losing it so badly that the dynasty was toppled.
Hey, see, maybe the whole family is culpable! They did a bad job raising him and helped contribute to him eventually going on to make bad decisions that cost the family the crown and set the stage for Nazism and the next war in which they lost everything. That's the risk you run when your family controls the politics of an entire nation, I suppose.
Their previous track record as monarchs is irrelevant to the mistakes they went on to make.
Why on earth not? They ruled the country.
Technically, only the monarch rules; everybody else in the family would have privilege, but not actual power or authority. You can't really penalize an entire family for the flaws of a few of their members.
Monarchy is a family business. The rest of the family raises the future monarch, helps find them a spouse, helps run the state administration and the military. The hereditary principle of such personalist regimes mean the entire family is complicit in the enterprise.