History's biggest own-goals?

Don Corleone

Post 1900 is ok too but most huge mistakes are going to be pre 1900 so I put the thread here.

I'll start: The Hasmoneans forcibly assimilating the Edomites. That backfired when the Romans took over and appointed a puppet king from the Edomite population. Thus resulting in the Herodian dynasty.
 

Merrick

On the 1900 border: Imperial Germany pouring resources into a battlefleet with no mission other than to challenge Britain, which went a long way to pushing the British into an alliance with France. Come WW1, the High Seas Fleet achieved very little to justify its cost.
 
Mildtryth

Mildtryth

Solano López deciding he could take on both of his country's biggest neighbours at the same time.

And then compounding the mistake by insisting on fighting to the last man when the war was already long lost.
 
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Monk78

Merrick said:
On the 1900 border: Imperial Germany pouring resources into a battlefleet with no mission other than to challenge Britain, which went a long way to pushing the British into an alliance with France. Come WW1, the High Seas Fleet achieved very little to justify its cost.
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Even if Germany was the biggest land power on the continent it would have still spooked the British

In any case HSF was never big enough to seriously challenge the GF in any capacity, it was just enough to keep the French and Russians in check
 

jacob ningen

Don Corleone said:
Post 1900 is ok too but most huge mistakes are going to be pre 1900 so I put the thread here.

I'll start: The Hasmoneans forcibly assimilating the Edomites. That backfired when the Romans took over and appointed a puppet king from the Edomite population. Thus resulting in the Herodian dynasty.
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This 100%. On the same Subject of Jewish Kings of Antiquity the Najran Massacre.
This was supressed but post 1900 the Jew Census of the German high command. they tried to find proof of jewish treason and found Jewish Germans were the most patriotic
also WWI Judaism Jemal Pasha giving Aaron Aaronsohn a tour of military facilities after Aaronsohn was a member of NILI. Jemal Pasha earlier had tried expelling Tel Aviv's Jewish Population and was a member of the three Pashas in Armenia
Croesus.
Cambyses murdering his brother if we can trust Behistun and Herodotus.
Richard if he did Kill the princes in the tower
Buckingham if it was him.
the CIA deposing Mossadegh.
Han Fei telling Er shi how to rule as a sociopath and letting Li Si convince the king to kill him.
 
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Merrick

Monk78 said:
Even if Germany was the biggest land power on the continent it would have still spooked the British
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Germany had been the largest land power on the continent since 1871 without spooking the British and arguably was more dominant in the era of the Three Emperors League than during the period of the naval build-up.
.
Monk78 said:
In any case HSF was never big enough to seriously challenge the GF in any capacity, it was just enough to keep the French and Russians in check
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Prussia/Germany had beaten the French in 1870 without a navy and Russian sea power was even more of a non-issue in any clash with Germany. The people who were worried abut the French/Russian fleets were the British - right up to the point were Germany began walking all over Britain's red lines in the North Sea. Admittedly the drive behind the High Seas Fleet was more hubris and bad Mahan than any coherent plan to threaten Britain, but it was still a spectacular strategic backfire.
 
SealTheRealDeal

SealTheRealDeal

The UK "winning the peace" by making a bilateral peace with America to present to France fait accompli, when the French were pushing for this:

Like... Could've had a giga-Canada.
 
Ditzy Vixen (RossN)

Ditzy Vixen (RossN)

Merrick said:
Germany had been the largest land power on the continent since 1871 without spooking the British and arguably was more dominant in the era of the Three Emperors League than during the period of the naval build-up.
.

Prussia/Germany had beaten the French in 1870 without a navy and Russian sea power was even more of a non-issue in any clash with Germany. The people who were worried abut the French/Russian fleets were the British - right up to the point were Germany began walking all over Britain's red lines in the North Sea. Admittedly the drive behind the High Seas Fleet was more hubris and bad Mahan than any coherent plan to threaten Britain, but it was still a spectacular strategic backfire.
Click to expand...

While I agree the naval buildup of OTL and antagonising the Brits was an own goal I think an expanded navy was in and of itself a reasonable goal for a country with a very large merchant marine and much more linked into overseas trade than the Prussia of 1870.

In a very short war that would have been irrelevant but a French naval blockade would have hurt in a long war.
 

Saci

Merrick said:
Germany had been the largest land power on the continent since 1871 without spooking the British and arguably was more dominant in the era of the Three Emperors League than during the period of the naval build-up.
.

Prussia/Germany had beaten the French in 1870 without a navy and Russian sea power was even more of a non-issue in any clash with Germany. The people who were worried abut the French/Russian fleets were the British - right up to the point were Germany began walking all over Britain's red lines in the North Sea. Admittedly the drive behind the High Seas Fleet was more hubris and bad Mahan than any coherent plan to threaten Britain, but it was still a spectacular strategic backfire.
Click to expand...
The original mission of the High Seas Fleet was to prevent Britain to strangle german trade in the North Sea with no sacrifice to make in strategic terms, according to Tirpitz - especially after certain diplomatic incidents during the Boer War. Besides, Britain was already turning towards France even before the naval build up.
 

Lalli

Germany sinking Lusitania and sending of Zimmermann Telegraph.

Stalin purging Red Army.

Mussolini allying with Hitler.

Japan attacks Pearl Harbor.

Germany declaring war to United States.

Iraq invading Kuwait.
 

extraterrestris

Prussia/Germany not stipulating the permanent demilitarization of France in 1871.

Germany not renewing the re-insurance treaty with Russia in 1890.

Hindenburg appointing Hitler in 1933.

Russia inflicting a grievous defeat but manageable defeat on Ukraine in 2014 and then giving the country eight years to prepare for further altercations. Then trying to conquer all of Ukraine in 2022.

I will remove much of this post if it goes too much into both pre-1900 and contemporary politics.
 
The_Persian_Cat

The_Persian_Cat

The Battle of Karánsebes (1788). During one of the many Habsburg-Ottoman Wars, a Habsburg army was setting up camp near the town of Karánsebes, near the Timiș River in Transylvania. As the main force of the army set up camp, a contingent of hussars crossed the river to scout for the Ottomans. They didn't find any Ottomans, but they did find some local merchants travelling in the opposite direction with a whole bunch of schapps for sale. The hussars started drinking as they waited for the main force of the army to catch up. Meanwhile, the army crossed the river, and ran into the same merchants -- who also ran into the same merchants. They also bought a ton of schnapps, and got drunk as they moved forward.

When the infantry saw the hussars on the horizon, they mistook their own scouts (also drunk) for the Ottoman cavalry, and proceeded to attack. Now, the infantry was made up of many different nationalities, but the hussars themselves were Germans. So when the hussars started yelling, "Halt! Halt!," the non-Germans in the infantry misheard it as "Allah! Allah!" From there, it devolved into a great drunken fight, with hundreds dead -- according to legend and lore, there were ten-thousand; though modern estimates say it was closer to one-thousand before everyone stopped fighting and ran away in confusion.

Two days later, the Ottoman Army actually did turn up. With the Habsburg forces already dead, they occupied Karánsebes without issue.
 
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