#49: 1 August 1914 I - Rolling The Iron Dice

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

🗓️ 3 March 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We're in the endgame now, but somehow, not everyone got the message.

There was plenty of waiting to be done. Berlin was waiting on Russia's reply to its ultimatum, and France was also expected to reply, but the generals felt they could not wait. Who knew how far Russia's mobilisation had gone, or how close Germany was to disaster? With this added time pressure, the Kaiser approved general mobilisation, as Europe reacted to the news that war would soon erupt. Yet, at the final moment, a lifeline - a message from London, that British and French neutrality could be guaranteed, if only Germany would agree to respect it. Such a momentous idea, in a day of watershed moments, characterised the final hours of European peace.

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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, and this is the July
0:23.2	Crisis. The mood is brilliant. The mood is brilliant.
0:57.9	The government has succeeded very well in making us appear as the attacked.
1:03.8	Admiral von Mueller writes in his diary 1st of August 1914.
1:10.0	By the time the sun rose on the morning of Saturday the 1st of August, the writing was on the wall.
1:16.8	Yet, somehow, and stop me if you've heard this before, contemporaries were not all willing
1:21.9	to accept that war was only hours away. Some, acting with a mixture of alarm and misplaced optimism,
1:30.0	continued to ply their trade, never giving up hope that until the great powers marched,
1:35.1	even the most minuscule chance of preserving peace should be seized. We know that any such efforts
1:41.4	were doomed. We also know by now just how intractable the Russian-German
1:46.8	stand-off had become, and it was the Russian and German governments who were best placed to
1:53.0	reverse the fatalist march towards the abyss. Russia's mobilisation, the fact that she had kept
1:59.2	its secret, and that she had proceeded with it,
2:01.7	even while employing the Kaiser's mediation services, constituted the German justifications.
2:08.1	The Tsar could maintain that mobilization didn't have to mean war, and that her preparations
2:13.1	were merely to defend Russian interests, which included her Serbian ally.
2:19.4	But Berlin was not listening anymore, an ultimatum demanding an end to her military preparations
2:24.9	against both the German and Austrian borders, was due to expire by the afternoon.
2:30.9	When it did, a declaration of war accompanied by German general mobilization and the activation of Malka's timetable, were inevitable.
	...

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