#61: 4 August 1914 I - Into Belgium

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

🗓️ 26 May 2025

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At 8AM on 4 August, Germany's invasion of Belgium finally began. After several anxious days of negotiations, warnings, and second guessing, Berlin was firmly set on its path. But what path was that? War had been declared on Russia and France, and now Belgium was in their warpath, but was their any wider strategy than that devised by Moltke? Indeed, diplomacy continued despite the shattered peace, and Berlin chased after two allies in particular - the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

In each case they would be successful, but what did it say about German policy that its own ally, Italy, had abandoned her? Condemnations could be lobbed at her from Berlin, but if its own ally wasn't believing the propaganda, that certainly suggested problems were on the horizon for Germany's PR machine. Perhaps that did not matter. If Belgium folded, France was next. But Belgium did not fold. She held out far longer and with far more tenacity than Moltke had expected. It was just one sign among many that the vaunted Schlieffen Plan was unlikely to go off without a hitch, and many more such signs were to come...

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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. Our allies are already before the war, falling away from us like rotten apples.
1:00.9	A total collapse of both German and Austrian foreign diplomacy.
1:05.4	This should and could have been avoided.
1:08.8	The Kaiser writes another furious marginal note, the 4th of August, 1914.
1:17.9	Due to Britain's formal entry into the struggle alongside Russia and France, the 4th of August
1:23.9	1914, is the date normally given as the beginning of the First World War. But by this
1:29.3	point, as we've seen, a lot had already happened. Germany had already declared war on Russia and on
1:34.8	France and had occupied Luxembourg, and that morning, on the 4th of August, at 6 a.m., the invasion of
1:42.1	Belgium began.
1:44.7	The war had been inevitable since the 2nd of August, when Germany developed these plans
1:49.9	for war in the West.
1:51.6	The only questions relevant to Berlin was whether it would be joined by allies, Italy,
1:56.9	the Ottoman Empire, Bulgaria and Romania, or whether it would be forced to contend with new foes,
2:02.7	above all, Britain. The events of this eventful Tuesday answered these questions and
2:08.7	established the constellation of armed camps that we now recognise. The day opened with seven-eighths
2:15.3	of the German army pouring into neutral Belgium,
2:18.1	and it ended with the expiry of Britain's ultimatum to Berlin,
2:21.8	the last ultimatum of the crisis, and Britain's formal entry into the war,
	...

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