1 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870 – 1914

In the early 20th century, Europe was dominated by ambitious imperial states. This produced an unstable international system and fueled an arms race. War broke out in Europe with the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914. THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870–1914 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT

German chancellor The assination of German propaganda Otto von Bismarck Archduke Franz Ferdinand, portrayed Germany in 1914 as a masterminded the heir to the Austrian throne, chivalrous and heroic defender creation of a united and his wife by Bosnian Serb of civilization against the Germany in the 1860s Gavrilo Princip, in barbarism of its enemies. and 1870s. He created on June 28, 1914, led the Dual Alliance with -Hungary to declare Austria-Hungary and war on Serbia. kept friendly relations Y with Russia. A N ICELAND E W D R E O

N W S EUROPE

BRITAIN Y N GERMANY FAEROE ISLANDS A (Denmark) E W ATLANTIC AUSTRIA- D FRANCE HUNGARY R C E a ITALY s p O a OCEAN Black Sea i a W e n N S SPAIN S S e T OTTOMAN a U N North c N A i SPANISH MOROCCO EMPIRE T I IS t S CYPRUS DENMARK l I N Sea a A PERSIA A B MOROCCO H FG TIBET KUWAIT A (autonomous) BRITAIN LIBYA BAHRAIN NEPAL NETH. RUSSIAN ALGERIA EGYPT QATAR GERMANY RIO DE ORO HEJAZ NEJD EMPIRE (Saudi) TRUCIAL INDIA BEL. LUX. OMAN ANGLO- OMAN EGYPTIAN FRENCH WEST AFRICA HADHRAMAUT AUSTRIA- SUDAN FRANCE GAMBIA TOGO FRENCH (British mandate) ADEN PROTECTORATE SWITZ. HUNGARY PORTUGUESE GUINEA EQUATORIAL ERITREA FRENCH SOMALILAND NIGERIA SIERRA LEONE AFRICA ABYSSINIA BRITISH CEYLON S ROMANIA LIBERIA SOMALILAND E CAMEROON ITALIAN IT R B Black Sea BRITISH EAST SOMALILAND COAST A MONT. I BULGARIA L A AFRICA L FRENCH A Y RIO MUNI BELGIAN (Spain) CONGO G ALB. SPAIN CONGO U GERMAN EAST T OTTOMAN AFRICA INDIAN R M e d O i t GREECE EMPIRE P e ANGOLA r r NORTHERN OCEAN a DODECANESE RHODESIA MADAGASCAR ALGERIA n (Italy) TUNISIA e SOUTHERN (France) (France) a n MOROCCO S e a CYPRUS GERMAN RHODESIA (France) (Britain) SOUTH WEST BECHUANA- PORTUGUESE AFRICA LAND EAST LIBYA AFRICA (Italy) EGYPT (Britain) UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA

Austro-Hungarian In the of Franz Joseph, here holding court in 1912–13, Serbia, Greece, The arrival of the German Schönbrunn Palace in , was Romania, and Bulgaria fought gunboat Panther off Agadir in head of a vast but restless empire against Ottoman Turkey and July 1911 was a challenge to with a large Slav population. Its against one another. Serbia French imperial ambitions in annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina gained military strength and Morocco. The episode brought in 1908 angered Serbia. confidence in these conflicts. Europe to the brink of war.

series of wars in the 1860s and 1870s established Germany leading up to , peace was maintained by a balance of A as Europe’s dominant military power. In the 1890s, France power between the two hostile alliance systems. The European states and Russia formed an alliance to counter the might of Germany and expanded their armed forces and equipped them with the latest its close ally, Austria-Hungary. In the first decade of the 20th century, technology. They developed plans for the rapid mobilization of Britain, feeling threatened by the growth of the German navy, mass conscript armies that threatened to turn any confrontation abandoned its traditional isolationism and a formed an entente— into full-scale war. Every country felt that the side that struck first a loose unofficial alliance—with France and Russia. In the years would have a decisive advantage.

12 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870–1914 1870 – 1914

New technology transformed the nature of warfare. This Russian Ilya Mourometz was the world’s largest aircraft on the eve of World War I. Capable of carrying bombs, it was widely imitated.

CANADA

Woodrow Wilson, U.S. president from 1913, here addressing an American audience, was a UNITED STATES high-principled political leader who, JAPANESE CHINA OF AMERICA in August 1914, declared the EMPIRE United States strictly neutral.

BRITISH HONDURAS MEXICO DOMINICAN REPUBLIC PACIFIC CUBA VIRGIN ISLANDS ATLANTIC Mariana Hawaiian Islands LEEWARD ISLANDS Islands HAITI WINDWARD ISLANDS SIAM PHILIPPINE HONDURAS FRENCH GUATEMALA BARBADOS INDOCHINA ISLANDS GUAM OCEAN NICARAGUA OCEAN Marshall Islands EL SALVADOR TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO BRITISH COSTA RICA GERMAN PACIFIC TERRITORIES VENEZUELA BRITISH GUIANA NORTH BORNEO CANAL ZONE PANAMA DUTCH GUIANA BRUNEI Caroline Islands Christmas COLOMBIA FRENCH GUIANA SARAWAK Gilbert Island Islands MALAYA Bismarck Nauru ECUADOR KAISER Archipelago Cook WILHELMSLAND Islands DUTCH EAST INDIES Solomon P Islands Ellice PAPUA Islands E BRAZIL German Samoa R PORTUGUESE (Western) U TIMOR New French Polynesia Hebrides Tonga Fiji BOLIVIA PA New RA G Caledonia U AUSTRALIA A E Y

L

I

H URUGUAY C ARGENTINA An industrial giant by the beginning of the 20th century, the United States was manufacturing munitions for the European arms FALKLAND ISLANDS race well before 1914. America’s own army was small, and it relied THE WORLD IN JULY 1914 upon its navy for defense. Frontiers

The behavior of Germany’s leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was aggressive minorities, including Serbs, within its own borders. In June 1914, and erratic, particularly during the Moroccan Crisis of 1911. But the a Serb terrorist assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian spark that ignited war came in the Balkans, where states such throne. Austria-Hungary was determined to use this as a pretext as Serbia had become independent of Ottoman Turkish rule in the for a war with Serbia. 19th century. Russia had ambitions to spread its influence in the When Russia mobilized in defense of Serbia, Germany declared Balkans as the champion of the Slav peoples. This led to hostile war on Russia and France. The German invasion of neutral Belgium relations with Austria-Hungary, which was at odds with restless Slav then ensured that a hesitant Britain would enter the conflict.

13 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870–1914 TIMELINE 1870 – 1914

Franco-Prussian War ■ Rival military alliances ■ Wilhelm II is Kaiser ■ Boer War ■ Anglo-German naval race ■ Moroccan Crises ■ Wars in the Balkans ■ Assassination in Sarajevo ■ Declarations of war

1870 – 1880 1881 – 1890 1891 – 1900 1901 – 1902 1903 – 1904 1905 – 1906

JULY 1870 1881 1891 1901 Outbreak of the Russia joins Germany Architect of Germany’s Discussions about Franco-Prussian War. and Austria-Hungary prewar planning Alfred a possible alliance in the League of the von Schlieffen becomes between Britain JANUARY 1871 Three . German Chief of the and Germany come France is defeated. General Staff. to nothing. The King of Prussia 1882 is declared Emperor The Triple Alliance JANUARY 1894 JANUARY 1901 of Germany. is formed between Franco-Russian Alliance Death of Queen Germany, Austria- is concluded. Victoria. Hungary, and Italy. Alfred von Schlieffen

1884 MARCH 1901 MARCH 1903 King Edward VII visits for the Entente Cordiale The Maxim gun, the In the Boer War, the Germans make plans first true , British adopt the policy of with Ottoman Turkey is invented. The Berlin moving Boer civilians into to build a railroad 1905 Conference formalizes concentration camps. between Berlin German army adopts the the division of Africa and Baghdad. Schlieffen Plan for fighting between European SEPTEMBER 1901 a war on two fronts. colonial powers. China signs a humiliating DECEMBER 1903 treaty with foreign The Wright brothers powers after suppression make the first powered of the . heavier-than-air flight.

JUNE 1888 1898 JANUARY 1902 FEBRUARY 1904 MARCH 1905 Wilhelm II becomes Germany begins naval Britain establishes Russo-Japanese War begins. Japanese army defeats emperor (Kaiser) expansion, starting a military alliance the Russians at the Battle of Germany. an Anglo-German with Japan. APRIL 1904 of Mukden. Germany naval race. Britain forms the Entente provokes the First Cordiale with France. Moroccan Crisis to test the OCTOBER 1899 Anglo-French Entente, 1889 The Boer War in South which holds firm. Russia begins a Africa reveals rapprochement deficiencies in the with France. British Army.

1890 1900 MAY 1902 MAY 1905 European armies begin First effective Boer War ends in The Imperial Japanese to adopt - submarines come into British victory. Navy destroys a Russian repeater , service. First flight of fleet at the Battle of French Legion of Honor increasing infantry Zeppelin airship. Tsushima. medal rate of fire. SEPTEMBER 1905 MARCH 1878 Russo-Japanese War Defeated in war with Russia, ends in humiliating Ottoman Turkey is forced to defeat for Russia. recognize the independence of Serbia and Romania.

1879 JUNE 1902 FEBRUARY 1906 Germany and Triple Alliance HMS Dreadnought is Austria-Hungary form between Germany, launched, rendering the Dual Alliance. Austria-Hungary, and all earlier battleships Italy is renewed. obsolete.

Belgian machine gun Kaiser Wilhelm II

14 TIMELINE 1870–1914 “The accelerating arms race is… a crushing burden that weighs on all nations and, if prolonged, will lead to the very cataclysm it seeks to avert.” TSAR NICHOLAS II, ADDRESSING THE HAGUE CONFERENCE, 1899

1907 – 19081909 – 1910 1911 19121913 1914

MARCH 1909 JULY FEBRUARY 12 MARCH 23–MAY 30 Germany backs General Joseph Joffre is China becomes a Bulgarians capture Austria-Hungary over appointed commander-in- republic as the last Adrianople, Turkey, the annexation of chief of the French army. emperor abdicates. in . Bosnia-Herzegovina, Treaty of London forcing Russia to redraws boundaries. withdraw its opposition JULY 1 by threatening war. Arrival of German gunboat JUNE 29 in Tangier provokes the Second Moroccan Crisis, begins. Bulgaria fights Political postcard of taking Europe to the Serbia, Greece, and European balancing act brink of war. Romania.

AUGUST 1907 APRIL 1909 German vacationers, summer 1914 Russia and Britain sign Young Turks depose a convention settling Ottoman Sultan Abdul JUNE 28 outstanding disputes Hamid II and replace Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Central Asia. him with Mehmed V. is assassinated by a Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo. 1908 German army JULY 6 adopts the MG 08 Germany agrees to support machine gun. Austro-Hungarian action against Serbia.

German Uhlan NOVEMBER 1909 The German High Seas Fleet MARCH 28 AUGUST 7 JULY 23 helmet in the North Sea Britain creates an British House of Commons France enacts the Austria-Hungary Imperial General rejects votes for women, Three-Year Law, issues the Serbians Staff to coordinate SEPTEMBER 29 provoking suffragettes into extending conscription. an ultimatum. military planning Italy declares war on adoption of militant tactics. in Britain and Turkey in pursuit of AUGUST 10 JULY 28 its dominions. territorial claims in Libya. Second Balkan War Austria-Hungary ends with defeat of declares war on Serbia. Bulgaria.

1910 OCTOBER 8 Armies and navies of the First Balkan War begins, major powers begin to pitting Turkey against acquire planes and train the Balkan League: military pilots. Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria. JULY 1908 Young Turk revolution begins drive to OCTOBER 18 modernize Italo-Turkish War Ottoman Turkey. ends. Italy takes Suffragette banner possession of Libya.

OCTOBER 1908 MAY 1910 NOVEMBER Announcement of war in Berlin Austria-Hungary In Britain, George V Britain and France announces the becomes king on the agree to share naval annexation of death of Edward VII. responsibilities, the French NOVEMBER 1 Bosnia-Herzegovina. concentrating on the JULY 30 First combat use of Mediterranean. Russia begins general aircraft by Italians in mobilization. North Africa. NOVEMBER 5 NOVEMBER 4 Woodrow Wilson is Treaty of Fez resolves elected president of the Moroccan Crisis. the United States.

15 Royal visit A state visit by the British king Edward VII to Paris in 1903 was the prelude to a diplomatic agreement between Britain and France, the Entente Cordiale, signed on April 8, 1904.

BEFORE Europe’s High Noon A series of localized wars in the 1860s and 1870s redrew the borders of major European states. Convinced of the superiority of their civilization, Europeans had achieved a dominant position in the world, rooted in the spectacular growth of their industries and populations, and in the GERMAN UNIFICATION In 1860, Germany was a collection of separate strength of their military forces. states. Prussia was acknowledged as its leading power, and in 1870–71, it t the dawn of the 20th century, Hungary. Italy and Ottoman Turkey defeated France in the Franco-Prussian Europe was at the height of its aspired to join them. Of these states, War. This victory led directly to the founding A military and economic power. Germany was the most dynamic force. of the German Empire under the king of States such as Britain and France Since the unification of Germany in Prussia, who later became the German Kaiser. controlled huge empires, encompassing 1871 the country had undergone rapid nearly all of Africa and large parts of industrialization. The population had AUSTRIA-HUNGARY Asia. European capital and commerce grown a massive 43 percent between The Austrian Hapsburgs survived created enormous 1880 and 1910. France, in power by forming Austria- influence and wealth. 1.63 BILLION The estimated by contrast, had an Hungary, the Dual Monarchy, Global transportation global population in 1900. almost static population held together by and communication Around one-quarter of this growth and less allegiance to the networks tied the number resided in Europe. developed industries, , global economy to its despite ruling an who was also the European hub. The United States extensive empire. Russia lagged even king of Hungary. was the only major non-European further behind industrially, but was by Precarious balance economic power, although Japan far the most populous European state. A 1910 postcard shows various heads of state had emerged as an industrializing Britain had lost its industrial lead but embarked upon an uncertain journey, precariously GERMAN ARMY HELMET military force in the 1890s. The leading still exercised unchallenged dominance mounted aboard a motor vehicle. In the early European powers were Britain, France, over international finance, maritime 20th century, the political balance was always Germany, Russia, and Austria- trade, and its vast overseas empire. threatening to tip over into war.

16 EUROPE’S HIGH NOON

AFTER

Tensions between the European powers mounted over disputes outside Europe and in the Balkans.

THE MOROCCAN CRISES Germany challenged French imperial ambitions in Morocco, leading to diplomatic crises in 1905 and 1911 18–19 ❯❯.

CENTRAL POWERS Name given to Germany, Austria-Hungary, and their allies in World War I. ENTENTE POWERS Name given to Britain, France, and Russia, which are also referred to as the Allies.

OTTOMAN DECLINE The long-term decline of the Turkish Oppressed nationalities’ demands Imperial splendor Ottoman Empire was a serious source of for self-rule were a threat to the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria receives guests at instability, triggering an Italian invasion multinational Austro-Hungarian Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. A member of the of Libya, an Ottoman-ruled area of North Empire. Governments feared a Hapsburg dynasty, he was Europe’s longest-ruling Africa, in 1911, and two Balkan Wars in breakdown of order and responded by monarch in 1914, having come to the throne in1848. 1912–13 18–19 ❯❯. Ottoman weakness and asserting the military and diplomatic Balkan conflicts were a temptation for both prestige of the state. They hoped this traditionally isolationist, but its fear Russia and Austria-Hungary to intervene in an would serve as an antidote to internal of Germany led to agreements with area on their southern borders where they had forces of disintegration and subversion. France, and later Russia. These divisive competing interests. This was where World All the major powers spent large alliance systems existed among nations War I would start, after the assassination of amounts on their armed forces. Mass bound by cultural similarities, Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand education and a popular press united economic interdependence, and the in June 1914 28–29 ❯❯. in spreading a message of patriotism ties that linked the various royal that easily slipped into jingoism. As no families. The inability of the countries formal institution existed for regulating to stop the slide to war was to be a international affairs, states sought catastrophe for Europe, from which it security in alliances. Germany allied would never recover its global power. itself with Austria-Hungary and Italy, and France with Russia. Britain was

European alliances, 1878–1918

Political systems By 1900, shifting military alliances had resolved into a Y N Most European states were ruled by fixed confrontation between Russia and France on one A E hereditary monarchs. In Germany, side and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other. W D R E Austria-Hungary, and Russia, these O

W N

monarchs retained a large measure S of political power, despite the existence KEY a e

S of elected parliaments. Britain had Austro-German alliance, 1878–1918 North c retained its monarchy, but kings and t i Sea DEN. a l queens scrupulously respected the Three Emperors’ alliance, B RUSSIAN EMPIRE authority of the Houses of Parliament. 1881–87 BRITAIN GERMANY France, conversely, was a republic. Austro-Serbian alliance, NETH. Both Britain and France had restricted 1881–95 BEL. Triple alliance, LUX. electoral franchises—women could AUSTRIA– 1882–1915 not vote, and in Britain the poor were FRANCE HUNGARY SWIT. also excluded. Austro-German-Romanian ATLANTIC alliance, 1883–1916 I T ROMANIA OCEAN A SERB. Franco-Russian alliance, L Black Sea Threats and alliances Y 1894–1917 MONT. BULGARIA Although often seen in retrospect as Russo-Bulgarian military ALB. a golden age of tranquil prosperity, the convention, 1902–13 PORT. SPAIN OTTOMAN GREECE years before World War I were racked Anglo-French Entente, EMPIRE by political conflict. Mass socialist 1904–1918 M movements preached the overthrow TUNISIA e d Anglo-Russian Entente, i t e of the capitalist system. Anarchists 1907–1917 (French) rra MOROCCO nea n S e a ALGERIA practiced “propaganda of the deed,” (French) PERSIA ALLIANCES DURING WORLD WAR I, (French) assassinating monarchs such as the LIBYA EGYPT 1914–18 Italian King Umberto I in July 1900, (Italian) (British) and bombing symbols of power. The Allies (and allied states) Suffragettes turned to violence in their Central Powers (and allied states) quest for women’s voting rights. Neutral states

17 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT Crises and Conflicts In the years before the outbreak of World War I, the European powers engaged in brinkmanship and an accelerating arms race. A series of diplomatic crises and conflicts in the Balkans accustomed Europeans to the possibility of a major war.

ermany was indisputably a presented a direct challenge to the subsequent international conference. major military and economic Royal Navy’s dominance of its home The Germans took up the issue again G power by the end of the waters, the cornerstone of Britain’s in 1911, sending the gunboat SMS 19th century. However, it lacked two national security. The British responded Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir. of the attributes then regarded as with a massive warship-building This move provoked a diplomatic indicative of great power status: a program of their own, setting a crisis, briefly raising fears of a general substantial overseas empire and an new standard for battleships with European war. By the end of 1911, oceangoing navy. HMS Dreadnought in 1906. As the naval a settlement had been negotiated, Under the unstable Kaiser Wilhelm II, race gathered pace, the British buried involving a small concession of Crisis in Morocco Germany set out to flex its muscles on old rivalries to form an entente with territory to Germany from French The dispatch of the German gunboat Panther to Agadir, the world stage. A plan to build a France in 1904 and with France’s ally, Equatorial Africa. This saber-rattling, caricatured in this contemporary German illustration, world-class fleet, proposed by Admiral Russia, in 1907. along with some anti-British remarks took Europe to the brink of war in 1911. Diplomacy Alfred von Tirpitz, was adopted in dropped by the Kaiser, drove Britain solved the crisis but strengthened Anglo-French resolve. 1897. To Britain, this appeared to be a Moroccan crises to strengthen its links with France. hostile act. The German naval program While making an enemy When the crisis of 1911 blew over, army increasing, it was in Germany’s of Britain, Germany also the prospect of a general war best interest to make the conflict manufactured a confrontation appeared to recede. Yet at happen sooner rather than later. BEFORE with France. In 1905, Kaiser a private meeting in Wilhelm made a provocative December 1912, the Kaiser Slav nationalism visit to Morocco, a nominally and his senior military In southeastern Europe, tensions were The accession of German Kaiser independent country that France commanders discussed rising. The Balkans were a traditional Wilhelm II in 1888 was followed by was absorbing into its sphere of launching a preventive war area of rivalry between Austria- a fatal shift in great power relations. influence. He called for all the against France and Russia. Hungary and Russia. The Russians had powers to be given equal access They argued that with the adopted the role of protectors and LEAGUE OF THE THREE EMPERORS to Morocco, a claim rejected by a strength of the Russian leaders of the area’s Slav states, In 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck tried to stabilize Europe through an alliance of three empires: Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In the 1880s, rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary undermined this system. Germany formed the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary, but maintained friendly relations with Russia. This German fleet, pre-1914 policy was abandoned by Wilhelm II. By 1894, Dreadnought battleships of the Russia had allied itself with France German High Seas Fleet steam against Germany. into the North Sea before World War I. The navy was a source of pride to the German people, its expansion supported by a patriotic Navy League with more than a million members.

OTTO VON BISMARCK CRISES AND CONFLICTS

including Serbia and Bulgaria. Russia Balkan soldiers also had long-term ambitions to The two Balkan Wars of 1912–13 were fought with expand at the expense of the declining great ferocity, resulting in more than half a million Ottoman Turkish Empire. For Austria- casualties. The instability of the region drew Russia Hungary, Slavs were a domestic and Austria-Hungary into a dangerous confrontation. problem, a restive part of the empire’s ethnic mix. By asserting itself against Serbia and Bulgaria was a major the Balkan Slavs, especially Serbia, setback for Russia’s Balkan policy. which was not in the Hapsburg Empire, Unable to back both countries, Russia Austria-Hungary hoped to reinforce its was left with Serbia as its sole ally in authority over its own Slav minorities. the Balkans. In 1908, the Austro-Hungarian Germany, meanwhile, sought to annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, an extend its influence southward, and area it already administered, provoked planned to build a Berlin-to-Baghdad a hostile response from Russia, but its railway. This was interpreted by Britain allies, Britain and France, refused to as a threat to its interests in the Middle back military action. The annexation East. Enver Pasha, a Young Turk army left the Russians humiliated and officer who became Turkish leader in angered Serbia, which covertly backed 1913, was pro-German. He invited a a campaign of attacks on Austro- period of political upheaval. In 1912, hostilities, Bulgaria was heavily German military mission, headed by Hungarian officials by Bosnian Serbs. the Balkan League—an alliance defeated. The major winner of both General Otto Liman von Sanders, to of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and wars was Serbia, which almost doubled modernize the Turkish army. The Ottoman Empire Montenegro—attacked and defeated its territory. None of these crises, fears, and The weakness of Ottoman Turkey was Turkey in the First Balkan War. After the war, Bulgaria was left a conflicting ambitions made a general another source of instability. In 1908, The victors then fell out over the discontented state, eager for revenge European war inevitable, but it had Turkish nationalists, known as the spoils. Bulgaria attacked Serbia and on the Serbs, while the strengthening become distinctly imaginable and even Young Turks, rebelled against the Greece to start the Second Balkan of a hostile Serbia was a disaster for tempting for some as a possible sultan, Abdul Hamid II, opening a War. When Romania also joined the Austria-Hungary. The split between solution to intractable problems.

“If the German fleet becomes superior to ours, AFTER ” the German army can conquer this country. In the years leading up to World War I, SIR EDWARD GREY, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, 1906 a growing arms race was a clear sign of insecurity and potential conflict.

THE ARMS RACE In its naval race with Britain, Germany had built 17 dreadnoughts and five battle cruisers by August 1914. Due to Britain’s massive financial investment, however, it retained its superiority over Germany, boasting 24 dreadnoughts and 10 battle cruisers.

DREADNOUGHT The name of a British battleship that entered service in 1906. It became a general term for all modern battleships of comparable armament and performance.

France extended conscription by the Three Year Law of 1913, attempting to match the size of the German army from a much smaller population base. Russia increased military spending.

BALKAN TROUBLES World War I was in part a third Balkan War, following on from the two wars of 1912–13. Triggered by the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Bosnian Serbs at Sarajevo in June 1914 28–29 ❯❯, World War I began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia 30–31 ❯❯. THE TROUBLED CONTINENT

EMPEROR OF GERMANY Born 1859 Died 1941 Kaiser Wilhelm II “England, France, and Russia have conspired… to wage a war of annihilation against us.” KAISER WILHELM II, MEMORANDUM WRITTEN JULY 30, 1914

o his enemies, Wilhelm II, King of Young leader Prussia and Kaiser (Emperor) In the early part of T of Germany was the embodiment his reign, Wilhelm was of aggressive Prussian militarism. Yet in a fresh force in German many ways, Wilhelm had struggled to life, promising to lead the adapt to the requirements of his social country on a new course to status and official role. A difficult birth global power and prosperity. had left him with a withered and paralyzed left arm. To this disability, patriarchal. He was, however, about which he was self-conscious, neither physically nor was added a neurotic nature. He emotionally fit for the role. A hero-worshipped his stern and warlike weak man trying to prove he was paternal ancestors, and molded himself strong, he developed a habit of in the image of the Prussian military erratic posturing, alternately bullying tradition—strict, hard, pitiless, and and ingratiating. The other European powers viewed Germany as unreliable and dangerous.

On the global stage Coming to the throne at the age of 29, Wilhelm was determined to assert his personal rule. He quickly disposed of the experienced Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Weltpolitik, the theory that Germany should take its place as a global superpower, was adopted as official German policy in 1897. This expansionist outlook was not his own invention. It reflected the ideas and aspirations of a host of German nationalists, who demanded that their country should have a colonial empire, an oceangoing navy, and possibly Lebensraum (living space) in eastern Europe. For Wilhelm, diplomacy was partly a family affair. He was a grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria, on his mother's side, and cousin to Tsar Churchill meets the Kaiser Nicholas II of Russia. These blood The Kaiser hosted Winston Churchill during military connections were important to him, maneuvers in 1909. Churchill described him as a man but did not necessarily imply who wanted to be like “without having to friendship. His attitude toward Britain fight his battles.” in particular was contradictory. He

20 KAISER WILHELM II

The Kaiser at war TIMELINE Wilhelm was sidelined by military leaders, but could not be ignored completely. ■ January 1859 Born in Berlin, the son of Prince Here, he stands between generals Paul von Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and Princess Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff at German Victoria of Great Britain. General Headquarters in 1917. ■ February 1881 Marries Augusta Victoria, Princess of Schleswig-Holstein. In the years leading up to ■ June 1888 Becomes Kaiser after the death World War I, the German high of his father, Friedrich III. command under General ■ March 1890 Forces the resignation of veteran Helmuth von Moltke and the Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. chancellor, Theobald von ■ Bethmann-Hollweg, dictated January 1896 Sends a personal telegram to policy. In the crisis of summer South Africa to congratulate Boer leader Paul 1914, Wilhelm wavered Kruger for defeating the British-backed Jameson Raid. This causes offense to Britain. between violent assertions of the need for war and feeble ■ 1897 Backs Admiral von Tirpitz’s plan to build attempts to preserve peace. a modern navy capable of challenging the British in the North Sea. The war years ■ March 1905 Visits Tangier to assert German Although the spirit of national interests in Morocco, antagonizing France and unity that gripped Germany in causing a diplomatic crisis. August 1914 carried the Kaiser ■ April 1907 Prince Philip of Eulenburg, to an unprecedented level of Wilhelm’s closest friend and personal adviser, veered from clear admiration to a November 1908, General Dietrich, popularity, his marginalization is accused in the press of homosexual activities, conviction that the British were intent Count von Hülsen-Haeseler, the continued. He intervened in the initiating a major scandal. on seeking his destruction. Such Chief of the German Imperial Military direction of the German war effort, ■ October 1908 Gives an ill-considered interview instability was typical of the Kaiser, Cabinet, died while dancing in front but did not control it. He took a special to the British Daily Telegraph that includes wild as was his impulsiveness. of the Kaiser dressed in a ballerina’s interest in naval affairs, limiting the statements on foreign affairs. tutu. More damagingly, from 1907 operations of the High Seas Fleet in ■ July 1914 Assures Austria-Hungary of German Waning authority the Kaiser’s closest confidant, Prince order to avoid loss of his precious support for military action against Serbia Wilhelm liked dramatic diplomatic Philip of Eulenburg, had to defend battleships. His attitudes showed his following the assassination of Archduke initiatives, such as his unexpected himself against press allegations of habitual instability, one moment Franz Ferdinand. appearance in Tangier in 1905, homosexual behavior. advocating genocidal policies on the ■ August 1914 Delivers an eloquent address provoking the First Moroccan Crisis. Germany’s military and bureaucratic Eastern Front, the next considering to the deputies of the German Reichstag, Yet the language of his speeches could establishment was beginning to tire a peace initiative based on an appeal welcoming national unity. be blustering in a way that damaged of Wilhelm’s ill-considered public to his royal relatives. From 1916, he ■ August 1916 Sidelined as generals statements and erratic attempts to Germany’s international image. lost control of senior appointments and Hindenburg and Ludendorff take control of the German war effort. Epaulettes ■ January 1917 Approves the decision to resort These shoulder boards to unrestricted U-boat warfare, which will formed part of the bring the United States into the war. Kaiser’s Hussar Life ■ Guard uniform. Wilhelm November 1918 Having lost the support of his army commanders and the German loved military regalia and people, Wilhelm abdicates and flees to exile was deeply captivated by in the neutral Netherlands. the grandeur of parades ■ and ceremonies. June 1919 The Treaty of Versailles attempts to prosecute Wilhelm for “supreme offense against international morality.” The Dutch “Germany is a young and growing empire… government refuses to extradite him. ■ November 1922 After the death of Victoria Augusta, Wilhelm marries his second wife, to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz. ■ June 1941 Dies in his country house at Doorn Germans refuses to assign any bounds.” in the Netherlands. KAISER WILHELM II, INTERVIEW IN BRITAIN’S DAILY TELEGRAPH, OCTOBER 28, 1908

In 1900, he told German troops sent to exercise personal diplomacy. The last was forced to accept the ascendancy suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China straw was an interview the Kaiser of General Erich Ludendorff, whom that they should behave like “Huns,” a accorded to a British journalist for the he loathed. Almost powerless, he was reference to the devastating attacks on Daily Telegraph in October 1908, in dubbed the “Shadow Kaiser.” His last European areas of the Roman Empire which he described the British as “mad exercise of authority was to sack by the hordes of Attila the Hun in the as March hares,” suggested German Ludendorff as the war effort fell apart fifth century. naval expansion was aimed at Japan, in October 1918. In November, facing Beginning in 1908, Wilhelm’s and claimed to have personally shown defeat and revolution, the army personal position weakened and his the British how to win the Boer War insisted that he abdicate. Wilhelm influence on policy-making waned. His in South Africa. This outburst alienated was spirited away into exile in the WILHELM AND HERMINE IN EXILE reputation was damaged by association public opinion inside Germany as Netherlands, an irrelevant figure with scandal. At a private party in well as abroad. as Germany entered a new era.

21 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT Planning for War The armies of the major European powers had long prepared for the conflict that erupted in 1914. Their military plans were a crucial factor in fueling the buildup to war, although its actual course confounded all their expectations.

he war plans of all the Continental This risky plan, based on optimistic line of fortresses on its eastern border. powers were built on the rapid assumptions about everything from the In 1911, however, General Joseph T mobilization of mass armies. marching speed of German troops to Joffre took over as French commander- European states maximized their the slowness of Russian mobilization, in-chief, and French tactics changed. manpower by conscripting a large was adopted in 1905. proportion of their male population Schlieffen’s successor as Chief of the Offense versus defense into short-term peacetime service. General Staff, Helmuth von Moltke Influenced by military theorists such as These trained men formed a reserve (known as Moltke the Younger), General Ferdinand Foch, who argued that could be easily merely tinkered with that in modern warfare the offense deployed in the The number of days it details of the plan, would always triumph over the defense, event of war. 42 would take for France to such as avoiding the Joffre adopted Plan XVII, prescribing an Part-time soldiers This created armies fall to Germany, according to violation of Dutch immediate invasion of German-annexed A British soldier, British lion, and the figure of Britannia of unprecedented the Schlieffen Plan. neutrality and shifting Alsace and Lorraine if war broke out. By advertise a military exhibition held at the Earl’s Court size in Germany, some troops from the 1913, the French had also managed to Exhibition Centre in London in 1901. France, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. enveloping maneuver to reinforce the extract from their Russian allies, whose Britain, which did not have border with France. The consequences rearmament they were financing, a conscription, had a relatively small of violating Belgian neutrality were promise to launch an offensive against number of regular troops and reserves, not addressed. Germany within 15 days of mobilization. BEFORE backed up by a part-time Territorial At the time the Schlieffen Plan was The Russians continued to have Army intended for home service only. adopted, French war planning was separate plans for a possible war with essentially defensive. Fearing German Austria-Hungary alone. Prussian victories in wars against Plans for a war on two fronts military strength, France had built a Austria-Hungary faced a problem of Austria in 1866 and France in 1870–71 The assumption behind Germany’s war convinced all European powers of the planning was that it would have to need for meticulous war planning by fight France and Russia simultaneously, “Let the last man on the right a properly trained general staff. a Franco-Russian military alliance having been in place since the 1890s. PROFESSIONAL PLANNERS The German army’s Chief of the brush the Channel with Staff officers trained at the Prussian War General Staff from 1891 to 1906, Academy had excelled in the organizational Alfred von Schlieffen, believed that his sleeve.” task of moving masses of men swiftly to the a two-front war could be won only borders by rail and of supplying them once through bold aggression. He devised REMARK ATTRIBUTED TO COUNT ALFRED VON SCHLIEFFEN, 1905 they arrived. After a plan to hurl most of the 1870, other European German army into an countries imitated the initial offensive against NETH. Prussian system— France. Approaching via l e Antwerp Düsseldorf France, for example, Belgium, his troops would n BRITAIN n Ghent a 1ST ARMY creating its École de encircle the French, h Dunkerque Cologne C er BELGIUM Ys Guerre in 1880. New attacking from the rear h Calais Maastricht Aachen s GERMANY i Brussels railroads were built and crushing them within l Boulogne 2ND ARMY R g Lille h Lys Liège in to facilitate six weeks of mobilization. n e use E Me Koblenz mobilization, and The German troops would re mb Namur Sa lle e the drawing up of then move by train to the s o S Mauberge 3RD ARMY M railroad timetables was Eastern Front and defeat om m recognized as a vital the Russians. e Amiens LUXEMBOURG se S i Trier staff function. om O me Sedan 4TH ARMY Aisne Luxembourg Compiègne 5TH ARMY S BRITISH REFORMS The Schlieffen Plan e i Diedenhofen n

e Reims

e Soissons The British Army lagged Germany’s plan for defeating France involved Oi s 5TH ARMY behind Continental an advance through neutral Belgium, the Verdun Metz BRITISH BOER WAR MEDAL Europe, but serious Netherlands, and Luxembourg to sweep 3RD ARMY 4TH ARMY Moselle 6TH ARMY failings revealed during behind the French armies, which were to Paris Toul Nancy Strassburg Britain’s war against the Boers in South Africa be enveloped and swiftly destroyed. Provins 2ND ARMY 7TH ARMY in 1899–1902 led to major military ne Sei Y S e s o e reforms. Pushed through by War Minister u n i M n e n e a Epinal KEY e M r Richard Haldane from 1905, these reforms n e created the post of Chief of the Imperial Planned routes of 1ST ARMY German armies General Staff and instituted detailed planning for mobilization in case of war. German fortified town Belfort Belgian fortified town FRANCE SWITZ. French fortified town

22 PLANNING FOR WAR

German troops on maneuvers in 1904, designed to deter German force across the English Channel to A crowd watches soldiers cross a pontoon bridge aggression, led to the development of take up position on the left of the AFTER during Germany’s 1912 military maneuvers. These war plans that would commit the French line, facing the border with annual occasions were a testing ground for new tactics British to a European war. Belgium. The British were careful to and technology and a display of military strength. From 1911, informal talks between avoid any formal promise to carry out The mobilization of European armies British and French army commanders this commitment to their French allies. in 1914 mostly proceeded with an split objectives. The Austro-Hungarian resulted in an understanding that, if The pre-1914 war plans were efficiency that was a credit to the chief of staff, Conrad von Hötzendorf, France were attacked by Germany, worked out in great detail by staff professionalism of army staff officers. favored an offensive war against Britain would send an expeditionary officers, with timetables that had to Once the fighting had started, Serbia, and was inclined to stand be adhered to if the military machine however, little went as planned. on the defensive against Russia. was to function smoothly. Collectively, Belgium 0.1 But Austria-Hungary’s German allies they created a situation in which the THWARTED EXPECTATIONS needed Austro-Hungarian forces Serbia 0.4 mobilization of armies could only None of the plans of the initial protagonists to attack the Russians in Poland, to with great difficulty be prevented worked out as they had expected. Attacking relieve pressure on Germany’s Eastern Britain 0.7 from leading to large-scale battles. on their eastern frontier, the French army Front. Despite Austro-Hungarian plans The planners had written the script quickly discovered their troops’ Austria- 1.9 for a “swing force” to be mobilized Hungary for a Europe-wide war that could vulnerability to defensive firepower. against Serbia or Russia as required, be precipitated at any moment by At the same time, instead of achieving the Countries the issue was still unresolved in 1914. France 3.7 a single incident. rapid defeat of France they had envisioned, German forces were driven back at the Battle Germany 3.8 British commitments of the Marne in September 1914 54–55 ❯❯.

Britain’s front line of defense was its Russia 4.2 Army sizes at the outbreak of war On Germany’s eastern front, advancing Royal Navy, which had long enabled Russia’s army was substantially larger than those Russian armies suffered heavy defeats. British governments to adopt a of other European nations, but it was poorly equipped There was to be no quick victory for anyone. 023451 detached pose in relation to European and badly organized. Britain had a relatively small affairs. But its entente with France Troops (in millions) army, and depended on the Royal Navy for defense.

23 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT

weapons were being replaced by bolt-action rifles with ammunition fed from a . A well-trained Evolving Military soldier using the Lee-Enfield, the British Army’s standard rifle from 1895, could fire more than 20 rounds a minute. This rate of fire was far exceeded by machine guns. The Technology Maxim gun, the first true machine gun, brought into active service in the 1890s, fired 600 rounds a minute. The German army took to machine guns enthusiastically, while other “Everybody will be entrenched... The countries struggled to find a good tactical use for the weapon. spade will be indispensable.” Rapid-fire artillery Artillery guns (long-range weaponry JAN BLOCH, POLISH FINANCIER AND INDUSTRIALIST, IN THE FUTURE OF WAR, 1897 used for bombardment) also adopted rifled barrels and breech-loading. The range of guns greatly increased, he European armies and navies in precision engineering made it much a ball and powder down the barrel, and gunners began practicing the of 1914 were the beneficiaries of easier to mass-produce weapons with and cannon firing solid shot. Navies bombardment of targets beyond their T a century of progress in industry, complex mechanisms. Chemists went to sea in wooden sailing ships. field of view. science, and technology. Change was experimented with new explosives The pace of change was slow at first, The invention in the 1870s of a often not specifically driven by military that would provide a more powerful but by the 1870s a firepower hydraulic mechanism that returned requirements. Railroads transformed replacement for gunpowder. revolution was under way. the gun’s barrel to its original position the speed at which armies could be In the Franco-Prussian War of after recoil cleared the way for deployed to frontiers. New means Arming the infantry 1870–71, both sides armed their rapid-fire artillery. Most important of communication, from the electric In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic infantry (foot soldiers) with breech- of all, scientifically designed shells telegraph to the telephone and radio, Wars, armies fought with smoothbore loading single-shot rifles. By the 1880s, packed with nitrate-based high were adapted to military uses. Progress flintlock muskets, loaded by ramming these already effective infantry explosives ensured that artillery fire

Potential bomber Just before the outbreak of World War I, Russian aviation pioneer Igor Sikorski (right) built the first multiengine aircraft. These flying machines could carry a substantial load and were turned into bombers during the war.

24 EVOLVING MILITARY TECHNOLOGY

High-explosive shells TIMELINE Mass-produced in factories and fired from breech- loading rifled guns, these shells marked a revolutionary ■ 1840s Prussia is the first European state to advance in destructive power over the gunpowder and equip its infantry with a breech-loading , smoothbore cannons of the mid-19th century. the Dreyse needle gun. ■ 1859 In France, the army makes the first mass The rapid developments in military movement of troops by railroad, transporting technology from the 1870s occurred an army to fight the Austrians in northern Italy. during a long period of peace between the great powers. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, the first conflict to use modern armaments, provided a preview of what was to come in World War I. At sea, torpedoes and mines proved capable of sinking the largest warships. On land, troops were entrenched behind barbed wire. Invented to control cattle in the American West, barbed wire inflicted massive casualties on infantry attempting frontal assaults. “Aviation is fine as a sport. The old ways die hard In Europe, naval commanders continued to focus on bigger and better BELGIAN But as an instrument of battleships, while army commanders MACHINE GUN, 1869 preached the triumph of offensive spirit ” ■ 1860s The first hand-cranked rapid-fire war, it is worthless. over defensive firepower. Openness to weapons are introduced, including the Belgian technological innovation coexisted with Montigny Mitrailleuse and the American FERDINAND FOCH, FRENCH GENERAL, 1911 an attachment to venerated traditions, Gatling gun. such as the charge with saber ■ 1866 British engineer Robert Whitehead was more destructive. Rifled guns and radio equipment proved cumbersome and lance, and the infantry assault with invents the first self-propelled naval torpedo. high-explosive shells were also used at on land, and armies preferred to use fixed . World War I would be ■ sea, mounted in rotating turrets aboard field telephones. characterized by the contrast between 1870–71 In the Franco-Prussian War, Krupp’s rifled artillery guns prove their effectiveness. steam-driven steel warships. Inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright the efficient exploitation of weaponry developed a heavier-than-air flying supplied by science and industry and ■ 1880s High explosives such as picric acid New technology machine between 1903 and 1905. the persistence of many attitudes to war (lyddite) and TNT come into widespread use By the early 20th century, armies European armies showed interest but belonging to an earlier era. as fillings for artillery and naval shells, greatly and navies were eager to explore other adoption of the invention was delayed increasing their destructive effect. new inventions that might give them by the brothers’ refusal to demonstrate ■ 1884 The first recoil-operated machine gun is an advantage over the enemy. Wireless their aircraft in public. invented by Sir Hiram Maxim. The Maxim gun, telegraphy (radio), first demonstrated Meanwhile, airships were developed as it is known, is used by the British Army in experimentally in the 1890s, was in by, among others, German Count colonial wars in the 1890s. Its derivatives use by navies by 1904. However, early Ferdinand von Zeppelin. From 1909, include the German MG 08 (1908) and the the year in which French pilot Louis British Vickers gun (1912) used in World War I. Blériot flew a monoplane across the ■ 1886 Replacing gunpowder with a smokeless Channel, an air craze gripped Europe. propellent makes rifle fire more effective. Air enthusiasts and fantasy fiction ■ 1890s European armies are equipped with the writers envisaged future aerial wars bolt-action repeater rifles they will use in World with mass bombing of cities. More War I, such as the German Gewehr 98, French Lebel, and Russian Mosin-Nagant. The number of ■ 1897 The U.S. Navy adopts the first successful 12,000 machine guns in powered submarine. service with the German army in ■ 1898 France introduces the 75 mm field gun August 1914. In contrast, the British that can fire up to 30 rounds a minute to a and French armies had only a few range of 5 miles (8.5 km). hundred machine guns each. ■ 1904–05 In the Russo-Japanese War, the combination of trenches and barbed wire, soberly, armies and navies explored the artillery firing high-explosive shells beyond line potential of airplanes and airships for of sight, and the use of field telephones and reconnaissance, integrating both into radio anticipate the warfare of World War I. maneuvers from 1911. ■ 1906 The British battleship HMS Dreadnought By that date, motor transportation enters service, making all previous leading was having a major impact on warships obsolescent. civilian life, but armies remained Clément-Bayard II airship ■ 1911 The military use of aircraft begins as Italy overwhelmingly reliant upon horse- Built in 1910 for the French army, this airship never drops on Ottoman Turks in Libya. drawn vehicles. Armored cars began to entered service. It was the first airship to fly over the come into service, and were used by English Channel, and its wireless transmitter achieved Italy in its war with Turkey in 1911. the first air-ground radio communication.

25 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT

1 MAUSER GEWEHR 98 (GERMAN)

2 7.92MM X57 MAUSER (GERMAN)

5 PATTERN 1907 SWORD (BRITISH)

7 KNIFE BAYONET (GERMAN)

8 .303 MKVII CARTRIDGE (BRITISH) 9 SHORT MAGAZINE LEE-ENFIELD (BRITISH) Rifles 11 HALES NO. 3 RIFLE (BRITISH) The infantry was armed with bolt-action rapid-fire rifles, with ammunition fed from a box magazine. These were reliable, efficient weapons, and armies saw no need for substantial innovations during the war.

1 Mauser Gewehr 98 (German) entered service in 1898. caused the cartridge to twist and deform, inflicting more This model has been fitted with a for use severe wounds on the enemy. 9 Short Magazine by a sniper. 2 7.92mm X57 Mauser cartridge (German) Lee-Enfield (British) was the standard British infantry was adopted in 1905. Its use with the Gewehr 98 rifle led weapon. The rifle shown is the Mark III Star, introduced in to the name “Mauser” being added. 3 Ross .303IN MK III late 1915. 10 Berthier MLE 1916 (French) A modified (Canadian) Produced until 1916, the Ross was favored by version of the earlier MLE 1907/15, this increased the many snipers due to its long-range accuracy. However, it magazine size from three rounds to five. 11 Hales No. 3 often jammed in the muddy conditions of the trenches. rifle grenade (British) Rifle grenades, which clipped to the 4 M91 Moschetto de Cavalleria (Italian) This was a muzzle, provided greater range for explosives. 12 Cartridge shorter variant of the M91 rifle, the standard Italian belt (American) Standard issue for infantrymen, these belts infantry weapon. 5 Pattern 1907 sword bayonet (British) enabled them to carry extra ammunition. 13 Mosin Nagant Designed for the Lee-Enfield rifle, this was based on the M1891 (Russian) was the main weapon of the Russian Japanese bayonet, but its long blade was unwieldy infantry. Due to shortages, Russia issued contracts to in the trenches. 6 -Mannlicher M1895 (Austro- American firms for over three million of these rifles. Hungarian) was used by Austro-Hungarian troops, who 14 M1903 Springfield (American) After encountering called it the “Ruck-Zuck” (very quick) due to its high firing Mauser rifles in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the rate. 7 Knife bayonet (German) Short and double-edged, United States negotiated a license to manufacture a this attached to the Gewehr 98 rifle and doubled as a Mauser-style rifle of its own. 15 Cartridge belt (Turkish) This trench knife. 8 .303 MKVII cartridge (British) This version belt with its cartridge pouches was made in Germany, as of the Lee-Enfield cartridge had a heavy lead base, which was most of the equipment used by the Turkish troops.

26 RIFLES

3 ROSS .303IN MK III (CANADIAN)

4 M91 MOSCHETTO DE CAVALLERIA (ITALIAN)

6 STEYR–MANNLICHER M1895 (AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN)

10 BERTHIER MLE 1916 (FRENCH)

13 MOSIN NAGANT M1891 (RUSSIAN) 12 CARTRIDGE BELT (AMERICAN)

14 M1903 SPRINGFIELD (AMERICAN)

15 CARTRIDGE BELT (TURKISH)

27 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT

BEFORE

Austria-Hungary was a multiethnic Assassination state in crisis. Its stability was under threat from growing discontent among its Slav subject peoples. AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN WEAKNESS at Sarajevo The country’s ruler, Emperor Franz Joseph, had come to the throne in 1849. His regime was splendid in its public On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, ceremonies but shaky in its political and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death by a Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo. This act foundations. In 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia- triggered a chain of events that would lead to the outbreak of war. Herzegovina ❮❮ 18–19, a province with a mixed Serb, rchduke Franz Ferdinand’s visit the Austro-Hungarian authorities in not fully control one of the provinces Croat, and Bosnian Muslim to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Austrian of their empire. The archduke’s population. This annexation A Bosnia-Herzegovina, was a government had received specific planned route and schedule were angered Serbia, an blunt assertion of imperial authority in warning of a planned assassination publicized in advance of the visit. aggressive Balkan state with a recently annexed province. Even its attempt against the archduke, but the ambitions to unite the region’s timing was provocative— June 28 was Imperial visitor Slav population under its rule. The a day sacred to Serb nationalists as the The Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary Franz Ferdinand arrived in Sarajevo Austro-Hungarian government felt the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of were one of Europe’s oldest royal by train at 9:50am. He was delighted rising power of Serbia was a Kosovo, in which a defeat by the Turks families. They took their name to be accompanied by his wife, who threat to its authority over its restive had cost Serbia its independence. from a castle in . was usually excluded from all public Slav subjects in the Balkans. Bosnian Serb separatists, who were ceremonies under the terms of their armed, trained, and organized by visit went ahead regardless. To cancel marriage. The archduke first inspected EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEPH shadowy nationalist groups and it, or even to mount a heavy-handed troops drawn up on the Filipovic military intelligence officers in Serbia, security operation, would have been parade ground and then set off for had been carrying out attacks against an admission that the Hapsburgs did the town hall in a procession of cars.

Assassin apprehended Gavrilo Princip is arrested after shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914. Princip declared himself inspired by a mission to free Slavs from Austrian rule “by means of terror.” ASSASSINATION AT SARAJEVO

been planned and ARCHDUKE (1863–1914) organized in Serbia. This was enough. A FRANZ FERDINAND Waiting among the band of assassins, crowds along the route were with Serbian backing, Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of seven young conspirators bent had killed the heir to the Emperor Franz Joseph. He became heir on assassination. Six of them throne. Austria-Hungary’s apparent to the Hapsburg throne in were Bosnian Serbs and one a honor, prestige, and 1889. His relations with Franz Joseph Bosnian Muslim, apparently credibility required that were soured by his insistence on chosen deliberately to give the Serbia be made to pay. marrying an impoverished Czech operation multicultural credentials. Assassin’s gun aristocrat, Sophie Chotek, in 1900. He Between them they had six bombs The assassination was The road to war was forced to agree to humiliating and four Serbian army . carried out with a Austro-Hungarian ruling terms in order to marry her. She was Belgian-manufactured circles were split between denied royal status, and any offspring The assassination Fabrique Nationale Model hawks and doves. Chief of would be barred from inheriting the As the motorcade drove along the 1910 semiautomatic the General Staff Count throne. Franz Ferdinand’s political quay by the Miljacka river, one of the , supplied by the Franz Conrad von position varied over time, but he was conspirators, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, Serbian army. Hötzendorf had long viewed by the Austro-Hungarian threw a bomb that bounced off the sought a war with establishment as dangerously liberal back of the archduke’s car and the abdomen. The Serbia. He saw the on the key issue of Slav nationalism. exploded. This injured a number of couple died within assassinations as an bystanders, including a police officer. minutes, while still in ideal pretext for military The would-be assassin then swallowed the car. Princip tried to kill action. Other important figures, a cyanide pill and jumped into the himself but was overpowered by including Count István Tisza, prime shallow river, where he was arrested, onlookers and arrested. minister of Hungary, were more the cyanide dose proving nonlethal. cautious, preferring a diplomatic Angry and shocked by the incident, Austria-Hungary reacts solution. In the first week of July, Franz Ferdinand continued making his The news of the couple’s death was a way to the town hall. The conspirators shock to the Hapsburg court. There PERCENT of the population dispersed into the crowds, their was no state funeral. Franz Ferdinand 47 of Austria-Hungary were Slavs. assassination bid having seemingly and Sophie were interred side by side They included Poles, Czechs, Croats, ended in failure. in a private crypt at in Slovaks, Slovenes, and Serbs. Only Nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip the valley. Emperor Franz 24 percent of the population were went into a delicatessen to buy a Joseph was privately relieved that he ethnic Germans. sandwich. Coming out of the shop, would never be succeeded by a he found the archduke’s car stopped nephew he neither liked nor trusted. Austria-Hungary sought the opinion of directly in front of him. Franz “A higher power,” the emperor said, its ally Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm II had Ferdinand had decided to visit the “has restored that order which I could been outraged by the assassinations. injured police officer in the hospital, unfortunately not maintain.” But the His advisers, including Chancellor AFTER but his driver had taken a wrong turn public affront to the Austro-Hungarian Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, and was trying to reverse. Seizing his state was gross. Although there was no agreed that Austria-Hungary should opportunity, Princip pulled out his clear evidence that the Serbian be encouraged to take decisive, but The interrogation and trial of the pistol and fired twice, hitting the government had been directly unspecified, action against Serbia. conspirators failed to dispel the archduke in the neck and his wife in involved, the operation had definitely Whatever the Austro-Hungarian mystery surrounding the event. government chose to do, it could be assured of Germany’s support. TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS “Sophie, Sophie, don’t die! This loose guarantee of German Twenty-five Bosnian conspirators backing—often referred to as the implicated in the archduke’s assassination ” “blank check”—put the hawks firmly were tried in Austria-Hungary in October Stay alive for our children! in control in Vienna. Austria-Hungary 1914. Sixteen were found guilty and three LAST WORDS OF ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND, JUNE 28, 1914 then drew up a series of demands hanged. Gavrilo Princip was spared execution deliberately designed to prove because he had been under 20 years old when unacceptable. Their rejection by Serbia the crime was committed. He died of would provide a pretext for an attack tuberculosis in prison in April 1918. by the Austro-Hungarian army. The planning of the operation was No one was planning for a full- traced to the head of Serbian military scale war. The idea was for a swift intelligence, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic. punitive invasion followed by a harsh Using the code name Apis, he also led a peace settlement to humiliate and Serbian secret society known as the Black permanently weaken Serbia. However, Hand. In 1917, the Serbian government had nothing could happen quickly. Much Dimitrijevic and three other Black Hand of the army was on leave, helping to members executed after a rigged trial. bring in the harvest. After some hesitation, the date for delivery of THE OUTBREAK OF WAR an ultimatum was set for July 23. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 30–31 ❯❯. Within a week, a Private burial wider European war had broken out. World Franz Ferdinand knew his Czech wife would be denied War I led directly to the collapse of Austria- burial in the Hapsburg below the Hungary and the fall of the Hapsburg dynasty. Capuchin Church in Vienna. He therefore specified in his will that they be buried at Artstetten Castle, Austria.

29 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT The Slide to War In late July 1914, an Austro-Hungarian confrontation with Serbia plunged Europe into crisis. Such situations had been resolved before by diplomacy, but this time the major powers slid with startling rapidity from peace to a long-anticipated war.

n July 23, at 6pm, the allow Austro-Hungarian officials to Austro-Hungarian ambassador take part in the investigation of those O delivered an ultimatum to the who were responsible for the Sarajevo Serbian government, starting the world assassinations. The Serbians were on the road to war. The ultimatum given 48 hours to accept the demands demanded that the Serbs suppress of the ultimatum or face war. Serbia anti-Austrian terrorist organizations, accepted most of them but, assured stop anti-Austrian propaganda, and of support from Russia, rejected outright the idea of Austrian officials operating in its territory. BEFORE A diplomatic solution was still possible. On July 26, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey proposed a The assassination of Archduke conference of the major powers. Kaiser Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a Wilhelm, returning from his holiday Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo on June 28, cruise in the North Sea, enthused over 1914 ❮❮ 28–29 was followed by an the humiliation of Serbia and suggested faced the prospect of war spreading Life as usual interlude in which, in public at least, that war was no longer necessary. to engulf them all. The insecurity The gravity of the diplomatic crisis in July 1914 was little happened. and crises of the last decade had masked by summer holidays. Relaxation in the sun The Russian reaction strengthened rival alliances and distracted ordinary German citizens and cloaked the PLANNING FOR WAR The dominant elements within the hardened mutual suspicions. France machinations of military and political leaders. Dominant figures in Austria-Hungary, notably Austro-Hungarian military and and Russia felt that they must stand or Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, political establishment did not want fall together. Neither had the military occasions that, for Germany, it was were determined to use the assassination as a a diplomatic triumph. They wanted a or industrial capability to stand up to better if the war came sooner rather pretext for war against Serbia. They had military victory to dismember Serbia Germany alone. By making no effort to than later. On July 29, he urged received clearance from Germany to take and bolster Hasburg authority. Thus, restrain their ally, the French in effect mobilization to support Austria- whatever action they wanted. It took time for on July 28, Austria-Hungary formally abandoned all influence over the Hungary. German war plans dictated Austria-Hungary to organize its blow against declared war on Serbia. evolving situation. that this had to be directed against both Serbia, so through the first three weeks of July To stand by while Serbia was defeated Russia and France and involve the the crisis appeared to subside. by Austria-Hungary would have been German mobilization invasion of neutral Belgium. a severe humiliation for Russia. It At this point in the crisis, a general war Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, debate BUSINESS AS USUAL would have signaled the end of its was still far from inevitable. Yet leading raged about the practicality of partial Maintaining a facade of normality, Kaiser long-nourished ambition to expand its figures in the German political and mobilization. The Russian foreign Wilhelm left for a summer cruise. influence in the Balkans and toward military ruling circle, including the minister Sergei Sazonov, fearful of Meanwhile, French president Constantinople (modern Istanbul). Chief of the General Staff, Helmuth German intentions, forced through a Raymond Poincaré made a So, on July 28, Russia declared the von Moltke, and Prussian War Minister shift to general mobilization on the prearranged visit to Russia to mobilization of its armed forces in Erich von Falkenhayn, decided the evening of July 30. This played into confirm the long-established those regions facing Austria-Hungary, moment for the long-predicted war the hands of the German hawks, who Franco-Russian but not along its border with Germany. with France and Russia had come. could now present themselves as alliance. The issue of Suddenly the great European powers Moltke had argued on previous responding to Russian aggression. Serbia was mentioned, but without the urgency of a matter that might “The lights are going out all over Europe; threaten war. we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” TSARIST STATE EMBLEM ATTRIBUTED TO SIR EDWARD GREY, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, AUGUST 3, 1914

Naval review In July 1914, Britain’s Royal Navy conducted a test mobilization, followed by a review at Spithead. Submarines were among the ships on show. THE SLIDE TO WAR

AFTER

Through 1914, there were more declarations of war as the conflict took on a global scale. Other countries asserted neutrality.

THE WIDENING WAR Britain and France also brought their empires into the war 118–19 ❯❯. In Britain’s case, this included the British dominions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa—although in South Africa entry into the war was contested by anti-British Boers. Japan, an ally of Britain since 1902, declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914 84–85 ❯❯. The Ottoman Empire entered the war as an ally of Germany at the end of October 74–75 ❯❯.

NEUTRALITY Italy opted to stay neutral. It had been a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria- Hungary since 1882, but with the Italian people in equal measure hostile to Austria-Hungary and hostile to going to war, in August 1914 neutrality seemed the best policy. The United States also declared neutrality 130–31 ❯❯.

PUBLIC UNITY Combatant countries experienced a wave of social solidarity and patriotic fervor at the FRENCH MEDAL outbreak of war 32–33 ❯❯. OF HONOR

Rallying the nation Germania, the personification of the German nation, stands ready for war in Friedrich August von Kaulbach’s 1914 painting of the same name. The German government presented itself as the armed defender of civilization against tsarist Russia in the East.

its commitment to Belgium. Britain was a guarantor of Belgian neutrality under the terms of the 1839 Treaty of London. In order to implement the Schlieffen Plan,the German army had to cross Belgium. On August 2, Germany demanded right of passage for its troops. The Belgians opted to fight. When German troops entered Belgium on On July 31, German chancellor limit the war to Russia, he was told government was horrified by the August 3, Britain responded with Bethmann-Hollweg asked Moltke, that mobilization for a war on two prospect of war. An inner circle of an ultimatum demanding their “Is the fatherland in danger?” Moltke fronts could not be changed. A German ministers had gone much further than withdrawal. A British declaration answered in the affirmative. On declaration of war on France followed was publicly known in committing of war on Germany followed on August 1, Germany declared war on on August 3. British military support to France in August 4. Chancellor Bethmann- Russia. The Kaiser made a last-ditch bid case of war. As fighting broke out on Hollweg, appalled at this turn of for peace by sending a telegram to his Enter the British the continent, they could not carry events, told the departing British cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, but the two For the Germans, a crucial but the rest of the government with them. ambassador, Edward Goschen, that heads of state were not in control. unknown factor in the crisis was the More clear-cut than Britain’s ententes Britain had gone to war “just for a When the Kaiser ordered Moltke to reaction of Britain. The British Liberal with France and Russia, however, was scrap of paper.”

31 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT

extremist in a Parisian café. This act of violence might have been expected Pulling Together on a wider scale—a struggle between those in favor of the war and those against it. Instead, the outbreak of war The outbreak of war in August 1914 produced a remarkable show of solidarity in deeply was followed by an extraordinary divided societies. As the mobilization of mass citizen armies proceeded smoothly, social and political solidarity. revolutionary aspirations and antiwar sentiments drowned in a flood of patriotism. Growing patriotism In every country, the vast majority efore 1914, war was a divisive In Germany, the Social Democrats, parties of all the major European of people were convinced that their issue in Europe. Nationalists and outspoken critics of Prussian countries belonged, believed it could nation’s cause was just, a necessary B imperialists praised war as a militarism, were the largest party in make war impossible through act of defense or the fulfillment of an healthy struggle for survival. Liberals the Reichstag. European socialists took coordinated working-class resistance. obligation. Accepting the need to and socialists denounced it as an the slogan “Workers of the world, On July 31, 1914, France’s most defend their country against tsarist offense against civilized values or unite!” seriously. The Second prominent antiwar socialist, Jean Russia, the most reactionary regime in an evil product of capitalism and International, to which the socialist Jaurès, was killed by a nationalist Europe, the German Social Democrats autocracy. Although newspapers were voted in support of the war. Surprised often aggressively jingoistic, most Called to war and elated, Kaiser Wilhelm stated that ordinary people were not, as their German reservists, some in he “no longer saw parties, but only voting patterns showed. uniform and others still in Germans.” In Austria-Hungary, to A general election in France in spring civilian dress, are mobilized general astonishment, even the 1914 brought a landslide victory for at the start of World War I. empire’s Slav minorities showed initial radicals and socialists opposed to the Part-time, nonprofessional enthusiasm for the war. country’s virulently anti-German troops, reservists were soon In France, squabbling president, Raymond Poincaré. to be thrown into battle. politicians buried their differences in response BEFORE

If the slide to war took Europe by surprise in summer 1914, it was partly because other crises and scandals were holding governments’ attention.

INTERNAL UNREST Russia faced widespread strikes that threatened to develop into revolutionary upheaval. In France, the public was preoccupied with the sensational trial of Henriette Caillaux, wife of a former prime minister. She had shot a French newspaper editor for publishing her love letters. The British were wrestling with a grave crisis over Irish Home Rule 106–07 ❯❯, which threatened civil war between Irish Protestants and Catholics, and an arson campaign by suffragettes seeking voting rights for women.

SUFFRAGETTE BANNER

32 PULLING TOGETHER

AFTER

Unity in support of the war was never complete and did not last. Social conflicts soon resurfaced and opposition mounted.

DISSENTING VOICES Socialists who opposed the war from the start included Kier Hardie in Britain, Karl Liebknecht in Germany, and Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. In 1915, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg formed the revolutionary Spartacus League to oppose the war.

to President Poincaré’s appeal for a Britain was similarly swept by a wave Reviewing the Ulstermen Union sacrée (Sacred Union) in defense of patriotism. This was stimulated by The Ulster Volunteers are reviewed by their founder, of the fatherland. French socialists fear of an increasingly powerful Edward Carson. On the outbreak of war, this Protestant redirected their hostility against Germany and widespread sympathy militia, set up to fight Irish Home Rule, formed the HONORING THE SPARTICUS LEAGUE, BERLIN German militarism. In Russia, widely for the plight of Belgium. Suffragettes basis of the British 36th (Ulster) Division. believed to be on the brink of a negotiated a halt to their violent revolution in the summer of 1914, campaign for women’s voting rights, Rule when it ended. Somewhat a vast crowd assembled with banners with the government freeing reluctantly accepted by the British SUFFRAGETTE (1858–1928) and icons in St. Petersburg to pledge suffragette prisoners in return for Army, Redmond’s Irish Volunteers their support to Tsar Nicholas II. the movement’s support in the war. formed the basis of the 16th (Irish) EMMELINE PANKHURST Division. Some Volunteers refused to follow Redmond and continued Born in Manchester, Emmeline “A fateful hour has fallen their campaign against British rule. Pankhurst was the founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union Conscript armies (WSPU) suffragist movement. From upon Germany… The sword Mobilization of Europe’s conscript 1903, she adopted militant tactics, armies—a complex operation on a vast including attacks on property and is being forced into our hands.” scale—mostly proceeded smoothly. hunger strikes, in pursuit of women’s Millions of men and horses were right to vote. On the outbreak of war in KAISER WILHELM II, IN A SPEECH IN BERLIN, JULY 31, 1914 assembled, equipped, and sent by train 1914, she dedicated her organization to to the front. Before the war, French support of the war effort. She called on British trade unions also rallied behind military authorities had estimated that women to “fight for their country as the call for war, canceling a planned up to 13 percent of those called up they fought for the vote.” Pankhurst series of strikes. might not appear; in fact, only 1.5 felt her stance was vindicated by the percent failed to present themselves as British parliament’s partial extension Irish support instructed. There were antidraft riots of voting rights to women in 1918. Most remarkably, a perilous situation in some Russian towns and country in Ireland was transformed. The war districts, but they were the exception. broke out as Britain was about to grant Nonetheless, the popular image of the Irish a measure of self-government, smiling soldiers leaving for the front known as Home cheered by crowds is Rule. This was The deceptive. There were opposed by the 715,000 number tears, anxiety, and Protestants in Ulster, of horses mobilized by resigned acceptance, who had formed an Germany in 1914. as well as enthusiasm. armed militia, the The large number of Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), to resist those not liable for military service such moves. Pro–Home Rule Catholics who volunteered to fight in August had responded by arming a militia of 1914 is evidence of the war fever their own, the Irish Volunteers. gripping European nations. Britain was The outbreak of the European war the only combatant country that did prevented a civil war in Ireland. UVF not conscript. Responding to an appeal leaders offered the services of their for volunteers launched by the newly militia to the British Army, which appointed Minister for War, Lord readily accepted them. Irish nationalist Kitchener, over 750,000 men had leader John Redmond also supported enlisted by the end of September. Britain in the war, calculating that this World War I was, at least initially, would ensure implementation of Home a people’s war.

33 EYEWITNESS August 1914 The Declaration of War

The outbreak of war in the summer of 1914 was greeted with a range of emotions from the people of Europe. Most imagined it would be a brief conflict, with short, murderous battles and a clear result. Thousands of young men immediately rushed to take part in the glory, while mobilization papers soon took others—fathers, brothers, and sons—away from their worried families.

“Up and down the wide road… crowds paced incessantly by day and night, singing the German war songs: ‘Was blasen die Trompeten?’, which is the finest, ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles,’ which comes next, and ‘Die Wacht am Rhein,’ which was most popular. As I walked to and fro among the patriot crowds, I came to know many of the circling and returning faces by sight… Sometimes a company of infantry, sometimes a squadron of horses went down the road westward, wearing the new grey uniforms in place of the familiar Prussian blue… Sometimes the Kaiser in full uniform swept along in his fine motor, cheered he was certainly… [But] the most mighty storm of cheering was reserved for the crown prince, known to be at variance with his father in longing to test his imagined genius in the field.” MR. H.W. NEVINSON, A CORRESPONDENT FOR THE LONDON DAILY NEWS, IN BERLIN DURING THE FIRST DAYS OF AUGUST 1914

“‘The tocsin!’ cried someone in the field. ‘There’s a fire in the fields!’ Then we saw men running… Soon the field was swept with a wave of agitation. My husband and I stared without understanding before we heard, right in our faces, the news that a neighbor, in his turn, was yelling, ‘War! It’s war!’ Then, we dropped our tools… and joined the crowd, running as fast as our legs could carry us, to the farmhouse. The men usually so calm… were seized with frenzy. Horses entered at quick trot, whipped by their drivers, while the oxen, goaded until they bled, hurried in reluctantly. In this coming and going of wagons and animals, I could hear disjointed phrases: ‘General mobilization…’, ‘What a misfortune, what an awful misfortune!’, ‘I’ll have to leave right away!’, ‘It was all bound to come to this.’” MÉMÉ SANTERRE, A WEAVER FROM A FRENCH VILLAGE NEAR THE BELGIAN BORDER

War is declared News of the much-anticipated announcement of war in August 1914 drew huge crowds onto the streets of Berlin. It was greeted with a mixture of solemnity and excitement, for a swift victory was expected.

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