When Diplomacy Fails

The July Crisis Anniversary Project

A day-by-day account of the events that occurred 100 years ago.

Profiles

The powers, plans and politics involved in the July crisis are very intricate and require a certain level of background information.

These profile episodes will seek to investigate the background details of the key powers involved,

giving you a unique profile of each one.

In this case, the profile in question focuses on Russia. Among the great power camp, the Russian Empire was in fact the second youngest member,

second only to Germany's new empire or Italy's recent unification.

But you wouldn't know that by looking at the statistics.

With the second largest empire in the world in 1897, second only to Britain,

and the largest continuous land power in the world,

as well as the third most populous after Britain and China,

the very facts alone suggested Russia had been a major player since players had played.

However, Russia in fact had only come into existence as an empire in 1721, when Peter the Great established what had once been territory owned by the Mongolian Horde,

and before that the Viking successor state of

Rus, into an empire ruled by a Tsar.

Peter had consolidated his power upon defeating Russia's great power rival Sweden, and Russia

stood as the dominant power in Eastern Europe.

Despite its victory, though, Russia did not figure prominently in the Western European

consciousness for a time, though it not figure prominently in the Western European consciousness

for a time, though it made cameo appearances in wars between Prussia, Austria and France,

...