In summer 1914, the world went to war.

Now 110 years later, we go back to those figures, to those debates, to those questions,

in the greatest failure in the history of diplomacy.

I am Dr. Zach Twomley. You're listening to When Diplomacy Fails, and this is the July crisis. In St. Petersburg, there was almost no war enthusiasm. On the contrary, a feeling of depression.

As yesterday evening there were again violent street fights between revolutionaries and police,

and the mood of a sick Tomcat prevailed at court and in the army,

as, coming to their senses,

they are getting a scare about what they have done

and may do yet with their premature mobilisation.

The Kaiser explains the situation to his naval staff.

31st of July 1914.

By the last day of July, the prospect of war in Europe evoked widespread panic.

Nowhere was the flimsyness of the peace felt more acutely than in those minor powers

who might be in the path of their larger neighbours.

The Dutch government implemented general mobilisation. In Belgium, reserves were called up

when soldiers returned to their barracks. Even Switzerland summoned its three divisions

and readied them for mobilisation. That these powers had been on the periphery of the crisis didn't make

them feel safer. The only way to secure this safety was to prepare the army and the country

for the worst. After all, it could be argued, since three of the great powers had approved

extensive mobilization preparations, it now seemed riskier to believe in the durability of the concert of Europe.

The alarm bells were ringing across the continent now.

Pacifist, socialist and other internationalist movements began to scramble into position.

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