July 1914

‘An imperial power must do something when the heir to its throne is assassinated.’ (1)

Indeed. The chances of Austria-Hungary letting bygones be bygones in the case of the archduke’s assassination were always going to fall on the side of ‘not happening in a million years’. Slav nationalism had been the thorn in her side for years, and with the rest of Europe looking on to see how the empire would handle this particular blow, the time to re-assert power had been forced upon her. It was hoped-and mainly expected-at first that this reassertion of power would be limited to the Balkans, and that the rest of Europe would be able to carry on as normal. As Stefan Zweig wrote in his autobiography, even the people of Vienna showed ‘no special shock or dismay’ (2) at the killing, carrying on with their lives in the assumption that ‘the name and person of Franz Ferdinand would [soon] have disappeared from history for ever’ (3). The majority of politicians carried on with their summer holidays. The public carried on with their lives. It would be weeks before telegrams started flying, before newspapers started suggesting, before everyone started wondering…before realisation dawned that things might not quite be so simple after all.

Exactly one month passed between the Archduke’s assassination and Austro-Hungarian action. Another week still would pass before this action would lead to European war. Countless discussions between countless figures took place in those five weeks-because, believe it or not, getting a whole continent from a state of peace (uneasy as it was) to war is not an easy task. There is no way for me to cover the hundreds of small stories that accompany the overarching tale, and so I will mainly be sticking to a general timeline of events-as always, if you read this and want more, then just about any of the books referenced here or in the link above will have you covered.

Germany 1900-1914

‘…Imperial Germany, the most complex and problematic power of them all’ (1)

None of the great European powers, no matter how much they might have argued otherwise in the years after 1918, was a passive observer in the events that led up to the Great War. Some, though, were more active than others and, again, despite arguments that they might have made to the contrary, Germany were certainly up there as one of the most active. It’s not surprising, really; having only become a unified country in 1871, she had a lot to catch up on if she wanted to be the world power her leaders believed her capable of. Germany’s rise in status between 1871 and 1900 was remarkable enough, but she entered the twentieth century wanting more…and she did so with a ruler who believed entirely in her ability to achieve all that she deserved.

KAISER WILHELM II

‘…it was the misfortune not only of Germany but of the entire world that at this juncture the House of Hohenzollern should have produced, in Wilhelm II, an individual who in his person embodied three qualities that can be said to have characterised the contemporary German ruling elite: archaic militarism, vaulting ambition, and neurotic insecurity.’ (2)