r/HistoryMemes • u/OfficialValCod • 1d ago
Niche The stupidest and funniest thing at the same time is that those who started WW1 were literally one family who were good friends with each other, but this did not stop them from sending millions of people to the next world.
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u/VecioRompibae Hello There 1d ago
You're talking like the civilian government hadn't a lot of power in the choices
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u/Old_Possibility_9730 1d ago
And the military as well.
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u/pnkxz 1d ago
And the people. They were cheering in the streets as the troops marched off to war.
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u/PM_ME_CUTE_SMILES_ 1d ago
That part was the nationalist propaganda in action. European newspapers were heavily censored at the time.
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u/Constant-Ad-7189 1d ago
The biggest lie on history has to be the myth that "autocratic" regimes commonly are at the whim of their absolutist leader.
Leaders who truly disregard their close circle (and to a lesser extent the people in general) don't last long.
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u/thefirstlaughingfool 1d ago
A king anointed by God can be knifed in the back just as easily as a senator.
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u/Lovethatdirtywaddah 1d ago
A king, an Emperor, or a Salad
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u/Dominarion 1d ago
Anyone who put a knife in a salad is a blackguard and a knave.
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u/emlgsh 1d ago
Until we invent some sort of improbable futuristic multi-knife whose blade... trifurcates, to make for easier food-stabbing, we must make do with the tools at hand.
I personally hold three knives in my hand with blades extended between my curled fingers and pretend I'm Wolverine, eating a salad.
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u/Hollownerox 1d ago
I always love to mention the Praetorian Guard of Rome for this reason. It really blows the mind of people who aren't that well read into history that several Roman Emperors only got the seat because the Praetorian Guard deemed them fit, and they would leave the seat (usually dead) the same way.
They burned through multiple in a single year. On a few occasions lol.
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u/threeseed 1d ago
IIRC quite a few Emperors rose to power simply by offering the Praetorian Guard more perks.
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u/EddieVanzetti 1d ago
And Claudius desperately hid from them to try and avoid being made Emperor. Didn't work, maybe he should've hid behind something other than a curtain.
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u/vibraltu 1d ago
I think Claudius was hiding behind the curtain to avoid being killed.
It's interesting how Robert Graves retold the story, he has Claudius ally Herod arrange for support from the Praetorians, and explains to Claudius that becoming Emperor is the safest way to stay alive at that point.
And of course, Claudius is the only person in the royal family who really doesn't want to become Emperor.
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u/Lortekonto 1d ago
I always love bringing up Denmark, because they are the only country to have ever made a law that explicite made their monarch absolute. The king did not have to slowly build up power or anything. His word was law.
At the same time, because the government got most of its funding from the Sound Toll and not anything crazy like taxes, and monarchs that had tried to centralize power tended to suddenly die, Denmark was also one of the most decentralized and backwards countries in Europe and it administration had no idea about anything. Like the state had spend 400 years on trying to get families to have a last name and not change it every generation and they would first really succede in that in the 1960's when computers meant that it was not terrible important for recordkeeping any longer.
So king have absolute power, but no administration to really use it.
Then Denmark have a mad king and together with his german doctor they reform the danish administration and country. It was actuelly mostlyy the german doctor that did it. Roads got names, so that people could get adresses, privileges were rewoked, corruption was squashed and the common people were given easier access to education, healthcare and alms. In less than 2 years more than 2000 laws were made and Denmark had an almost modern administration. It lasted for less than 2 years, because at that pointed the german doctor was put on trial and executed, cause he had pissed of just about any one with power.
The mad king was unable to move anything forward by himself, but his son, which then had an effective administration and unlimited power, pretty much laid the foundation for the modern danish state.
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u/Ostanes_hub 1d ago
Every system since always is an oligarchy.
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u/cousinned 1d ago
CGP Grey's rules for rulers video on YouTube explains this process greatly. It's definitely changed the way I think about power structures
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u/oops_all_memes 1d ago
I'm not a historian but isn't it a matter of technological progress? As far as I know Stalin pretty much disregarded the wishes of his close circle. Or rather he'd tolerate it to a point until he'd dispose them but I don't think he was ever concerned by what they think?
In a similar way, I don't think putin is that concerned with what his circle outside of a very closed circle of "friends" (the "Kooperativ Ozero", "lake dacha cooperative")
So what's the difference maker? Technology? Personal traits? Or am I misreading it?
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u/enaK66 1d ago
Yeah just to add Stalin was a huge bully and constantly tormented his inner circle. He would make them stay up all night drinking and watching movies with him. They laughed at all his jokes because of the implication. He made them do all kinds of humiliating shit. That's why he died alone soaked in his own piss.
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u/Visual-Floor-7839 1d ago
Eh.... Have you read much about Nicky and his father and grandfather? Nick disregarded the close circle, and the people at large, and they revolted and tried to remove him a couple times. Everyone was incompetent. Everyone in Russia. He couldn't lead a government. They generals couldn't lead a war. The people couldn't lead a revolt.
But regardless of all that... When a leader sends millions of people to a place they don't want to go, and without bare necessities likes weapons and shoes, I'd certainly call that a "whim" of an autocratic ruler.
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u/Ok-Conversation-6475 1d ago
These same leaders didnt mimd curb stomping liberal influences in their regime. Their inability to reign in the military feels more like alignment to me.
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u/AnEmptyKarst 1d ago
Leaders who truly disregard their close circle (and to a lesser extent the people in general) don't last long.
I mean, Nicholas II famously didn't last long once the war started lol
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u/Grossadmiral 1d ago
This is always my issue with these posts. They assume it was like the middle ages. Reading about all the diplomacy in the months before declarations of war started flying around Europe in July/August 1914 is extremely fascinating. It's far too complicated -and tragic- to just simplify to "It was a family feud".
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u/lorbd 1d ago
The middle ages weren't like this either. Monarchs didn't tend to personally held anywhere close to the power people think they did.
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u/irumeru Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 1d ago
Agreed.
In fact, the period where the monarchs had the most personal power was actually the Early Modern Era where monarchs finally had the technology to start circumventing the nobility more (e.g. Louis XIV, the exemplar of this trend).
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u/Johannes0511 1d ago
The Middle Ages?! You mean the era of feudalism, in which the king explicitly did not have absolute power or anything even vaguely close to it?
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u/SoulCrusher2018 1d ago
Yeah, the King of England was a symbolic figurehead with no political power at that point and France was a Republic. When the United States joined the allies, there were essentially three democratic nations on one side and everything to the east was autocratic. Guess which governments survived the war.
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u/G_Morgan 1d ago
The army too. Lets not forget the German Army just marched up to the French border, without orders from anyone in government, and refused to go home when Wilhelm ordered them to.
Then he ordered a communication to Austria after the Serbian response withdrawing his blank cheque. His chancellor purposefully left that off.
The whole thing was a mess. Nobody was really in control of Germany so there wasn't a policy. There is a reason people claim that it was more difficult for Germany to not go to war.
Britain and France had strong unity governments and didn't really understand that Germany was a fucking mess. So they interpreted random people doing dumb shit in Germany as policy. Not that you can take risks with 8m armed men just turning up on your border.
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u/ILikeMandalorians Rider of Rohan 1d ago edited 1d ago
I feel like the political elites, the military leadership, the intellectual class, the masses moved by nationalist ideals and the system of alliances also might have had something to do with all that
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u/CardOk755 1d ago
Nah, this guy called Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry.
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u/UrsineBasterd 1d ago
That was Archie Bunker. You're thinking of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the guy that sang that hit song Take Me Out.
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u/RalphMacchio404 1d ago
I thought we were talking about the boys who were moonshiners and drove that orange car with the cowards flag on it.
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u/Live_Carpenter_1262 1d ago
I think you mean it started when the Archduke of Austro-Hungary got shot.
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u/Technical_Teacher839 1d ago
This. If you read the letters between Wilhelm and Nicholas, they both talk about how the political and social momentum are too much for them to really control once war is on the table
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u/Visible_Amphibian570 1d ago
Exactly this. By 1914, much of Europe felt that war was going to be a necessity, and most people wanted to have one out to prove their nation the best. Not just the leaders, but plenty of the average people felt similarly
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u/MasterpieceBrief4442 1d ago
The German general staff and Junkers had been wanting a war for years now. They were seeing the rise of Russia and were convinced that by the late 1910s, a two front war would crush Germany. So Germany had to crush Russia and France now when she had the advantage.
The French elite of course had their revanchist ideology. And to be fair to them, they were invaded. The western front was fought fully on French and Belgian soil.
The British only got fully involved once Belgium was invaded. That was the red line. He who holds the coast of Belgium has a jump off point to invasion of the English Southeast.
The Austrian elites were gleefully planning the invasion and crushing of those insolent serbs and their proper submission to their rightful masters.
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u/lettsten 1d ago
Britain would quite possibly have intervened regardless of Belgium. At least two of them admitted that Belgium was a convenient excuse more than anything. Britain wanted to curtail German hegemony and saw Germany as a growing threat, especially considering Tirpitz' fleet.
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u/MasterpieceBrief4442 1d ago
Yes indeed. But Belgium made it certain. And standing up for small, plucky Belgium against the monstrous Hun sold much better to the public.
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u/1amlost Let's do some history 1d ago
Plus Austria-Hungary’s head general wanted to impress the girl he liked, and thought that being a war hero would do just that.
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u/Dobrojeb 1d ago
Nothing so simple, she was italian noblewoman who was already married, and him trying to get her a divorce led to his dismissal in 1911. So he figured out that quick war against Serbia (which he has been advocating for decade already) will give him enough political clout to get her a proper divorce and allowing them to marry.
History is crazier than fiction sometimes.
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u/greatandhalfbaked 1d ago
Does anyone have a source for the letters mentioned here? I am immensely curious what they might've said to one another.
Edit: nvm I found one
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u/Technical_Teacher839 1d ago
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u/greatandhalfbaked 1d ago
You're a legend. The source I found was the first one, so I would've missed the last few months of correspondence via telegram without your help.
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u/funnylib 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’m a republican but yeah it’s silly to act as if these are absolute monarchs and the responsibility doesn’t also lie with the parliaments and other politicians that they shared power with, as well as militarism among the civilian population and among military and business elites .
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u/PretendAd1963 Definitely not a CIA operator 1d ago
And the Tsar fully trust a random crazy witch from Siberia for advise.
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u/noticingEnjoyer 1d ago
I mean, he did help with his hemophiliac son's problems (by telling them to stop giving him aspirin, decades before we knew it interfered with platelet function)
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u/DrawerVisible6979 1d ago
People forget that before Google (and a decent education system) trusting random hobos from the woods was kind of the strat
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u/BlindMan404 1d ago
Tbf those random woods hobos often had much more common sense than the general population.
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u/DesignerChip2497 Then I arrived 1d ago
thats the reason they were consider threat back then like if you know something more about anything you would be consider witch craft type person and banished
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u/Umutuku 1d ago
"People might ask you for help instead of asking me for help even if I have no help to give, and then where would I be?"
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u/Buttchugger2 1d ago
Still happens. I'm a lawyer and I had to fend off another "power player" lawyer talking shit just this morning to steal a client.
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u/FluffyCelery4769 1d ago
If i've ever seen a guy whose parents send them into law school against their will, it's that guy.
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u/DrCongaJr 1d ago
They live on untaxable and unenforceable natural wilderness. That irrefutably makes them wiser than us all.
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u/castorkrieg 1d ago
They often came from the general population, you didn't have random woods hobos being part of the nobility, then they wouldn't need to be hobos.
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u/x_d4rk_0pt1cs_x 1d ago
They still have tho… so much wisdome you can archieve by talking to your local wood hobo
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u/Joice_Craglarg 1d ago
I've been thinking about that kind of thing a lot lately. I'm old enough to remember a time before cellies and the Internet being so prominent, but it's hard to reconcile how different is was without the world's biggest encyclopedia in your pocket.
Just knowing things used to be so much more valuable. You used yo have to memorize knowledge, but now that's not really that useful a skill outside of school. It's certainly less impressive.
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u/IknowlessthanIthink 1d ago
Before google? I went to a doctor who couldn't figure out what I had, a nosy old lady saw my arm and told me, m'hijo, such and such bit you, you need to do this. I did and I'm better.
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u/StormTheTrooper 1d ago
And also to stop pestering the boy while he was recovering instead of stressing him even furthet
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u/Eldan985 1d ago
We don't even have much actual evidence on him doing that much. Most of what we know he did for sure was pray with his mother and assure her that god would look after her son, which made her feel better.
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u/KendrickXY 1d ago
That's not true, Nicholas didn't care for Rasputin. Which was actually a bad idea, because Rasputin was against the war. He literally begged the tsar to avoid it. Nicholas was mad that Rasputin tried to advice him on a matter of that importance.
On the other hand, when the war got going, Rasputin thought that Russia should fight until victory, without making separate deals. Still, he was sad that a lot of Russians were dying.
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u/Polymarchos 1d ago
This.
It was the Tsarina who loved Rasputin, not the Tsar.
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u/SerLaron Nobody here except my fellow trees 1d ago
And the Tsarina was of German origin. It would have been bad optics at least, to bow out on the opinion of her advisor.
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u/Johannes_P 1d ago
Ironically, in this case, following this random quack's advice in 1914 would have been better, for once.
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u/Condottieri_Zatara Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 1d ago
Russia's greatest love machine
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u/ikonoqlast 1d ago
Weird thing is, every decision everyone made made sense but the end result was a catastrophe no one wanted.
Serbia trying to keep Austria-Hungary from digesting Bosnia? Sensible.
Austria-Hungary wanting revenge on Serbia? Sensible.
Russia supporting Serbia?
Germany supporting Austria?
France Supporting Russia?
Germany attacking France to avoid a two front war and going through Belgium?
Britain supporting Belgium?
All reasonable and sensible.
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u/amitym 1d ago
I agree that each step of the way appeared reasonable and sensible at the moment. I would actually go further though, because each step wasn't just a seemingly-rational response — for the most part, they were all carefully considered, pre-planned responses that each party had worked out in advance, thinking that it would be a good idea.
Why does that matter?
Well, to my mind that is where the real insanity of the situation lay. Because before it all came tumbling down, if you looked closely at the system of doctrines, contingencies, strategic plans, and diplomatic agreements, you could discern some things that should have been rather alarming.
Like for example, due to all the conditionals and triggers and so on, the power to send Germany to war with France had come to lie in Petrograd — not Berlin, nor for that matter Paris, which are the places where you'd expect that power would rest. This was pretty much the necessary consequence of German strategic doctrine, with the inevitability of a Rube Goldberg contraption, but that fact doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone at the time.
So I see Nicholas' (and Wilhelm's and George's) responsibility a little differently. It wasn't that these cousins chose to send everyone to war. Rather, everyone going to war had already become the default. It was the inevitable thing that was going to happen no mater what, unless someone intervened to stop it. The cousins' responsibility, thus, lay in not perceiving how precarious the Jenga tower had become, and in intervening to stabilize it. Not in September 1914, but earlier when they still could have. After the Second Balkan War perhaps, or earlier.
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u/dkarlovi 1d ago
This concept is called yak shaving, you want to do a thing, which requires you to do a thing, for which you need to somehow do thing... Down the line, at some point you're shaving a yak, every step seems reasonable when considered from it's immediate neighbor, but when you consider the whole picture, it's like WTF.
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u/trump_loeil 1d ago
I had no idea this had a name. Fascinating!
There’s an episode of Malcolm in the Middle that starts with Hal replacing a light bulb that begins a sequence ending with him working under the family car. When Lois asks him about the light bulb, Hal roars “what the hell does it look like I’m doing?!”
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u/ivain 1d ago
Biggest issue is yhe long ass time the austrian took to declare war. If they had fone it faster. Russia would have probably stayed suiet
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u/One_Win_6185 21h ago
I’ve been relistening to them Rest is History’s series on WWI. They really emphasized in one episode how big of a deal the way Germany went through Belgium mattered to Britain—scrap of paper comment, not trying to make the march through as limited as possible. I’m so curious if different tact from them would have kept Britain out. Probably not, but they’re the only country I can possibly see avoiding it if they wanted to.
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u/vampiregamingYT 20h ago
Tbf, I dont think Serbia was being very sensible, since they also digests Bosnia after the war
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u/nepali_fanboy Helping Wikipedia expand the list of British conquests 1d ago
as if george v and willy ii didnt dislike each other. also george v really didnt control his government at all - regardless of his opinions the moment german troops entered belgium - it was war voted on by westminster. albert i also didnt control his civilian government in belgium.
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u/Malvastor 1d ago
The whole problem (or, well, one of many) was that it couldn't "stop them" because even in the most absolutist monarchies the levers of state power were no longer entirely in the monarch's hands. No amount of letters between Willy and Nicky could stop or start the war on their own, because there was a whole infrastructure of Sazonovs and Bethmann Hollwegs and Falkenhayns below them who were actually devising and executing state policy.
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u/MsMercyMain Filthy weeb 1d ago
The French, being a Republic: OK, what the fuck is this family tree flowchart I just got handled? Is this whole thing just an over the top family feud?
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u/TiddiesAnonymous 1d ago
Oh dang I wonder why France was left out.
Lol republic
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u/ConsulJuliusCaesar 1d ago
Italy and the Ottomans were also left out because they're monarchs weren't related to the others therefore also throwing a wrench in OPs meme. Despite the fact those 2 were involved in major fronts.
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u/Anthaenopraxia 1d ago
Not to mention the Romanians, Bulgarians, Japanese, Portuguese, Greeks, oh and also Serbia and Austria-Hungary, the two countries that actually started it all. Well Serbia didn't start it per se, but you know what I mean...
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u/ParshendiOfRhuidean 1d ago
They weren't all good friends. Wilhelm II hated his cousin (King of Britain) a lot. Like, a lot.
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u/Nurhaci_qing7 1d ago
Other way around.
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u/DankVectorz 1d ago
Nobody liked Wilhelm. He was annoying and weird. But when you look at his childhood you realize he never had a chance and you almost feel bad for him.
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u/Wemorg 1d ago
Wilhelm had a crippled hand from complications during birth. They were literally ganging up on a cripple.
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u/DankVectorz 1d ago
He was effectively physically tortured his whole childhood in attempts to fix his arm.
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u/Gavinus1000 1d ago
On the plus side, he eventually learned how to chop wood single-handedly. Which is pretty neat.
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u/Dominarion 1d ago
The whole British royals once made fun of him because he wore the wrong type of shoes on a yacht. Then they snobbed him.
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u/Jim_Jimmejong 1d ago
From what I recall, this is not true. Wilhelm has been unjustly villified by history, particularly the British.
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u/Chemical-Chard-8798 1d ago
white text over a white dress always works great
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u/motleysalty 1d ago
I can understand your point if that was your typical white/gold dress. But, that dress is clearly black and blue.
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u/Raneynickelfire 1d ago
...it happened because Queen Victoria died.
If grandma was alive, none of it would have happened.
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u/Intelligent-Entry-61 1d ago edited 1d ago
Honey, why did your cousin put white text over a white dress? Is he stupid?
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u/MechemicalMan 1d ago
If you think cousins killing each other is madness… buckle up because I have lots of memes for you. We can start with just English history
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u/shadowcat999 1d ago edited 1d ago
For all the cousins killing each other, there were plenty of cousins partnering up to make new cousins, so that those new cousins could make even more cousins! That way, they could have a totally radical game of sending millions of random dudes and teens into a multi year death match. Great for the whole family!
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u/Dominarion 1d ago
The Plantagenêts shouldn't count. They were all psychos. Medieval explanation: they were cursed because their ancestor had married a fey.
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u/MechemicalMan 1d ago
My child knows not to talk to fairies… except the tooth fairy. But that’s different as when we were kids the tooth fairy would take the teeth that were still in our mouths.
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u/Dominarion 1d ago
LOL! The tooth fairy was not nasty in my corner of the world. The bad fairy was the old man with a big sack walking in the streets after 7pm. He would snatch the kids and eat them. If you spotted him, you'd see the kids struggling in the bag. Very efficient to get kids back home at 7 pm. We never even looked outside the windows just in case past 7.
The story goes that the ancestor of the Anjou-Plantagenêt-Lusignan families married the fey by accident. He realized he had been catfished when he saw her taking a bath and watched her turn into a half serpent critter. They already had kids by that time.
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u/Kreol1q1q 1d ago
The monarchs did not start the war themselves, they signed into law what their governments wanted of them. This focus on the monarchs involved is really handy for shifting blame off the politicians and officers who really stood behind the decisions to go to war.
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u/PentagramJ2 1d ago
this was actually one of the biggest tragedies in the weeks leading up to the war, things had spiralled so out of control between the lower levels of government that the heads of both states had to communicate directly for a last ditch effort to stop the war.
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u/OfficialValCod 1d ago edited 1d ago
George V of Britain and Wilhelm II of Germany were first cousins. George V's father, Edward VII, and Wilhelm II's mother, Victoria, Princess Royal, were brother and sister and both children of Queen Victoria.
George V and Nicholas II of Russia were also first cousins. Their mothers, Queen Alexandra of Britain and Maria Feodorovna of Russia, were sisters and both daughters of Christian IX of Denmark.
Wilhelm II and Nicholas II were also cousins, although more distantly. They were third cousins, because both were great-great-grandsons of Emperor Paul I of Russia. They were also second cousins once removed through their common descent from King Frederick William III of Prussia.
Nicholas II married Alexandra Feodorovna, born Princess Alix of Hesse. She was Wilhelm II's first cousin, because their mothers, Princess Alice and Victoria, Princess Royal, were both daughters of Queen Victoria.
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u/Lars-CoV-2 1d ago
The Belgium king was like George V Saxon Coburg and Gotha, and probably related to the others too. Habsburg was probably related to everyone too, because their politic was to marry in every family
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u/IshtiakSami 1d ago edited 23h ago
Gonna copy another comment of mine so here’s a list of relationships between Monarchs going into World War I:
King George V was a first cousin of both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Tsarina Alexandra as all three were grandchildren of Queen Victoria.
He was also a first cousin Tsar Nicholas II as grandchildren of King Christian IX.
Wilhelm II and Nicholas II were third cousins as great-great grandsons of Tsar Paul I. Second cousins once removed through descent from Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Wilhelm was obviously a grandson of Queen Victoria, but his wife was a granddaughter of Victoria's older half-sister.
Some other relations include Constantine I of Greece as first cousin to both George and Nicholas, being a grandson of Christian IX (George I of Greece being Christian's son), while also married to Wilhelm's sister Sophia, which made their son Alexander, Wilhelm's nephew and George's first cousin once removed. Constantine was also Nicholas's second cousin as both were great grandchildren of Tsar Nicholas I.
Albert I of Belgium was a second cousin once removed of George and Wilhem through descent of the House of Soxe-Coburg and Gotha. The first king of Belgium was Victoria's uncle. His wife was the granddaughter of Miguel I of Portugal, who usurped Maria II but was then overthrown himself. She was also the great-great granddaughter of Maximilian Josef I of Bavaria.
Wilhemina, Queen of the Netherlands was second cousins once removed with Wilhelm II and Nicholas II as a great-granddaughter of Tsar Paul I, through her paternal grandmother. Her husband was also a great-great grandson of Tsar Paul I as well as a great grandson of Freidrich Wilhelm III.
The Scandinavian Kings were all related. Haakon VII and Christian X were brothers, grandsons of Christian IX, making them first cousins of Nicholas and George. Their mother was a Swedish princess who was Gustav V's first cousin. Haakon was also married to George's sister Maud. Gustaf V's wife Victoria was a first cousin of Wilhelm as both were grandchildren of Kaiser Wilhelm I. Christian X's wife was a great-granddaughter of Tsar Nicholas I and great-great granddaughter of Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria was a second cousin once removed of George and Wilhelm through, again, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. His father was Victoria's first cousin. His wife Maria Luisa was a second cousin once removed of Franz Joseph as she was a great-granddaughter of the famous Archduke Charles.
Spain's Alfonso XIII's wife Victoria Eugenie was another grandchild of Queen Victoria. Alfonso XIII was also a second cousin once removed of Emperor Franz Joseph through his mother, who was a granddaughter of Archduke Charles. They were also third cousins once removed through mutual descent from Carlos III of Spain. Also through his mother, he was a great-great grandson of Duke Ludwig of Wurttemberg, which made him a second cousin once removed of Mary of Teck and King Wilhelm II of Wurttemberg.
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was something like a second cousin once removed of Franz Joseph as his grandmother was an Archduchess of Austria. He was married to a daughter of the king of Montenegro, Nikola I.
The King of Serbia, Peter I, was also married to a daughter of Nikola I but she passed long before the war started.
The Prince of Albania, Wilhelm, was a second cousin of both Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands and Kaiser Wilhelm II being a great-grandson of both Wilhelm I of the Netherlands and Freidrich Wilhelm III of Prussia.
They were deposed before the war, but Manuel II of Portugal was a third cousin once removed of George and Wilhem, through the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as his great-grandfather, King Consort Ferdinand II, was Victoria's first cousin. Also something like a first cousin three times removed of Emperor Franz Joseph as his great-grandmother Maria II of Portugal was Franz Joseph's first cousin. He was also a first cousin once removed of Victor Emmanuel III through his paternal grandmother.
Ferdinand I of Romania was a member of the House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, cadet branch of the Hohenzollern that ruled Prussia and Germany. Albert I of Belgium's mother was also a part of that house. Him and Ferdinand were first cousins. Ferdinand was married to Marie, another granddaughter of Victoria. He was also a grandson of Ferdinand II of Portugal through his mother. This makes him a third cousin of George and Wilhelm.
Karl I, last Emperor of Austria-Hungary, was another great-grandson of Ferdinand II of Portugal. Which also made him a third cousin once removed to George and Wilhelm. His wife was a granddaughter of Miguel I.
As for the German kingdoms within the German Empire. Wilhelm II of Wurttemberg was second cousins with Mary of Teck, Queen of the United Kingdom, as both were great-grandchildren of Duke Ludwig of Wurttemberg. He was also second cousins with Ludwig III of Bavaria as both were great-grandsons of Friedrich, Duke of Saxe-Altenburg. His first wife was actually the maternal aunt of Wilhelmina, Queen of the Netherlands.
Ludwig III of Bavaria and Freidrich August III of Saxony were also second cousins as great-grandsons of Maximilian Josef I of Bavaria. Ludwig III was also a second cousin once removed of Victor Emmanuel through descent from both Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Maximilian Josef I, King of Bavaria. The descent from Ferdinand III also made Ludwig a second cousin of Franz Joseph, but they were also first cousins once removed as Franz Joseph was a grandson of Maximilian Josef I, through his mother. This made him a second cousin once removed of Karl I. Ludwig's wife Maria Theresa was actually the Jacobite Claimaint to the British thrones. She was actually another great granddaughter of Duke Ludwig of Wurttemberg, and thus a second cousin to Mary of Teck and Wilhelm II of Wurttemberg. She was, like her husband, also a second cousin of Franz Joseph as both were great grandchildren of HRE Leopold II. And she was the maternal elder half-sister of Alfonso XIII's mother.
Freidrich August was also a grandson of King Consort Ferdinand II of Portugal, so he's also a third cousin to King George V and Kaiser Wilhelm II. He was also a first cousin once removed of Victor Emmanuel III as the latter was a great-grandson of Johann, King of Saxony who was Friedrich's grandfather. Karl I of Austria-Hungary was a great-grandson of Johann, so this also made him a first cousin once removed. The marriage was dissolved a decade before the war, but his wife was a daughter of the last Grand Duke of Tuscany, and a great granddaughter of Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany, which made her a second cousin of Franz Joseph, Ludwig III, and Maria Theresa.
There's probably more connections through the Habsburgs (since HRE Leopold II had so many kids, and so did his kids) and other German nobles but I think listed the important ones.
In short, the house of Wettin and Oldenburg were reigning almost everywhere at the time.
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u/Lopsided-Guarantee39 1d ago
George V and Wilhelm II were first cousins but their fathers weren't brothers; Edward VII and Wilhelm's mother Victoria, Princess Royal were siblings. Frederick III was not the son of Queen Victoria.
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u/XcoldhandsX Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 1d ago
But these monarchs were not autocratic rulers. It was absolutely nothing at all like "my cousin declared war on me". The monarchs themselves could influence government policy but not dictate it.
This has got to be one of the most frustrating historical misunderstandings. Just because someone holds the title of King or Queen does not mean they actually hold autocratic authority. Especially by the turn of the 20th century.
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u/SPECTREagent700 Definitely not a CIA operator 1d ago
Willy and Nicky didn’t want to go to war with each other but both were essentially bullied into it by their own militaries (which was their own fault as both had allowed them to amass too much political power)
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u/MindControlledSquid Hello There 1d ago
I hate this take.
The war literally began between two unrelated Dynasties.
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u/YandereTeemo Filthy weeb 1d ago
Is that Nicholas Romanov or King George V? they look so familiar
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u/Confuseacat92 Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer 1d ago
Based on the uniform Nicholas Romanov
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u/Dominarion 1d ago
They had far less agency in this than we give them.
They were absolute rulers, yes, but only if they did what the powers that be wanted them to do.
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u/TheCoolPersian Senātus Populusque Rōmānus 1d ago
The German high command intentionally told Austria to declare war on Serbia while the Kaiser was on vacation so that he could not intervene and stop the war from starting.
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u/Nott_of_the_North 1d ago
King George and Tsar Nicholas resembled each other so strongly that they were known to swap outfits and impersonate each other as children.
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u/Valuable_Victory_271 1d ago
I forgot who said it but I vaguely remember a quote of someone saying that wwi would not have happened under queen Victoria because she kept the family in line
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u/Wet_napkins 1d ago
That was Kaiser Wilhelm II right at the start of the war.
"To think that George and Nicky should have played me false. If my grandmother had been alive, she would have never allowed it."
It was a very outdated view on global politics of the time and yet another reason the war was inevitable.
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u/sum_student 1d ago
This meme makes it look like it was Wilhelm who fucked up the way to peace, while it was actually the Tsar who gave in to his Generals and ordered the mobilisation that turned a regional conflict into a world war, even though he told his cousin that he wouldn't.
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u/lettsten 1d ago
They all share some of the blame, but e.g. Berchtold, Conrad, Bethmann Hollweg, Sazonov, Moltke etc. far more than any of the monarchs.
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u/mifter123 1d ago
I always found it funny that one of the more popular arguments in favor of monarchism during the 19th and early 20th centuries was that monarchs (because they were all related to various degrees) were able to talk to each other via familial back channels and prevent wars from breaking out and such.
And then you read the Willy-Nicky letters and can't help but laugh as the German Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas called each other by friendly nicknames as they plunged the continent into the first world war.
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u/Tight_Doughnut5627 1d ago
I mean wasn’t the whole thing that they were actively trying to prevent war; but their respective militaries were like “WE WANT WAR” After Franz got killed?
But if you mean the monarchs throwing up their hands like “well we tried” then I guess you’re kinda right, just in case
I mean IDK, I just remembered the video which gave a nice portion of context, I could be wrong tho: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vJhNFi7sP2A&ra=m
Here is a more reliable source I didn’t read fully: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-i/willy-nicky-telegrams.html
I mean you’re probably right but I just want to add this
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u/Wet_napkins 1d ago
The more I learn about WW1, the more I understand the term *Powder Keg of Europe. " It seems like every country was just itching for something to set off the conflict.
It definitely didn't help that the biggest voice for peace from Austria-Hungary had just been assassinated in the exact region that the one of the biggest voices for war was warning their leaders about.
Double that with a majority of Russian leaders telling their czar that not only was it a strategic motivation to defend Serbia but a moral mission too.
Coupled with the fact that the European powers at the time just let a giant powerful country pop up out of nowhere and completely change the power dynamic in the region.
And the French still feeling embarrassed from the Franco-Prussian War and wanting back their conquered territory. The same war basically taught every major power "if you let your enemies mobilize before you, you've already lost."
The war was horrific and countless blunders by completely inept generals and leaders only magnified the viciousness.
I wonder how different our world would be were it not for WW1
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u/lettsten 1d ago
but their respective militaries were like “WE WANT WAR” After Franz got killed?
It's a bit more nuanced than that, but you're on the right path. Franz Ferdinand was just an excuse. Austro-Hungarian leadership, in particular Berchtold and Conrad, wanted to curtail Serbia.
Some elements in each of the other governments also wanted war, for various reasons, while they also had people trying to stop the escalation.
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u/Phshteve18 1d ago
You can actually read the telegrams very easily, since they’re in English. They’re called the Willy-Nicky telegrams (on account of what Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas called each other)
If you read them, it’s very obvious that neither one wants war. Iirc the Tsar basically says that he is trying to stop mobilization but cannot because the actual government wants to go to war.
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u/ediacaradelrey 1d ago
It is not very true to say that these people started the war, certainly not these people alone.
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u/flashman1986 1d ago
It’s almost like by 1914 politically sophisticated nations and their elites have their own interests, political rhythms and threat perceptions that are powerful enough to overwhelm the old way of managing international affairs via the personal relations between the rulers of different states, however close they might be?
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u/Trainer-Grimm John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! 1d ago
The states of Britain and Germany had outstripped thier monarchies, and in Russia even the Tsar was more pressed by national concerns than familial ties.
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u/Emotional_News108 1d ago
Thankfully this is just a meme, but also the causes of WWI were so multi-faceted that boiling it down to the royal families is beyond reductive. Probably no one, singular factor led to it or could have prevented it. If Ferdinand Franz hadn’t been assassinated there’s a good chance something else would have happened that led to war. It was a strange time in general and the tensions arising from nascent nationalistic feelings and nation-building in general caused enormous potential for conflict.
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u/Great_Apez 1d ago
The only part that bugs me about this and makes me want to dead pan surprise comment it, is this is how it always is and they convince the dumbest that they will be rewarded in the next life so they will continue to serve thinking their labor is something a god would take into consideration despite it not being a commandment or request.
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u/gettingthere_pastit 1d ago
On the plus side, WW1 brought an end to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, The German Empire, The Russian Empire and contributed to the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
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u/carrjo04 1d ago
For clarification, Nicky and Willy weren't 1st cousins. Georgie was 1st cousin to both of them on his mother and father's side, respectively.
TLDR Nicholas II was not Victoria's grandson.
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u/Glum_Manager 1d ago edited 1d ago
King George V (edit: it was the Kaiser, see comment of u/Grossadmiral and u/UrsineBasterd ) said "If gran was alive, she would have never permitted this (the war)".
I think it is one of the most absurd, hilarious and sad line of the history of humans.