What if China, Thailand & Iran all joined the cental powers in ww1?
- Thread starter Wr1t3r
- Start date
You would need a date for each entry, as things did get quite interesting in the Balkans, with people jockeying fornthe support or neutrality of the Bulgarians, Greeks, Ottomans, and Romanians. Anyways, Thailand would be in a very precarious position and would de facto be making war by themselves. It would have been easier in a WWII or Cold War setting where there were more weapons available for locals, but they might have trouble getting allies propped up in Burma and Indochina. People have liked to throw Ethiopia into the Central Powers due to one of their princes supporting it, but it is a good thing you did not add it, considering the Ethiopians got rid of that guy as he wanted to convert to Islam to get support from the Somalis he wanted to annex.
Iran: a few days after the ottomans
China: the day after Japan
Thailand: a few days after Japan
Does China at this point have anything even faintly resembling a central government capable of waging war against a foreign enemy? Actually four foreign enemies, given that they've just declared war on Britain, Russian France and Japan?
Sure, three of those have their main forces committed elsewhere - but on the southern front for example, yet another round of Chinese aggression might be something that could reconcile the population of Indochina to having to cooperate with the French for a while longer.
The IJN, together with whatever pre-dreadnoughts and elderly cruisers the RN might be able to spare, completely rule the coastline from day one and no Chinese shipping moves in or out.
Japan, being the only entente ally in the region that doesn't have its first line forces committed elsewhere, gets to throw its weight around in China couple of decades earlier. Effects on the Anglo-Japanese alliance? Hmm. Japanese support in the hypothetical siege of Hong Kong might be militarily valuable, but any British gratitude around that might be diluted by the embarrassment of being helped out of a jam by "racial inferiors", or the RN's dislike of playing second fiddle to a local ally
Last edited:
Indeed. One of the whole things about the beginning of the war and the frantic ness was everyone mobilizing their armies, which takes time and was deemed as grounds for preemptive strikes by some of the parties. Well, not really grounds for the Germans, who were pretty flippant about heading countries that had down nothing against them. These three countries would need to have went with the expensive task of mobilizing earlier, and those would mostly be taken as signs against the Entente as the Germans only had minuscule presences in their lands, so who else could the army be preparing against?
Iran and China were powerless to actually participate in the war - the most either could accomplish would be for their governments to issue declarations of war which would result in the toppling of said governments with remarkable speed. Thailand could briefly threaten Singapore but would be conquered in short order.
One problem the Central Powers faced amongst many was their inability to project power globally- the fate of the German colonies demonstrated this and having a few minor allies around the globe, who they could not support, would do likewise.
One problem the Central Powers faced amongst many was their inability to project power globally- the fate of the German colonies demonstrated this and having a few minor allies around the globe, who they could not support, would do likewise.
In what world would the Thais be sick and tired of the Entente nations? Thailand was reaping considerable benefits from currying favour with and hosting them.
Derek Pullem
Donor
China - they could have declared for the Germans in OTL but it wouldn't change a thing. In OTL Germans provided some support for one faction of the warlords who attempted to restore the monarchy but they failed. If they succeeded then it would just mean more civil war in China.
Iran - much of northern Iran's cities were actually occupied by Russian garrisons and the British cooperated with the Russians in controlling Iran. Any Iranian rebellion be it nationalist or democratic would be quickly stomped out by the Russians and likely the British too.
Thailand - was ruled by an absolute monarch who was strongly Anglophile. It would take a civil war / coup to unseat him and as one attempt at a coup had just been defeated in1912 the chances of another successful one are pretty low, particularly as the King was becoming more nationalist to deflect the opposition.
Of course the other issue is that they have negligible military potential and there is negligible risk to the Allies from them.
It was poorly planned and poorly executed. They chose the man to assassinante the king by lottery. He then confessed everything to the head of the Kings guards. A far cry from the eventually successful coup in the 30’s.
The plotters were aristocratic army officers who felt that the Kings reforms and his creation of a commoner manned and led paramilitary rival to the aristocracy led army and loyal only to the King was a threat to their power. However they had little agreement on what was to be done once the king was dead. Some wanted to proclaim a republic others to elevate one of the royal family to the throne. So what the country would have looked like going forward is unclear. However, the revolt was not particularly nationalist in character. It was a palace coup of existing elites. It’s unlikely to bring a considerable change in the nations foreign policy.
Derek Pullem
Donor
Army of 20,000 split by the coup with no artillery is unlikely to pose a significant threat to Entente interests
All of them had already been. Do you mean partitioned? If so, the same thing applied to them already. I doubt anything could have happened that would be as catastrophic as what happened to the Ottomans, but really it is like with Hungary. They lose lots of land, but it was mostly stuff not occupied by Hungarian majorities, and like with the Germans, locals would have been angered about losing any smidge of land. Because really, Germany did get off lightly.
Come to think of it, all of this will offer the chance for a lot of change in the Caucasus , depending on if the Russian Revolutions still happen. Lots of Armenians, Kurds, Turkmen, and Azerbaijani (the original ones, not just their neighbors to the north who decided to use the same ethnic name as them) in the north of Iran, and might be we would see some of these entering the Soviet sphere or being Strong enough to either stay independent or to join Iran as a unit. Well, no not that. It iuod be like letting Germany annex Austria.
Duan Qirui led the push for China to join the Entente, so something would need to be done about the Anhui Clique earlier than IOTL (early destruction of the Anhui Clique?)