We could've been speaking German!!!

Germany Had Plan to Take New York in 1900

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm had drawn up detailed plans in 1900
for an invasion of the United States centered on attacks on New York City and Boston,
according to documents in a military archive published on Thursday.

The weekly newspaper Die Zeit published details from documents it said it uncovered in
Germany's official military archives in Freiburg. One plan foresaw a force of 100,000
soldiers transported across the Atlantic on 60 ships.

Beginning in 1897, a German navy lieutenant named Eberhard von Mantey was assigned
the task of preparing an invasion of the United States after German and American
interests had collided in the Pacific.

"Wilhelm II wanted colonies and military bases around the world," author Henning Sietz
wrote in Die Zeit. "The United States was increasingly getting in the Kaiser's way."

Von Mantey's aim was to find a way to force the United States to sign a treaty giving
Germany free reign in the Pacific and Atlantic. He rejected ideas of a naval blockade or a
naval battle and made plans for an invasion of the northeast instead.

"This is the core of America and this is where the United States could be most effectively
hit and most easily forced to sign a peace treaty," von Mantey wrote. He said the morale
and discipline of American soldiers was low.

The plans were reworked and revised over the next decade. Chief of staff Alfred von
Schlieffen, who planned Germany's invasion of France in World War One, was skeptical
about the idea of attacking the United States, 3,000 sea miles away.

But his loyalty to the Kaiser prevented him from rejecting the war planning outright, Sietz
said. At one point the German chief of staff had a plan to bombard New York City.

"The greatest panic would break out in New York over fears of a bombardment," von
Mantey wrote.

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