#16: March-June 1914 - The Entente Part 3

When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

Zack Twamley

19th Century, 20th Century, International Relations, Politics, Thirty Years' War, Korean War, 18th Century, First World War, Phd, 17th Century, European History, History, War

4.8 • 773 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In our final episode looking at the Entente, we bring our story up to the eve of the July Crisis.

How had past lessons influenced the way Russia and France interpreted the world by spring 1914? Was war certain? Had new military reforms so affected the balance of power that war was now inevitable? What did the position of Britain mean for the two allies, and why was London so concerned with losing Russia as a friend? Was Germany's effort to match its rivals really sustainable in the long term?

The British strategy of balancing between the two blocs was coming to an end, but how would the Germans react to news that Russia was now courting Britain into the Entente? Was Britain truly as free as she imagined, or was the cold reality of the bloc system about to dawn in London? Still, few contemporaries believed war would come - had the peacemakers not saved Europe from war in the past? Perhaps they had, but there was no guarantee that a spark in a sensitive region would not transform the situation.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In summer 1914, the world went to war.
0:04.6	Now 110 years later, we go back to those figures, to those debates, to those questions,
0:12.2	in the greatest failure in the history of diplomacy.
0:16.3	I am Dr. Zach Twomley. You're listening to When Diplomacy fails.
0:23.2	And this is the July Crisis. The ring which is forming around the Triple Alliance is getting stronger every year and we are calmly looking on.
1:02.0	I honestly believe that the years 1917 or 1918, which are generally named by the opponents of the Triple Alliance as the date for a military strike,
1:11.5	are not just a product of fantasy.
1:13.6	They could very well have a real basis.
1:15.7	Do we now really wait until the opponents are prepared and ready?
1:19.1	Is it not more logical for the Triple Alliance to abandon all pretense of civility
1:23.2	and to start a war ourselves which will one day be forced upon us while there is still time?
1:28.9	Italian chief of staff, Alberto Polio, in conversation with the German military attache in Rome, May 1914.
1:39.6	In the final months of peace, the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance seemed locked into a
1:45.0	death spiral of endless confrontation and competition.
1:49.0	Yet, a look below these shiny impressions of warm friendship and mutual cooperation reveals
1:55.0	resentments, fear and even mistrust.
1:58.0	Russia had by now learned that its Entente partners were unlikely to support
2:02.7	her in a war for the Straits, but Germany had also learned, or at least it should have learned,
2:07.6	that Russia was stronger and growing in confidence. This shift had crystallized with the departure
2:13.6	of the cautious Russian premier Kakovstov in January 1914, but the mood also shifted
2:19.7	among Russian officials, Sazanov, the foreign minister, chief among them. They were roused by
2:25.8	painful memories of public Russian retreats on the world stage. These included Bosnia in
	...

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