Why was Germany always so bad in foreign policy?
>>916970
Because they only want to have serious discussions.
Because 'Germany' never existed. You had Bavarians, Prussians, Hessians, and Saxons, but no Germans. No one cares about German identity except ivory tower elites who saw in a unified nation an opportunity to benefit themselves.
They didn't want to bend the knee to Jewish bankers.
>>916970
"Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world." - Henry Kissinger
>>916970
Prusia Militarism. dumbass think knuckle could solve every problem, which was proved a gravely mistake.
>>916982
Nice try Frenchie-Polishit. German support for unification was unanimously widespread and there have been no significant separatist movements since.
>>916970
They were exceptionally good at it under Bismark though
>>916970
it wasn't
absolute rulers
>>916982
German nationalism was widespread in the 19th century. Take a look at 1848 and the frankfurt parliament
>>916993
Pretty much this. Trying to act like a mid-sized state is strange since everyone knows it isn't one, but at the same time everyone hits the panic button as soon as Germany starts trying to assert itself.
>>917629
Looks at who said that, Germany maybe a strong one in Europe, but it's nothing when you compare it to colossus states like USA or China.
>>917643
*That is what Kissinger means
>>917643
Today it certainly isn't and I don't think it ever had a chance, but you do gotta wonder how strong it would have gotten had the planet not shat on it in two world wars.
>>916993
>Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world.
In a way you could consider the United States Germanic since the vast majority of white people in the US are of german origin (something I didn't learn until recently)
>>917656
>In a way you could consider the United States Germanic since the vast majority of white people in the US are of german origin (something I didn't learn until recently)
lel only 50 million Americans have completel or partial German ancestry. That's just above 15% of the US population.
There's more people with African ancestry than German. There's more people with hispanic ancestry than German.
>>916970
Its unification Disturbed the Balance of Power too much
They were a big fish in a small pond full of a bunch of big fish. And unlike the other big fish, they only made friends with the small fries.
>>917735
They made friend with a mutant two-headed fish, a chain smoking fish in a tracksuit, and a kebab that fell in the pond.
>>917603
European Union support was equally wide spread, yet we all agree there is no such thing as a European nation.
>>917745
>An entry in the Annales Iuvavenses (or Salzburg Annals) for the year 919, roughly contemporary but surviving only in a twelfth-century copy, records that Baiuarii sponte se reddiderunt Arnolfo duci et regnare ei fecerunt in regno teutonicorum, i.e. that "Arnulf, Duke of the Bavarians, was elected to reign in the Kingdom of the Germans".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Germany
>>917761
>Carolingian empire falls apart
>the eastern half remains centralized
>they elect a king
They didnt even call themselves a german kingdom, they called themselves the teutonic empire. They used the geographical term the romans imposed.
There was no nation.
>>917772
Yeah, neither do Germans today or historically called themselfs Germans. It's not their fault if you mix up foreign names for them.
>>917772
The term Teutonic is a latinized Germanic term.
>>917789
They dont call themselves teutonic either. They name themselves after the roman name for their province.
Further, much of what would traditionally be part of a german nation state isnt even in modern Germany.
Poland, Austria, Switzerland, etc. Germany is a meme.
>>917793
Its a word that exists in old irish, lithuanian and english, but doesnt exist in old german.
It literally means "people" too.
>>917796
Again, you're mixing that up. Germans call themselfs Deutsche (latinized: Teutonic)
>>917802
It first occured in a Gothic translation of the Bible in the 4th century, meaning 'belonging to the people'.
>>917803
Deutsch is derived from the indoeuropean root þeudō, which roughly translates to "people".
Apparently that þ is meant to be pronounced like a voiceless "th", thus the link to teutonic?
I am not sure about this, I've heard that the original name the germans gave themselves was allemandene.
>>916970
Autism
>>917821
That might be the linguistic origin, although at that point in history it has to remain speculation. The Allemannen were just another German tribe that settled in what today is South-West Germany, Switzerland and Alsace-Lorraine, hence the French term for Germans. Which makes sense: A German tribe wouldn't call another German tribe 'Germans'. The Italians call them by their own name, sort of: Tedesci.
>>917851
The slavic name is best - njemci. Basically "people who cant speak properly", contrasted with slav, meaning "people who can speak properly".
So simple and practical, love it.
>>917656
>United States Germanic since the vast majority of white people in the US are of german origin
Hardly, while German ancestry makes up the largest of the self-reported "white" minorities, it's no where near an absolute majority. Furthermore, it's generally considered by experts that English American is vastly under-reported due to nationalism, and that the majority of people who identify as "American ancestry" are probably a part of the English identity. Either way, it's a huge stretch to consider the United States germanic
>>917873
You should also consider that germanic ancestry is valued highly in pop culture, so any self reported study will see people choosing to report that over anything else, even if it isnt true.
Its like self reported dick size.
>>916970
Geography. Being stuck between two nations with Imperial pretensions meant they were forced to emphasise the militaristic aspects of their culture. Also, Germany was a latecomer to the world stage, and as a consequence liked to act brashly in order to establish it's bona fides as a "real" Power.
>>917908
>Being stuck between two nations with Imperial pretensions meant they were forced to emphasise the militaristic aspects of their culture.
Eh, it was only Prussia that did this, and that was mainly the result of the 30 years war shitting all over Brandenburg, followed by Napoleon and things like pic related
>>917916
Mostly the 30 years war thing for the militarization. The French Revolutionary wars just impressed the need upon the Germans to act in a more cohesive, unified manner when they saw what a motivated, united France could do.
France wasn't a nation too.
>>916982
Germany had existed always to some extent it just transformed from East Francis to the German Kingdom then the kingdom became synonymous with Holy Roman Emperor. So the HRE was Germany.
>>917643
In Europe it dominated but being a new nation it had no influence in the world overall
>>918002
Certainly more so than the smorgasbord German states back then.
>>918009
>duchy
>of
>burgundy
>>918002
Looking through the eyes of the feudal system, you could really say nothing was a centralized nation except smaller duchies and counts, like how Luxembourg has been and always will be
>>918011
>muh golden fleece
They really fucked themselves when they invaded Belgium.
>>918041
They had no real choice. So much of history is just groups doing things they couldnt really not do
>>918049
Only because the German military had enslaved itself to the thinking of a quick victory and (modified) Schlieffen Plan. As it turned out, Russia was nowhere near as dangerous as initially thought, and they easily beat them despite fighting a two front war. If they had avoided Belgium, they almost certainly would have beaten France and Russia, even with the western front being restricted to the narrow frontage of the German/French Border
Of course hindsight is luxury
>>918049
>They had no real choice.
Turns out they COULD hold both France and Russia at bay in a two front war.
The Belgium gamble didn't pay off, they went back to a word case scenario, only they also had Britain as an enemy to boot.
>>918029
>muh catholic bruders
>let us commence the inheritance
>>917743
Austria-Hungary, Italy and Turkey?
>>917873
>African American ancestry
Should'nt it just be African?
>>916970
Germany's foreign policy isn't always bad. Their current foreign policy of not invading the shit out of anyone has been working beautifully for over 70 years now. And their foreign policy in the wars of unification was absolute genius, especially the war against Austria.
The problem was after 1870, the golden dawn they were expecting didn't happen. They flattened France - who were the scariest bunch of warmongers in the world back then - in record time. They stepped back ready to receive their applause and got crickets. Everyone was still Paris this, Francais that, it got on their nerve. By 1914 they had a booming population, the biggest arms industry in the world, and a huge chip on their shoulder.
That didn't go away until 1945. The early 20th Century was a disaster for Germany, no doubt, but on the upside everyone respects them now. Between their awesome cars and the exploits of the Wehrmacht, none of us doubt for a second what Germany can do.
>>918142
Does it matter how they choose to call negroes?
>>916970
>Bismarck was great at foreign policy
>Willhelm II sucked at it
>Hitler was great at foreign policy until he went a bit overboard
>After WW2 Germany managed to improve its image and becomoe of the most liked countries in the world
I don't agree with your statement, OP
>>916970
>pwn Denmark, Austria and France
>unite German states
>ally with two other great powers
>keep up peace and balance in Europe
>score diplomatic point and mediate conflicts in Balkan
>Germany was always so bad in foreign policy
>>916970
because they overestimate themselves
does it have anything to do with contingencies or their geographic situation? By contingencies I mean things such as they lagged behind Britain in developing any sort of powerful navy so were disadvantaged on that front. They also were late on the colonial game so the colonies they ended up having were kind of a ramshackle affair as far as I know, and they did not have time to get dibs on some juicier prizes in the Pacific/elsewhere.
By geographic disposition, I mean they kind of seem in the middle of everything. I recall some people mentioning this in regards to France, but Germany seems even more central on a map of Europe, in a sense. When you take into consideration pre-unified German states that seems even more problematic. Some of them would have had a difficult time ekeing it out surrounded by rivals (possibly landlocked in certain cases although there were plenty of notable ports).
