#37: 29 July 1914 III - First Contact, Second Thoughts

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

🗓️ 25 November 2024

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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Austria's bombardment of Belgrade represented the first shots of the First World War, though contemporaries could not have known this yet - they were more focused on what Russia was doing.

As news of Russia's partial mobilisation filtered through Europe, it caused a major crisis in the German Foreign Office. For Jagow, Germany's Foreign Minister and director of its policy towards Austria since the beginning, Russia's preparations meant nothing less than the complete collapse of his entire world view.

If Russia would not stand back and permit Austrian justice, then surely that meant war was inevitable?

Desperate to avoid the European war he feared, Jagow went to great lengths to work out a solution. He believed he found it in the partnership with Bethmann Hollweg, the Chancellor he had spent several weeks undermining. If these two German statesmen could put their heads together, and wrest concessions or at least some answers out of Vienna, perhaps the ruin of their country could be avoided. Troubling signals suggested it would not be easy, yet having led Germany to this point, neither man had much choice but to try.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, history friend. This is just a super quick announcement following up from that previous
0:04.8	teaser episode of The Age of Bismarck to let you know that for the next couple of weeks,
0:09.8	you can get 50% off your first month on Patreon and access a whole load of extra audio content
0:16.5	and goodies, including scripts for episodes and ad-free episodes too.
0:21.6	So yeah, no more of these announcements or any other ads interrupting your listening pleasure.
0:27.2	If you would like to get 50% off the $5 history friend membership and begin listening to the age of Bismarck,
0:35.4	then use the code WF24 at checkout to get 50% of your first month and begin your exploration of When Diplomacy Fells's vaunted extra feed.
0:46.1	Thanks so much for listening and for your support history, friend.
0:49.2	Now please enjoy this latest installment of the July crisis.
0:58.1	In summer 1914, the world went to war.
1:05.7	Now 110 years later, we go back to those figures, to those debates, to those questions,
1:09.6	in the greatest failure in the history of diplomacy.
1:12.3	I am Dr. Zach Twomley.
1:14.6	You're listening to When Diplomacy Fails.
1:17.7	And this is the July crisis. This is the July crisis.
1:30.3	Thank you. The The Shrugging their shoulders, they hid their fear behind masks.
1:53.5	They returned from the club, where they had revived their fortitude with brandy to find dispatches,
1:59.7	every one of which reveal the rising of the tide.
2:04.1	Teodor Wolfe, German journalist and newspaper editor, comments on the mood in Berlin, 29th of July 1914.
2:13.1	For the German government, the 29th of July was a day of shattered assumptions, intense frustration, and barely concealed panic.
2:22.2	The day began with a reflection on the exchange between the Kaiser and the Tsar, which did not heal the rift.
2:27.8	Russian statesmen mistrusted German policy, which they interpreted as coercing them in order to bring the Austro-Serve
	...

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