#69: The First World War - Whose Fault Is It Anyway? Part 3

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

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In our final part, we bring this saga of a series to an end by focusing our attention on the most focused on country of all - Germany. We know what Germany did from 1 August, from the declarations of war to the rape of Belgium, but what about before? What about the period 29-30 July, when the war truly became inevitable? Would it surprise you to learn that the Germans were the ones attempting to pull back from ledge?

For a preciously brief period of time, Berlin was flying the flag for peace, even if they did so with insufficient skill and far too late. Germany's sins were many, but she was among good company. As we conclude here, none of the three eastern powers emerges without fault, but what does this mean for our understanding of the July Crisis? How does it change our view of the First World War? Join me here to find out, as I propose an alarmingly simple yet nuanced way of looking at this overwritten story. Thanksss so much for joining for the ride.

Send your questions to our Q&A on the July Crisis!

You can also send them through Facebook!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello, history friend. I hope you're doing well and thank you for joining me for this episode of the July crisis.
0:06.0	Just a final reminder, please send in your questions for the Q&A for the July crisis,
0:12.7	which all being well should come out in a week's time. I've already received some brilliant questions,
0:18.4	but if you have something you'd like to ask about this long
0:22.2	running series all 69 episodes nice then please let me know and send me in your questions
0:30.9	you can find the post on patreon which is probably the best place to put it and it's a public
0:35.6	post so you won't need to sign in or do anything like that. Simply put your question in, and it'll be there. Otherwise, there is a
0:42.7	post in the Facebook group, which you can find also in a link in the description below. Thank you,
0:48.4	history, friend. I really just want to make sure that we're all happy with what's gone on here,
0:53.4	and that we're all clear, and that if we're not clear,
0:55.6	then I can address whatever you're unsure of.
0:59.2	All right, let's get into this, the final, for the moment at least,
1:04.2	final episode of the July Crisis series.
1:17.6	Music series. Across the whole breadth of the July crisis, we may identify one 48-hour period as perhaps the most
1:24.0	important of all, the 29th to 30th of July.
1:27.9	In this period, both Austria and Russia mobilized,
1:31.5	and it appeared neither power was willing to accept any kind of compromise.
1:35.6	For different reasons, as we saw, Vienna and St. Petersburg refused to stand down,
1:41.4	even as the telegrams continued to move between the capitals, several red lines
1:45.8	had already been crossed, and reaching a negotiated solution seemed impossible. The people of Europe
1:52.2	were largely oblivious to the earthquakes rumbling beneath their feet. They were, even more
1:57.5	oblivious still, of the role Germany sought to play in pushing back these forces of nature.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 16 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Zack Twamley, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Zack Twamley and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.