events leading to the outbreak of the great war 1907: “peace resolution” adopted by the...
TRANSCRIPT
EVENTS LEADING TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE GREAT WAR1907: “Peace Resolution” adopted by the Stuttgart Congress of the Second International
1908: Young Turk Revolution (July); Bosnian Annexation Crisis (October-November)
1911: Second Morocco Crisis
1912: First Balkan War (London Ambassadors’ Conference meets in December 1912)
1913: Second Balkan War
December 1913: Liman von Sanders Affair
June 28: 1914: Assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo
Henri Rousseau, “War” (1893/94):The Paris Avant-Garde’s view of the Franco-Russian
Alliance
“The People in Arms”
(SPD, 1896)
“The German loves the uniform,The saber and the gun,The spiked helmet is the norm,That’s how we have our fun.”
“The judge, the prosecutor,The banker’s son and pastor,They all take the floorAs a martial arts master.”
“A Social Democratic New Year’s Greeting”
(January 1, 1900): Tirpitz and Queen
Victoria are chased away by the new
century
PICKETS AT A RUHR COAL MINE, JANUARY 1905:200,000 miners went on strike in 1905; when urged
to attack France, Wilhelm II replied that Social Democracy must be crushed first….
PEACE RESOLUTION adopted in 1907 at the Stuttgart Congress of the Socialist International (after Lenin and Rosa
Luxemburg had called for a general strike)
[The congress calls for stronger international courts of arbitration and worldwide disarmament.] “If a war threatens to break out, it is the duty of the working classes and their parliamentary representatives in the countries involved… to exert every effort in order to prevent the outbreak of war by the means they consider most effective, which naturally vary according to the sharpening of the class struggle and the sharpening of the general political situation. [Bold-face passage added by moderates.]
“In case war should break out anyway, it is their duty to intervene in favor of its speedy termination and with all their powers to utilize the economic and political crisis created by the war to rouse the masses and thereby to hasten the downfall of capitalist class rule.”
Proportion of Germans in
Austria: 33%.
Proportion of Magyars in
Hungary: 54%.
Rival nationalisms in the Balkans
Serbia veered toward a pro-Russian foreign policy as a result of the “May Overthrow” of King
Alexander I in 1903
Greek lithograph to celebrate the proclamation of a new constitution for the Ottoman Empire on July
24, 1908
AUSTRIA’S DUPLICITY IN 1908 ENDED THE CAREER OF THE LAST RUSSIAN WHO SOUGHT
COOPERATION…
Count Aehrenthal, Austrian foreign minister, 1906-12
Alexander Izvolsky, Russian foreign minister,
1906-10
They met secretly
in Moravia on Sep.
16, 1908(see
Norman Rich, pp. 410-14)
“The Boiling Pot”
(Punch, 1908)
The Young Turks displayed special
interest in the employment of German military
trainers(cartoon from
Punch, October 5, 1910)
“France will be able to bring civilization, riches, and peace to Morocco” (French troops occupied Fez and Rabat in May 1911)
SMS Panther, the German gunboat that sailed into Agadir Harbor on July 1,
1911
The Partition
of Morocco in 1912
THE SECOND MOROCCO CRISIS RESULTED IN ANOTHER DIPLOMATIC DEFEAT FOR GERMANY
After the British government publicly threatened to go to war if Germany attacked France, Germany agreed to give France a free hand in Morocco in exchange for the transfer of some jungle land to German Cameroon.During these negotiations, the new Army Chief of Staff, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger, wrote his wife as follows: “If we again slip away from this affair with our tail between our legs, and if we cannot bring ourselves to put forward a determined claim which we are prepared to force through with the sword, I shall despair of the future of the German Empire. I shall then resign. But before handing in my resignation, I shall move to abolish the Army and to place ourselves under Japanese protectorate; we shall then be in a position to make money without interference and develop into ninnies.”
Lord Richard Haldane arrived in Berlin in February 1912
to propose the following bargain (Rich, pp. 420-22):
“1. Fundamental. Naval superiority recognized as essential to Great Britain. Present German naval program and expenditure not to be increased, but if possible retarded and reduced.“2. England sincerely desires not to interfere with German Colonial expansion. To give effect to this she is prepared forthwith to discuss whatever the German aspirations in that direction may be. England will be glad to know that there is a field or special points where she can help Germany.“3. Proposals for reciprocal assurances debarring either power from joining in aggressive designs or combinations against the other would be welcome.”
The Balkan Wars, 1912/13(Norman Rich, p. 424)
The Serb army fought well against the Turks and then defeated Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War
At the London Ambassadors’ Conference (Dec 1912-Jan 1913), the Great Powers agreed to create an independent Albania to limit Serb
expansion
An Alsatian view of German
martial law at the time of the “Zabern Affair”
(1913)
“The Kiss of the Alsatian”
(anonymous colorized postcard from 1914)
Franz Ferdinand and his wife leave for the hospital to visit their wounded aide, Sarajevo, June 28, 1914
The chauffeur made a
wrong turn on the way to the hospital and stopped
to turn around, next
to Gavrilo Princip
THE ARREST OF GAVRILO PRINCIP
Kaiser & King Franz Josef I, born in 1830, reigned 1848-
1916
Leopold von Berchtold: ambassador to Russia,
1907-12, foreign minister 1912-15
Chancellor Theobold von Bethmann Hollweg (1909-
17)Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (1906-
14)
Raymond Poincaré (1860-1934),
leader of the French center-right,
premier in 1912/13, President of France,
1913-1920.In public he declared that his generation
had “no other reason for existence than
the hope of recovering the lost
provinces.”
British Foreign Secretary
Sir Edward Grey (1905-16),
who had a largely free hand in a Liberal cabinet
preoccupied with domestic issues
Tsar Nicholas II (1868-1918;
ruled 1894-1917)
Sergei Sazonov, Russian foreign minister, 1910-
16:
Brother-in-law of Stolypin and committed to alliance with Serbia
President Poincaré confers
with Foreign Minister Sazonov in St. Petersburg,
July 20-24, 1914(no record of
their talks was made)
THE JULY CRISIS OF 1914June 28 Assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand in Sarajevo by Bosnian South Slav nationalists
July 5/6 Hoyos Mission to Berlin; Germany issues a “blank check” to Austria
July 7 In Austrian cabinet, all but Tisza agree that Serbia must be punished militarily
July 23 Austrian ultimatum to Serbia
July 28 Austria declares war on Serbia
July 29 Austria bombards the Serb capital Belgrade
July 30 Russia orders general mobilization
July 31 Germany issues 12-hour ultimatum to Russia
Aug 1 Schlieffen Plan implemented
Aug 2-4 Declarations of War (with Britain last….)
THE CENTRAL POWERS VS. THE ALLIES IN WORLD WAR I
THE BALANCE OF POWER IN 1914