The War that Ended Peace
Page 77
As Germany’s defeat became clear in the autumn of 1918, his military made plans for their Kaiser to die heroically in a last charge onto the battlefield. Wilhelm would have none of this and continued to hope, in vain, that he could keep his throne. As the situation deteriorated in Germany, he was finally persuaded on 9 November to go to the Netherlands by special train and Germany became a republic the same day. Wilhelm’s first request when he arrived at the estate of a Dutch aristocrat who had agreed to take him in was ‘a cup of real good English tea’.12 In spite of pressure from the Allies, the Dutch refused to extradite him and he lived out his days in a small palace at Doorn. He kept himself busy by chopping down trees – 20,000 by the end of the 1920s; writing his memoirs, which, not surprisingly, showed no remorse for the war or for the policies leading up to it; reading long extracts in English from P. G. Wodehouse to his staff; fulminating against the Weimar Republic, socialists and Jews; and blaming the German people for letting him down while still believing they would one day call him back. He took note of the rise of Hitler and the Nazis with mixed feelings; he found Hitler lower class and vulgar but agreed with many of his ideas, especially where they meant restoring Germany’s greatness. He warned, though: ‘It will run away with him, as it ran away with me.’13 Wilhelm welcomed the start of the Second World War and the string of early German victories with delight. He died on 4 June 1941, less than three weeks before Hitler invaded Russia, and is buried at Doorn.14
Was he to blame for the Great War? Was Tirpitz? Grey? Moltke? Berchtold? Poincaré? Or was no one to blame? Should we look instead at institutions or ideas? General staffs with too much power, absolutist governments, Social Darwinism, the cult of the offensive, nationalism? There are so many questions and as many answers again. Perhaps the most we can hope for is to understand as best we can those individuals, who had to make the choices between war and peace, and their strengths and weaknesses, their loves, hatreds and biases. To do that we must also understand their world, with its assumptions. We must remember, as the decision-makers did, what had happened before that last crisis of 1914 and what they had learned from the Moroccan crises, the Bosnian one, or the events of the First Balkan Wars. Europe’s very success in surviving those earlier crises paradoxically led to a dangerous complacency in the summer of 1914 that, yet again, solutions would be found at the last moment and the peace would be maintained. And if we want to point fingers from the twenty-first century we can accuse those who took Europe into war of two things. First, a failure of imagination in not seeing how destructive such a conflict would be and second, their lack of courage to stand up to those who said there was no choice left but to go war. There are always choices.
Acknowledgements
Yet again I have been extremely fortunate in the help I have had from many people in the writing of this book. They deserve credit for what is good about it and I will take responsibility for its shortcomings.
I start, as I should, with my wonderful research assistants who have been indefatigable, highly organised and helpful to the point where I see them as essential collaborators. Dawn Berry, Yulia Naumova, Rebecca Snow, Katharina Uhl, and Troy Vettese unearthed and analysed wonderful materials in several languages and showed an unerring instinct for what was important and interesting. In the last stages, Dawn stepped in to read through the manuscript, sort out the endnotes and wrestle my bibliography into shape. In Toronto, Mischa Kaplan also contributed useful work.
Over the past few years I have had the great pleasure and benefit of being part of Oxford and of St Antony’s College. While there have been times when I have felt like the character in the Monty Python sketch who complained loudly that his brain hurt, I have never ceased to be amazed and deeply grateful for the extraordinary intellectual and social life here. I have learned much and keep learning from my colleagues and students. I have benefited greatly too from being able to use the resources of the Bodleian and the College Library.
The Governing Body of St Antony’s College generously gave me a leave of absence for the academic year 2012–13 and I owe a particular thanks to Professor Rosemary Foot, who selflessly took on the role of Acting Warden, which, to no one’s surprise, she did with her customary integrity and efficiency. I am also grateful to my colleagues who kept the considerable work involved in the administration of the College flowing smoothly in my absence. They include the Sub Warden, Alex Pravda, the Estates Bursars, Alan Taylor and his successor Kirsten Gill-ingham, the Domestic Bursar, Peter Robinson, the Development Director, Ranjit Majumdar, the Registrar, Margaret Couling, my Personal Assistant Penny Cooke, and their colleagues.
While I have been in Oxford I have also remained part of another great institution, the University of Toronto and I have continued to benefit from contact with my colleagues and students there and by being able to use its excellent library. I am particularly grateful to the Munk Centre of Global Affairs, its founder Peter Munk and its Director Janice Stein, for giving me a fellowship there for the year that I was in Toronto writing this book and who made me part of its lively and stimulating academic community.
Five years ago I did not intend to write a book on the outbreak of the Great War; the path had been too well-trodden and I had other projects underway. When Andrew Franklin of Profile Books put the idea to me, I resisted – and then found that I spent a summer thinking about it. So I owe him perhaps a small grudge but a much bigger thanks for getting me involved in an enthralling subject. Without him and his wonderful team at Profile – including Penny Daniel, Daniel Crewe and the late and much-missed Peter Carson – this book could not have taken shape. And I owe an equal debt of gratitude to my publishers in the United States at Random House and in Canada at Penguin. Kate Medina in New York and Diane Turbide in Toronto are model publishers whose constructive comments and suggestions have made this book much better than it would have been. Cecilia Mackay is an outstanding picture researcher and Trevor Horwood is her equal as a copy-editor. I am also lucky to have had as cheerleaders on what has sometimes seemed like a long journey Caroline Dawnay, agent and friend, and, in Canada, the endlessly enthusiastic Michael Levine.
I would like to thank the curators of the Bodleian Library and Sir Brian Crowe for permission to quote from the Eyre Crowe papers. Thanks too to Professor Laird Easton and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group for permission to use his translations of Count Harry Kessler’s diaries. Extracts from Queen Victoria’s journals were used by kind permission of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Henry Kissinger, Alistair Horne, Norman Davies, Michael Howard, Eugene Rogan, Avi Shlaim, Paul Betts, Alan Alexandroff, Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann and Liaquat Ahamed all kindly took the time from their own work to discuss my ideas with me and give their advice. Many friends and family have offered encouragement as well as hot meals throughout, including Thomas Barcsay, David Blewett, Robert Bothwell, Gwyneth Daniel, Arthur Sheps, and Andrew Watson. I am always grateful that I have a large and friendly family who kept an eye on me and prevented me from becoming a complete hermit living only with the ghosts of Austrian archdukes, Russian counts, German generals or British Cabinet ministers. Ann MacMillan and Peter Snow, Thomas and Catharina MacMillan, Margot Finley and Daniel Snow also read parts of the manuscript and, as they always do, made invaluable comments and criticisms. My best and most painstaking reader is my mother Eluned MacMillan who, yet again, read every word. Although it pains her to criticise her children, she was both honest and very helpful. My deepest thanks to you all.
Notes
Abbreviations: BD – Gooch, G. P. and Temperley, H., eds., British Documents on the Origins of the War; DDF – France. Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Documents diplomatiques français, 1871–1914, 3rd series; RA – Royal Archives, Windsor Castle, available at http://www.royal.gov.uk/. Full entries for these and all other sources will be found in the Bibliography.
Introduction: War or Peace?
1. Kramer, Dynamic of Destruction, 8–9. 2. New York Times, 29 September 1914. 3. Kr
amer, Dynamic of Destruction, 30. 4. Lloyd George, War Memoirs, vol. I, 52.
1 Europe in 1900
1. All references to Hachette’s guide to the Exposition, Paris Exposition, 1900: guide pratique du visiteur de Paris et de l’exposition, are taken from the online version at http://archive.org/details/parisexpositionoopari 2. The Times, 24 May 1900. 3. New York Observer and Chronicle, 25 October 1900. 4. The Times, 18 April 1900. 5. Lieven, The Aristocracy in Europe, 1815–1914, 7. 6. Zweig, The World of Yesterday, 215. 7. Addison and O’Grady, Diary of a European Tour, 1900, 30. 8. Zweig, The World of Yesterday, 26. 9. Dowler, Russia in 1913, ch. 1, passim. 10. Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, ch. 4, passim. 11. Tylor, Primitive Culture, 2. 12. Blom, The Vertigo Years, 8. 13. New York Observer and Chronicle, 27 December 1900. 14. New York Observer and Chronicle, 11 October 1900. 15. Herring, From Colony to Superpower, 345. 16. Cronin, Paris on the Eve, 37. 17. Zweig, The World of Yesterday, 216. 18. Weber, France: Fin de Siècle, 230–31. 19. Blom, The Vertigo Years, 265–8. 20. New York Observer and Chronicle, 18 October 1900. 21. Kessler, Journey to the Abyss, 81. 22. Hewitson, ‘Germany and France’, 580. 23. Weber, France: Fin de Siècle, 243–4. 24. Cronin, Paris on the Eve, 36. 25. Weber, France: Fin de Siècle, 243. 26. Andrew, Théophile Delcassé, 136; New York Observer and Chronicle, 1 November 1900. 27. Ridley, Bertie, 338.
2 Great Britain and Splendid Isolation
1. New York Times, 24 June 1897; Spectator, 26 June 1897. 2. RA VIC/MAIN/QVJ (W) 22 June 1897 (Princess Beatrice’s copies). 3. Massie, Dreadnought, xviii. 4. Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 200, 74. 5. Massie, Dreadnought, xx. 6. Roberts, Salisbury, 664–5; Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 184–5; Massie, Dreadnought, xviii–xx. 7. Kipling and Pinney, The Letters of Rudyard Kipling, vol. II, 303. 8. Massie, Dreadnought, xxx; Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 191–2; Roberts, Salisbury, 661. 9. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 9–11; Lieven, The Aristocracy in Europe, 1815–1914, 205; Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, 159. 10. Roberts, Salisbury, 8–12, 28. 11. Tuchman, The Proud Tower, 9. 12. Roberts, Salisbury, 714–15; Tuchman, The Proud Tower, 6. 13. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, 176. 14. Roberts, Salisbury, 111. 15. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, 3–4, 6, 8. 16. Gilmour, Curzon, 125. 17. Massie, Dreadnought, 195. 18. Roberts, Salisbury, 6. 19. Ibid., 34. 20. Bánffy, They Were Divided, Kindle version, loc. 6086. 21. Cannadine, The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, 36–9. 22. Hamilton, Parliamentary Reminiscences and Reflections, 1886–1906, 253. 23. Roberts, Salisbury, 624, 651. 24. Ibid., 626. 25. Ibid., 65. 26. Ibid., 647; Gilmour, Curzon, 125. 27. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, 247. 28. Roberts, Salisbury, 44. 29. Ibid., 46–50. 30. Ibid., 628. 31. Howard, ‘The Policy of Isolation’, 82. 32. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, 90. 33. Ibid. 34. Howard, ‘The Policy of Isolation’, 81. 35. Ibid., 79–80. 36. Beesly, Queen Elizabeth, 107. 37. Burrows, The History of the Foreign Policy of Great Britain, 34; Otte, ‘Almost a Law of Nature?’, 75–6. 38. Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 179. 39. Steiner and Neilson, Britain and the Origins, 19. 40. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 229. 41. Roberts, Salisbury, 495–6. 42. Ibid., 692. 43. Ibid., 615–16; Herring, From Colony to Superpower, 307–8. 44. Cecil, Life of Robert, Marquis of Salisbury, 3, 218. 45. Gilmour, Curzon, 128. 46. Mansergh, The Commonwealth Experience, vol. II, 27. 47. Tuchman, The Proud Tower, 46–7. 48. Ibid., 56. 49. Spender, The Public Life, 81. 50. Massie, Dreadnought, 233–9. 51. Spender, The Public Life, 89. 52. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 230–32. 53. Roberts, Salisbury, 748. 54. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 396. 55. Neilson, ‘The Anglo-Japanese Alliance’, 52. 56. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 230–31; Roberts, Salisbury, 745. 57. Bond, The Victorian Army and the Staff College, 191. 58. Taylor, The Struggle for Mastery in Europe, 376. 59. Ibid., 395. 60. Massie, Dreadnought, 306. 61. Neilson, ‘The Anglo-Japanese Alliance’, 49. 62. Steiner and Neilson, Britain and the Origins, 29. 63. Massie, Dreadnought, 308; Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 235–6; Eckardstein and Young, Ten Years at the Court of St. James, 227. 64. Nish, ‘Origins of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance’, 12. 65. Ibid., 13. 66. The Times, 4 January 1902. 67. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 240.
3 Wilhelm II and Germany
1. Benson and Esher, Letters: A Selection from Her Majesty’s Correspondence, vol. III, 414. 2. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 119. 3. Ibid., 104. 4. The Times, 4 January 1896. 5. Roberts, Salisbury, 624. 6. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 195. 7. Steiner and Neilson, Britain and the Origins, 21. 8. Ibid., 195. 9. Kennedy, ‘German World Policy’, 614. 10. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 234. 11. Massie, Dreadnought, 358. 12. Ibid., 259. 13. Kröger, ‘Imperial Germany and the Boer War’, 38. 14. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 222–3. 15. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 246–7. 16. Ibid., ch. 14. 17. Steiner and Neilson, Britain and the Origins, 22. 18. Eckardstein and Young, Ten Years at the Court of St. James, 112. 19. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 238. 20. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 231. 21. Carter, The Three Emperors, 267–71; The Times, 6 February 1901. 22. Lerchenfeld-Koefering, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65, 58, 34. 23. Beyens, Germany before the War, 14–15. 24. Ibid., 14. 25. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 82, 138–9. 26. Hopman, Das ereignisreiche Leben, 125. 27. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 17. 28. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 162. 29. Lerchenfeld-Koefering, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 11. 30. Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 58–9. 31. Hopman, Das ereignisreiche Leben, 140. 32. Epkenhans, ‘Wilhelm II and “His” Navy’, 12. 33. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 143, 142. 34. Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 212. 35. Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 36. 36. Lerchenfeld-Koefering, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 33. 37. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 82, 139, 148; Röhl, The Kaiser and His Court, 15–16. 38. Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 69. 39. Röhl, The Kaiser and His Court, 15–16; Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 148. 40. Beyens, Germany before the War, 58–9. 41. Kessler, Journey to the Abyss, 199. 42. Röhl, The Kaiser and His Court, 13. 43. Wilhelm II, Reden des Kaisers, 32–3. 44. Lerchenfeld-Koefering, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 19. 45. Wilhelm II, Reden des Kaisers, 44. 46. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 226–7. 47. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 15–16. 48. Schoen, Memoirs of an Ambassador, 138. 49. Röhl, The Kaiser and His Court, 23–4. 50. Ibid., 25–6; Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 73–4. 51. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 75–6. 52. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 1–2, 16–18. 53. Carter, The Three Emperors, 22. 54. ZedlitzTrützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 233. 55. Bülow, Memoirs of Prince von Bulow, vol. II, 22. 56. See, for example, Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 184, 235, 272. 57. Craig, Germany, 1866–1945, ch. 2; Clark, Iron Kingdom, 558–62. 58. Wilhelm II, Reden des Kaisers, 51. 59. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 126. 60. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 31–3. 61. Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, 23. 62. Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 37–8, 67; Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 120. 63. Fesser, Reichskanzler Fürst von Bülow, 46–7. 64. Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 93. 65. Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 233. 66. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 119. 67. Wilhelm II, Reden des Kaisers, 56. 68. Holstein et al., The Holstein Papers, 175. 69. Clark, Iron Kingdom, 564. 70. Craig, Germany, 1866–1945, 228; Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 211–12. 71. Lerchenfeld-Koefering, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 23. 72. Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, 17.
4 Weltpolitik: Germany’s Place on the World Stage
1. Hull, The Entourage of Kaiser Wilhelm II, 31. 2. Langsam, ‘Nationalism and History’, 242–3. 3. Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, 18. 4. Epkenhans, ‘Wilhelm II and “His” Navy’, 15. 5. Ibid., 16. 6. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 232. 7. Craig, Germany, 1866–1945, 244–5. 8. Ibid., 246. 9. Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 282. 10. Lerman, The Chancellor as Courtier, 1. 11. Cecil,
German Diplomatic Service, 281–2. 12. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 201. 13. Lerman, The Chancellor as Courtier, 86–90. 14. Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 283. 15. Berghahn, ‘War Preparations and National Identity’, 315. 16. Kennedy, ‘German World Policy’, 617. 17. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 226. 18. Ibid., 235. 19. Massie, Dreadnought, 126. 20. Eckardstein and Young, Ten Years at the Court of St. James, 33. 21. Massie, Dreadnought, 129–30; Cecil, German Diplomatic Service, 294–5. 22. Massie, Dreadnought, 124; Craig, Germany, 1866–1945, 127. 23. Hewitson, Germany and the Causes, 146–7. 24. Ibid., 147. 25. Craig, Germany, 1866–1945, 249. 26. Winzen, ‘Prince Bulow’s Weltmachtpolitik’, 227–8. 27. Bülow, Memoirs of Prince von Bulow, vol. III, 100. 28. Winzen, ‘Treitschke’s Influence’, 155. 29. Cecil, Wilhelm II, 51. 30. Epkenhans, ‘Wilhelm II and “His” Navy’, 17. 31. Winzen, ‘Treitschke’s Influence’, 160–61. 32. Wilson, The Policy of the Entente, 4. 33. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 209. 34. Epkenhans, ‘Wilhelm II and “His” Navy’, 13. 35. Ritter, The Sword and the Sceptre, 110. 36. Kennedy, ‘German World Policy’, 622. 37. McMeekin, The Berlin–Baghdad Express, 14. 38. Cecil, Albert Ballin, 152–3. 39. Winzen, ‘Treitschke’s Influence’, 159. 40. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 241. 41. Carter, The Three Emperors, 105. 42. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 140. 43. Ibid., 84. 44. Pless and Chapman-Huston, Daisy, Princess of Pless, 263–4. 45. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 180. 46. Eckardstein and Young, Ten Years at the Court of St. James, 55. 47. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 265. 48. Massie, Dreadnought, 106. 49. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 296. 50. Ibid., 265. 51. Roberts, Salisbury, 485–6. 52. Massie, Dreadnought, 107. 53. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 184. 54. Tuchman, The Proud Tower, 131–4. 55. Ibid., 132. 56. Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 28. 57. Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 205–6. 58. Clark, Kaiser Wilhelm II, 184. 59. Bülow, Memoirs of Prince von Bulow, vol. II, 36–7. 60. Epkenhans, Tirpitz, Kindle version, loc. 345. 61. Ibid., loc. 375–6. 62. Ibid., loc. 391–5. 63. Beyens, Germany before the War, 129. 64. Massie, Dreadnought, 165. 65. Steinberg, Yesterday’s Deterrent, 69. 66. Epkenhans, Tirpitz, Kindle version, loc. 93–4. 67. Balfour, The Kaiser and His Times, 203. 68. Epkenhans, Tirpitz, Kindle version, loc. 383–7. 69. Ibid., loc. 427–31. 70. Herwig, ‘From Tirpitz Plan to Schlieffen Plan’, 53–5. 71. Epkenhans, Tirpitz, Kindle version, loc. 592–5; Lambi, The Navy and German Power Politics, 147. 72. Kennedy, Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, 239. 73. Steinberg, ‘The Copenhagen Complex’, passim. 74. Tirpitz, Politische Dokumente, vol. I, 1. 75. Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, 35. 76. Epkenhans, Tirpitz, Kindle version, loc. 598–601. 77. Ibid., loc. 438–43, 465–77; Herwig, ‘Luxury’ Fleet, 35; Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 37–43. 78. Epkenhans, Tirpitz, Kindle version, loc. 479–83. 79. Ibid., loc. 529–48. 80. Zedlitz-Trützschler, Twelve Years at the Imperial German Court, 183–4. 81. Kennedy, ‘German World Policy’, 620. 82. Fesser, Der Traum vom Platz, 184.