Ha! I knew it was Hansen even before I clicked on it. As usual he gets the history wrong.
In 1870 Germany was not united and it was France which declared war on Prussia, not vice versa. The other minor states in the German Confederation allied to Prussia then joined in in kicking the crap out of France. Germany was then reunified in 1871.
In 1914 it was not German aggression which started the war. Germany was not seeking territorial aggrandizement. They felt - with considerable justification - that they were being surrounded. Russia insisted on going to war to protect Serbia after Serbia committed an act of war against the Hapsburg Empire, assassinating the heir apparent to the Hapsburg throne via state sponsored terrorism. The Russians then mobilized all along their border - including the German border, AFTER the Germans told them that this would force them into war and AFTER promising the Germans that they would not do so. When the French were asked point blank if they would attack Germany in the event that Germany and Russia went to war, instead of assuring the Germans that they would not attack, they said they “had to consult their interests”.....which obviously meant they were going to attack. That’s how the war started. Germany was fighting a defensive war, not trying to conquer Europe.
He is spot on in his analysis of present day Germany though. I don’t think they will ever be a military threat to anybody. They have no spine at all. I think the real danger is their collapse which is not as fanciful as it seems. The Southern Europeans can’t buy much of their stuff since the collapse of their economies. Saddam is gone. The hoped for windfall from pocketing more of the mullah’s blood money has vanished with the US withdrawal. The UK withdrew from the EU and they’ll have to be careful about trade negotiations there since they run a trade surplus and would be hurt worse than the Brits by any trade dispute. Just imagine if the US stop subsidizing their national defense and starts tightening the screws on them a little more in trade terms.
Oh and their population is aging and now they have well over a million new leeches to pay for.
So the treaty between Germany and Austro-Hungry had nothing to do with Germany marching (kicking and screaming) thru Belgium and into France.
I don’t think some yahoo nobody with a FR account (You) is going to get all that far claiming VDH is wrong on history “as usual.”
I see many crimes on the Allied side in WWI. The British just couldn’t handle another power rivaling them, so they needed to take Germany down a peg.
Wilson lied his bald face off, promising to never get into that war, only to do so.
And you are correct. Germany had just recently consolidated and was still very weak financially and militarily. It had no desire whatsoever to get into a war.