100 Years Ago Today in Europe: Aug 1 1914 Germany Declares War on Russia A few days after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, Austria-Hungarys more powerful ally, Germany goes to war with Serbias big brother Slav nation of Russia. At first glance, none of this makes sense- why do the Kaisers Germany and Tsarist Russia need to duke it out over what should be localized conflict between their respective smaller allies? Alas, this escalation captures the mind set of the times. For the past few days, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas, both cousins and grandsons of the late Queen Victoria of England, exchange telegrams which at least pretend to want to contain the conflict. Russia feels the need to mobilize its troops due to defend its large borders with both Germany and Austria-Hungary. Germany also feels the need to mobilize its army to defend its large border with Russia. Also, Germany concludes that Russia will soon declare war against Austria-Hungary, so they decide to cut to the chase and just declare war against Russia. Lots of blame to go around here. It has been said that Russias mobilization was the point of no return in the escalation of the war. Certainly Serbia deserves a mountain of blame for its role in the June 28 assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Austria could have done to preserve peace before going to war with Serbia. However, Germany, more specifically the Kaiser, rightly deserves blame for both egging on Austria-Hungary during the recent crisis and for its belief that war amongst the great powers of Europe is inevitable and the current time is as good as any. All parties deserve blame for placing too much importance on national pride and fear of being seen as weak. Also, it is a pity that once one country mobilizes, it feels it needs to follow through all the way to war, simply because it has shown its hand with regard to military strategy, which will be evident in the coming days.....
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 09:17:47 +0000
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