#54: 2 August 1914 II - Britain Decides On War

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

🗓️ 7 April 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The traditional picture of British intervention in the First World War normally comes down to one issue - Belgium. On 4 August, Britain did declare war on Germany. However, before this monumental step took place, Britain had already made its choice - or, rather, the British Cabinet had. The Liberal government was against intervention in a majority, and we have seen countless manifestations of this position over the previous days. Asquith, Grey, and Churchill wanted to intervene, but how could they persuade their colleagues of this? In this episode, we discover that the reasons for the government's conversion to intervention came not from Belgium, or France, or even Luxemburg, but from internal political factors.

Simply put, when Grey, Asquith, Churchill and others signalled that they would resign if neutrality became policy, and when the Conservative opposition signalled that they would march to war if in power, the remaining Cabinet members faced an impossible choice. Either they could swallow their opposition, and concede to what Grey and the interventionists wanted, or they could resist, the government would collapse, and the Tories would take Britain to war regardless. As we will see in this episode, this was not much of a choice at all...

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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. Tonight, there are millions of hearts in every country in Europe filled with sadness and foreboding.
1:02.0	What is the cause of the war? You have no quarrel with Germany. German workers have no quarrel with you.
1:08.0	German workers have no quarrel with their French comrades. The French workers have no quarrel with their French comrades. The French workers
1:11.9	have no quarrel with their Austrian comrades. Then why are we on the verge of the greatest
1:17.1	calamity Europe has ever seen? Labour Party MP Kier Hardy speaks to a crowd of anti-war
1:24.6	demonstrators in Trafalgar Square 2nd of August 1914. From the moment
1:31.5	Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on the 28th of July, the British government had endured
1:37.2	a roller coaster of meetings, petty squabbles, ideological clashes, truces, procrastination, and many more experiences besides.
1:47.6	On several occasions, the anti-war majority of the Liberal Cabinet won the day,
1:53.2	emphatic in their belief that a continental war involving the two alliance blocks contained
1:58.2	no interests worthy of British intervention. Winston Churchill may have
2:03.0	mobilised the Royal Navy behind the back of the cabinet, but on at least two occasions, the act of
2:08.2	sending the British Expeditionary Force to the continent have been explicitly ruled out. By now we
2:14.1	have come to expect that this British cabinet, composed of 19 individuals, rarely agreed on a coherent policy.
2:21.9	In fact, since they fully turned their attention to Europe from the 29th of July, deciding not to decide had been the norm.
2:30.1	Yet even then, we have noted two camps emerging from the struggle.
2:34.1	Foreign Secretary Grey, Prime Minister Asquith, Lord Chancellor, Haldane,
2:39.1	the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill,
	...

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