Wilhelm II, German Emperor

Wilhelm was born in 1859, eldest grandchild of Queen Victoria through his mother and heir to the Prussian throne. In March 1888 his father Frederick III became emperor, then died 99 days later, leaving the crown to a 29-year-old Wilhelm. He fired Otto von Bismarck in 1890 and steered a "New Course" meant to make Germany the leading power - expanding into China and the Pacific, outproducing the rest of Europe in manufacturing. But he alienated nearly every rival: the naval arms race with Britain, the crises over Morocco and Bosnia, the Berlin-to-Baghdad railway. By 1914 only Austria-Hungary and the dying Ottoman Empire stood with him. The July Crisis became his guarantee of military support to Vienna, and Europe tipped into World War I. Wilhelm delegated war decisions to the Supreme Army Command, which by 1916 effectively ruled in his place. Germany won in the east, lost in the west, and by autumn 1918 the military withdrew its support. He abdicated during the revolution of 1918-1919, fled to the Netherlands, and died there under Nazi occupation in 1941.