When it comes down to the cause of the cost of countless lives, snuffed out, not just in the mud and quagmire, but the deserts and jungles too, what were we dealing with? German aggression and expansionism, French power panic or British Imperial paranoia? Even putting it down to those three positions is far too simplistic.
Especially now, with Mr. Ventriloquist Dummy Gove, the whirlwind seems to be coming full circle, what with his own personally crafted curriculum pushing only the most jingoistic take on history. Likely, school kids will be taught about the evil jackbooted German goose stepping across Europe, bloodthirsty and hungry for space. Only, it’s important not to mix up the First and Second World Wars, which is exactly what Gove’s take on history does.
Here are some lesser known facts that help debunk the over simplistic narratives our school will soon be forced to teach us about the First World War. Our enemies weren’t pantomime villains and we weren’t pure and angelic; there was a hell of a lot of grey, and that wasn’t just the uniforms...
A family affair
In the early 1900’s, Europe wasn’t the forward thinking bastion of social democracies is it today, it was still very much the dominion of kings and queens. Of the major combatants, only France was a republican democracy. Britain was a constitutional monarchy, as it is today – though suffrage was hardly universal back then – and although he had very little official power, King George V was the head of the British state.
Britain was, in fact, the central seat of almost all European monarchies. Almost every country had a link to Queen Victoria, or one of her descendants on the throne. King George V was Victoria’s grandson, while Russia, Britain and Frances ally, was also still an absolutist monarchy (where a monarch still held ultimate power) under Tsar Nicolas II, who was George’s cousin and so one of Victoria’s nephews. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany was too a cousin of both George and Nicolas, and who too ruled his country with absolutist authority.
It’s said that Wilhelm was not a favourite of Victoria and her brood, and Victoria’s famed ability to shun members of her family who didn’t meet her expectations no doubt played a part in the pre-war political destabilisation that finally lead to the Great War (as well as, in part at least, reducing the cost in life of the Great War to result of a family feud – a favourite reason for war in centuries past). Of course, there was ill feeling in the family that went much further than Victoria’s simple tutting, specifically that of Alexandra of Denmark, George’s mother.
Denmark’s disdain
Germany was a new country, having only unified officially in 1871. Prior to this, it was a number of small principalities and grand duchies, loosely associated and mainly independent. The process of unification was undertaken by the Kingdom of Prussia, long the most powerful (or rather, most aggressive) of the German kingdoms.
Inevitably, there were countless conflicts in the lead up to final unification. One such tussle was over the area of Schleswig-Holstein, the northern-most area of Germany. It had come to fall under Danish jurisdiction, being something of a vassal or satellite state, but seeing that the area, especially Holstein, contain a great number of Germans, Prussia believed that the land and its populous should be part of their new united Germany. Seeing that the Schleswig area contained mainly Danes, Denmark did not.
After the Dane’s defeat in second Schleswig War, and little political sympathy from the governments of what would become the Entente Powers, the land was ceded in its entirety to Prussia and ultimately to Germany – a humiliating defeat.
This was something Alexandra never forgot nor forgave, and she rarely missed an opportunity to voice the mistrust that this installed in her toward both Germany and the Kaiser at all the family gatherings. It’s hard to believe that this had no effect on the wrangling of political deals and brokerages in the years leading up to the war.
German Labour Government
It’s surprising, but despite the Kaiser ruling as an absolutist monarch, Germans were able to vote. Granted, the power the government held was minimal, but it did, along with the constitution, point toward the inevitability of reform, were peace to remain. Of course, this was quashed pretty swiftly with the growing international tensions and, finally and completely, with the outbreak of war.
In fact, suffrage was extended to far more people in Germany than in Britain, even if the vote did mean less.
Kaiser and Empire
Although it’s constantly said that Kaiser Wilhelm was jealous of Britain’s Empire, there are quite a few that say he spoke contemptuously of overseas empires and, as he referred to it, ‘land-grabbing’. It’s plain to see that Germany did little to defend its overseas colonies when war did finally break out, suggesting that it held little importance to them, not even asking their Turkish allies to help.
Britain’s economy relied on its empire, and its safety remained a sensitive and contentious issue, beyond the First World War and up until its final downfall after World War II. It’s quite possible this was more a British hang up than German.
We not only wanted to maintain our empire, but we were also looking to expand. You only need to see how we screwed Prince Faisal, and by extension, T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), in the Middle East after the war.
German Naval Power Panic
This is kind of a continuation of the point before. In order to control the empire, Britain had to control the seas, and with German industrialisation, Britain felt its long domination over the ocean was coming under threat. While naval expansion started as an exercise in of simple prestige for Germany, it was a much bigger issue to Britain. Forming the Entente with France and Russia was undoubtedly a tactic to contain German naval power.
The German-Russian Alliance
OK, this never happened, but it could have. Russia, as part of the Entente, had thrown its lot in with France, a republic and a democracy. At home, the Tsar was facing increasing pressure for liberalising reform amongst his populace. In no way was he ready to concede and let go of any of his power. In the Kaiser, he found something of a kindred spirit – politically speaking, anyway.
Meeting in secret in the middle of the sea on their private steam yachts, the two signed Bjorko Treaty, an alliance that tied Russia with Germany both politically and militarily.
Had this been ratified, it would no doubt have severely disrupted the balance of power in Europe. It would have nullified the alliance with France, would have destabilised any future alliance with Britain, and would have created a terrifying power block, stretching from Alsace-Lorraine all the way to the tip of Alaska. History would no doubt have changed substantially.
Funnily enough, it was their respective governments that put the kibosh on this, the people the two emperors had momentarily united over to deny any further power. Russia stuck to its alliance with France, while Germany would remain by the side of Austria. The treaty would be torn to shreds as if it had never happened, emperors overruled by their council – a sure sign of where Europe was soon to head.
Economics and War Capacity
Although Germany had industrialised faster than any other European nation, and was running production far more efficiently than the rest too, they had neither the raw materials needed, nor the capacity, to fight a prolonged war. The Kaiser knew this, the generals knew this and the government knew this. If war were to break out, it would need a lightning victory.
The Schlieffen Plan was supposed to offer just that, but it was also an incredible gamble. No one believed its success was a certainty and no one really wanted to put this into plan unless absolutely necessary.
Franz Ferdinand: A Liberalising Force
There’s no doubt that the Hapsburg dynasty that had ruled the Austro-Hungarian Empire for centuries were tyrannical loons. They ruled over the lands of countless different cultures and ethnicities, controlled them without any hint of sensitivity and crushed any rumbling of self-determination without mercy. However, according to many historians, this was about to change.
Franz Ferdinand was next in line to take the throne after his particularly reactionary uncle, Franz Joseph. Had he taken the throne, it’s believed he would have enacted extensive reform of the empire. One major policy he talked of was federalisation, giving limited autonomy to different areas, requiring them to turn Vienna for only certain policy, such as foreign affairs.
Unfortunately, this would never come to pass and his assassination would be the spark to ignite the entire war.
Kingdom of Serbia Sponsored the Assassination
On 28th June 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated during a visit to Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a guerrilla and member of the Black Hand. Popular myth sees this organisation as something of a freedom fighting group, when in actuality it was run officially by the Kingdom of Serbia and the Serbian military. In essence, it was for the time, a fairly blatant act of war by one country on another.
The declaration of war and attack was more a case of retaliation and retribution than aggression, and it’s something that neither Britain nor France would have been above at the time.
Franco-Prussian War
Known in France as the War of 1870, this came off the back of a bunch tensions that arose from the process of German Unification. France were worried about the potential disruption in the balance of power on the continent (a concern that would rear its ugly head once again in the lead up to 1914) and wanted territory on the left bank of the Rhine to help secure its position. Germany refused and France duly declared war. It didn’t go well.
Germany mobilised much quicker than France could and, after a swift string of victories, managed to march on Paris and beyond. The Treaty of Frankfurt in 1871 signalled Frances defeat and imposed harsh reparations on France, though not as harsh as those of the Treaty of Versailles, they occupied most of the captured land until the reparations could be paid. It also brought about the official unification of Germany.
Pride is a major foible of nations; this damaged pride carried itself all the way to the Great War and can’t be ignored as at least part of the reason for the outbreak of hostilities in 1914.
