Re: Whining from foreigners.

> I suspect that was quite enough reason, especially after 1870/71.
> Plus Germany had a larger population and higher industrial production
> (AFAIK) than France at the time, so they needed allies, and the only
> suitable continetal ally was Russia- well. perhaps Austria-Hungary but
that
> was even more unlikely.

Actually, that was the good news for France.  The bad news was that
Germany
also had a higher birthrate at that time.  So the situation was only
going
to get much worse with time.

> Just look at all the alliances that were made up at one time or
another.
Who
> would have thought in 1988 that the US would fight a war with Syria on
its
> side ?

Politics makes strange bedfellows...

> Would have depended on the way the war ended, I guess. For a total
defeat,
> yes. For some kind of peace treaty, probably not. Plus, the Germany of
the
> Kaisers time was not the blood-thirsty regime of Hitler, though not
exactly
> a democracy by our standrads, either.

I doubt a total defeat would have limited freedoms in France (unless you
were one of the dead).	Germany had no desire to rule France.