Part 1—The First World War—Was It the Prelude to Man’s Final Era?
This is the first of three articles to appear in successive issues.
“STRAIGHT through to Paris” boasted the handwritten slogan scrawled on the side of the railroad coach. The train sped toward the war front, groaning under its load of exuberant German soldiers. Speedy victory—for the Kaiser and for the fatherland—seemed inevitable! It was August 1914.
A wild euphoria seized Germany when Kaiser Wilhelm II declared from his palace balcony: “There are no more parties or confessions; I see only Germans; today all of us are brothers, nothing more. If our neighbor does not will it otherwise, if he begrudges us peace, then I hope to God that our reliable German sword may emerge from this difficult fight victoriously.” Within days, 1,200,000 German men answered this call to arms. “Peace was so dull, so very dull!” wrote one volunteer.
Few, however, foresaw the horrors of modern war. Still fewer foresaw that war would be, not a speedy contest of military prowess, but, rather, a prolonged nightmare of attrition, exhaustion and starvation. Before war’s sword was sheathed, the fields of battle would be saturated with the blood of millions. National boundaries would be altered beyond recognition. And proud nations would choke on the humiliating cup of defeat.
Statesmen and scholars would lavish their well-turned phrases upon the war, calling it ‘a turning point in history,’ ‘the war to end all wars.’ Volumes would be written about it. Debates, almost as fierce as the fighting in the trenches, would rage over who was to blame for it. And frightened men, groping for reassurance, would hungrily embrace predictions of peace. The predictions would fail, however, as world war struck again, leaving as its legacy the prospect of nuclear annihilation.
Though nearly 70 years removed from the first world war’s brutal start, we dare not forget it. National rivalries and tensions now threaten the very survival of humanity. Could it be that this first of world wars was just a rehearsal for thermonuclear disaster—a prelude to man’s final era? Or has man learned from his mistakes? Perhaps we can gain some satisfactory answers by exploring how this war was allowed to happen.
Origins of a Global War
The seeds of the so-called Great War were sown in the 1800’s. By that era’s end, imperialist nations had so thoroughly parceled out the world, there was little left to conquer. ‘Expansion is necessary for our survival and prosperity,’ claimed the conquerors. But imperialism also bred tension. And when Germany, in 1871, consolidated its political and military power by forming the second German Reich, European tensions multiplied. Faced with a united front, Germany’s rivals felt obliged to arm themselves so as to maintain a balance of power. The bitter arms race that ensued, however, had the momentum of the industrial revolution behind it. New technologies spawned new instruments of terror that would forever change the nature of war.
The turn of the century also saw the founding of national movements for self-rule. Ethnic groups, such as the French in German-controlled Alsace-Lorraine and the Yugoslavs scattered throughout Austria-Hungary and Serbia, felt trapped by national boundaries that paid no respect to language or culture. Their restless desire for unity and political freedom was a constant source of friction between them and their governments.
Yet another factor was the increasingly popular theory of evolution. Some saw in the notion of natural selection (survival of the fittest) a way to explain political conflicts. The book Juli 1914 by German historian Imanuel Geiss shows the results of such thinking: “The idea, nourished by leading German historians, had become firmly entrenched in German minds that . . . Germany had the choice of either becoming stagnant, thus losing its position as a major European state, or becoming a world power of equal standing itself. The background [for this view] was provided in a biological socialistic Darwinism, especially virulent in Germany, that rejected a rational and peaceful world order as being impossible and utopian, and that replaced it with a struggle of each against all.” (Italics ours.) This warped ideology furthered the spirit that war was inevitable.
The Prewar Lineup
Prior to the Great War the nations unwittingly took yet another step toward war—they scrambled to establish military alliances. The German Reich formed an alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879, which in 1882 it extended to include Italy. It was called the Triple Alliance. But German diplomats failed to reach any such agreement with England, Russia or France. Faced with an aspiring Germany, these nations were forced to put aside their differences and pursue a common goal: maintaining their own positions of power.
England, boasting of supremacy on the seas, especially felt threatened by Germany’s rapid naval expansion. So in 1904 Britain reached an understanding with France formulated in the Entente Cordiale. Three years later it was extended, in the Triple Entente, to include Russia, which in 1894 had already allied itself with France.
Thus, without a single shot’s having been fired, the belligerents were irrevocably lined up against one another. Had these alliances not been made, war might at least have been delayed by prolonged negotiations. But as there was now little question of who supported whom, such negotiations would prove hopelessly futile. Europe’s patchwork of alliances, supposedly established to extinguish the threat of war, instead made that continent a tinderbox. And lurking in secret, ready to hasten the rush to battle, was Germany’s “foolproof” war plan. With it, victory seemed certain—if the Germans struck first.
War’s Unexpected Trigger
On June 28, 1914, Crown Prince Francis Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary and his wife, Sophie, were murdered while on a state visit to Sarajevo. Ferdinand, who in life played but a minor role in history, became in death the trigger of a global holocaust. His assassin? A man of Serbian blood. Austria-Hungary angrily blamed Serbia.
But why such hostility toward this tiny country? For one thing, Serbia was flush with the success of recent military and economic victories. Austria-Hungary’s leaders feared this could inspire the Yugoslavs, still under Austria-Hungary’s rule, to fight for unity with their kinsmen in Serbia. The specter of intervention by Serbia’s powerful ally Russia, too, was most threatening to Austria-Hungary.
The murder of Ferdinand by a Serbian thus gave Austria-Hungary a chance to humble Serbia under the guise of moral outrage. Of course, even the strongest advocates of war realized the need for German support if such a war was to be won. So on July 5, 1914, Kaiser Wilhelm II hastily promised that “Germany in its customary bond of loyalty” would back Austria-Hungary if Russia intervened. This decision proved to have far-reaching consequences.
Though at first it seemed possible that such a war could be localized, it soon became sadly apparent that the struggle would escalate at least into a continental war. German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg realized as early as July 7 that “an action against Serbia can lead to world war.” (Italics ours.) Germany, however, was willing to take this risk.
With a “blank check” of German support in hand, Austria-Hungary gave Serbia, on July 23, a devastating ultimatum, with an almost impossible to meet 48-hour deadline. Austria-Hungary prepared for war. But to her surprise Serbia removed any real reason for war by accepting practically all the harsh demands! The nations’ leaders, however, had lost control of events. War had gained a momentum of its own. Committed to her war plans, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia anyway. Russia responded by mobilizing her troops. German military advisers pressured government leaders to act quickly—their war plan demanded it! Inept and indecisive leaders on both sides responded by making blunder after incredible blunder.
The war’s advance thus became irresistible, as unstoppable as that train rushing German troops to the front.
Part II, in our next issue, will discuss the war’s outcome.
[Blurb on page 12]
Kaiser Wilhelm had little difficulty in stirring up support for a war destined to become the first of its kind—a world war
[Blurb on page 13]
World War I was “a war no one wanted and a catastrophe that no one could have imagined.”—Henry Kissinger, Years of Upheaval
[Box on page 12]
The Causes of the Great War
● Political Alliances
● Imperialism
● Industrialization
● National Movements for Self-Rule
● Socialistic Darwinism
[Map on page 13]
(For fully formatted text, see publication)
Central European Powers in 1914
GERMAN EMPIRE
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
ENGLAND
NORTH SEA
BALTIC SEA
RUSSIA
POLAND
RUMANIA
BLACK SEA
SERBIA
ADRIATIC SEA
ITALY
SWITZ.
FRANCE
MEDITERRANEAN SEA
LUX.
BEL.
THE NETHERLANDS