Alternate History

Post Reply New Topic

I'm starting an alternate history novel and the premise "What if Franz Ferdinand wasn't killed?" As most know this started WW1. Now my question: Do you think hostilities between nations at the time would have gotten worse or cooled down?

Provide a long answer please.

interesting premise - I think without ferdinands death things would have escalated anyway. The thing you might want to look at for research is the other petrochemical related causes for war.

In the early 1900's (I havent got dates but its easy to find) the british navy started churning out oil fuelled battleships - germany keen to follow suit needed somewhere to get steady supplies of oil. The british empire spanned the globe , the germans had nowhere so some sort of empire or friendly relations with a country filled with oil became very important.

An extension was started to take the "orient express" all the way to baghdad and they got mineral rights for the land on both sides of the track all the way , fear of german competition in Iraq and the persian gulf was the reason for much of the posturing before the war started between germany and .. well everyone else.

Its explained better here http://www.angelfire.com/nt/Gilgamesh/ottoman2.html

also http://www.greatwar.nl/frames/default-bagdade.html

Theres also a rob newmann show "the history of oil" available on google videos that covers this. Whilst Ferdinand's death was a cause for war it wasnt the sole driving force behind it and I suspect gavrillo princip can rest easy knowing that even if he had not killed Ferdinand it would all have happend anyway.