In the Franco-Russian War France declared war first, supposedly because of insulting exchange of words between the Prussian King and the French ambassador. End result loss of Alsace-Lorraine which was majority ethnically German, whether they had a preference for France or Germany I have no idea.
Regarding WWI one could easily argue that Imperial Germany was as much a victim as the UK. The culprits who wanted war was Serbia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If Russia hadn’t felt ethnically compelled to back the Serbs and a German defense treaty with Austro-Hungary the war might have just been another Balkan shoot’em up! Russia’s treaty with France brought in the French who were just itching for a fight to get back Alsace-Lorraine. The UK only became involved because the Germans marched through Belgium.
Imperial Germany is an interesting thing to study, a weird mixture of absolute monarchy and parliamentary government. For example the voting franchise was far more wide spread there then in the UK and France. It was certainly not the bastion of evil that the WWI era Allied governments painted it to be.
I love your synopsis.
WWI was truly a terrible war, totally stupid and unnecessary. I knew the textbook narrative of war caused by assasinating a single duke was ridiculous. Really it was a bunch of contracts that countries felt obliged to honor, and somehow Germany ended up being the brunt of the opposing side even if they caused nothing.
Note Franco-Russian should be Franco-Prussian