War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things.

The decayed and degraded nature of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

John Stuart Mill

Hello and welcome to When Diplomacy Fails Special on World War I, Episode 20.1, 1886 to 1895.

Today, we will be examining the diplomatic breakdown and the changing international

situation that leads to World War I. I hope you had a good Christmas and happy new year

and that you're ready to get into World War I, because the podcast will be very busy over the

next month or so. In case you're wondering, yes, the fact that this

is episode 20.1 does mean that there will be a 20.2, 0.3, 0.4, etc. until we reach 21. The idea

is that by releasing these episodes close enough together, you won't feel too overwhelmed by the

sheer quantity of it, and the story will hopefully

flow. Trust me, you will need nine episodes on World War I. There is just so much to cover,

first beforehand and then with the war itself and its consequences. I'll be drawing on a number

of sources for each episode, including articles I have kept for years in preparation for such

as today when I'll need them.

The plan is for each episode to be about 45 minutes long, and by spreading it out like

this I'll hopefully be able to avoid that disastrous two-hour episode I did on Napoleon

for episode 10.75 all those months ago.

I'm giving myself plenty of leeway in terms of time in case I find

little anecdotes or side notes that I think will interest you, since many of you will

heard at least a part of this story before, hearing it from a different perspective, i.e. mine,

is the only real selling point I have right now, so I hope you'll join me for the duration of the war.

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